Low Impact

A lot of the stories we do at Low Impact are about how we can make a change to our own lives to reduce our impact on the environment – how we can affect our local patch of the planet.

But there’s a whole big wide world out there, and it’s great to try and inform yourself about all the challenges that face the environment from country to country. News stories are one way. Documentaries and magazine articles another. However one resource you may not have considered is Google Earth.

If you haven’t tried Google Earth yet, you’re missing out. Google Earth (which is free – you can get it here) lets you fly around a virtual planet Earth, zooming in wherever you care to. There’s a real “Gee Whiz” factor in zooming in to your own street, and finding your house! What really makes it so compelling, though, is that people can build on it, adding their own labels, 3D models and pictures that are “attached” to the globe at various points.

Some enterprising people have used this feature to provide a global perspective on some of the environmental challenges, successes and disasters that can be found around the world. Some have provided a view as to how much the different areas of the world will heat up in the future due to climate change – you use a slider to set the date, and see how much hotter a region gets. Others have catalogued where oil spills have occurred in the past, accompanied by photos and videos where available. And on a more positive note, some have catalogued the location of “Great Green Buildings” around the world, complete with 3D models that you can zoom upto. (All of these links require you to have Google Earth installed.)

This is only a taste of what’s out there – Google conveniently have a page listing a whole selection of user-generated Google Earth content (“KML” for those who speak Geek!) relating to the environment. At last count, there were over 40 different environmental add-ons to check out. Its well worth setting aside a bit of time to explore!

The world might be a global village, but its still easy to get too focussed on our own neck-of-the-woods, and forget that our planet is a big place, facing a multitude of challenges. Google Earth can be a great tool to inform and educate yourself on some of the environmental problems and solutions that are a little further away than your own backyard.

Categories: education, environment, green

Tags: climate change, education, google earth, green building, oil spill