Kosi The Sorrow of Bihar

Raghu Katti

This KMZ file tells the story of the destruction caused by the river KOSI in the Indian state of Bihar in 2008. It gives details of the catastrophic floods caused by the river, various geological and manmade factors which lead to this destruction and some myths surrounding the river.

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Waterkeepers

Ron Hall

Waterkeeper Alliance is an international grassroots advocacy organization that connects and supports local Waterkeeper programs (Riverkeeper, Coastkeeper, Soundkeeper, Lakekeeper) to provide a voice for waterways and their communities worldwide. This kml piece is a project by the Spokane Riverkeeper to use Google Earth (and other free Google offerings) to increase public awareness of the Waterkeepers Alliance program. Programs protect the ecology, ecosystems, watershed, and water quality of various rivers, lakes, seas, bays, sounds, and coasts around the world. (Center for Justice, pollution).

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Create Rainforest

BOS Deutschland e.V.

http://www.bos-deutschland.de

Borneo Orangutan Survival aforestation project in East Kalimantan.

http://earth.google.com/gallery/images/small/create_rainforest_sm.jpg

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Spokane River Issues

Ron Hall

On April 14, 2004, the Spokane River was recognized as the 6th most endangered river in America (American Rivers). The objective of this piece is to "promote regional dialogs for sustaining a healthy river system while meeting the needs of a growing population" (Spokane River Forum). The Spokane River flows from Lake Coeur d'Alene in northern Idaho approximately 90 miles northwest through Spokane, Wash., before emptying into the Columbia River above Grand Coulee Dam. The river's flow is partially fed by the Spokane-Rathdrum Aquifer, which provides drinking water to 400,000 people in the region. The river is a vital part of the quality of life in its namesake city, offering riverfront trails and parks, a prized trout fishery, whitewater recreation and dramatic, natural scenery (Spokane Falls). The river is affected by crop irrigation, low flows (dams for power generation), wastewater discharges (treatment plant discharge, "cso"'s), and toxic pollution from former mining activities. CELP, Center for Justice.

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U.S. Coast Guard Environmental Stewardship Efforts

United States Coast Guard

http://www.uscg.mil

The U.S Coast Guard is a maritime, multi-mission, military service within the Department of Homeland Security and one of the nation's five armed services. The U.S. Coast Guard is also a strong environmental steward and this layer showcases Coast Guard efforts to protect and conserve the environment in the Pacific including environmental response, energy conservation, marine debris cleanups, fisheries and sanctuary enforcement, polar operations and wildlife conservation initiatives. Come explore the Coast Guard and learn how to assist them in protecting the environment by providing direct feedback on illegal fishing, pollution, and issues relevant to Coast Guard missions!

http://earth.google.com/gallery/images/small/us_coast_guard_sm.jpg

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The 2009 Goldman Environmental Prize Recipients

Goldman Environmental Prize

http://www.goldmanprize.org

Circle the globe on a tour narrated by Robert Redford that explores the stories of the 2009 Goldman Environmental Prize recipients. The Prize annually honors inspiring grassroots environmental leaders from around the world with a cash prize of $150,000 and spreads the word about their important work. Through this KML,visit massive mountaintop removal coal mines in Appalachia, majestic waterfalls in the Congo Basin Rainforest, ship breaking yards lining the beaches of Bangladesh, and other locations where Prize winners are taking on extraordinary challenges on behalf of the environment.

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Protected Areas and Energy Development

NRDC and Audubon

http://www.nrdc.org

The National Audubon Society and the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) have created maps of restricted lands and sensitive wildlife areas in the western U.S., to help plan development projects by avoiding such areas.

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The Sumatran Forest

David Gaveau

http://sumatranforest.org/

This high informative KML provides an examination of the Sumatran forests of Indonesia, which support an amazing array of flora and fauna. This file looks at deforestation in the region to show nature reserves along with their rates of deforestation and at the general land cover in the form of data overlays.

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Extreme Ice Survey

Extreme Ice Survey

http://www.extremeicesurvey.org

The Extreme Ice Survey uses time-lapse photography and video to document the rapid changes now occurring on the the Earth's glacial ice. The EIS team has installed time-lapse cameras at 15 locations in Greenland, Iceland, Alaska, and the Rocky Mountains. Through this KML you can visit the locations of our cameras get a through-the-lens view of the glaciers the cameras are watching.

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Audubon Priority Bird Areas and Responsible Wind Development

Audubon Society

http://audubon.org/campaign/energy/sagebrush/

Audubon strongly supports properly-sited wind power as a clean alternative energy source that reduces the threat of global warming. Wind power facilities should be planned, sited and operated to minimize negative impacts on bird and wildlife populations.

This layer shows important bird areas in Wyoming, Montana, and parts of the surrounding states. These are sensitive areas which should be avoided when planning the siting and development of energy infrastructure. See the layer content and the website linked above for more information.

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Solar Jobs Growth 2009-2016

The Solar Energy Research & Education Foundation

http://www.seref.us/solarjobsmap.html

Solar energy has long been touted as a clean alternative to traditional electricity generation, but building a clean energy economy will also create jobs. Thanks to federal and state policies to support renewable energy, it's estimated that the solar industry will create hundreds of thousands of green jobs in coming years.

Based on a study by Navigant Consulting Inc., and with the help of Google.org and Google Earth Outreach, the Solar Energy Research & Education Foundation (SEREF) have developed a U.S. solar jobs map in Google Earth. You can also view this as a KML in Google Earth by clicking on the "Open this KML" link below.

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USA CO2 emissions

Purdue University

www.purdue.edu/eas/carbon/vulcan/GEarth/

This KML from Project Vulcan team shows CO2 emissions on Google Earth. This emissions data product along with the Google Earth representation can be found at www.purdue.edu/eas/carbon/vulcan. It represents all fossil fuel CO2 emissions in the United States. The data product was constructed by researchers at Purdue University in collaboration with researchers at Colorado State University and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and was funded by NASA and DOE with additional support from Purdue's Showalter Trust and Knauf Insulation.

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Naturschutz Gruenes Band

BUND (Friends of the Earth Germany)

http://www.bund.net/

Fast 40 Jahre lang teilte der Eiserne Vorhang Europa. Gleichzeitig gab diese Grenze der Natur eine über 30-jährige Atempause. Der innerdeutsche Grenzstreifen wurde zum Refugium für viele seltene Pflanzen und Tiere. Der BUND sorgt dafür, dass dieses Gebiet erhalten bleibt und weiterhin Heimat vieler seltener Pflanzen und Tiere sein kann. Um die Geschichte des innerdeutschen Grenzstreifens zu erzähhlen und der Natur, die sich dort entwickeln konnte, kreierte der BUND diese wunderschöne KML-Datei. Schauen Sie mal rein!

Almost 40 years the Iron Curtain divided Europe. At the same time this border gave nature a more than 30-years reprieve. The border area within Germany became a hideaway for rare plants and animals. The BUND got involved to conserve this area and makes sure it stays home of many rare species. In order to tell the story of the German border area and the nature that developed there during the time, the BUND now created this beautiful KML. Have a look!

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Per Capita CO2 Emissions

World Resources Institute (Earth Trends)

http://earthtrends.wri.org/updates/node/335

In this powerful geospatial visualization, you can view the CO2 (Carbon dioxide) emissions per capita for each country around the world for 2004. By using polygons to present their data, the World Resources Institute (Earth Trends) provide an easy to understand and accessible form of data regarding one of the "hot" topics in the news. It could be interesting to see this same KML presentation in 20 years time to see what countries are truly playing their part to reduce emissions.

http://earth.google.com/gallery/images/small/co2_emissions_sm.jpg

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NSIDC Glaciers and Climate Change

National Snow and Ice Data Center

http://nsidc.org/

Here, you can explore a KML providing a rich geospatial presentation illustrating the changes in glaciers over the years. By providing documented photographic evidence, you can see first hand the changes that have taken place. Since glaciers can contribute to sea level rise, understanding the changes that have occurred over the years can provide us with a greater knowledge of the impacts we are having on our own planet with regards to climate change.

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All The Water

David Tryse

http://david.tryse.net/googleearth/

This fascinating geographical visualization created by David Tryse, illustrates how all the world's water would appear if gathered into a sphere. Alongside the 'Total Water' sphere, are several other smaller spheres, each one decreasing in size to represent other water sources - for example the amount of water found in soil moisture. These kinds of visually impacting and easy to understand KML's can prove so useful in enabling a better understanding of our own, 'blue planet'.

http://earth.google.com/gallery/images/small/all_the_water_o_sm.jpg

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Global Fisheries Catches From 1950-2004

The Sea Around Us Project

http://seaaroundus.org/

Overfishing, driven by subsidies of over $30 billion USD per year, has depleted fish populations worldwide, and is compromising ecosystem structure and function. The costs are becoming increasingly unacceptable. We have assembled global databases of catches, distributions of commercial marine species, countries fishing access agreements, ex-vessel prices, marine protected areas and other data, and mapped these. This information, integrated using powerful new analyses, enabled us to illustrate worrying ecosystem impacts of fisheries.

This Google Earth layer presents the data in three ways:
1. Clickable points that provide static summaries of total catches made in countries' territories and on the high seas;
2. A dynamic animation of the annual catch rates (in tonnes per square km per year), showing where fisheries started, collapsed, and subsequently moved to;
3. A dynamic animation of the spread of fisheries catch across the globe.

http://earth.google.com/gallery/images/small/global_fisheries_catch_sm.jpg

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Greenpeace Esperanza Expedition

Greenpeace

http://www.greenpeace.org/international

This KML lets you follow the Greenpeace ship 'Esperanza' as she crosses the globe, carrying out work on the frontline of their environmental and peace campaigns. Explore text, photos and videos within the description balloons giving you geographically organized information about what Greenpeace is doing.

http://earth.google.com/gallery/images/small/greenpeace_esperanza_sm.jpg

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Universidad Politecnica de Madrid - La Calidad del Aire

Universidad Politécnica

http://www.upm.es

Este KML muestra un sistema de predicción de la Calidad del Aire para todos los municipios españoles con más de 50.000 habitantes. Se basa en un modelo de última generación que incluye las emisiones de tráfico, industria y biogénicas que permiten obtener las concentraciones en el aire estimadas para las próximas 72 horas con una resolución de 50 km.

Los resultados se muestran en Google Earth en modo gráfico, según 4 niveles de contaminación atmosférica que se corresponden con los contaminantes incluidos en las Directivas y Reales Decretos que limitan su concentración para la protección de la salud de los ciudadanos.

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Muestra de Proyectos de Desarrollo y Comercio Justo

Intermon Oxfam

http://www.intermonoxfam.org/es/page.asp?id=1

Los 18 proyectos que presenta Intermón Oxfam en Google Earth Solidario son una pequeña muestra del trabajo en proyectos de desarrollo y comercio justo que la organización desarrolla en diversos países del mundo. Con el Banco de Agua en Etiopía, que ha conseguido el acceso al agua potable a más de 60.000 personas, visibilizamos una de nuestras especialidades de trabajo en terreno: el agua, el saneamiento y la higiene. Unos proyectos que contemplan desde la construcción de estructuras hidrológicas para abastecer de agua potable a la población, hasta la recuperación de manantiales, sistemas de recogida de agua de lluvia, construcción de pozos y canalizaciones de agua. Además de una formación a los beneficiarios para su correcto mantenimiento.

http://earth.google.com/gallery/images/small/intermon_oxfam_sm.jpg

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