Photos of Earth aim to inspire environmental action

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Los Angeles residents will have to wait until 2010 to see these aerial photographs of Earth, shot by French photographer and environmentalist Yann Arthus-Bertrand.

If you’re impatient, and are willing to increase your carbon footprint, you can catch them for a couple of months outdoors in New York City’s Battery Park Esplanade, beginning in May. They’re massive prints, measuring 4 feet by 6 feet, mostly. (The above is 500 pixels wide, for the math students out there...)

Earth From Above, as the exhibit is called, has been around since 2000, displayed in about 120 cities, along with a variety of interactive side features. The idea was to inspire people to think globally about sustainable living while gawking locally at images that show our planet in all its quirky, fragile and stunning splendor. UNESCO originally underwrote the project, which now includes a coffee-table book, a television series and a layer of Google Earth. ‘Home,’ a feature documentary inspired by the photo project, produced by Luc Besson and financed by Francois Pinault, will premiere worldwide on June 5, 2009.

No word yet on where in L.A. the photos will be displayed. They’ll also travel to San Francisco.

-- Geoff Mohan