Google Earth maps the destruction to Earth
Today the world is almost on the verge of environmental destruction and that ultimately will lead to the human race’s extinction. Global warming, green house gases heavy industrialization, urbanization have all contributed to the deterioration of our natural resources. The global temperature is rising fast and all this information, vital as it is needs to collected and analyzed to save the world and make it a better place for future generations. Google earth the desktop virtual globe will tell the environmentalists and scientists which place has changed drastically as compared to its earlier environmental status without having to travel to the actual place. Google earth’s high-resolution satellite images coupled with regular updates is a very valuable tool for anyone interested in environment protection because seeing is believing. The news on any aspect of environment destruction will be forgotten soon but a graphic image or satellite imagery will stir anyone to action.
Environmentalists are using Google earth for pointing out the particular location which ahs undergone changes in the last decades. United Nations Environment Programme collaborated with Google earth to have a layer of data that users can navigate using Google Earth or view in a Web browser. The satellite photo atlas has used the virtual globe to show the damage done to the earth. When the users look at the atlas in Google earth the virtual globe is filled with markers for every location that is covered. Even a flat map that is designed on Google can be navigated online. When the user clicks on the marker all the information with it’s before and after satellite image is displayed on the screen. The earlier image is years old and this helps to show the difference the particular location has undergone. The information with the images also explains the difference the place has suffered.
For the online visitor the difference between the two pictures explains the damage done to sensitive ecology associated with the place. One such example in the atlas can be given; there is the image of Iguazú National Park that extends from Paraguay, Brazil, and Argentina, and the images date from 1973 to 2003. The image helps to explain the difference in the land of the park that how much rain forest has been destroyed due to the human interference in the forest in the form of farmland and other related uses by human beings. The difference of twenty years in the park’s dwindling forest is enough to explain how much human activity is causing environmental damage.
The images will also tell the environmentalists the dwindling of Africa's Lake Chad between 1972 and 2001. The Lake Chad suffered considerable decrease in the level of water because lack of rain and the use of the lake water by humans. The facts that could be inferred from these images are that the lake which was once the sixth biggest in the world has been reduced not only in its storage capacity butt also in its expanse. The programme also explains the reduction in the date palms trees of Shatt al Arab estuary Which is on the Iran Iraq border. Google earth, environment, images, ecology, conservation
Tags: Google Earth
Technorati Tags: Google earth, environment, images, ecology, conservation
