There’s little that’s greater
Than the right kind of data
To help us on our quest
For planet Earth be her best
Lest millions – no billions – pay
For what others do, every single day
What we need is an alliance
Of all us citizens and our science.
I was fortunate to host Eye On Earth this year. I say this because my side-chats were phenomenal. They were with fascinating, intelligent, introspective people, who were calm – so very very calm. These people raidated a sense of enlightenment that comes from taking a serene step back, seeing bits of the picture that we mere mortals haven’t glimpsed yet, and getting the sense of ‘whole’ and connectivity that is key to being at peace.
Most of us aren’t like this. We get sucked into all manner of detail and tangents. This is why I wrote my simple poem.
It states the obvious. It’s my attempt at getting all eyes on the ball- on the purpose of being there. I wrote it while walking to the stage, having been overwhelmed by a sense of monologue and being lectured ‘at’ by those there to showcase their, yes vital and insightful, work, but who didn’t take a much needed step away from the detail and the drill-down, to state how what they do, what they’re good at, fits in with other bits of what we heard and saw. It was also a lost opportunity to explain why what they’re doing is important and what they need from the conservation community.
Looking at the bigger picture and discovering how and where individual efforts fit in was the purpose of the forum. The problem is that we often forget to do this, and we’re all the poorer for it.
The focus of the event was big data. A term that’s doing the rounds these days. How boring you might think. But how vital -not the data in itself, but what we do with it. And it’s all the more when we’re dealing with life as we know it.
The whole point of Eye On Earth is to bring together the people and platforms that look at our planet, our way of life and how we affect each other and all living beings. The aim was too find out how we can come together to share information, knowledge (these are not interchangeable), and plug gaps. The issues include: what’s being measured? Why? How? Is the information credible? Usable? What else needs to be clocked? And who owns it anyway…
Can you imagine? Dealing with insanely large amounts of information – that never ever ever end. More keeps coming at you – every nanosecond.
And now with the inclusion of citizen science, even more is being put out there. Gathering it appears to be the easy part. Making sense of it, making findings relevant, resonate, getting it picked up and acted upon, now that’s a challenge. But do it we must. Our very life depends on it. Earth will be around for a while to come. I’, not so sure about mankind.
