The Power Of Google Earth For Grassroots Environmentalists

"...for environmentalists, Google Earth has turned out to be much more than another gee-whiz software development. Instead, it's starting to look like a killer app that could change the power balance between grassroots environmentalists and their adversaries."

"This kind of visual perspective on environmental problems transforms vague policy debates into concrete problems. 'Smokestacks don't look very impressive when you see them from straight on," says Mathew Spolin, creator of Sprol.com, an on-line magazine that posts information and images culled from explorations on Google Earth to expose environmental catastrophes. 'But you can follow the smoke coming out of smokestacks for thousands of miles in Google Earth.'"