App depicts impact of climate change on planet

Whether it is melting glaciers, coastal erosion or drying lakes, a new app displays the impact of climate change on the planet by using before and after satellite images.

Called Fragile Earth, the app for iPhone and iPad shows how our planet is impacted by global warming by featuring more than 70 sites such the receding Muir Glacier in Alaska, the impact of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans and the draining of the Mesopotamia Marshes in Iraq.

"We don't necessarily put an opinion on it," said Jethro Lennox, head of publishing at Collins Geo, a division of Harper Collins UK which created the app. "We're just trying to visually portray some of the geographical features and changes around the world."

The app also shows the impact of natural disasters including the devastating earthquakes in Haiti and Pakistan and the tsunami in Japan, and how mining, deforestation and dam building have changed areas of the planet.

Users of the app slide birds-eye photographs depicting before and after states of environmental changes.

"When you're looking at the earth changing, it's almost surprising and it shows how amazing the place is," said Lennox. "For years glaciers have been retreating and advancing, and we don't really know exactly why this is taking place. But the rate of some of these changes is amazing."

Read in detail at :- http://www.cdrn.org.in/show.detail.asp?id=23813