Google Earth Links to Global Issues

Explore and learn about the impacts of climate change and find out how you can make a difference with Climate Change in our World. The Met Office Hadley Centre, British Antarctic Survey and UK Government have harnessed Google Earth technology to present you with an interactive animation showing how climate change and global temperature rises could affect our world over the next 100 years.

Once you have opened this KML, click on the icons to find out more about how people around the world are already being affected by changing weather patterns and see the predicted effects of climate change across the globe between now and 2100.

On opening up the KML you can find out more about how we produced these files, and what is happening on a global and domestic scale to prevent and combat the effects of climate change.

Viewing tip: To view this animation at a slower speed, click the button on the left of the timeline bar and set the speed slider to its lowest setting.

File: climate_change.kmz
Author: Met Office
Source: Google Earth Outreach

This wonderful KML presents a geographical account of the planet's disappearing forests. By using polygons to represent rates of deforestation, the data can be quickly and easily communicated. Country profiles are also included, providing high quality, accessible information included as pops ups in the pie chart balloons - be sure to check out the live hectare counter in these placemarks!

File: climate_change.kmz
Author: David Tryse
Source: Google Earth Outreach

In this representation, John Jason Fallows uses data from the CIA World Factbook to create polygons which illustrate the country's oil consumption, where one foot equates to daily oil consumption per barrel per day.

File: world_oil_conumption.kmz
Author: John Jason Fallows
Source: Google Earth Gallery

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