--- title: New Google Doodle Celebrates Earth Day 2016 description: Earth Day has been observed on April 22 every year since 1969 canonical: https://time.com/4304384/google-doodle-earth-day-2016/ author: Rishi Iyengar article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-04-22T03:03:28.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:31:45.822Z og:title: New Google Doodle Celebrates Earth Day 2016 og:description: Earth Day has been observed on April 22 every year since 1969 og:url: https://time.com/4304384/google-doodle-earth-day-2016/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta7392000a29b507e/6988904b8e0601637f4658fa/screen-shot-2016-04-22-at-10-29-04-am.png?branch=production&width=1080&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Screen Shot 2016-04-22 at 10.29.04 AM og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: New Google Doodle Celebrates Earth Day 2016 twitter:description: Earth Day has been observed on April 22 every year since 1969 twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta7392000a29b507e/6988904b8e0601637f4658fa/screen-shot-2016-04-22-at-10-29-04-am.png?branch=production&width=1080&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # New Google Doodle Celebrates Earth Day 2016 ## Video: Coral Bleaching Threatens Great Barrier Reef [Watch (HLS stream): Coral Bleaching Threatens Great Barrier Reef](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/SEbIcfln.m3u8) (1:21)  _Published 2016-04-21_ by [Rishi Iyengar](https://time.com/author/rishi-iyengar/) ## Rishi Iyengar Apr 22, 2016 3:03 AM UTC  Google Doodle for Earth Day 2016 Google Doodle for Earth Day 2016Google by [Rishi Iyengar](https://time.com/author/rishi-iyengar/) ## Rishi Iyengar Apr 22, 2016 3:03 AM UTC Earth Day, observed annually on April 22 since it began in the late 1960s, is “the one day that transcends culture, language, and tradition,” Google says, [explaining](http://www.google.com/doodles/earth-day-2016) the significance of its series of Google Doodles celebrating our planet. In Friday’s Doodle, the ubiquitous Google logo morphs to depict, in turn, a polar bear in the tundra, a red fox in the forest, an elephant in the grasslands, a tortoise in the desert and an octopus in the ocean — with a different one appearing each time one visits the site’s homepage. “The vastness of Earth’s diversity makes it an intimidating topic, but in the end I chose to highlight Earth’s five major biomes,” doodler Sophie Diao said in a blog post. “On a day like this, we remember and celebrate our home in this great and stunning ecosystem.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4304384/google-doodle-earth-day-2016/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4304384/google-doodle-earth-day-2016/"},"headline":"New Google Doodle Celebrates Earth Day 2016","datePublished":"2016-04-22T03:03:28.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:31:45.822Z","description":"Earth Day has been observed on April 22 every year since 1969","url":"https://time.com/4304384/google-doodle-earth-day-2016/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Desert","2016","Fox","Google Doodle","Ocean","Elephant","Earth Day"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta7392000a29b507e/6988904b8e0601637f4658fa/screen-shot-2016-04-22-at-10-29-04-am.png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Rishi Iyengar","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/rishi-iyengar/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta7392000a29b507e/6988904b8e0601637f4658fa/screen-shot-2016-04-22-at-10-29-04-am.png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Screen Shot 2016-04-22 at 10.29.04 AM","caption":"Google Doodle Earth Day 2016","creditText":"Google","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4304384/google-doodle-earth-day-2016/","name":"New Google Doodle Celebrates Earth Day 2016"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Coral Bleaching Threatens Great Barrier Reef","description":"","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/SEbIcfln/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2016-04-21T20:31:51.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/SEbIcfln.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4304384/google-doodle-earth-day-2016/","duration":"PT1M21S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4304384/google-doodle-earth-day-2016/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```