What can't Google do? The search engines philanthropic arm, Google.org, has developed free home energy monitors, an ocean-exploration tool and now software to observe the world's deforestation.Google.org's software analyzes a decades-worth of satellite images to gauge how tree cover has changed over a period of time.
Google.org said on its blog that "We hope this technology will help stop the destruction of the world's rapidly-disappearing forests,” adding: Emissions from tropical deforestation are similar to the emissions of all of the European Union, and are greater than those of all cars, trucks, planes, ships and trains worldwide.
The software, unveiled previous month at the climate conference in Copenhagen, aims to assist the United Nation's REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Developing Countries) program.
Google.org worked with Greg Asner of the Carnegie Institution for Science along with Carlos Souza of Imazon to develop the software, presently used only by a few partners for testing.
"It is not yet available to the general public but we expect to make it more broadly available over the next year," Google.org added. It will be provided as a not-for-profit service.
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