Google's Earth Engine lets you see ~30 year time lapses of Sat map photos

[aria]

It takes a little bit to load, but the results are fascinating.

Here's a gif made of the Vegas version:

Osaka, Japan (watch the artificial islands form)
http://earthengine.google.org/#timelapse/v=34.65925,135.28491,10,latLng&t=1.32

The alteration of the Dubai coast:
http://earthengine.google.org/#intro/CreationOfDubai

Amazon deforestation:
http://earthengine.google.org/#intro/Amazon

The drying of the Aral Sea:
http://earthengine.google.org/#intro/AralSea

That last one is kind of hilarious in a macabre way because the Soviets built one of their top secret biological weapons facilities there because it was isolated and, well, after the fall of the USSR it was abandoned (and not properly mothballed) and now a land bridge formed allowing wild animals and whatever else access to an area that was used for open air testing of anthrax, plague, smallpox, etc. LOL, whoops!

 

[cdamm]

thats pretty wild man.

 

[galfordo]

well, as if we needed any more evidence that the human race is essentially a plague ...