How has climate change transformed the world in the last 32 years?
A Google Earth time-lapse video of a little over a minute uses five million satellite images taken over the past three decades by five different satellites to show us the changes. Cities are expanding, lakes and water bodies are shrinking, and glaciers are receding.
The video begins with images of Saudi Arabia through the years, capturing the growth of sprawling cities and populated stretches on what was once mostly desert state.
Visuals depicting the shrinking of the Aral Sea, in Central Asia between Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan are shocking as the expanse of blue is reduced to just a sliver. It has been reported that by 2007, the water body, which was once the fourth-largest lake in the world, had declined to 10% of its original size and had split into four separate lakes. Several other great lakes are going the same way as the Aral Sea.
Another effect of climate change captured by this video is the rapid shrinking of the Columbia glacier is Alaska.
Remember, this has all happened only since 1984.
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