Greenpeace Maps Forest Data in Google Earth

We’re such big fans of Google’s mapping services that we’ve been been racking up a list of our own creations: 101 Cleantech Startups, Coal Plant Deathwatch and E2T’s Eco Tour. Turns out Greenpeace is a bit of a Google Earth groupie too, and this week the non profit org announced its own section in Google Earth’s Global Awareness layer.

“Layers” are data points overlaid on Google Earth’s 3-D world map, and Google, through its “Outreach” program, has been encouraging nonprofits to create their own maps for its Global Awareness Section. Ah, you do-gooder, Google.

Greenpeace launched the layer in Hamburg, Germany, yesterday, and the data shows how deforestation is adding to climate change. We checked it out and the data includes such things as a German conference on biodiversity and data on protecting the remaining 60 million hectares of rainforests of the Democratic Republic of Congo. The points were a little scarce, but Greenpeace says it will add more soon. It’s a good start.