What can't Google do? The search engine's benevolent arm, Google.org, has developed free home energy monitors, an ocean-exploration tool and now software to monitor the world's deforestation.
Google.org's software analyzes a decades-worth of satellite images to calculate how tree cover has changed over a period of time. "We hope this technology will facilitate stop the destruction of the world's rapidly-disappearing forests, " Google.org said on its blog, adding:
Emissions from tropical deforestation are comparable to the emissions of all of the European Union, and are better than those of all cars, trucks, planes, ships and trains worldwide.
The software, unveiled last month at the climate meeting 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 and Carlos Souza of Imazon to develop the software, presently used only by a few partners for testing.
"It's not yet accessible to the general public but we expect to make it more broadly available over the next year," Google.org said. It will be provided as a not-for-profit service.
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