The forest surveillance state has gone global, according to a report here from CNBC. Many of us have used Google Earth technology at least once, if only to to check out the bird’s eye view of our own neighborhoods. But soon, “anyone, anywhere in the world will be able to use a computer to zoom in on forests around the globe, in real-time and in high resolution, and down to the level of one meter of physical space, watching what an orangutan in Borneo is up to in the trees. In other words, all the world’s environmental data will be captured by NASA and private satellites and crunched by Google Earth Engine into a living and breathing model of the planet.”

Presently the view of the world forest is limited by a tedious government process, requiring a formal request for access. Now, “everyone everywhere will have access to what is happening in the forest, at resolution never seen before, and with an interface website that is as simple as using a Google map.” The significance of this new technology is seen as a major tool in oversight of forest practices that are illegally ravaging woodlands in many developing areas of the world.
See related post: Wild West.