Connecting to Nature in a Digital Age

By Timothy Beatley

These are alarming times, with the loss of so much nature at hand. From rock wallabies and fin whales to coral reefs, we are in the midst of a period of accelerating biodiversity loss. Scientists describe it as the sixth mass extinction in the planet's history. It has often been said that we will not work to save what we don't love (or for that matter even know about). Luckily, the digital tools and technology that permeate today's society have the potential to connect us in meaningful ways to the nature around us, and in turn (hopefully) stir us to action.

And while obviously no substitute for time spent watching, listening to, and enjoying nature in person, digital experiences can add enjoyment and meaning to our lives and even change our points of view in important ways, particularly for urbanites.

Meet Captain Huggin and Captain Aella, two GPS-tagged American black vultures that are helping government officials locate illegal trash dumps and raise public awareness about this and other environmental issues in Lima, Peru. Courtesy USAID.

Fly like a vulture

In January, while attending the U.S. Agency for International Development's Environment Officers Workshop with environmental staff from all over the world, I watched a short public service announcement about an innovative effort in Lima, Peru, that used GPS-tagged vultures to find illegal trash dumps. The story was fascinating and sent me on a search to learn more.

I was intrigued partly because of my long-standing affection for vultures, particularly turkey vultures, which I got to know as a glider pilot in my youth. We used to watch them spiraling and would aim our sailplanes in their direction, hoping to catch the thermals they intuitively knew were there. Not many other people, I've discovered, like turkey vultures. Some see the creatures as downright revolting.

Created as a partnership that includes USAID, the Peruvian government, and ornithologists at the University of San Marcos and the Lima Natural History Museum, the idea of the vulture project was to raise awareness about environmental issues, especially the problem of clandestine garbage dumps — a major problem in Lima.

Ten wild American black vultures were tagged and can be tracked by project staff and the public online in real time (www.Gallinazoavisa.pe). For a time, two of the vultures were outfitted with GoPro cameras, and all of them have names — Grifo, Elpis, and Captain Huggin, among them.

Remarkably, the vultures captured the imagination of many Limans. Lawrence Rubey, the USAID official in Lima who helped initiate this unique program, tells me there have been some four million social media interactions on Facebook, Twitter, and the project's video streaming site.

The whole idea, he says, "was to draw people into the website through social media and then leverage that into Community action." This has certainly happened. Not only have the vultures successfully identified garbage dumps, but their work has led to a number of neighborhood-based garbage clean-up events.

Perhaps most telling is how peoples' hearts have softened for the creatures. "[Y]ou read through Facebook and Twitter and you look at the comments and people are saying 'how cute, how sweet,' because each of the vultures has a persona and a name ..." Rubey says. "The response that came back was very, very positive about them as individuals."

Tweeting beneath the sea

Similar digital connections are being made in the marine realm. Nonprofit Ocearch tags sharks and provides realtime information on their whereabouts online. One, a great white shark called Mary Lee, has more than 94,000 followers on Twitter. Mary Lee tweets (the real author is a reporter for the Raleigh News & Observer) and her followers tweet personal messages back. Along the way, followers are also learning about the sharks, from their weight to the distances they travel. In a sense, they may even be forming a digital friendship that overcomes the remoteness and strong sense of "otherness" that a creature like a great white shark engenders.

Chris Fischer, founder of Ocearch, says the effort is "radically changing the tone of the conversation around the sharks." Fear of sharks is being replaced with facts and knowledge, and an appreciation for their ecological importance. "The only time we used to hear about sharks was when something bad happened and now we're talking about 'could Mary Lee be pregnant, could she be giving birth, where is the mating site.'"

Such efforts also provide significant scientific insights that lead to better management and protection of aquatic species. The Global Tagging of Pelagic Predators program, led by Barbara Block, a professor of marine biology at Stanford University, tags and tracks sharks, bluefintuna, elephant seals, and California sea lions, among other species.

Species like Pacific bluefin tuna are doing quite poorly, with populations estimated at five percent of what they were before extensive commercial fishing. Protecting and managing this species is a real challenge. Tracking has helped identify its essential feeding grounds, including the area off the northwest coast of the U.S. where nutrient uplifting happens every spring. Block calls it our "Blue Serengeti."

But can tracking the Pacific bluefin tuna ignite a level of engagement and concern around the species and create the political pressure and capacity to make the tough management and conservation decisions necessary to make sure that it doesn't "go the way of the cod," as Block puts it? It is hard to know, but today's technology allows us to "wire the ocean" through a network of Wi-Fi buoys and wave gliders (surfboard-like autonomous floating structures capable of collecting a variety of kinds of data from oceans).

Anything we can do to overcome the cognitive and emotional gulf that exists between humans and other species is helpful. Today, ubiquitous technology such as iPhones and other handheld devices offers the opportunity to instantly learn about and connect with nature. This technology gives us the chance to see and experience the natural world and follow it in real time — whether it is nearby (the black vultures above, the great white shark just offshore) or far away, like the bluefin tuna swimming out in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.

While these connections are fleeting and digital bonds are relatively cursory and shallow, they do allow us to extend our innate curiosity and soften our hearts toward vultures and sharks and many other animals. To me, it suggests that we are at least laying some foundations for the development of a deeper sense of understanding and caring.

Tim Beatley is the Teresa Heinz Professor of Sustainable Communities at the University of Virginia, where he directs the Biophilic Cities Project.