One thing you can say about Google is they don’t stray too far from their Birkenstocks –aside from the legal department, where the smell of free love will get you shot on sight. But two new environmental layers added to Google Earth are evidence of those patchouli-scented sandals.
The Mountain View, Calif.-based search company recently added two new features to the “Global Awareness” section of Google Earth – one to raise the eyebrows of those unaware that coal mining companies have blown the lid off half the Appalachian mountain chain in search of bituminous wealth; the other to help the World Wildlife Fund un-endanger an overmuch of now-rare animals.
Mary Anne Hitt, Executive director of Appalachian Voices, recounts flying over the mountains of southern West Virginia, and peering down into the scalped remains of those ancient green giants, and questioned the dire costs of energy.
“That’s why we at Appalachian Voices, and our partner groups, created the National Memorial for the Mountains, using Google Earth to tell the stories of more than 470 mountains that have been lost, as the centerpiece of our website www.iLoveMountains.org,” she writes at the Google Blog.
On the other side of the planet, in Africa, the WWF wants people to know that there are “80 species of mammals, including endangered elephants, gorillas and chimpanzees, as well as at least 302 species of birds, 122 species of reptiles, more than 80 species of amphibians, 249 species of fish, and a high level of endemic plant life” just hanging out at Campo-Ma’an National Park in Cameroon.
“It is the local people who make this area so special,” writes James Leape, Director General of WWF International. “The communities living near the park are keen to protect their natural resources, but also desperate for economic development. WWF is working in partnership with them to promote community-based nature tourism as one solution.”
