by Jerry James Stone

Internet search giant Google has unveiled a version of Google Earth that predicts both sea level changes and wild fire danger caused by global warming. One of the many tools created this month by Google in support of the UN's Climate Change Convention in Copenhagen (a.k.a. Hopenhagen).

Word of the new features first broke when Former Vice President Al Gore introduced them on YouTube in September. But now -- at last! -- it's Terminator-approved.

Yesterday, during a press conference at Treasure Island, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Google CEO Eric Schmidt announced the new application. Three years ago at the very same spot, Schwarzenegger signed California's landmark global warming law requiring the state to slash greenhouse gas emissions by 2020. Treasure Island, along with SFO and Google's Mountain View headquarters, could all be fully underwater by 2100.

“This is part of our effort to get people to really understand what is happening around us,” said Schmidt.

The satellite-based application gives Californians a bird's-eye view on how we are, well, fucking it up for the birds, not to mention the rest of the state. Some $2.5 trillion of California's property and assets are threatened by climate change. San Francisco alone would see $4.9 billion in costs in replacement values of buildings and their contents.