US EPA and Google Earth team up with new online Tool

Air pollution seems to have gotten worse in recent years despite the worldwide efforts of many countries to avert the problem.
In an interesting development you can now use Google Earth to find out just how bad it is in your area today.
In a joint venture with the U.S Environmental Protection Agency this newly created tool will track air quality in your community.
You can even check out the pollution in different areas in case you are interested in moving in the near future.
You can check for high levels of lead, carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, fine particulate matter, sulfur dioxide and even VOCs.
This new tool will quickly allow you to identify some of the biggest polluters in your area from the manufacturing sector, chemical manufacturers, refineries or even cement plants.
It was very surprising some of the worst offenders, once you start searching around in your area you will see what we mean. The obvious ones are there, but some of the worst pollution in your area might even be created out of state, take a look.
In our own testing of the tool we found that by focusing on a specific area we got the best results, it seemed the most accurate this way.
You will need to have Google Earth program installed on your computer for this to work right.
It is not absolutely necessary as you can download the text file too, if you want.
We have found this to be most useful with some very surprising results.
Prevailing winds, hurricanes, tropical storms and even temperature in a region all contributed to varying amounts of pollution in an area.
Not surprising, high levels are often found hundreds of miles away from the original culprit. Seasonal changes also showed up when we used the EPA Google Earth Tool.
Check it out yourself right here – US EPA and Google Earth Tool
Definitely one of the most interesting environmental tracking devices that is open for use by everyone.