Are we going to see REDD and Google will help us with it?
Environmentalists across the world are to be enlisted as armchair detectives to monitor satellite images of rainforests and report any illegal logging. Times Online reportet Saturday, that anyone online will be able to report their findings to an international agency being created to monitor whether countries are meeting their commitments to reduce deforestation. Any state found to have broken its pledge will lose its share of a new global fund established by rich countries to pay nations for leaving their trees standing.
The fund, called ‘Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD)’ and worth up to $30 billion (£18 billion) a year, is due to be approved at the UN climate change summit in Copenhagen next month.
Google is helping to create the new online detective tool, which is likely to be launched next year. Philipp Schindler, from Google UK, said: “Our engineers are exploring how we might contribute to this effort by developing a global forest platform that would enable anyone in the world, including tropical nations, to monitor deforestation and draw attention to it.” Read Full Story at Source.