Technology helping us connect with nature

While technology takes a heavy toll on us and our planet, it can also, when properly employed, help us better understand what we are doing to Earth, and how we can clean up our act.

Technology consumes a lot of energy, generates e-waste and harms people’s mental and physical health. Apart from that, though, technology can be empowering.

A shining example of tech empowerment is citizen science, grass-roots research carried out by ordinary folks who monitor and collect information on their natural world, and share their observations with experts and fellow citizen scientists.

You ought to give it a try. All you need are a cell phone, curiosity and patience.

One of the more popular nature information-sharing apps is iNaturalist, “a social network for naturalists” where photos of wild plants, animals, fungi or other organisms are uploaded and assessed. The app suggests an identification instantly, and a global community of naturalists confirms or refines it. IDs can occasionally be amusing. (A foot could be erroneously identified as a mushroom.) Anyway, following verification, observations are used by scientists, conservationists, and researchers worldwide.

Citizen observations are also sent to other platforms such as eBird, and the Global Biodiversity Information Facility, an international network and data infrastructure funded by the world’s governments that provides anyone, anywhere, open access to data about all types of life on Earth.

Several citizen scientists are on the look-out for “new species” every time they step outside. They really get excited about blitzes, special periods set aside to focus on a particular species or a defined region.

Many locals have just finished participating in the July 31 to August 9 International Monarch Monitoring Blitz, the 10th annual community science initiative spanning Canada, the US and Mexico. This year, organizers were hoping to recruit 19,000 volunteers across North America, more than double last year’s turnout, to help track monarch butterflies and milkweed plants.

The information is important because monarchs migrate thousands of kilometres across the continent, and they can only lay their eggs on milkweed. That means protecting the species takes all three countries working together — every milkweed patch and every butterfly sighting, wherever it’s spotted, feeds into one shared, continent-wide picture, say blitz organizers.

Monarchs are among the species that serve as the proverbial canary in the mine shaft. The health of these insects is a gauge of the overall health of our environment.

Following a severe continual drop in population numbers, the monarch was officially listed as endangered under Canada’s Species at Risk Act in December 2023. But numbers have been high this year, thanks to a good winter in Mexico.

Interesting finds are almost guaranteed every time nature is closely observed.

For example, at the Hoople Creek bioblitz in May, participants spotted the Bobolink, a federally threatened grassland bird species, and Northern Arrowwood, a shrub previously recorded in Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry Counties only at Cooper Marsh. They also saw young-of-the-year Northern Pike, evidence that the species is successfully spawning within the area, and Blackchin Shiner, a fish species widely recognized as an indicator of good environmental quality.

Birds Canada runs many major citizen science and research projects to protect native species. Surveys cover breeding birds, loons, migration patterns, owls and raptors, in addition to studies of biodiversity and nests.

Another initiative is a program aimed at protecting aerial insectivores, birds like swifts, swallows, and nightjars that feed exclusively on insects caught mid-flight. They are known for their incredible flying skill and wide mouths used to scoop up bugs in the air.

Aerial insectivore populations in Canada have plummeted by 43 per cent since the 1970s, according to Birds Canada. The causes are toxic chemicals, habitat loss and disappearing food sources. There are fewer bugs buzzing around out there.

This is a case where scientific evidence is staring you in the face. Have you washed your windshield lately? Chances are you will not discover a whole lot of insects squashed on your windscreen or grille.

Your conclusions will mirror those that have been formed in the United Kingdom, where for years, the Bugs Matter citizen science program has had people counting bug splatters on licence plates.

Few people are about to lose sleep over a decrease in the biting midge population, however, a decline in insect numbers means there is less food for insectivores, bats and fish. Although insects are annoying, they also pollinate plants and break down dead and rotting animal matter and plants.

As they say in the citizen science world, every observation tells a story.

The irony is inescapable. Technology has propelled a growing desire among the humans to disconnect and attempt to get in touch with nature. And one of those enablers is technology itself.