1. Go to this website: https://www.google.com/earth/ and click “launch earth in Chrome.” If you don’t have Chrome as a browser on your computer, you can download it (it’s the best browser in my opinion) or you can keep your current browser and search “free Google Earth download” and choose one of the options that appears.
2. After you launch Google Earth and watch the intro (or skip it), you come to the Google Earth homepage with an image of the earth in the center of the screen. Click the search icon in on the left menu bar and type in your favorite global city — hopefully a city of some size for this exercise. The program will take you directly to the city, then you can push the + and – signs in the lower right to zoom in or out, and you can navigate by clicking and dragging.
3. When you are done exploring, click “3D” in the lower right corner. Navigate until you see the most attractive view of your favorite city’s downtown, then TAKE A SCREENSHOT of it (to be uploaded later to this assignment).
PART TWO:
1. Go back to the search option and type in “Mato Grosso, Brazil” and hit enter. Zoom in until you can tell what the strange coloration and land-use patterns become clear. Take a screenshot that depicts this strange visual pattern of deforestation (to be uploaded later).
2. Answer the following questions:
1) Why does deforestation occur here in this strange pattern? (why not just plow from one end of the forest to the other rather than skip some sections?). From the images, try to guess what the deforested land is being used for, then do a quick Google search to find out what it’s actually being used for
2) what is the deforested land in Mato Grosso, Brazil being used for? (what is being grown/raised?)
3) How are our eating habits in the U.S. directly and/or indirectly related to the rapid deforestation that is happening in the state of Mato Grosso?
SUMMARY: Part One — submit one screenshot. Part Two — submit one screenshot and answer three questions
Total Extra Credit points possible: 30 (5 points for each screenshot, 20 points possible for answering the three questions.) The assignment is listed as zero points possible because it is extra credit. Any points you get will just add to your total for the class because they will surpass the zero possible for this assignment.
