TUCSON, AZ -- (Marketwire) -- 03/27/09 -- Ewire -- Earth Knowledge, Inc., a leader in integrating and disseminating environmental and scientific information, today announced the launch of its enhanced website (www.earthknowledge.net) to collect and disseminate late-breaking environmental and scientific news to help business and community leaders, educators, students, advocates, scientists, and the general public keep pace with cutting-edge developments in the world of earth and environmental science.

The website which has already won raves from science professionals and earned the firm a news segment on "Our Planet" which will air on CNN Headline News and Fox Business News-today debuts its internet-browser-based Map Tool (http://www.earthki.com/ekmaps/), which displays a full-screen view of the earth geo-tagged with breaking news stories from the world's best scientific and environmental research and news agencies. At press time, the Earth Knowledge Portal (http://www.earthknowledge.net/knowledge-portal/), the website's core information center, allows users to choose from over 50 different environmental categories and investigate earth science developments in over 80 global regions. Much of the content is available free to basic and standard users; professionals and organizations can opt for richer, fee-based access.

"In the 21st century, a picture is worth more than a thousand words," said Dr. Frank D'Agnese, Co-Founder and President of Earth Knowledge, Inc. "Scientists visualize data everyday using high-resolution maps. If you're going to enrich understanding, visuals are everything. Now anyone can use the same kind of tools used by the world's best scientists in a format that's easily digestible."

The mapping interface, powered by Google Maps, allows users to focus on a geographic region of interest to see what environmental stories are occurring there today. Users can also greatly enhance their map view by choosing one or more of over 60 different map layers, instantly overlaying such geographic data as the Earth's ecoregions or river systems. Viewing news stories against a tableau of authentic geographical data allows readers to gain a richer understanding into the world's environmental issues. Imagine being able to see and inspect a river basin in an endangered ecosystem you're reading about. Or reading about a melting polar ice cap, then instantly clicking to find out more about that region and other natural events in the area (http://www.earthknowledge.net/userguide/section6/subsection6/fullscreenmaptool/default.asp?item=2345854).

For the full release please follow this link: http://www.ewire.com/display.cfm/Wire_ID/5209