Google doodle marks Earth Day 2022 with stark images of climate crisis

The 2022 Earth Day Google doodle includes four Gifs created from satellite imagery and photographs from The Ocean Agency that will rotate throughout the day.

They show glacial retreat at the peak of Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania between December 1986 and 2020 and glacial melt in Sermersooq, Greenland, between December 2000 and 2020.

Other images show the result of a coral bleaching event on the Great Barrier Reef near Lizard Island in Australia between March 2016 and October 2017 and deforestation of the Harz forests in Elend, Germany, between December 1995 and 2020.

Hughes said for those elsewhere, the images of glacial ice retreating would be similarly meaningful.

In New Zealand, the vast and ancient glaciers are thinning at an alarming rate.

More recently the summer of 2017-2018 brought temperatures 3C warmer than average across New Zealand, shrinking some glaciers so much they all but disappeared.

Elsewhere artefacts long-entombed in the Italian Alps are being revealed as the ice melts, leading to the discovery of equipment left behind by soldiers camped out on the peaks during the first world war and a 5,300-year-old crime scene when the mummified body of Ötzi was found by hikers.

Hughes said the confronting images published in 2022 may be a response to the IPCC26 report and were important for raising awareness.

Alphabet, the company which operates the Google search engine, claims to have been carbon neutral since 2007 and plans to operate all its data centres entirely on renewable energy by 2030.

The company used 15.5 terawatt hours of electricity in 2020, mostly to power its data centres. It also slashed the waste generated from its operations by 40% to 28,864 tonnes but increased its water consumption.

Its figures for 2021 have not been made available yet but the company says it has compensated for its emissions by buying enough renewable energy and offsets to cover its consumption.