National Geographic prepares its first augmented reality (AR) enabled cover to commemorate Earth Day on 22nd April 2020. The cover is built in collaboration with Facebook’s Spark AR platform, which Nat Geo points out uses the front-facing camera, while most AR experiences use the selfie camera. People reading the NatGeo article via their phones or Instagram users can access it by opening up filters in their cameras and searching for “The World in 2070.” Users then can click on the Yellow nodes which will appear over 12 different cities. Clicking on each one shows current climate data for that city. A line is then drawn from that city across the globe to a place that’s projected to have the same climate in 50 years. For example, in 2070, Los Angeles will feel more like Morocco’s Ouezzane Province does today. Interestingly, some locations have no line drawn over them, because it is predicted that there will be no place on the planet that will feel the same in next 50 years as the location is feeling right now! The AR experience is 360. People can walk around the earth and scale it to any size. The earth rotates, clouds move freely and there are some stars in the background. Notably, Instagram users can further share this interactive experience by recording the video via pressing the globe icon at the bottom on NatGeo’s account to share it on their Instagram stories.

The AR experience may have brought the issue’s cover to life but it also shares a cautionary outlook of climate change depicting what these 12 cities may feel like 50 years from now.