Google Earth Shows Air Pollution!

Google Earth has always been a very cool way to see the world, and recently they have added some very green features including green buildings, and now the ability to visualize air pollution! Thanks to the US EPA, it is now easy to find out exactly how air pollution is affecting your neighborhoods and neighborhoods around the world.

With the new Google Earth features, you will be able to find out the sources of pollution from the major point sources in the United States. These include cement facilities, manufacturing plants, refineries and electric generating units. Each of these will provide information on the carbon monoxide, lead, nitrogen oxide, VOCs, particulate matter and sulfur dioxide. The data is displayed in graph form, and you can also visually compare each emitter to the next, thanks to the location of the height of each marker.

The information from the EPA can be specified to be from a specific state, from an emission sector, and pollutant amount. Now if we could get this for the entire planet.

+ Air emission sources @ the EPA

20 Comments

missginascalise November 2, 2010 at 10:45 pm

cool!
lars_ulrich October 27, 2010 at 8:10 pm

Great article!
eringriffith October 26, 2010 at 11:06 am

omg so scary
dimestorekarma October 23, 2010 at 11:07 pm

great way to combine commonly used technology and awareness
RAbbey_bklyn October 23, 2010 at 3:10 pm

Very interesting post. Thank you!
solomon1 October 22, 2010 at 7:04 pm

This is great
aerozap October 22, 2010 at 6:26 pm

great article
Jen from Brooklyn October 22, 2010 at 12:46 pm

Interesting article
oogden October 22, 2010 at 11:51 am

Very cool. I appreciate the steps Google is taking to make the world a better place.
edamame October 22, 2010 at 11:40 am

Visual information is super important for conveying the bigger picture quickly so this is cool stuff!
Steve December 29, 2007 at 9:33 pm

Be interested to see this data linked to diseases, anyone wondering the cause for cancer?

Just give me a fully electric car so all they need to do is produce the electricity cleanly and we are nearly sorted. After that sort out garbage so its all recycled rather then landfilled.
jean harrington December 27, 2007 at 9:17 pm

If that’s a neighborhood,
which, I afraid many municipalites have,
it’s boring.
Maybe, some feature besides the interstate?
CCNA Discovery December 27, 2007 at 7:25 pm

Google Earth sure is a useful tool!
ACCarService December 27, 2007 at 6:48 pm

Very cool.
iamdanilo December 27, 2007 at 5:54 pm

cough cough. i wonder if i need to buy more polarizing filters to remove the smog when i do my wedding photography.
aaron December 27, 2007 at 5:19 pm

OOOOh Sim city 2000-esque
josh December 27, 2007 at 4:37 pm

Nuclear power is the answer to clean energy ..France produces 85% electricity from Nuclear power and can process the waste by product back into usable uranium. Of course in the US we have other perceptions based on old media hype .
Jeff Hayes December 27, 2007 at 4:36 pm

We do greening for mid-sized service businesses, and this makes my job that much easier. Many thanks Google Earth team!!
Ryan December 27, 2007 at 8:26 am

This is an amazingly valuable platform of information. I love the visual representation of how we pollute and where the potential sources of pollution are located. I’m constantly surprised by the number and quality of Google’s tools.

Ryan
http://www.econiclife.com
Andre L. Soares December 26, 2007 at 6:18 pm

And for speaking in ‘Google Earth’, when are the images of high quality originating from of the new thrown satellite available there are few months? I didn’t still read anything on that.