UN Environment Programme launches online atlas

"If we are to change the hearts and minds of the global public we need to surprise, to excite and occasionally, perhaps, to shock," UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner said at the launching yesterday.

"These images, allied to modern computer technology, do all three," he added.

The initiative will showcase images of around 200 of the world's environmental hot spots ranging from remote rain forests in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to the glaciers of Greenland and Alaska in 3D.

Before-and-after images, including the loss of biodiversity-rich forests and farms in Madagascar, are also part of the new tool.

"They also show humanity is equally capable of positive, intelligent and empowering change from the reforestation of parts of Niger to a new management plan for the Itezhi-tezhi Dam in Zambia which is helping to restore natural and seasonal flooding," Steiner said.

The UNEP atlas is part of its popular series highlighting the changing environment, which also includes "One Planet Many People: Atlas of Our Changing Environment," released in concert with Google Earth.