Thursday, April 22, 2010

Children of the Amazon See It On PBS On Earth Day 2010

When you talk about Google and Amazon, you might think of the mega online mall and the search engine. But today, on the 40th anniversary of Earth Day, Google and Amazon takes a different meaning.
In 2008 Google Earth Outreach team went to train the Surui people of the Brazilian rainforest on Google tools to help preserve their way of life. Brazilian filmmaker Denise Zmekhol joined them.
A year later in 2009, another team went back to the Amazon to teach the indigenous people how to use GPS-enabled mobile phones and mobile data collection tools, including Open Data Kit on the Android platform, to show the world where and when illegal logging is taking place within their protected territory. You can watch the story on Trading Bows and Arrows for Laptops -- One Year Later,
But the same film maker, created another movie, Children of the Amazon, will air on over 100 PBS stations nationwide, as well as on Link TV.
So on this earthday, watch a video about deforestation in Rondonia using Google Earth’s historical imagery and explore maps inspired by the film at www.childrenoftheamazon.com. Then step out and do something.
Thanks
Google LatLong: Children of the Amazon airs on PBS on Earth Day