Google: Earth mother?

by Charlie Peverett in At home on 15.04.08

Here’s an interesting move by Google, whose motto is, of course: “Don’t be evil“.

For those not already addicted to Google Earth - which allows you to take a visual flypast of the Himalayas or zoom in on your shed, amongst a thousand other things - there’s a new reason to get stuck in.

Google Earth works with “layers”, whereby you can overlay all sorts of detail on the basic satellite imagery and aerial photos. This includes useful core stuff such as weather, shops and services, and road maps. But Google Earth and its companion Google Maps have also been mashed-up with thousands of other fascinating streams of information - for instance, pictures as they’re uploaded around the globe (Flickrvision), or which bits of the planet will be submerged with different measures of sea level rise.

Last week, Google added new content to its Global Awareness layer. It means that as you skim around the surface of the planet you can see info on endangered species from the impressive ARKive project.

So browsing the lie of the land in Cornwall, you’re alerted to the threats to Basking Sharks, which are often seen off the Cornish coast. The pop-up window links to video footage and images of the watery beasts.

Or if you’re checking out the southern tip of New Zealand, you’ll be introduced to the region’s highly endangered flightless parrot, the Kakapo.

Helping to launch the new feature last week, David Attenborough described it as “a huge and valuable weapon that has been put into our hands… in the hands of anybody and everybody who cares about the future of this greatly imperilled world”.

At the same time, UK charity WaterAid is now hoping to reach a wider audience, with embedded markers that highlight their work to bring clean water and sanitation to some of the world’s poorest communities.

If the biggest obstacle to improving the world is putting its problems ‘on the map’, this could be a winner.

Decidedly not evil.

IMAGE courtesy of ARKive.