I gave the project a little more thought, and I will be making a processing app that acquires realtime environmental data (i.e. barometric pressure, temperature, humidity) via a live feed from Pachube, and uses that realtime data to drive the recursive growth of virtual plant life. The realtime animation (the growth and form characteristics of the plant) will serve a virtual representation of the environmental conditions at that specific remote location.

I am also considering taking multiple feeds (which will be individually represented by a different plant life or pseudo-species), so one could compare sets of environmental data from various international remote locations.

Currently I have a few live Pachube feeds that I can use which seem to be streaming reliable environmental data.

Here is a feed out of Ogaki, Japan that is streaming light intensity, humidity, temperature, etc.:

link: http://www.pachube.com/feeds/7257