Later this year, the fifteenth Conference of the Parties (“COP15”) will be meeting in Copenhagen to discuss climate change. In preparation for that, Google has released a series of layers and tours to help explain the various challenges facing our planet.
They’re using data from the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) to generate the visuals. You can view some of the data on their new COP15 site, and they’ve launched a YouTube channel to go with it. They’ll be using the YouTube channel to showcase climate tours, with new topics every few weeks. The first one is an introductory piece titled “Confronting Climate Change“, and is narrated by Al Gore.
In addition, they’re asking you to submit your own thoughts and questions on climate change to their channel, and some of these videos will be broadcast on screens around the conference in December. The top rated video submissions will win a trip to Copenhagen, so submit your videos and see if you can win the prize.
About Mickey Mellen
Mickey has been using Google Earth since it was released in 2005, and has created a variety of geo-related sites including Google Earth Hacks. He runs a web design firm in Marietta, GA, where he lives with his wife and two kids.
Climate change is effecting every country. Is there
anything we can do at our level to control it? While at high school, I signed a campaign to “Go Green, Promote Green” but nothing big ever happened. This is one cause we all would certainly like to get involved into if only we know how?
Its a high time we used the same tools to monitor and report on the changes the destruction of the Mau Forest in Kenya causes the East and Northern African Region. We need more of this Google Maps sent to Governments and ministries of environments maybe we even need to develop regional maps and use them to raise awareness among populations to have impact on political decisons thaT SECURE OUR FUTURE
Congrats to Al Gore! Great iniciative!