Google Earth Oceans: Can Looking At Digital Oceans Help Save Real Ones? (VIDEO)

Google Earth just got an upgrade to include oceans. Previously, the space between Earth's recognizable landmasses had flat blue and, well, not all that educational.

The Google Earth oceans upgrade allows users to do the following, according to the Google Earth download site:

*Dive beneath the surface and visit the deepest part of the ocean, the Mariana Trench

*Explore the ocean with top marine experts including National Geographic and BBC
*Learn about ocean observations, climate change, and endangered species
*Discover new places including surf, dive, and travel hot spots and shipwrecks

Ocean explorer Sylvia Earle acts as guide in this sort-of-stiff preview of Google Earth's "explore the oceans" feature for anybody who can't download it and play with it right away:

The New York Times' Andy Revkin wonders if the new Google Earth oceans upgrade will help endear users to the oceans.

The new version of Google Earth allows users to mouse around under and over the seas, click on video clips of hydrothermal vents, read up on which seafoods are being harvested unsustainably, look at marine dead zones and sanctuaries and the like.

Visitors can create their own narrated, illustrated tours of a neighborhood, scuba excursion or honeymoon. They can also now visually scroll through time, backtracking through sequences of satellite-imagery to see how coasts, forests, cities and other features of the planet are changing under the expanding imprint of ever more people eager for ever more stuff.

One big question: Will digital familiarity with a forest or coral reef breed caring and change people's priorities and practices (what they buy, what they preserve in their own environment)?

Google CEO Eric Schmidt said that was part of the idea behind the Google Earth ocean upgrade:

Eric Schmidt, Google's chief executive, said the launch of Ocean in Google Earth provided an opportunity to change people's perspective about the importance of the oceanic ecosystem in the overall health of the planet.

"In discussions about climate change, the world's oceans are often overlooked, despite being an integral part of the issue," he said. "Biodiversity loss in our oceans in the next 20 to 30 years will be roughly equivalent to losing an entire Amazon rainforest, but this goes unnoticed because we can't see it."

Comments

[legalclubs]

Great software, but how do they make any money off Google Earth. It's free.

[jpmdevildog]

After Google developers introduced the new branch of Google Earth, users discovered a never before seen sea monster lurking in the images!

http://weeklyworldnews.com/mutants/google-ocean-discovers-sea-monster/

[loonwalk]

ok. where's the floating garbage the size of Texas I've heard so much about?

[LALC]

In the Pacific west of Ha'waii (one place anyhow). It's huge! Saw a documentary short while back on TV ?NatGeo, PBS, Discovery? -something like that.

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/02/great_pacific_garbage_patch.php
http://www.mindfully.org/Plastic/Ocean/Moore-Trashed-PacificNov03.htm

[LALC]

loonwalk, this is video of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch aka Garbage Island. CNN's news to me.

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/bestoftv/2008/04/14/ntm.garbage.island.cnn

[DG3]

That woman sounds too much like Martha Stewart.

[devinsbuddy]

Or Candace Bergen?

[113]

that''s a great upgrade...google does it once again. smart bunch of people working there

[bolivare]

I like the idea. Hopefully, one day they can give you live movies of where you happen to be in the virtual ocean.

[C0Y0TE2]

What Google needs to do is allow us a non-earth centric view of the universe. What we can currently do is zoom out from the earth as if peering into a telescope, but we cannot achieve any sense of our position in that universe, for example by being able to look at our Milky Way Galaxy FROM THE OUTSIDE.

For example, the Sagittarius Galaxy has collided with our galaxy is has been torn apart by the immense forces into a long string that circles our galaxy and is currently smashing its way right through our vicinity of space.

Can Google please allow us that theoretical view? Can they also include a time device so that we could zoom backwards and forward into theoretical time/space?

Please?

[MissElaineous]

I think you can easily do that by attaching your Mister Fusion power supply to a basic Oscillation Overthruster.

[Tatiana]

LOL! Witty retort!

[Zenith1959]

You can probably get a good deal on one of those when Circuit City has their close-out sales.