UNEP and Google Put International
Cleanup Weekend onto Millions of Computers
across the World
Nairobi , 4 October 2007 - People across
the planet will be cleaning up their area
and sharing the result with millions of
people on the internet thanks to a new campaign
by Google and the United Nations Environment
Programme (UNEP).
During International Cleanup Weekend on
13 and 14 October, community groups and
individuals on every continent will be heading
out in small groups with friends and family
to clean up their local parks, beaches,
streets and neighbourhoods.
Under this new initiative, their activities
and results will make history by being posted
as photos and videos onto Google Map ? giving
a global platform to every local initiative.
Achim Steiner, UN Under-Secretary General
and UNEP's Executive Director, said: "The
power of local community action is being
matched by the power of the World Wide Web.
This should make a formidable partnership
uniting and empowering groups from Bangalore
to Bermuda and Berlin to Beijing in common
cause."
"Let us hope this global Google community's
effort may go further and persist beyond
the International Cleanup Weekend. It may
evolve into a new forum and network for
ideas sharing on a wide range of challenges
from local cleanups to community-based solutions
to such pressing issues as climate change,"
he added.
Notes to Editors
UNEP and Google encourage everyone to plan
their own cleanup close to home, wherever
they think there is the biggest need for
it. To get started, go to: http://maps.google.com/help/maps/cleanup/
Joint action on the International Cleanup
Weekend is part of a series of projects
between UNEP and Google Inc. Last year,
Google Earth featured "UNEP: Atlas
of our Changing Environment", offering
satellite images of 100 environmental hotspots
from around the world and showing the dangers
facing them.
This is the latest of many UNEP-partnered
events which reach out to local communities.
Every year, World Environment Day mobilises
people around the world to focus on the
environment. During 2007, the UNEP-led Billion
Tree Campaign has attracted tree-planting
pledges from all regions of the world.
The annual "Clean Up the World Weekend",
organised on 14-16 September by UNEP, has
inspired around 35 million volunteers to
fix and conserve their local environment
since its launch in 1993. It is led by Sydney-based
Ian Kiernan, who set out to clean up Sydney
Harbour after a yacht race which left him
appalled by the amount of rubbish choking
the world's oceans.
Nick Nuttall or Anne-France White.
