Google Earth has always been half-heartedly supported on Linux, and installing it under Ubuntu 14.04 is no simple matter.
Because it's a sub-optimal method of installing an application I won't be adding it to our build by default, but will accommodate its installation for people that need it.

Pinching instructions from the web (noobslab I think), I've written a script that I will include in the hcmc-desktop package. Until that gets rolled out to all machines, here's the script:
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#!/bin/bash
echo "Installing i386 dependencies"
sudo apt-get -y install libfontconfig1:i386 libx11-6:i386 libxrender1:i386 \
libxext6:i386 libgl1-mesa-glx:i386 libglu1-mesa:i386 libglib2.0-0:i386 libsm6:i386

echo "Downloading latest 32bit Google Earth"
cd /tmp && wget http://dl.google.com/dl/earth/client/current/google-earth-stable_current_i386.deb

echo "Installing latest Google Earth"
sudo dpkg -i google-earth-stable_current_i386.deb

echo "Giving the install a final tap"
sudo apt-get install -f

# google-earth has a problem - when you search, you get the following error:
# Invalid HTTP request, and the search fails. We need to remove the included
# curl libraryso it uses the built-in one
if [[ -e /opt/google/earth/free/libcurl.so.4 ]];then
mv /opt/google/earth/free/libcurl.so.4 /opt/google/earth/free/bak.libcurl.so.4
fi
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