The Global Archive Foundation is a concept on which Bermudian photographer and environmentalist Ian MacDonald Smith has been working since 1994.

Concerned with man?s global desecration of the environment, of which the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska, the Gulf War oil fires, the effects of global warming, over-fishing, population explosions and pollution are but some examples, and the fact that man is philosophically and ecologically at odds with nature and its laws, Mr. Smith recognised that every country, region and person on Earth has a role to play in preventing further damage and implementing good conservation practices.

The Global Archive Foundation is establishing a non-profit, powerful online global archive to document environmental degradation in every region on Earth through effective time-lapse photography. Continual collection of images through the Global Archive will develop a comprehensive and dynamic visual history of the plant and serve to preserve landscape, biodiversity and culture.

The Archive will also support and supplement existing and environmental organisations, and will be the only source through which it will be possible to access. The website will include a search engine, a database and transaction processing capabilities. Arrangement will be by counry, region, cities, towns, villages and the surrounding areas. Archival personnel will review, analyse and record existing photography.

Global access to information is essential, and the internet is the perfect vehicle. Communities need to be empowered to monitor their own environment. The Global Archive will be an anchor, providing a view of where we have come from and a vision of where we can go.

Often, degradation of an environment is slow and incremental, and unless it can be seen, it is often not believed or deemed important enough to address. While many organisations, such as the National Geographic, the Royal Geographic Society, the British Antarctic Survey and NASA have excellent photographs in their archives, no resource acts as one central global environmental record for all documentation of the state of the environment. The Global Archive will fill this need by acting as a comprehensive photographic record, as well as a portal through which all archives can be accessed.