Google, Schwarzenegger Unveil Tool to Battle Climate Change

Google, Schwarzenegger Unveil Tool to Battle Climate Change

4 December 2009

published by sfist.com


USA — Internet search giant Google has unveiled a version ofGoogle Earth that predicts both sea level changes and wild fire danger caused by global warming. One of the many tools created this month by Google in support of the UN’s Climate Change Convention in Copenhagen (a.k.a.Hopenhagen).

Word of the new features first broke when Former Vice President Al Goreintroduced them on YouTube in September. But now — at last! — it’s Terminator-approved.

Yesterday, during a press conference at Treasure Island, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Google CEO Eric Schmidt announcedthe new application. Three years ago at the very same spot, Schwarzenegger signed California’s landmark global warming law requiring the state to slash greenhouse gas emissions by 2020. Treasure Island, along with SFO and Google’s Mountain View headquarters, could all be fully underwater by 2100.

“This is part of our effort to get people to really understand what is happening around us,” said Schmidt.

The satellite-based application gives Californians a bird’s-eye view on how we are, well, fucking it up for the birds, not to mention the rest of the state. Some $2.5 trillion of California’s property and assets are threatened by climate change. San Francisco alone would see$4.9 billion in costs in replacement values of buildings and their contents.

“What you can do with Google Earth is you can not only see what we have done, but you can also think and analyze and see the changes and see them ahead of the time when the changes are irreversible,” emphasized Schmidt.

At least, that is the goal of theCalAdapt Google Earth Tool, a website developed by the California Energy Commission along with Google and the Stockholm Environment Institute. It was one of the recommendations of a 200-page state report detailing how California should prepare for climate change.

“When it comes to fighting global warming and climate change, it is technology, in the end, that will save us all,” Schwarzenegger said.

It’s worth noting that Google’s head of state policy for the western U.S., Ross LaJeunesse, formerly served as Schwarzenegger’s deputy chief of staff.

So if you wanna help save California, justGoogle it!


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