PGibson
20Mar09
4:55pm
The vast usage of a multitude of users and coverage of the internet may provide the perfect resource to gain information and act as an environmental watchdog. Victor Galaz of Stockholm University (leading his colleagues from Britain, the US, and Sweden) believes that the internet could be utilized as a monitoring system to indicate environmental trends that might not otherwise be reported or identified. Trawling various sites, blogs, videos, news, and other sources could provide pieces of a yet unsolved puzzle. Environmental monitoring sites (such as the birdwatchers site) already exist for specific information and the data they provide could be used in larger scenario. Most of the information gathered would be done so with out the host’s knowledge which may provide less biased data. The largest problem may be to eliminate unreliable sources however.
The attempt to compile information from such a vast array of resources sounds like a daunting task, but if the collection and filtering process is successfully achieved it could result in an invaluable representation of environmental trends. The use of current technology to unite existing technology and human information input is a tremendous resource to gather current information on environmental symptoms which may have gone overlooked before. The mere implication of a global monitoring system is tremendous in terms of reaction time that would not have been available before. The intertwining of small bits of data that might have been thought insignificant before could be the building blocks of a detailed and living report of our planet. Hopefully with such a vivid picture of the environment, neglect will no longer be an option.
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE52I04I20090319
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