Google Doodle celebrates Earth Day

April 22, 2015 • 7:45 am

Earth Day was first celebrated in 1970, and I well remember that first celebration, which took place when I was a junior at The College of William and Mary. Since then it’s become an annual reminder for all of us to protect our Pale Blue Dot, though I wonder if college students celebrate it as assiduously as we hippies did, grokking on the Earth and dancing around in tie-dye outfits (GET OFF OF MY LAWN!). And the Earth stands precious little chance against corporate and government depredation.

At any rate, Google celebrates today with an animated Doodle showing the Earth rotating. earth-day-2015-5638584300208128.3-hp

See all the organisms in the letters? You could be one of them! For if you click on the screenshot above, you’ll go to a special Earth Day Quiz that will determine, based on your personality and habits, what kind of animal you are. I took it, and here’s my result:

Screen shot 2015-04-22 at 5.06.49 AMReaders are required to take the quiz and post their animal equivalent in the comments.

The Guardian also has a 10-question Earth Day Quiz that tests your environmental awareness (I got 7 out of 10), and you should take that quiz, too.

 

145 thoughts on “Google Doodle celebrates Earth Day”

  1. a special Earth Day Quiz that will determine, based on your personality and habits, what kind of animal you are.

    I’m a mantis shrimp. Awesome!

    1. Oh, I should also post the byline: “Mysterious and beautiful, you’re not afraid to use your powerful claws to attack, stun, and dismember prey.”

    4. Moi aussi. Not quite sure how to take that! But I got 7/10 on the Grauniad quiz so I am in good company on that one, anyway.

    6. I, too, am a woolly mammoth.

      “So unique, you’re technically extinct. But on the bright side, scientists hope to be able to clone you some day!”

      I don’t know how to take that. Apparently, we’re all unique.

      1. I also am woolly mammoth. Please do not form a herd I like the isolation.

        On the guardian quiz there was no correct choice for questions 5 & 8 (correct answers respectively Al Gore & IPCC (despite a number of people claiming that they are nobel laureates from this single award)and 97%) so if you got 7 correct you did well…..

    7. I think it would be cool if all you mammoths joined trunk to tail in a circle and did some steps to the tango!

  3. OMCC – I am a pangolin! What an honor to be related to the Professor!! Made my day!!

    1. Pangolin as well. Though it was a pretty weird survey. Wonder what they’re really looking for, and what ads I’ll be seeing in the coming days. (Cynical me.)

    3. I matched PCC exactly, with Pangolin and 7/10. Clearly an instance of “Great minds think alike.” 🙂

    7. I’m a pangolin too. Im glad I’m not the only one, or it might be seen as sucking up!

      Anyway, tomorrow (today in NZ) has a special Google doodle for you to look forward to too.

  4. I am a giant squid. Never seen a giant squid, but I have seen a pangolin. Here in Singapore, very early one morning.

    1. I also am a giant squid. Who knew? Not me! I even have giant tentacles and everything!

    2. I am on Team Giant Squid. Go Team!

      I scored a 7 out of 10 on the Guardian quiz. Quite likely that was sheer luck, though.

    1. Me too. I “can achieve anything to which I put your mind and/or my massive tentacles.”

    3. I tried it. I’m a squid. I’m not the squidly one sock-puppeting, honest! 🙁

  6. I cannot get the quiz – all I get is a link to the stories about the doodle. Perhaps the ancient version of explorer I have to use! In fact I tend to eschew Google in favour of http://www.ecosia.org which donates 80% of profits to tree planting.

      3. I selected the color answer too, but got supersonic claws of doom (mantis shrimp), so I’m okay with it.

    3. I am a cuttlefish as well. I think they are bad ass because I saw two fight once by locking their tentacles and pulling.

      You’re a cuttlefish!With the best brain-to-body ratio of all invertebrates AND the ability to camouflage your skin at will, you’re the complete package!

    1. I got 7/10… to be honest I have never heard of Earth Day until yesterday, which is surprising as I consider myself ‘environmentally aware’. I am however increasingly disillusioned by the failures of society to put climate change at the top of the agenda & for anyone to address the question of the limits of growth. I woke up to hear Lovelock on Radio 4 pointing out again that it is time to adapt to the changes to come… we have missed the boat.

  10. “You’re a honey badger! Your true friends know that they can always call on you to scare away lions or fight a king cobra.”

    Or mormons for that matter.

    Earth Day quiz: 6 out of a possible 10. Not bad, I think, but it could be better.

    1. I took the Japanese-only edition of the quiz, which classified me also as “a honey badger! At times such as when wanting to shoo away a lion or when fighting a king cobra, friends will call on you believing that you’ll be able to do something for them.” 「あなたはラーテルです！ライオンを追い払いたいときやキングコブラと戦うとき。友人たちはあなたを呼べば必ず何とかしてくれると信じています。」:D

      2. I love this google translation of your post:

        “You are Honey Badger! When you fight and King Cobra when you want to rid the Lion. Friends believe that they’ll be sure to somehow call a you.”

    3. Sweet, sweet honey badger for me, too. I just had a dream about cobras the other day. So… whatever.

  13. I am also a giant squid which pleases me greatly as it reminds me of my hero, the Flying Spaghetti Monster.

  14. Giant squid here as well. There must be some trait we Coyne-groupies tend to share…

  15. I’m a giant squid. Since one of my answers depends on my love of sushi, I hope I don’t become sushi.

    I also got 7/10, which proves my astounding guessing ability. I wish it published the correct answers.

    1. Oh, it does allow you to see the answers and compare them with yours. There was a link for that at the results page.

  19. I’m a red-capped manakin! I love to dance and I dance to love–preferably on a branch unobstructed by other vegetation. Sure, sounds good.

    I got 6 out of 10 but it was pretty much guesses except the one I got because I read this post.

  20. Pangolin as well. And I also got 7/10 on the Guardian though I have to admit that that must have been sheer luck.

  21. No doodles for me today :/
    I guess Google don’t want to step on the Israeli’s toes on Memorial Day.
    I hope for them that they prepare something really nice for Independence Day, or else I return to Alta Vista.

    2. On another PC I now have it –

      What are you up to on a typical Friday night?
      a/ alone in my burrow
      b/rarely seen out
      c/strutting my stuff
      d/following the herd

      You and your best friend show up to a party wearing the same outfit. What’s your reaction?
      a/no big deal
      b/ how embarrassing!
      c/fight!
      d/ change outfits

      Choose a snack:
      a/seafood
      b/fruit &/or insects
      c/meat
      d/salad

      What do you look for in a partner?
      a/bright colours
      b/loud grunting sounds
      c/a complex system of glands
      d/old-fashioned values

      Choose a hobby:
      a/feats of strength
      b/work around the house
      c/swimming
      d/none of the above

      give us the 5 answers & one of us will tell you!

  22. I am a giant squid with massive tentacles, which get quite heavy late in the day.

    Got 8/10 at the Guardian.

  25. I’m a stay-at-home pangolin.

    But at the bottom of the page:

    https://www.google.com/doodles/earth-day-2015

    it says:

    “For the month of April, we’re partnering with our friends at Google.org, who will match donations to the following animal-loving organizations up to $20,000.”

    So I will send a few dollars to WWF.

  29. Mantis Shrimp….5/10 on Earth Day Trivia
    I wonder if any readers on this site chose “old fashioned values”

  33. Squid and 8 of 10 on the Guardian quiz. I think squids have 8 arms don’t they? I guess it was all I could handle.

  35. Coral here, but I retook the exam and changed what I was looking for in a mate from bright colors to old fashioned values, whereupon I morphed into wooly mammoth. But really, long-term mate or temporary fling? Good genes or sensory bias? I scored 7 on the Guardian quiz. Wondering about all you giant squids, whether you have a predilection for Pastafarianism, considering the noodly appendage involved.

        2. I think we are in serious trouble worldwide though not yet extinct like the mammoth.

  39. Google tells me: You’re a komodo dragon!You have an appetite for life–as well as the ability to swallow an entire goat.

    I did that at one barbecue, just once, and people remember it forever.

    4. Me too! I was getting nervous being this far into the thread with no dragons yet!

      6/10

  40. “You’re a giant squid!

    “You can achieve anything to which you put your mind and/or your massive tentacles.”

    Obviously, Google is on to something.

  42. I got coral. I would prefer a more mobile beast, but at least it has a watery home! (Got a 6/10 on the Guardian quiz.)

  43. Anyone keeping track here? The results seem to be quite narrow! A few outriders- but a lot of pangolins and squids and woolly mammoths! Are ‘we’ all related?

    2. I feel really lonely as coral. Anyone else get that? Except for liking the color and the “stone”, I am WAY less couch-potato than a coral…

  50. Woolly Mammoth, 6/10. I didn’t think the Guardian quiz was very much about Earth Day– which charities is the Guardian editorializing about? Not very germane.

    1. I meant I am a giant squid.
      Go figure. I’m not that fond of being in deep oceanic waters.

        1. You reef inhabitants will see me not at all. We squid are denizens of the deep. However, if any of you loose your grip on the surface and fall to the depths, I’ll wave several tentacles as you pass by.

  55. I’m a cuttlefish. I guess there is something karmic in there as I ate one on Monday. Very tasty!

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