Google+ demonstrates deforestation and other man-made climate disasters with satellite images
May 18, 2013It’s one thing to talk about deforestation, disappearing habitats, and shrinking glaciers and water resources, and another thing entirely to demonstrate it with actual satellite imagery. And thanks to Landsat images and the Google Earth Engine, we’re getting a glimpse at some key locations across the planet as they are changed by the hands of man. A series of interactive timelapse GIFs that use Landsat satellite data to display massive changes to the Earth’s surface could be a potent tool for motivating individuals and organizations to take action on key issues.
Google’s Animated GIFs of Earth Over Time focuses our attention on key features of our planet, such as the Amazon rainforest, the coal beds of Wyoming, the Columbia Glacier, the Aral Sea, and the deserts of Saudi Arabia.
Today, we’re making it possible for you to go back in time and get a stunning historical perspective on the changes to the Earth’s surface over time. Working with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), NASA and TIME, we’re releasing more than a quarter-century of images of Earth taken from space, compiled for the first time into an interactive time-lapse experience. We believe this is the most comprehensive picture of our changing planet ever made available to the public.
Some of the visualizations are kind of subtle, and need to be put into context to really hit home (such as the massive increase in irrigated areas in Saudi Arabia, which affects local water supplies, or the urban sprawl of Las Vegas, which also puts increased demands on local resources), but some of them, such as this one documenting the rapidly disappearing rainforest in the Brazilian Amazon, speak for themselves:
Explore a global timelapse of our planet, constructed from Landsat satellite imagery. The Amazon rainforest is shrinking at a rapid rate to provide land for farming and raising cattle. Each frame of the timelapse map is constructed from a year of Landsat satellite data, constituting an annual 1.7-terapixel snapshot of the Earth at 30-meter resolution.
- Google Earth Engine
These interactive time-lapse images can be manipulated by pausing or zooming in to them, as we’ve come to expect from Google Earth, and may serve as a pivot point for those who are on the fence about the effects that our booming population and its increased demand for resources has on our Big Blue Marble.
You can view all of the images at Google +, and you can read a backstory at TIME.
hey here’s a reminder
you’ve made it this far when it comes to art, you’ve improved so much compared to where you started, and you’ve got it in you to make it a whole lot further
don’t let your nagging self hatred get to you, just keep drawing, keep working. you’re gonna be fine!
Serena Williams is in a bit of hot water for her comments to a Rolling Stone writer about Steubenville. (via newsweek)
Damn, Serena. Aren’t you old enough to know how slut-shaming works?
(via doriansennui)
serena…we were fucking rooting for you
(via alienswithankhs)
Serena girl, why?
just… why?
(via deliciouskaek)
GODDAMN IT SERENA
WHY
WHY
NO
THIS IS UNACCEPTABLE
NO SERENA
NO
I CANNOT
*throws things*
(via sourcedumal)
everyone sucks.
(via brienne-of-tarth)
it’s like she doesn’t understand. please go play some more tennis so we can get past this
(via thirst-dayat10)
Extremely disappointing. I expected better. And I’ve lost a lot of respect for her.
(via danifran16)This sucks. So disappointed.
(via miltonsong)Shut the hell up
Why do we strip all responsibility away from the victim? Why do we coddle and wipe away her tears instead of sitting her up straight and giving her a healthy and constructive dose of truth and reality
If you’re going to do adult things, you will have to face the consequences that proceed. Saying that has nothing to do with how terrible it is that this happened to her. What we don’t want to do here is make young girls or women of any age feel as if it’s okay to do whatever the fuck we want without any regard for repercussions… and no, I have no sympathy because of her age. I don’t have sympathy for stupidity period.
We’re a bunch of spoiled little bitches huh
Black pride is one thing and I think to escape self-hate you need to develop pride in your race because it’s denigrated so often
But this idea that everyone’s a King & Queen and we need to return to “our great place” and this Kemet shit is nauseating.
And that you somehow as an African-American know and encompass all of what it means to be black is so contrived and ironically Western in thinking.
I don’t need a fairy tale, it’s painful enough being in a diaspora and not knowing your history beyond the experience of slavery but this is slightly offensive.
Lol tonight is not the night that I add my extensive addition of the psychology of black folk to this finely worded post right here
Stripper in Clearwater, FLA showing the judge that her bikini briefs were too large to expose her vagina to the undercover cops that arrested her. The case was dimissed.
Lmao yes
(Source: charleswhiskey)
(Source: friendsiamgone)
…up to 200,000 people angry with high costs and poor public services took to the streets. Protesters in Rio de Janeiro burned cars and looted buildings as police attempted to disperse them with teargas and rubber bullets. Aerial images showed thousands of people attempting to storm the congress building in Brasilia. The rallies…are some of the biggest ever seen in the country…
more.
well the tree pose’s a lot easier for him now, thats for sure.
