If you’ve ever wondered about the true scale of mankind’s devastating impact on the planet Earth, then these images will help to illustrate just how massive it’s been. Since the 1970s and the emergence of satellites patrolling our skies, NASA, along with the US Geological Survey, has slowly been amassing images of every single inch of the planet’s surface as part of its ambitious Landsat program. Over the last 30 years in particular, the collection of images its built up illustrate the dramatic transformation that many parts of the world have undergone – expanding metropolises, forests and lakes fading away to nothing, and artificial islands rising out of the sea.

Most of us are aware that the Earth is undergoing a lot of changes, and few have any illusions that humankind’s unstoppable expansion is doing its health or climate any favors. Yet until we see this transformation take place with our own eyes, and appreciate how much has changed in so little time, it’s easy to become complacent.

Now, to perhaps try and alter this complacent attitude, Google has released the digital equivalent of a flip-book, showing stunning timelapse images of both natural and man-made environments and how they’ve changed beyond all recognition over the last thirty years.

The project, which has just been unveiled today, is a collaboration between Google, NASA, the UGS, Time and the Create Lab at Carnegie Mellon University, and presents a series of Landsat images taken between 1984 and 2012. Millions of satellite images have been spliced together converted into a seamless, navigable animation of the world.

As Google writes on its blog:

“We believe this is the most comprehensive picture of our changing planet ever made available to the public.”

What follows is a selection of the GIFs created by Google that highlight some of the most startling changes to the landscape over the last thirty years.

It’s possible to look at any other part of the world too, including your home, your favorite mega-cities, forests, glaziers and bodies of water. Simply visit Google’s Earth Engine and see for yourself the chaos that human development has unleashed onto this world.