Yesterday, Google and the UK government announced some visualizations for Google Earth which show data indicating global climate change. The UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown actually made the announcement during a Google conference held in the UK this week (see video of Brown’s speech). The data comes from the UK’s Met Office and from the British Antarctic Survey. Here’s some information on the two files:
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Climate Change in our World
– Opening this KML file by the Met Office will first show you an image overlay of the Earth which indicates temperature change over time from 1999 and forecasted through 2099. Use the time slider to watch the changes over time. Also in the file are placemarks with accounts from people around the world speaking about how climate change has effected them, as well as information from the Met Office about possible effects as temperatures continue to rise. -
Climate Change In Our World Antarctica
– The second file from the British Antarctic Survey adds more placemarks showing information on climate change based on research in Antarctica including pictures and video of melting ice and ice shelf breaks (only larger breaks have been reported by the media).
The layers were organized with help from the Google Earth Outreach program.
About Frank Taylor
Frank Taylor started the Google Earth Blog in July, 2005 shortly after Google Earth was first released. He has worked with 3D computer graphics and VR for many years and was very impressed with this exciting product. Frank completed a 5.5 year circumnavigation of the earth by sailboat in June 2015 which you can read about at Tahina Expedition, and is a licensed pilot, backpacker, diver, and photographer.
I wonder how difficult it would be to use the time slider to move that data back a few thousand years before industrialization. Would that be interesting?
This is a pretty cool feature! We wonder how more evidence like this sits with those who say global warming is non-existent.