Oceana Brings Arctic Climate Change to Light Through Google Earth
Press Release Date: December 7, 2009
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Contact:
Anna Baxter | email: abaxter@oceana.org
Anna Baxter
Using Google technology, Oceana has created a powerful new tool for protecting the Arctic Ocean in the face of climate change and other threats. The new Google Earth tour, entitled “Protecting the Arctic Ocean with Ted Danson and Oceana” takes visitors on a tour of the Arctic, highlighting the impacts of climate change, particularly melting sea ice, as well as ocean acidification and increasing industrialization from shipping, fishing and oil and gas.
“If a picture is worth a thousand words, a Google Earth tour is worth a whole lot more,” said Jon Warrenchuk, Ocean Scientist for Oceana. “We appreciate Google’s commitment to using this powerful tool to bring immensely important issues like climate change and what’s happening in the Arctic to a broader audience.”
The tour will be unveiled in time for the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, where delegates from 192 countries will gather to tackle the enormous issues facing the planet from climate change. The conference starts on Monday December 7th and along with the tour launch, Oceana will also be holding a presentation to highlight the global threat of ocean acidification. The Arctic Ocean tour will be available to delegates throughout the conference, as well as posted on Google Earth, YouTube and Oceana websites. The tour is available on the Climate change in Google Earth page: http://www.google.com/landing/cop15/ and on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98zs9gUdqNg
The joint effort is part of the Google Earth Outreach initiative, which gives non-profits and public benefit organizations the knowledge and resources they need to visualize their cause and tell their story in Google Earth & Maps to the hundreds of millions of people who use them. The initiative has gathered information from dozens of organizations to create Google Earth tours that highlight a broad range of humanitarian, environmental, cultural and other global issues.
“We are glad to stand with Google as we all look to bring our world closer together, and ensure that we all move in the right direction for a sustainable future,” said Warrenchuk.