NAIROBI, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- The UN environmental agency, UNEP has teamed up with the world's leading search engine, Google, to develop popular mapping goal, Google Earth to enable people to "fly" to some of the world's most dramatic environmental hotspots.

 ;   A statement from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) said here Thursday the new computer service allows armchair environmentalists as well as politicians, researchers and business executives to zoom in, whizz past and monitor close to 200 sites.

    "If we are to change the hearts and minds of the global public we need to surprise, to excite and occasionally perhaps to shock. These images, allied to modern computer technology, do all three," said Achim Steiner, UN under-secretary general and UNEP executive director.

    "But these 'fly-by' satellite sets do more. They also show humanity is equally capable of positive, intelligent and empowering change - from the re-forestation of parts of Niger to anew management plan for the Itezhi-tezhi Dam in Zambia which is helping to restore natural and seasonal flooding," he said.

    Here they can witness at first hand in 3D the impacts of climate change and other destructive human activities on the earth's environment and natural resources, the executive director said.

    Highlights include the appearance of road networks in the remote rainforests of the Democratic Republic of Congo and the dramatic expansion of many West African cities.

    Other highlights, presented as a series of ' before and after' images, include the surprising changes in the glaciers of Greenland and Alaska and the loss of biodiversity-rich spiny forests to farms in Madagascar.

    These virtual 'trips' are featured in UNEP's popular series of changing environment atlases including "One Planet many people: Atlas of our Changing Environment" from 2005 and the recently released "Africa, Atlas of Our Changing Environment."

    In 2006, Google Earth team released "UNEP Atlas of our Changing Environment" as a part of the Featured Content layer including these environmental hotspots through their worldwide distributed data servers.

    Google Earth created a new folder, called "Global Awareness" to showcase featured layers that are nonprofit, public-benefit - where they want to help draw the world's attention to an issue. Google Earth has over 300 million users worldwide. This release incorporates the latest technological tools developed by Google Earth.

    "Google Earth technology already allows a more informative and accessible means of delivering information about our changing environment," said project coordinator, Ashbindu Singh, of UNEP's Division of Early Warning and Assessment.

    "By keeping pace with the changing world of technology and media, the UNEP helps the environmental community keep pace with the real changes in our real world."