Land Use Practices: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

Google Earth provides a means to "drop-in" on just about any form of land use or management practice (good or bad) that man has put his hand to on this planet. With out saying to much by way of introduction, and thereby adding subjectivity to your pursuit, the goal of this virtual field-trip is to help expedite a sense of urgency for how the planet's resources might be "managed" better during your lifetime.

As always, lets start our trip in the AAE's backyard, the Mojave Desert, a temperate desert. Assuming that you have opened GE and made the changes addressed above, find theSearch arrow in the upper left corner of the GE window and open it by clicking on it. Once open click on the "Fly To" option. To travel on GE to AAE's campus in the middle of the Mojave Desert of Southern California, copy and paste the following latitude and longitude (lat, long) of 34°31'58.81"N, 117°16'44.16"W into the text box in GE's Fly To search engine (click on the magnifying glass/or tap the enter key to activate your search... hop). You will be "flown" to the middle of the our Mojave River Campus. Zoom out using the "-" minus key (zoom in using the "+" key) and explore around the campuses environs, getting close enough to see some of its surface features and plant life. The arrow keys will also help you navigate in any compass direction (ie. NEWS). Use some of the features of GE to "mess around" a bit and see what GE can add to your experience before leaving the campus and visiting examples of how humans have used our planet' resources.

[COOL HINT: Once you have "flown to" one of the sites below, go up to the GE's toolbar, find "View" and scroll down the drop-down menu and "check" Historical Imagery" to view a image of your selection from the past. This is a good way to track "change over time".]

Cultural Expression

• Nazca Lines, Condor, Peru ( 14°41'49.76"S, 75° 7'35.11"W )
• There are many around examples geoglyphs around this datum. If you check the "Geographic Web" box on "Primary Database" heading under the "Layers" drop down menu , pictures will appear that may help guide you to other geoglyphs around Nazca

Energy Production

• Cholla Coal Fired Power Plant (Electricity), AZ., USA ( 34°56'20.08"N, 110°17'47.53"W )
• Tehachapi Pass Wind Farm, CA ( 35° 4'2.20"N, 118°23'2.84"W )
• Natural Gas and Oil Field, NM ( 36°30'29.88"N, 107°14'1.64"W )
• Offshore oil drilling, Santa Barbara, CA ( 34°19'57.84"N, 119°37'6.72"W )
• Oil field west of Ventura, CA. ( 34°18'59.72"N, 119°19'19.43"W )
• Elk Hills Oil Field, McKittrick, CA. ( 35°19'21.48"N, 119°39'55.80"W )
• Alaskan highway and north slope oil pipeline, AK, USA ( 68°38'57.73"N, 149°23'53.74"W )
• Center of North Slope oil productions, Prudhoe Bay, AK, USA ( 70°13'53.92"N, 148°24'12.79"W )
• Terminus of the Transalaskan pipeline, Valdez Alaska , USA ( 61° 5'39.98"N, 146°21'51.93"W )
• Ghawar oil field, Saudi Arabia ( 24°59'29.25"N, 49°17'13.05"E )
• Navajo Coal Mine near Kayenta, AZ ( 36°31'15.56"N, 110°23'53.15"W )
• Three Mile Island Nuclear Generation Plant, PA ( 40° 9'12.91"N, 76°43'22.53"W )
• Aswan Dam, hydroelectricity, Egypt ( 23°51'26.91"N, 32°57'20.68"E )
• Three Gorges Dam, hydroelectricity, China ( 30°55'10.56"N, 111° 3'6.75"E )
• Lake Mead, Hoover Dam, NV, hydroelectricity, USA ( 36° 4'42.23", 114°37'7.25"W )
• Lake Powell, Glen Canyon Dam, UT, hydroelectricity, USA ( 36°58'36.69"N, 111°26'37.66"W )

Food Production

• Wheat, Corn, and Soybean Fields, Iowa, USA ( 43°15'3.75"N, 94° 5'10.25"W )
• Rice Terraces, Bali, Indonesia ( 8°28'37.78"S, 115°23'23.35"E )
• Brazilian agriculture, rainforest deforestation, Para Brazil ( 7°57'33.86"S, 50°39'2.51"W )
• Sugarcane, pineapple plantations, Maui, USA ( 20°54'29.45"N, 156°40'9.43"W )

Renewable Products

• Rubber Tree Plantation, Asia ( 8°44'30.53"N, 98°16'7.78"E )
• Forest Management (USFS) Lassen National Forest, CA ( 40°28'47.55"N, 121°44'30.07"W )
• Harvesting of old growth redwoods near Trinidad, CA ( 41° 5'5.83"N, 124° 2'22.74"W )

Military

• Nevada Test (nuclear and conventional bomb) Site (NV Proving Grounds), NV ( 37° 8'2.50"N, 116° 2'16.03"W )
• Fort Irwin Military Training Center, CA ( 35°16'50.21"N, 116°39'44.47"W )

Mining

• Kennecott Copper Mine, Utah USA ( 40°31'43.38"N, 112°10'22.23"W )
• Climax Open Pit Mine, Climax, CO, USA ( 39°23'32.72"N, 106°10'43.61"W )
• Evaporative mineral extraction, Searles Valley/Lake, Trona, CA. ( 35°44'26.80"N, 117°20'36.73"W )
• Zn and Pb mine, Red Dog Alaska, USA (68° 3'51.99"N, 162°50'48.39"W )
• Kaiser Eagle Mountain Iron Mine, CA, USA (33°52'25.36"N, 115°29'31.43"W )
• Black Hill Good Mine, SD, USA (44°20'43.37"N, 103°52'28.04"W )

Narco-Agriculture

• Region were coca plantations are common, Cauca, Columbia ( 1°57'11.75"N, 77° 4'23.25"W )

Solid and Hazardous Waste Disposal

• Proposed nuclear waste disposal site, Yucca Mountain, NV., USA ( 36°51'14.24"N, 116°25'44.73"W )
• Nevada Test (nuclear and conventional bomb) Site (NV Proving Grounds), NV ( 40°31'43.38"N, 112°10'22.23"W )
• Kennecott Copper Mine, Utah USA ( 40°31'43.38"N, 112°10'22.23"W )

Water Use

• Lake Chad, Chad, Cameroon, Niger, and Nigeria, Africa (13° 6'20.67"N, 14° 7'31.00"E )
• Mouth of the Colorado River, Baja Mexico ( 31°47'16.59"N, 114°50'20.59"W )
• Three Gorges Dam, Hubei Province, China ( 30°49'33.44"N, 111° 0'6.25"E )
• Aral Sea, lies between Kazakhstan in the north and Uzbekistan, in the south, ( 45°13'27.15"N, 60°23'46.76"E )
• Mono Lake, California, U.S.A. ( 38° 1'44.19"N, 118°59'56.52"W )
• Owens Dry Lake, California, U.S.A. ( 36°24'48.55"N, 117°58'14.87"W )