“Think of it as a browser to fly around the planet and discover things about the earth,” said John Hanke, director of Google Earth and Maps.

Partners with Google Earth include the United Nations Environment Program, the Discovery Network, the U.S. National Park Service and the Jane Goodall Institute.

The National Park Service has supplied information on over 10,000 trails at 58 parks.

The National Park Service information includes red markings directly overlaid upon satellite images of the actual trails, as well as photos of select vistas and general park information, according to Hanke.

Google Earth maps of the world’s environmentally significant locations will feature before and after satellite images originally published by the United National Environment Program as a coffee-table book.

Google Earth’s Kilimanjaro geographical point, for example, now includes a U.N. Environment Program icon. It brings people to a 1976 satellite image of the snow-capped mountain (left), as well as a modern day image sans snow (right). People can view the significant change by using a timeline bar that transitions between the images.

The Jane Goodall Institute, famous for its studies on chimpanzees, will make photos and blogs by scientists available to the public via Google Earth.

More information on the Itsukushima Shrine in Japan is available from the Discovery Network.

Here is Google Earth map of the Aral Sea with additional information provided by the U.N. Environment Program.