UN, Google team up to highlight global environment crises

NAIROBI — Rampant forest destruction, retreating glaciers and explosive urban growth became a visual reality for millions on Wednesday with the launch of a new partnership between the United Nations and internet search giant Google.

Under the scheme announced by the Nairobi-based UN Environment Program, bird’s eye before-and-after views of 100 UNEP-identified global environmental hotspots were posted to Google’s popular Google Earth browser.

“These satellite pictures are a wake-up call to all of us to look at the sometimes devastating changes we are wreaking on our planet,” UNEP chief Achim Steiner said in a statement.

He described the selection photographs as “spectacular imagery” that offered a compelling “new way of visualizing the dangers facing our planet today” and would lead to greater awareness and concern about ecological damage.

“By tapping into the global Google community, we are able to reach out to millions of people who can mobilize and make a difference,” Steiner said.

Google Earth, which offers satellite views of the planet, has about 100 million users worldwide who will now be able to access UNEP’s “Atlas of Our Changing Environment” under the program, the agency said.

Among the 100 “hotspots” included are the dwindling Amazon rainforest, melting polar ice caps, the startling declines of Central Asia’s Aral Sea in Russia and Africa’s Lake Chad and rapid urbanization of the US city of Las Vegas and southern Chinese metropolis of Shenzen, it said.

Other crisis points highlighted include the rampant destruction of mangrove forests in Southeast Asia, notably in Thailand and Malaysia, and the effects of open-pit oil exploration in the Athabasca region of Canada’s Alberta province, it said.