Vanishing Earth

What It Is

This piece explores five ecosystems approaching dangerous tipping points: coral reefs, the Amazon rainforest, Arctic sea ice, mangroves and coastal wetlands, and grasslands and savannas. Each section combines a D3-powered globe visualization with narrative text, an animated threshold bar showing proximity to the tipping point, and key statistics — all triggered as you scroll.

It's designed as a reference implementation for Terra Studio participants: a fully working example of what you can build in Module 6, with every design and data decision documented in the code comments.

The Terra Studio Context

Terra Studio is built around one idea: climate professionals who can communicate — clearly, credibly, and with narrative force — change more minds than those who can't. The six-module curriculum moves from data literacy and framing to visual communication, AI collaboration, and finally this: a public interactive that demonstrates everything.

Module 6 is optional and ambitious. It assumes comfort with Claude Code or a willingness to direct AI through code generation in a terminal. The expected output is a scrollytelling interactive at a public URL, built from your own climate data and your own story. This project is the worked example.

Open Source — Fork It

The entire codebase is open source under the MIT license. If you're a Terra Studio participant building your own piece, the one file you need to edit is src/data/ecosystems.ts — the single source of truth for all content. Replace the five ecosystems with your own data and the entire page updates automatically.

Tech Stack

Data Sources

• IPBES Global Assessment (2019)
• IUCN Red List of Ecosystems
• WWF Living Planet Report
• IPCC Sixth Assessment Report (AR6)
• Global Carbon Project
• GCRMN Status of Coral Reefs of the World
• National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC)
• Global Mangrove Watch
• Armstrong McKay et al. — Exceeding 1.5°C could trigger multiple tipping points (Science, 2022)