The global climate is abnormal. A comparison of the earth over the past 40 years shows a shocking picture of the destruction of the earth.

The Earth is experiencing dramatic changes in climate.

Ice caps are melting, hurricanes and storms are becoming more intense, places are experiencing greater flooding, wildfires are occurring more frequently, hot weather, extreme droughts are wiping out entire water sources... The list goes on and on.

The earth has been releasing distress signals more and more frequently

How have human activities and natural forces changed the earth?

Google Earth's satellite maps show how our world's oceans, forests, glaciers, beaches and cities have changed from 1984 to 2020. Approximately 24 million satellite photos recorded changes in nature over time using time-lapse capabilities.

Mato Grosso is located in western Brazil. There are three different ecological regions: tropical alpine grassland, Pantanal wetland and Amazon rainforest. But much of the world's largest wetlands and tropical rainforests have been destroyed and cleared for logging, agricultural purposes and pasture for human use.

The Columbia Glacier is a world-famous ancient ice sheet relic and the great dividing line between the Pacific, Atlantic and Arctic oceans.

Since 1980, the glacier began a period of rapid retreat. In 2001, the rate of glacier retreat reached its peak, reaching an average retreat of 30 meters per day. Satellite observations indicate that the Columbia Glacier is one of the fastest changing glaciers in the world.

The glacier thinned, and the glacier bed level rose above sea level. At this point, the glacier lost contact with the ocean.

The Aral Sea, originally the fourth largest lake in the world, has shrunk to 10% of its original size.

In the 1960s, the Soviet Union diverted water from the lake to grow cotton and other crops on the arid plains of Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan. Slowly the lake dried up and the ecological environment was seriously damaged. A river that had existed for thousands of years was destroyed in 36 years.

The shrinking of the Aral Sea has been called "one of the worst environmental disasters on earth."

Without the climate-modifying influence of such a large body of water, the region's winters have become colder and its summers hotter and drier.

In the summer of 2016, a glacier in the Aru Mountains of Tibet suddenly collapsed catastrophically, and huge glaciers and rock flows rolled down. The avalanche was one of the largest in history, burying more than 10 square kilometers of land and killing nine people and hundreds of livestock.

An international team of scientists led by Lei Yanbin of the Chinese Academy of Sciences conducted on-site investigation and monitoring analysis here. Scientists have found that climate change is partly responsible for avalanches.

But what is even more serious is that the avalanche ice will slowly melt, and they may merge into a huge super lake, which will change the local ecology.

Elsewhere on the Tibetan Plateau, growing lakes can also cause flooding, road and other infrastructure problems.

This is a reminder that the effects of climate disaster are not always immediate. Sometimes, they last for years.

Nearly half of the world's forests have been cleared or degraded. Fortunately, people have long been aware of the seriousness of deforestation. The deforestation rate was about 10 million hectares per year between 2015 and 2020, down from 16 million hectares per year in the 1990s.

Satellite maps show that agricultural expansion has caused large tracts of forest to be cleared.

Newfoundland and Labrador is Canada's easternmost province. Colliding tectonic plates have shaped Newfoundland's unique geology.

Affected by global warming, the local average annual temperature has been 0.8-1.5 C higher than the historical standard. Permafrost in the area has melted, and the frequency of hurricanes and tropical storms has doubled.

Madagascar is a biologically diverse island; over 90% of the island’s wildlife is found nowhere else on earth.

Human activities have severely threatened the island’s diverse ecosystem and unique wildlife.

From the 1950s to 2000, approximately 40% of the island's original forest cover disappeared, and the remaining forest area decreased by 80%.

Dubai, which is full of sand, relied on sand imported from Australia to build the "Desert Miracle". But behind the sand is a huge sand mafia that destroys beaches and islands in order to make huge profits by digging up sand for construction.

Greenland is the largest island in the world, located between the Arctic and the Atlantic Ocean. In recent years, the retreat of Greenland's glaciers has caused sea levels to rise.

In 2019, Greenland lost about 60 billion tons of ice in two months, causing global sea levels to rise by 2.2 millimeters. Experts speculate that if the Greenland ice sheet melts completely, the world's sea level will rise by more than 7 meters.

Las Vegas in the United States, like Dubai, is also a city built in the desert.

Las Vegas has experienced rapid growth since the 1990s. It is one of the fastest growing metropolitan areas in the United States and one of the most visited tourist destinations in the world.

Population growth requires large amounts of water. Las Vegas in the Desert Meets Water Demand by Extracting Groundwater. But this has also led to a significant drop in groundwater levels in the area and widespread land subsidence in the valley.

This is a melting glacier on top of the Ork volcano in west-central Iceland. A 1901 geological map estimates Okj?kull's area to be approximately 38 square kilometers. In 1978, aerial photography showed that the glacier had shrunk to approximately 3 square kilometers. Today, less than 1 square kilometer of it remains.

Extremely dry conditions are causing major fires in north-central Australia.

Satellite images show the scars (dark areas) left by fires

Human activities have a huge impact on the climate.

The earth has been changing, but climate and environmental changes often occur extremely slowly, making it difficult for us to see. But these changes will continue to affect us and change the way we live.