UNEP-Google Connects Again with Hanke & Company

Back in 2001, when John Hanke and his small crew of capable programmers were creating Keyhole’s Earthviewer, I had the pleasure, as part of my UNEP (United Nations Environment Programme) activities to execute the first contract to display this digital earth technology at the 5^rd African GIS Conference in Nairobi (see first Keyhole Africa image).

John Hanke is now director of Google Earth. It was good to hear John on the Kojo Nandi Show on WKMU radio (NPR) in DC this Monday (13th) announcing the special Google Earth partnership with UNEP (again) to load up a special mash-up using the images from the One Planet Many People atlas. The UNEP atlas depicts 30 years of land cover dynamics based on Landsat imagery for 100 sites around the planet. Dr. Ashbindu Singh assisted me in 2002 initiate the UNEP atlas project that relied heavily on the UNEP co-location partnership at the USGS EROS Data Center in sunny Sioux Falls, South Dakota. The importance of this

UNEP-Google mash-up is the proof-of-concept for creating Earth History views for every meter of the planet that can allow any Earth citizen to see the rapid changes affecting us all. Now all we need is to get the citizens and scientists living in these dynamic hotspots to create community dialogs and action to address these negative issues associated with our global changing geographies. A great challenge for the Digital Earth community.

Planetwalker Joins DE Journey

“How to change your world one step at a time,” is the subtitle to Planetwalker, a book by Dr. John Francis.


John, has called Point Reyes, California home for the past 25 years but more often than not, he has been on foot travelling the country on an environmental odyssey that has proven positively infectious to all he meets. I had the pleasure of spending the last day of October with him and his young son, Samuel, to discuss his plans for his next journey. He explained that both a foot trip from Gettysburg, Pennsylvania beginning on Earth Day and a canoe journey beginning in late June in Alaska with many indigenous tribes that will end in St. Mary’s in August will highlight next year’s adventures. His message is one of dialog, communication, and reaching out to all our communities to recognize our mutual responsibilities for stewardship of the planet’s resources and love of our fellow citizens. He is committed to engaging the Digital Earth technologies to enable others to follow his travels and hopes that this will lead to improved inter-community communications and knowledge sharing as we all cope with the coming global change challenges. Hollywood has started work on a movie about his life and experiences derived from his book. We are thrilled to have Dr. John Francis join the Digital Earth team to help us chart a better path for the application of Digital Earth technology and community vision.