Google Earth and UK government show global warming
Millions of Google Earth users around the world can now see how climate change could affect the planet and its people over the next century
The project, Climate Change in Our World, was launched by UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown this week and is the product of a unique collaboration between DFID, DEFRA, Google, the Environment Agency, the Met Office Hadley Centre and the British Antarctic Survey.
Using world leading climate science, Climate Change in Our World shows global temperatures over the next hundred years, along with stories of how people in some of the world's poorest countries are already being affected by changing weather patterns.
International Development Secretary Douglas Alexander said: "Climate change is happening and it is the world's poorest who are facing the greatest threat. Now, for the first time, the Google Earth maps allow us to see first hand accounts of poor people coming to terms with everything from floods and droughts to melting glaciers. Amidst the massive impact on the world's environment the initiative highlights the personal costs to people least able to withstand the changes."
The project includes present day human impact case studies provided by DFID as well as examples of possible future climate change impacts, based on projections by the Met Office Hadley Centre.
www.dfid.gov.uk/news/files/climate-google-earth.asp
