By Dan Nosowitz Posted 04.24.2012 at 6:00 pm 7 Comments

Fragile Earth App HarperCollins

Fragile Earth, new in the App Store this week, is a simple idea, and it's actually executed simply as well--two or more photos of the same place over time, with a slider so you can see how it looks in the past. But these are places that have been utterly changed by major, unstoppable forces: time, industrialization, development, and climate change.

The app, available until April 29th for $0.99, has versions for both iPhone and iPad, and it's optimized for the new iPad's Retina screen. There are currently 73 different locations, split up into categories like "Natural Phenomena," "Warming World," "Man's Impact," and "Wild Weather." The specific locations can be filtered by date, theme, or region. Once you tap through to a specific image, you'll get the image in fullscreen, with a tap-to-show bar at the bottom of the screen that gives more information about what you're seeing. In the middle of the image(s) is a sliding bar that lets you swipe back and forth to see how the location has changed. It looks pretty much like this, only bigger, prettier, and sometimes with more than two included images (you can see the app in action here). Just slide the bar in the middle of the image back and forth to see things change:

slidebefore
slideafter

The idea behind the app isn't specifically about man's impact or climate change, though that's definitely a major part of it. There are plenty of natural disasters--one of the most jarring is the depiction of Hurricane Katrina's destruction in New Orleans. Scenes range from the dying Aral Sea in Central Asia to the Indonesian tsunami to deforestation in the Amazon to the expansion of a blinking desert city in Las Vegas.

We wish the app was maybe a little less barebones, though it's possible we're spoiled by the extremely flashy Wonders of the Universe, the last app we looked at. And the starkness of the app definitely brings some gravity to these images, a kind of "we're not messing around--this is a big deal" kind of feeling.

Fragile Earth is available in the App Store now.

7 Comments

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Capt_Tight_Pants
04/25/12 at 7:34 am

It is interesting how it changed from "Global warming" to "climate change". Mother earth worshipers are tenacious if nothing else. The situation is actually worse than mantra of environmentalists: "people sinned against the creation" - they sinned against the Creator.

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imikeh
04/25/12 at 10:07 am

Propaganda pseudoscience. Propsci

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Aldrons Last Hope
04/25/12 at 12:43 pm

Propaganda for Al Gore billion$ scheme. Humans are bad, development is bad, please pay a tax for breathing

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Raynre
04/25/12 at 2:18 pm

I wonder if there are pictures detailing the fact that North America has more forests now than 100 years ago.

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dead phrog
04/25/12 at 11:03 pm

i dont think this app will prove useful to PopSci nerds.. maybe for iPad users who want to show their kids something

PS. Al Gore doesn't want billions of doll hairs.. he wants to be a super hero

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Robot
04/29/12 at 11:46 am

Science has proven with the distance of the Earth to the Sun, the tilt, the wobble of the Earth, and cycle of solar flares, co2 and temperature increase or decrease in our history parallel. But they also notice the heights of co2 have greatly jump high up, beyond the long term averages of co2 to these cycles. This jumping up of co2 happens in recent history with the industrial revolution and the ever increasing use of fossil fuels.

In past when co2 goes up, so does Earths over all temperatures. But in this short term recent history co2 has jump up beyond the averages. Science is attempting to make projections, but in fact, they really do not know what is going to happen. They know it will cause an above average warming of the Earth. Another variable is methane. Methane is extremely more powerful in the effects on the environment and its warming effect than co2. As the permafrost across the world melts methane is going to jump up extremely high, amplifying the problem greatly.

To those who choose to ignore this problem are ostriches bury their heads in the sand. I understand why people do this, because the problem is happening slow and does not affect them immediately individually. I feel bad things will continue and this cycle of humans effecting our environment negatively is unstoppable, with the world population constantly growing.

.............................
Science sees no further than what it can sense, i.e. facts.
Religion sees beyond the senses, i.e. faith.
Open your mind and see!

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Robot
04/29/12 at 11:53 am

I suppose for the Earth, there is going to be a tipping point and then a gigantic percent of animal, sea, bird, wild life will just die off. And as I say this, humans are part of the animal life. I imagine an 80 to 90% die off. It will be horrible time and its effect will last several thousand years.

It will be a new time for Earth.



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