Using annual Landsat satellite imagery captured since 1984, Google has created dramatic composites depicting our changing world, the death and growth of natural lands, and humans' impact on the landscape.
The animated GIFs show development and destruction pulsing like a living being, with forests receding, water evaporating, and cities growing. Las Vegas crawls across the desert and construction is booming, while the Brazilian Amazon rainforest, seen here, and glaciers disappear before your eyes.
The Columbia Glacier in Prince William Sound on the coast of Alaska is one of the fastest-moving glaciers in the world, and has been retreating rapidly since the early 1980s.
Growth is not limited to just land. Here, in Dubai, we see the pace of coastal development and the expansion of manmade island resorts in the early 2000s.
