Are digital and respect of nature antinomic?
Digital technologies’ ability to influence daily lives, politics, commercial activities and societies is universally accepted: the internet and associated communications technologies have created digital networks through which flow large amounts of data in all areas. However, nature and technology often seem antinomic. Despite popular belief, digital technologies can absolutely help in supporting and preserving nature. How could the digital revolution be linked to nature conservation and exploration?
Impact of digital technology on the environment
As we all know, digital activities consume more and more energy resources. The systems’ ecological impact stems not only from the complexity of their production (rare metals, raw materials, labour cost, shipping impact) but also from the long-term cost of power and maintenance. And it doesn’t get any better: the more performing and efficient, the more tech gets produced, deployed and used
This is amplified by the fact that this digital pollution is invisible. Users do not realize the impact of their consumption. A click remains an abstract action, something happens in the cloud, that “thing” that most of us don’t really understand.
Fortunately, solutions exist via small daily actions, such as favouring second-hand equipment or sorting/deleting emails. Associative projects, such as Goodeed, aim to mobilise brands and advertisers in order to support humanitarian and environmental projects.
Digital to reconcile city and nature
Cities and Nature are two habitats that are seemingly separate, but the coexistence of the two might be more intertwined than first suggested.
Cities are home to the majority of the population. In fact, 53% of human-population lived in cities in 2013. This number is expected to reach 65% by 2050, that is 9.5 billion urban dwellers. Cities must therefore limit their impact on the environment by becoming efficient and adaptative, and this must happen as soon as possible. The digital revolution brings new solutions to meet this challenge and reintroduce nature in the city.
One of the solutions for decarbonising cities is the introduction of greenery to walls and roofs. Startup Urban Canopee is developing composite structures that integrate smart IOT sensors which can help monitor plant health.
Many more projects like this one are being developed to reconcile nature and cities using digital technology. Most don’t seek economic profitability but act as catalysts for an innovative future.
Technology to support the Nature
In their article “Digital technology and the conservation of nature”, Koen Arts and his team identified five key dimensions which have a substantial impact on nature conservation.
Here are some concrete examples:
Data on Nature: Modern technologies can be adapted for the protection of endangered species as well as their reintroduction to nature. For example, these cloud-based technologies and analytics tools are proven to have supported the increase in rhinos numbers in South Africa.
Data on people: Social media and web robots are used to monitor computer data streams. For example, they show evidence of changes in the environmental perceptions of communities that use Internet.
Data Integration and Analysis: The opportunities offered by big data and IoT are promising for supporting science (known as green data). For example, they play a part to optimise efficiency in the energy sector.
Communication and Experience: Social media and internet allow people to belong to communities. For example, the Nature Conservancy “has grown to become one of the most effective and wide-reaching environmental organizations in the world”.
Participatory Governance: In the context of natural resource management, it can be defined as a medium that facilitates dialogue among all stakeholders. For example, in the Caribbean, it was used to encourages communities and their institutions to manage and control resources.
Digital to discover new places
There are many easy-to-use applications that incite their users to explore the outdoors and discover new activities. A popular example is PokemonGo back in 2016, however, since the end of lockdowns around the world, more adventure apps such as Geocaching®️ have faced a new wave of users.
According to the official website, « Geocaching is an outdoor treasure-hunting activity that uses Global Positioning System (GPS)-enabled devices. » Treasures are boxes of different sizes hidden at precise coordinates by people registered in the application, geocachers.
Geocaching can be practiced anywhere according to your preferences: in the city, mountains, or the countryside. Adapted for all ages, it will make your outdoor activities, hikes or holidays more fun, leading you to unusual places and interesting landscapes.
Geocaching respects nature and encourages us to discover it. Although caches are often made of plastic, it does not promote pollution since each geocacher is responsible for the maintenance of the boxes they lay in nature.
The contributions of digital technology to support the environment, to reconcile nature and the city of tomorrow and to reconnect with outdoor activities are undeniable.
So, has your point of view changed and are you motivated to start a new outdoor activity ?
About this article
This article has been written by a student on the Grenoble Ecole de Management’s Advanced Masters in Digital Strategy Management. As part of a content creation assignment, students are given the task of writing articles based on their digital interests and disseminate the articles online. Articles are marked but we make minimal changes to the content. Thanks for reading! James Barisic, Programme Director, MS DSM.
