How green is cyberspace?

There is a war being waged. A war for our time, our money, our compassion, our thought, our sympathy, our participation and our commitment. As per the laws of natural selection, it is the strongest and the fittest that prevail in this battle; those with the strongest financial, social and political resources and those fittest in designing, distributing, promoting and pricing their message. And so it goes that in this ongoing war, there is a tendency for particular corporations and causes to seize and maintain a stranglehold on public attention. Specifically, in the area of ‘causes’ we see fluctuations and trends in the level of prominence and importance given to each in the media, in social dialogue and consequently in the lives of individuals. We have seen feminism, gender equality, political correctness, indigenous rights, poverty and, arguably the cause of the moment, the environment.

The catch cry of going green can be seen everywhere. It seems that everyone from supermarkets, governments, banks, pop stars, schools, clubs and cartoon characters are all taking up the call and going green. The green movement is not a new one (think only of our hippie friends in the 70’s) but to my mind it is truly fascinating to watch how a cause so firmly planted in the physical world has sprouted such an extensive online presence (excuse the puns). I believe this is largely due to the weaponry provided in the online environment that enables the environmentalists to fight their war.

Weapons in the greenies online war:

• Digital data storage – Digital storage of information has a two fold advantage; it reduces the need to retain ‘paper’ copies of documents and information (whereby saving our trees) and also facilitates the efficient, paperless, widespread sharing of this information through such avenues as websites, email, Google documents and online databases and research centres
  
  
• Knowledge – The sharing of knowledge, research and ideas between experts and non -experts is building and increasing the understanding of environmental issues, developments and solutions through a process described by Levy as collective intelligence.
  
  
• Access – The positioning of information in online environments increases individuals’ ability to access a diverse range of information on a diverse range of topics from a diverse range of sources. There is also increased access to more environmentally sustainable products and services, which were once limited in their distribution due to geographical restrictions. Now, through sites such as World of Good, these products are universally accessible and available.
  
  
• Awareness – with the increase of access and the wider sharing of knowledge, comes increased awareness as a broader range of people are exposed to a broader range of issues. The potential for information to be spread rapidly through the use of viral Internet campaigns also has the power to swiftly spread a message and raise awareness of an issue
  
  
• Collective action – the ability to coordinate large scale projects and recruit diverse groups of people to achieve a common goal has been simplified in an online environment. The use of online forums to coordinate events (both on and offline) and the advantages of access and awareness in an online environment enable most efficient mobilisation of the troops to fight the war
  
  
• Transparency – corporations, governments and individuals are under increasing global scrutiny, as access to information increases, so does our expectation that it is available.

So as the war continues to rage, it is interesting to see the part these weapons play. Some have been exploited to near their full potential, and others still have much room for creativity in their application. The question in my mind is now how will these tools change the environmental war?

We have already seen instances in the physical world were corporations are exploiting environmental sympathies to financial advantage, for example, encouraging patronage at events that are billed as carbon neutral. So will we begin to see websites that are also carbon neutral in an attempt to increase traffic? Gimmicks to the effect that for every hour logged on the site, the organisation will plant 1 tree to offset the carbon emissions caused by the electricity required to power computers and modems? We watch and wait in anticipation.