United Nations Environment Program (Nairobi)
5 September 2008
press release
Nairobi — People can ‘fly’ to some of the world’s most dramatic environmental hotspots courtesy of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP)’s innovative use of the popular mapping tool Google Earth.
The new computer service allows armchair environmentalists as well as politicians, researchers and business executives to zoom in, whizz past and monitor close to 200 sites.
Here they can witness at first hand in 3D the impacts of climate change and other destructive human activities on the earth’s environment and natural resources.
Highlights include the appearance of road networks in the remote rainforests of the Democratic Republic of Congo and the dramatic expansion of many West African cities.
Other highlights, presented as a series of ‘before and after’ images include the surprising changes in the glaciers of Greenland and Alaska and the loss of biodiversity-rich spiny forests to farms in Madagascar.
Achim Steiner, UN Under-Secretary General and UNEP Executive Director, said:” If we are to change the hearts and minds of the global public we need to surprise, to excite and occasionally perhaps to shock. These images, allied to modern computer technology, do all three”.
“But these ‘fly-by’ satellite sets do more. They also show humanity is equally capable of positive, intelligent and empowering change—from the re-forestation of parts of Niger to a new management plan for the Itezhi-tezhi Dam in Zambia which is helping to restore natural and seasonal flooding,” he said.
These virtual ‘trips’ are featured in UNEP’s popular series of changing environment atlases including “One Planet many people: Atlas of our Changing Environment” from 2005 and the recently released "Africa, Atlas of Our Changing Environment."
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