The Earth Day Google Doodle is a grim look at climate change

Earth Day is this Friday and with it comes the inevitable dread of climate anxiety and reflection on the horrible waste and pollution that occurs daily on our planet.

To commemorate the annual holiday, Google decided to mark the occasion with a reminder of where we as a society have fallen short. Google is known for its doodles that appear on important days or holidays and this year they published a rather bleak Earth Day Google Doodle that illustrates the horrifying impact climate change has already had.

As of April 22, the Google Doodle features a variety of GIFs compiled of photos of real locations, all taken over several years. Each time-lapse GIF that is included is displayed for a few hours throughout the day. This allows for the proper time to reflect on the destruction of the world that continues today.

It's a harsh but accurate and necessary look.

"Today’s annual Earth Day Doodle addresses one of the most pressing topics of our time: climate change," reads the website.

It continues, "Using real time-lapse imagery from Google Earth Timelapse and other sources, the Doodle shows the impact of climate change across four different locales around our planet. Stay tuned throughout the day to view these scenes, each remaining on the homepage for several hours at a time."

The Earth Day Google Doodle shows the glacier at the peak of Tanzania's Mt. Kilimanjaro melting away between December 1986 to 2020. Other images include a glacial retreat in Sermersooq, Greenland from December 2000 to 2020; coral bleaching around the Great Barrier Reef's Lizard Island from March 2016 to May 2016; and the forest destruction of the Harz Forests in Elend, Germany between December 1995 and 2020.

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