Earlier today, the Crisis in Darfur project was launched on [Google Earth](http://earth.google.com/ “Google Earth”), and its effect is staggering. Users of [Google Earth](http://earth.google.com/ “Google Earth homepage, where you can download the program”) need only search for the location **Darfur, Sudan** to see location-specific statistics, photographs, and videos of the genocide occuring in Sudan.

**Update [April 11]:** users of Google Earth can download the [Crisis in Darfur .kmz file](http://www.ushmm.org/googleearth/crisisindarfur.kmz “Crisis in Darfur .kmz file”) to go straight to the project in Google Earth.

The Crisis in Darfur project is a joint effort betweent Google and the [US Holocaust Memorial Museum](http://www.ushmm.org/ “US Holocaust Memorial Museum”), an organization dedicated to the study of the Holocaust and prevention of genocides like it.


According to [CNN’s coverage](http://edition.cnn.com/2007/TECH/04/10/google.genocide/ “Crisis in Darfur on CNN”) of the project, **200,000 people have been killed in the Sudan genocide,** with 2.5 million refugees or internally displaced people seeking shelter from the attacks of the Sudanese military and [Janjaweed](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janjaweed “Wikipedia entry on ‘Janjaweed’”) militia.

### How Google Earth makes a difference

According to the Holocaust Museum, the _Crisis_ project is the first time that so much collateral information about the Darfur genocide–photos, video, and text–has been collected in one place, in such a starkly mapped representation of the atrocities taking place on the ground. Because Google Earth can integrate high-resolution satellite imagery with photo and text overlays, it’s a powerful tool for displaying the sort of information the Holocaust Museum has collected. By clicking the icons strewn over the crisis region, one can view reports of villages sacked and burned by the militia, see photographs of the terrible conditions of the refugee camps, and follow links to online videos detailing the crisis. The rich use of multimedia content gives the _Crisis_ project depth, but one needn’t click any link to see the scale of the atrocities–just look at the map to see the scores of destroyed and damaged villages, and zoom in to see the isolated camps of the genocides refugees.

### More maps to come?

In the Museum’s [announcement of the project](http://www.ushmm.org/googleearth/ “USHMM announces Crisis in Darfur project”), they say that Crisis in Darfur is the first project launched from their Genocide Prevention Mapping Initiative. It will be fascinating to see what applications the Google/Holocaust Museum collaboration can put together, and hopefully the project will carry some effect in a world of diplomats and politicians too reluctant to intervene to stop genocide (or even to label the crimes “genocide” in the first place).

Since the Google Earth tools are available for anyone to create maps of this type, it will be interesting, too, to see what other organizations put together by way of mapping their issues on the interactive globe. Human trafficking around the world? Border disputes between India and Pakistan? Immigration between Mexico and the US? The opportunity is ripe for even the smallest of groups to create a stir by placing some pushpins, photos, and stories on the map.

_(thanks, Eli, for tipping me off to the launch!)_