Google Earth on Thursday added a timelapse highlight to the popular platform, giving a brief look into how environmental change, urbanization and deforestation have modified the planet throughout the last four decades.
Made with 24 million satellite pictures, alongside 800 curated videos and interactive guides, the feature permits clients to see a timelapse of any put in the world, utilizing contributions from the NASA, U.S. Geographical Survey’s Landsat program and the European Union’s Copernicus program.
Environmental change is causing more frequent and severe flooding, droughts, storms and heatwaves as average global temperatures ascend to new records.
Google Earth’s timelapse tool shows the change in coastlines, sprawling extension of cityscapes and agricultural lands, as well as simultaneous recession of glaciers, forests and rivers.
One video shows quick progress of forests close to Bolivia into towns and farms, a significant reason for deforestation in the Amazon rainforest; while another shows the recession of the Columbia Glacier in Alaska by 20 kilometers because of global warming.
Researchers have cautioned that a rise in global emissions of greenhouse gases may prompt extreme weather conditions and higher dangers from natural disasters.