Sustainable IT | Ted Samson » Brazilian tribe hopes Google Earth can halt deforestation

June 19, 2007 | Comments: (0)

Brazilian tribe hopes Google Earth can halt deforestation

TAGS: Google

Surui's hope capturing satellite images of devastation from illegal logging and mining will spur action

Some politicians have criticized Google Earth as a potential tool for terrorists. Privacy groups have raised alarms that it can be used as a tool for voyeurists and stalkers. But an Indian tribe in the Amazon hopes that Google Earth will help save rain forests, according to reports.

The Surui tribe in Brazil has called upon Google to "capture vivid images that could help stop loggers and miners from deforesting the jungle and digging for gold on its vast Amazon reservation," the Associated Press reports.

Currently, the tribe has no Internet access, but with time, the tribe's chief, Almir Narayamoga Surui, foresee "many of the 1,200 members of his Surui tribe using computers with satellite Internet connections and high-resolution images from Google Earth to police all corners of their 618,000-acre reservation," AP reports.

Surui hope that the images will provide visual proof to the Brazilian government that illegal logging and mining is taking place, spurring politicians to act. Additionally, he hopes that those performing the illegal operations will cut back, or stop, once they know they're being watched.

According to AP, Google Earth will attempt to purchase high-quality images of the region.

Posted by Ted Samson on June 19, 2007 02:29 PM

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