Google tool to help watch over forests
By Agence France-Presse
Fri, Dec 11 2009 at 7:38 AM EST
Read more: FORESTS & TREES, GREEN TECHNOLOGY
GROWING GREEN: Google technology will help scientists analyze the location of forests regenerating. (Photo: Minneapolis Star Tribune/ZUMA Press)) Google has unveiled a tool that lets scientists and defenders of the environment use the Internet to keep an eye on what is left of the Earth's forests.
"We hope this technology will help stop the destruction of the world's rapidly disappearing forests," Rebecca Moore and Amy Luers of the U.S. Internet giant's philanthropic arm Google.org said in a blog post Thursday.
The technology lets scientists analyze raw satellite imagery data and extract information such as locations and measurements of deforestation or even regeneration of forest.
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DiggThe system is hosted in the Google "cloud," the technology firm's Internet-linked data centers, and has the potential to reveal in seconds when forests are being chopped down, burned or bulldozed.
"Being able to detect illegal logging activities faster can help support local law enforcement and prevent further deforestation from happening," Moore and Luers wrote.
Emissions from tropical deforestation are comparable to the emissions of all of the European Union, and are greater than those of all cars, trucks, planes, ships and trains worldwide.
Google demonstrated a prototype of the technology at the U.N. climate talks in Copenhagen.
The forest-tracking system is being tested by a small group of Google partners and will be made available as a not-for-profit service, according to Moore and Luers.
Copyright 2009 AFP Global Edition
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Google Tool to Help watch Over Forests
Illegal logging is certainly a problem, particularly in underdeveloped countries.
Irresponsible logging is as big if not a bigger problem, and it tends to escape notice because it often happens in developed countries such as Canada. It is not necessarily illegal, but it is unsustainable and always destructive of habitats and watersheds.
The best way to counter it is to show denuded forestlands. It embarrasses the companies that profit from this practice.
a good example is.... More