United
Nations Environment Programme Partners with Google
Earth
Nairobi, 12 September 2006 –
'Flying' around a virtual planet earth, zooming
in on environmental hotspots and comparing today's
crisis zones with yesterday's areas of natural
beauty: All this has become a reality today thanks
to a partnership between the United Nations Environment
Programme (UNEP) and Google Earth.
Images of retreating glaciers
and melting ice in polar and mountain areas, explosive
growth of cities such as Las Vegas, forest loss
in the Amazon, rapid oil and gas development in
Wyoming and Canada, forest fires across sub-Saharan
Africa and the decline of the Aral Sea in Central
Asia and Lake Chad in Africa: this and much more
is being presented in a series of 'before and
after' satellite images of our changing environment
to over 100 million Google Earth users worldwide.
Beginning today, Google Earth
– Google’s 3D virtual world browser – will feature
UNEP: Atlas of our Changing Environment, offering
satellite images of 100 environmental hotspots
from around the world. The project builds on the
success of UNEP’s very popular hardcover release
One Planet, Many People: Atlas of our Changing
Environment.
UNEP's Executive Director Achim
Steiner said:” These satellite pictures are a
wake-up call to all of us to look at the sometimes
devastating changes we are wreaking on our planet.
Through spectacular imagery, Google Earth and
UNEP offer a new way of visualizing the dangers
facing our planet today. By tapping into the global
Google community, we are able to reach out to
millions of people who can mobilize and make a
difference."
The printed Atlas One Planet,
Many People: Atlas of our Changing Environment
was produced in cooperation with the National
Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the
United States Geological Survey (USGS) and the
University of Maryland, and launched on World
Environment Day in June 2005.
UNEP: Atlas of our Changing
Environment uses images from the 2005 publication
together with satellite depictions of changes
to African Lakes (based on the 2006 hardcover
Africa’s Lakes: Atlas of our Changing Environment),
along with several new images and updates, and
brings them into the virtual world of Google Earth.
Each location features multiple satellite images
which are overlaid directly on Google Earth.
Most of the locations feature
imagery from almost thirty-five years of global
coverage produced by the Landsat programme. Using
this invaluable record of our planet’s recent
past, UNEP: Atlas of our Changing Environment
documents hotspots of environmental change around
the world.
The project coordinator, Ashbindu
Singh, of UNEP's Division of Early Warning and
Assessment said: "Google Earth technology
already allows a more informative and accessible
means of delivering information about our changing
environment. By keeping pace with the changing
world of technology and media, UNEP helps the
environmental community keep pace with the real
changes in our real world."
Google Earth enables users to
put each image into a rich geographical context.
At Lake Kivu, Uganda, an active volcano threatens
to release a lethal cloud of carbon dioxide from
the lake. The user can zoom into the city of Goma,
caught between the volcano and the lake, and view
the high resolution images showing its houses,
roads and parks.
Lake Chad, a great shallow lake
in West Africa which was once the sixth largest
in the world, shrunk to a wetland one tenth its
original size between 1963 and 2001. The user
can follow the rivers that feed it to their sources,
which no longer provide enough water to maintain
the lake. Google Earth shows the countries and
cities affected by the lake’s decline and offers
the ability to search the internet for additional
information about Lake Chad.
In the Trang Estuary along Thailand’s
western shoreline, an explosion in shrimp farming
can be seen cutting into the disappearing mangrove
forests between January 11000 and October 2001.
Jumping 500 km to the south, the user can see
more mangrove forest being lost to agricultural
conversion and urban expansion, as the population
surrounding Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, spreads from
40 km inland in January 1974, west to the coastal
mangrove forests in January 2005.
'Flying' 2,500 km north across
Southeast Asia, China’s economic powerhouse, Shenzhen,
can be seen growing from a small city in the coastal
forest in October 1979 to a sprawling industrial
city with a population approaching 5 million in
the greater metropolitan area by September 2004.
Spinning the globe around to North America, enormous
open pit mines in the Athabasca region of Alberta,
Canada, can be seen where vast low-quality reserves
of oil are being extracted from 'oil sands'.
Some of the new images featured
on UNEP: Atlas of our Changing Environment on
Google Earth:
Kantang, Thailand
Two satellite images from 31
January 11000 and 22 October 2001 show mangrove
forests in the Trang River estuary in Thailand
that are being rapidly converted for aquaculture.
The mangroves are under threat
from upstream discharge of wastewater, industrial
facilities and unsustainable aquaculture practices
– particularly commercial shrimp farming. From
1975 to 1993, it is estimated that about half
of Thailand's mangroves along its 2,560 km coastline
were lost. The larger area of the Had Chao Mai
Marine National Park, the Ta Libong Island Non-Hunting
Area and the Trang River Estuaries has been designated
a Ramsar Wetland Site and supports over 200 bird
species including many 'critically endangered',
'endangered', 'vulnerable' and 'threatened' species.
Mangrove ecosystems are the
interface between the marine and terrestrial ecosystems
and provide important services to both. The fallen
leaves and branches contribute important nutrients,
making healthy nursery areas for the breeding
of many marine species and in turn creating healthy
fisheries. They are also prime habitat for migratory
birds, amphibians and terrestrial species.
The international market for
shrimp will likely continue to drive the development
of commercial shrimp farming. Protection of areas
such as Kantang will become increasingly important
to preserving the dwindling areas of viable mangrove
forest throughout the tropics.
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
With a population over 1.4 million
(and approximately twice that number in the greater
metropolitan area), Kuala Lumpur is the largest
city in Malaysia and is growing rapidly. Its sprawl
is now encroaching on the mangrove forests at
the coastline (approximately 35 km to the west
of the city centre).
Landsat satellite images from
1974 through 2005 show the gradual spread of development
and the loss of mangrove forest that has resulted.
By 1975, many areas of mangrove had already been
converted to agriculture. As thirty years passed,
the agricultural areas expanded and more mangroves
were converted to farms. At the same time, the
images show the agricultural areas being converted
to industrial and urban land use. Elsewhere along
the Malaysian coastline, mangroves are rapidly
being converted to commercial shrimp farms. Forestry
Department statistics show that peninsular Malaysia
had 85,800 hectares (214,500 acres) of mangrove
swamp forests in 2003, down from 86,497 hectares
just one year earlier.
Mangrove forests are biologically
diverse and highly productive ecosystems that
offer valuable habitats to a wide variety of both
marine and terrestrial species. They are being
lost at an alarming rate throughout the tropics.
Protection of these areas may be needed to ensure
the survival of this valuable natural resource.
Shenzhen, China
The city of Shenzhen is located
just across from Hong Kong and southeast of the
Zhujian (Pearl) River Delta Region in China. The
city has been the focus of intense urbanization,
known as the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone (SSEZ).
Comparison of satellite images shows the dramatic
change in the landscape from 1979 to 2004, as
thousands of high-rise buildings and factories
have replaced earlier agricultural and vegetated
areas.
It is estimated that over the
next quarter-century, almost all population growth
will occur in cities, most of it in less developed
countries. By 2030, more than 60 per cent of the
world’s population will live in urban areas. Already,
one of every three urban dwellers lives in a slum.
And in too many of the world’s expanding towns
and cities, environmental safeguards are few and
planning is haphazard.
The environmental consequences
of urban growth are considerable. Cities are prolific
users of natural resources and generators of waste.
They produce most of the greenhouse gases that
are causing global climate change. They often
degrade local water quality, deplete aquifers,
pollute the marine environment, foul the air and
consume the land, thereby devastating biological
diversity.
Athabasca Oil Sands, Alberta,
Canada
Vast reserves of low quality
oil underlie the boreal forest surrounding Fort
McMurray in northern Alberta, Canada, in the form
of 'Athabasca oil sands'. While these reserves
have been known since the early 20th century,
the high cost of extracting usable oil from these
'oil sands' has limited the development of a viable
oil sands mining industry. In 2003 the rising
cost of crude oil led to Canada reevaluating the
oil sands as a viable resource.
Canada's National Energy Board
predicts $125 billion in investments for creation
and expansion of oil sands mining in the Athabasca
area between 2006 and 2015 which will take production
to around 3 million barrels per day. Local people
including the Native American population are concerned
that exploitation will come at too great a cost
to the environment. The government of Alberta
plans to propose a surface mining area of 280,000
hectares, an area approximately four times the
size of the City of Calgary.
In 1967 The Great Canadian Oil
Sands Company began construction at its Mildred
Lake site. In 1974 they were joined by the Syncrude
Corporation which began construction of a mine
in the same area. By early 2006 the mining operations
had expanded to cover an area roughly 30 km by
20 km. Syncrude operates a second mine, the Aurora,
approximately 30 km to the north of Mildred Lake.
Manaus, Brazil
Manaus, the capital of the state
of Amazonia, is located on the north bank of the
River Negro at its confluence with the Solimoes
River, which extends eastward as the Amazon River.
The population of Manaus grew by more that 65
per cent between 1993 and 2003 to its current
population of over 1.5 million.
Two Landsat images document the conversion of
forest areas due to logging and urbanization between
1987 and 2001. In addition to the urban expansion
evident in the area surrounding the city, increased
logging and road construction can be observed
in the 2001 image.
About 15 km from Manaus, Rio
Negro (Black River) meets Rio Solimoes to create
an amazing confluence of the brownish white water
from the Saliomes joining the black water (caused
by the very high acidity from tannin) from the
Rio Negro.
Notes to Editors:
One Planet Many People: Atlas of Our Changing
Environment and African's Lakes: Atlas of Our
Changing Environment are available to view on
http://www.unep.org or directly on http://www.na.unep.net/OnePlanetManyPeople/index.php
and http://na.unep.net/AfricaLakes/
Both are available to purchase from UNEP's online
bookstore earthprint.com
meganq@google.com
