With climatic change fast redrawing world boundaries, its impact would be felt everywhere; as sea levels rise, crops fail, weather becomes more and more extreme, and more areas get prone to drought and flooding.

If you want to see how your country looks like in 2100, try Google's new navigation tool on Google Earth.Google Earth users around the world will now be able to see how climatic change can affect the planet and its people over the next century through a new project called "Climate Change in Our World".

The project, a collaboration between Google, the Government of UK, the Met Office Hadley Center, and the British Antarctic Survey, is explained in two new layers or animations on Google Earth.The one draws on the UK Met Office Hadley Center to show world temperatures through the next hundred years, under medium projections of greenhouse gas emissions, along with stories of how people are already affected by changing weather patterns. Information can also be accessed on action that can be taken by individuals, communities, businesses, and governments to tackle climate change.

The other layer, developed by the British Antarctic Survey, shows the retreat of Antarctic ice shelves since the 1950s, highlighting the importance of Antarctica in affecting climate change.

Google has added a layer to Google Earth that shows Google News from more than 4,500 news sources, about the area the user is looking at.
To activate the Google News layer, users will have to navigate to the "Layers" menu on the left-hand side of Google Earth. Expanding the "Gallery" node in the layers tree will expose the "Google News" layer. Users are then required to check the box next to the Google News layer and start zooming into the places on the globe they're interested in.Each story is represented by a Google News icon on the globe. Clicking on the news icon opens up the news story's snippet, along with links to learn more about the event.

"By spatially locating the Google News' constantly updating index of stories from more than 4,500 news sources, Google Earth now shows an ever-changing world of human activity as chronicled by reporters worldwide. Zoom into areas of personal interest and peruse headlines of national, regional and, when fully zoomed in, even the most local of interest. From school menus to global warming, there is now literally a world of information at your fingertips," said Brandon Badger, Google Earth Product Manager.

The seriousness of global warming has also reached Google's Google Earth application. The downloadable mapping application, which has been designed to offer satellite imagery of Earth, has just received two KLM layers, which can
help users better understand how climate change will affect our planet and its people. The two layers, which are dubbed Climate Change in Our World and Climate Change in Our World, Antarctica are available for download here.

Google's Earth application has been recently updated with a number of KLM layers which have been designed for various purposes. Starting with the disasters that struck Myanmar and China and ending with the history lesson, provided by the 120 maps from the Rumsey Historical Map Collection, Google Earth is trying to provide useful insight into the things that are happening all over the world. All updates require users to download the Google Earth application and the additional KLM data files.According to the official Google Earth blog, as of today there are two new layers available for download at the Google Earth Outreach. The people responsible for the new layers are the British Government, in collaboration with the Met Office Hadley Centre and the British Antarctic Survey. The two new layers will provide users with geographical information about how the climate will change and affect our planet.

The British Antarctic Survey scientists are the ones that have developed the layer dubbed Climate Change in Our World, Antarctica. This layer features details the scientists monitor and measure, on the different effects of climate change in Antarctica. The layer also includes images that show the retreat of the ice.

Thanks to these British institutions and Google's Earth mapping solution, users will come across scientific and geographically-organized information demonstrating the commitment of the British Government in carrying out this climate research. The collaboration between the British institutions and Google is a clear sign of Google's increased interest in providing its users with information about our planet's status.
source : Softpedia.com