Barcelona Field Studies Centre

Google Earth Teaching Ideas

Google Earth and the financial crisis

How Google Earth helps illustrate the impact of the financial crisis
How Google Earth helps illustrate the impact of the financial crisis

The worldwide economic downturn has led to a steep drop in global trade and exports. The image above, produced using a combination of Google Earth and a plugin from Vesseltracker.com, shows an unprecedented number of container ships sitting idle off Singapore in March 2009. The world's busiest port for container traffic, Singapore saw its year-over-year volume drop by 19.6 percent in January 2009, followed by a 19.8 percent drop in February. By mid-March 2009, 11.3 percent of the world's shipping capacity, or some 484 ships, sat idle, a record.

Source: International Economy

A lesson may be combined with video news footage of ships moored off Singapore: Ghost Fleet Ships In Limbo Off Coast Of Singapore Amid Global Recession.