Google Earth’s historical 3D time lapses show the ravages of climate change
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Google Earth is getting a new 3D time-lapse feature that lets you observe how Earth has changed from 1984 to 2020, allowing you to see just how much the devastatingeffects of climate change have already shaped the geography of the planet.
“It’s best for a landscape view of our world,” Rebecca Moore, director of Google Earth, Google Earth Engine, and Google Earth Outreach, said in a call with reporters this week. “It’s not about zooming in. It’s about zooming out. It’s about taking the big step back. We need to see how our only home is doing.”
By Todd Haselton, CNBC •
Updated on April 15, 2021 at 11:04 am
Google
Google Earth received its first big update since 2017 on Thursday.
A new time-lapse feature lets you see how much the planet has changed in the past 37 years, and it s pretty stunning what you can find.
You can check it out by visiting g.co/Timelapse and entering in any location or browsing some of the featured locations.
Google Earth received its first big update since 2017 on Thursday. The highlight is a new time-lapse feature that lets you see how much the planet has changed in the past 37 years, and it s pretty stunning what you can find.
Image: Google
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Google Earth is already a powerful tool for observing our planet, but today it’s getting a major upgrade with the introduction of a new 3D time-lapse feature.
Described by Google Earth director Rebecca Moore as the biggest update to Google Earth since 2017, Timelapse in Google Earth combines more than 24 million satellite photos, two petabytes of data, and 2 million hours of CPU processing time to create a 4.4-terapixel interactive view showing how the Earth has changed from 1984 to 2020.
By Todd Haselton, CNBC •
Updated on April 15, 2021 at 2:04 pm
Google
Google Earth received its first big update since 2017 on Thursday.
A new time-lapse feature lets you see how much the planet has changed in the past 37 years, and it s pretty stunning what you can find.
You can check it out by visiting g.co/Timelapse and entering in any location or browsing some of the featured locations.
Google Earth received its first big update since 2017 on Thursday. The highlight is a new time-lapse feature that lets you see how much the planet has changed in the past 37 years, and it s pretty stunning what you can find.
This isn t the first time time-lapse satellite imagery has been used to demonstrate show how parts of the world are changing before our eyes due to a changing climate. Most scientists agree that climate change is being driven by pollution primarily produced by humans.
Credit: AP
This image provided by Google shows a still image of the Columbia Glacier in Alaska as part of a new time-lapse video feature coming out as part of the biggest update to the Google Earth app in five years. (Google via AP)
But earlier images have mostly focused on melting glaciers and haven t been widely available on an already popular app like Google Earth, which can be downloaded on most of the more than 3 billion smartphones now in use around the world