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Global Deforestation Demoed In Google Earth

eldavojohn writes "On Google's official blog, they claim a 'new technology prototype that enables online, global-scale observation and measurement of changes in the earth's forests.' Ars has more details on what Google unveiled at Copenhagen. If you have Google Earth installed, you can find a demonstration here. Many organizations and government agencies are on board with this initiative to put deforestation before the eyes of the public. If only satellite data of North America existed before the logging industry swept in!" It's interesting to contemplate the implications for intelligence gathering of Google's automated tools to compare satellite photos.

2 of 207 comments (clear)

  1. Trees by arizwebfoot · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Interestingly, before the white man appeared in North America, there were an average of 8 trees per acre and now there are an average of 220 trees per acre in the US alone.

    Just saying...

    --
    Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.
  2. Re:Oregon by geekoid · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "The only difference is we have 15% unemployment and we can't cut and replant trees to actually make a living"

    what does that mean?

    Also, forest fires don't burn down forests.

    "Every time we cut one tree down, we plant 3 to 10 more of them."

    Cite needed.

    "They only talk about it out west where we have plenty of trees to go around."
    there is a reason for that, it's called 'shifting baseline'. Basically it mean that people who grow up where there aren't trees have no reference to go by to realize there should be trees.

    In Oregon people cans ee the fantastic forests, and when they start to diminish they say something.

    Careful citing logging industry stats, they ahve a tendency to be massively incorrect.

    For example, According to the Labor dept.there are only about 8000 worker in the logging industry, but they would have you believe there are 100K +.

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