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Earth Day Google Doodle's time lapse images are BRUTAL reminder of climate change crisis

Google Doodle shared four images for Earth Day that made netizens pause and take a look at the damage we've collectively wrought on the planet

BY AANCHAL GERA

PUBLISHED APR 22, 2022

Earth Day Google Doodle highlights how humans are damaging the planet (Google/The Ocean Agency)

Each year, April 22 is marked as Earth Day. This day is also known to raise our anxiety levels about climate change, which makes us look back at what we have done to the planet in the past year. Google bluntly marks the occasion with a visually horrifying reminders of how we have let Mother Earth down, time and again.

Google Doodle shared 'before and after' images that depict the horrible impact of humans on the climate due to our actions. The Google Doodle from April 22 includes GIFs created using real images from live locations that have been collected over several years.

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Each GIF is a time lapse that is being displayed for a few hours throughout the day. This is for netizens to pause and take a look at the damage we've collectively wrought on the planet. There is no doubt that Google was spoiled for choice when it came to selecting the images it wanted to display on this occasion. Google showed a lot of mercy, displaying only four images.

The 2022 Earth Day Google Doodle shows the glacier at the peak of Tanzania's Mt. Kilimanjaro. Between December 1986 and 2020, it can be seen melting away. In two decades, from 2000 to 2020, the glacial retreat in Sermersooq, Greenland also melts away. Another shocking visual is the coral bleaching around the Great Barrier Reef's Lizard Island in just a year's time from March 20216 to October 2017. Next it shows the destruction of the Harz Forests in Elend, Germany between December 1995 and 2020.

While almost all visuals were taken using Google Earth, there were a few of Australia's coral bleaching were taken from a non-profit organization called The Ocean Agency. The Doodle went live in the United States on April 21 at 9 pm PDT. This Earth Day Google Doodle is notably more dire than the one published last year, which had a more optimistic, tree-planting vibe. But then again, you can't say the situation doesn't call for it. We need to take immediate and drastic action to halt climate change, otherwise the disappearance of natural wonders such as these will soon be the least of our problems.