High Hopes for Google Earth Engine

New forest monitoring platform 'Google Earth Engine' launched this week. Their are hopes that the cloud sharing engine will strengthen international trust and will be used by researchers and policy makers worldwide.

With the depletion of tropical forests thought to be responsible for around 17% of our greenhouse gas emissions, forest protection is ever high on the agenda.

Effectively measuring the success of conservation schemes is vital but can be expense, timely and difficult to monitor by land, due to obstacles such as corruption and illegal logging that purvey in areas such as the Amazon, Indonesia and Congo Basin.

Earlier this week, eco-business.com reported that Google Inc have recently launched ‘Google Earth Engine’, a platform which takes satellite forest images and uses cloud computing through shared data centres to allow scientists to instantly monitor the forests from computers around the globe.

Google believe that that the tool will valuable to carbon traders, policy makers, and researchers, as well as speeding cooperation in the global forest conservation and climate change plan, named ‘reduced emissions from deforestation and degradation’, or REDD.

REDD is an international agreement that involves wealthier countries financially rewarding poorer nations for forest restoration. At last year’s climate talks in Copenhagen, rich nations, including the US, Japan and Norway promised $3.5 billion, to fund the development of REDD.

Google Earth Engine will not only cut the costs of monitoring the forests but will also allow both donor and developing countries access to exactly the same tools and data. It’s hoped that this sharing platform will strengthen trust and international negotiations.

Read the full article here

This article was also published with Responsible Travel News

For travel journalism and copywriting services visit www.lucygrewcock.com

Nestle agree to stop contributing to rainforest destruction, following Greenpeace campaign

This month, Nestle announced a commitment to stop using palm oil products that come from companies blamed for rainforest destruction. A move that Greenpeace claim was achieved due to pressure from social media sites such as youtube, facebook and twitter.
Greenpeace’s two month campaign, which targeted Nestle’s unethical and environmentally damaging business practice, linked KitKat chocolate bars to deforestation in Indonesian rainforests and the destruction of orang-utan habitats. When their ‘Have a Break’ video link was removed from youtube, the campaign attracted massive support from the online community.

The power of social media combined with direct actions to deliver the message directly to Nestlé. At Nestlé’s Annual General Meeting on April 15th, shareholders were greeted by protesting orang-utans as they arrived and activists dangled banners over shareholder’s heads, asking Nestlé to give orang-utans a break. Online, supporters sent tweets to shareholders throughout the meeting via a fake Wi-Fi network, which sent shareholders directly to greenpeace.org/kitkat.

The combined efforts of Greenpeace and the global online community seemed to have powerful and desired effect. Nestle is now working alongside The Forest Trust (TFT), which requires them to adhere to responsible sourcing guidelines for palm oil. Nestlé must exclude companies from its supply chain that manage 'high risk plantations or farms linked to deforestation'.

Nestle say that "We share the deep concern about the serious environmental threat to rain forests and peat fields in South East Asia caused by the planting of palm oil plantations."

Lucy's article was also posted by Responsible Travel News: Nestle agrees to stop contributing to rainforest destruction: The power of social media

Full article: Sweet Success for Kit-Kat Campaign

Photo from Greenpeace