Looking at Global Problems With Digital Eye

Diplomats, government officials and scientists from around the globe are converging at UC Berkeley this week after the 5th International Symposium on Digital Earth kicked off Tuesday with Lt. Gov. John Garamendi welcoming attendees to the event, held for the first time in the U.S.

Garamendi began the symposium speaking on the Digital Earth project aimed at creating a global digital information system, calling it exceedingly important for the future of the state and the planet.

“We don’t live alone on this planet. What’s going on here has a dramatic effect on someone who may be living on the opposite side of the planet,” he said.

Amid international dignitaries were students, members of Digital Earth’s Youth Insight Collaboratory who arrived in Berkeley last weekend ahead of the symposium.

Those working on the Digital Earth project imagine it becoming a library of information—from satellite imagery to real-time geological and meteorological information, to global health and human rights monitoring—on every conceivable aspect of the planet.

A special session held yesterday described how Digital Earth technology is being used to monitor the humanitarian crisis in Darfur, Sudan.

Humanitarian aid organization Amnesty International launched a new Web site yesterday with satellite images of villages in Eastern Sudan at risk from the Janjaweed. With a click of the mouse, users can monitor the situation any time, 24 hours a day.

The Digital Earth project as a whole would function in much the same way as symposium sponsor Google Earth, an interactive program that allows users to view detailed satellite photos of any location on the planet.

Unlike that program, which went live two years ago, Digital Earth would incorporate satellite images with live data collected and distributed by governments and individuals around the world.

High on Digital Earth’s list of goals will be helping policymakers deal with the impending realities of global warming, Garamendi said.

Garamendi, who studied as an undergraduate at UC Berkeley and currently serves as a regent of the University of California, said the project would be crucial in solving some of the 21st century’s biggest problems that run the gamut from climate change to global poverty.

However, he said that when it comes to global warming, California is on the frontline. The rising of the Pacific Ocean, even if it is small, would have profound effects on the state’s agriculture and citizens’ access to drinking water, he said.

Global cooperation, rather than advanced technology or funding, will be the key to the project’s ultimate success, he said.

“We simply are going to have to cooperate,” Garamendi said. “This is not the time to start the new cold war.”

Tags: