Once again it’s Earth Day. A time to sit back and think about our wonderful planet, and some of us will be out picking up some trash, or just enjoying nature. For those of you stuck inside due to weather, work, or other reasons – perhaps you might want to spend the day exploring our wonderful planet through the power of Google Earth. Here are a few links of stories from Google Earth Blog (GEB) in the past year describing environmental related content available for viewing in Google Earth:
• Largest Proposed Urban Solar Power Plant in the US — A look at the proposed solar power plant near Chicago, Illinois.
• Huge Waste of Energy Visible in Google Earth — Showing the “gas flares” in the Persian Gulf.
• US Drought Conditions in Google Earth by NOAA — Covering drought information in the United States from 2000 through today.
• Kaisei Project – Researching the Plastic Vortex — Research into the Pacific Garbage Patch.
• Climate change tools for Google Earth — Various tours that Google released in preparation for the COP15 meetings in Copenhagen.
• Google releases more tours to highlight climate change — More tools from Google in preparation for COP15.
• Tracking the migration of Osprey — Tracking Osprey as they migrate from their nest in Loch Garten, Scotland.
• Deforestation of the Amazon is uncovering Geoglyphs — A combination of deforestation and high-resolution satellite imagery is uncovering geoglyphs in the Amazon.
• A climate change tour of cold places — NSIDC released this project to show the snowy and icy regions of the world covering sea ice, glaciers, ice shelves and permafrost.
• Marine Scientists dive into Google Earth — Covering the 2010 Pew Fellows in Marine Conservation.
• Town being eaten by a mine — The sad story of Cerro de Pasco, Peru being destroyed by a mine.
• Ocean layer is now a default for all users — All users now see ocean layers as a default.
For more, you can check out Frank’s post from last year and read stories that go back even further.
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.
a ‘tour of cold places’ is by NSIDC not Google….
Richard — Good catch. It’s been corrected now.
Everyday should be Earth Day and I believe those things should be done everyday. That would totally make a big difference and would mean a lot to the environment.