Remote Sensing Tools

After Frank and Ogle Earth announced the default Darfur layer that Google Earth rolled-out, I wanted to take some time to see how that information spread. It was an experiment that led to certain pleasant surprises, as well as certain sadness in the wake of current coverage of events that consumed the media.

There’s nothing more profound to me, than the kind of awareness that can be gained or disseminated in a global perspective when such an initiative has taken place — to educate or enlighten the masses through the use of a tool like Google Earth. Unfortunately, it seems that we have now all become the victims of yet another media “bamboozle” in the wake of the Don Imus / Rutgers issue, and the confirmation of innocence regarding the Duke LaCrosse matter — and all the complexities that exist in our society therein which created these situations. Not to mention, all the concerns for American Idol, and the never-ending saga in the Anna Nicole Smith case.

I have to wonder if people at all realize just how insignificant we truly are as individuals on this great Earth, but that we do have a power to devise great and beautiful plans if we set ourselves to do so. I have to wonder if we’re so set by the concept of borders and governmental power, the fences we create in our own minds, and often — as evidenced this week, corporate and societal hypocracies — that we completely miss-out on the opportunity to introspect just enough that we might come together one day.

The amount of information that exists on each topic, as you can see by the above links, is interesting. Alarming, really. When I first became involved in viewing this planet through geospatial imagery, I never expected that I’d see a world outside the context of borders, religion, sex, race, culture, or politics. But I have. And it’s a rather beautiful place when you get the opportunity to look at it from such an angle. Unfortunate for so many, however, it seems that it’s become similar to taking a little time to look up at the stars — from our mundane existence here on Earth, trapped in the excessiveness of hypocracy and greed, and political, religious, and ethnic battles that prevent us from ever truly knowing what potentials we might have.

I had a dream. I just hope that dream doesn’t die by all that I see happening here on Earth. But then who am I, but a grain of sand in the big picture? Barely a pixel residing in the larger map of reality.

Updated on: September 20th, 2007 at 5:53 am