The San Francisco Chronicle has an article online on how Google Earth is changing the way environmentalists work. The thesis:

For environmentalists, Google Earth has turned out to be much more than another gee-whiz software development. Instead, it’s starting to look like a killer app that could change the power balance between grassroots environmentalists and their adversaries. […]

The environmental importance of this tool has not been lost on Google. “The power of Google Earth is that it’s not a map. It’s actually a real model of the real Earth,” says Rebecca Moore, a software developer who works on Google Earth. “Suddenly ordinary grassroots environmentalists have a tool that up until now only government agencies or commercial interests had. It’s leveling the playing field.”

The article mentions Moore’s own environmental work, viewable here, Sprol.com, which uses Google Earth to illustrate environmental issues, and the Sierra Club’s ANWR overlays.