Read Cambridge Cleantech's introduction in the latest Institution of Environmental Sciences Journal

The June edition of environmental SCIENTIST – the journal of the Institution of Environmental Sciences (IES) – engages with the rapidly evolving applications of new digital technologies in the environmental sciences, as well as the challenges they bring.

As Cambridge Cleantech CEO, Sam Goodall, and COO, Sylvie Russell, write in their introduction to the issue, when it comes to the challenges of the rise in AI and other digital technologies in the environmental sector, ‘all kinds of policy ambitions, claims, targets, and objectives exist, but the true challenge arises in bringing together different stakeholders to achieve these goals.’ As exemplified by the authors’ multidisciplinary approaches in this edition of the journal, responding to this challenge requires open and enthusiastic collaboration across the environmental sector, and a willingness to understand the ethical and environmental implications of new digital technologies alongside their revolutionising potential.

Innovations in AI, machine learning, and other digital technologies are already offering enormous benefits for environmental science, and for the health of our ecosystems. Yet with these opportunities comes a significant amount of environmental, social, ethical, and existential risk. How do we navigate the rising CO2 emissions from artificial intelligence, while supporting its use for optimising adaptation to a changing climate? How should environmental professions be adapting to the rise in digitisation of traditionally hands-on work, and how can we support new environmental science research in areas of digital technology that are evolving so incredibly quickly?

In this issue of environmental SCIENTIST, the contributors explore the dilemmas that are tangled up with innovation in digital technologies and the environmental sciences. Showcasing some of the most exciting use cases of new digital innovation – from augmented reality and machine learning for wildlife conservation, to novel algorithms for climate change and blockchain for traceability – authors in this issue shed light on the advantages that embracing digital technologies can offer us, while remaining alert to the complexities they present (many of which remain to be discovered).

‘Where Green Meets Machine’ was guest edited by ChatGPT, an AI chatbot with natural language processing. It suggested topics and themes for several of the articles included in this issue. A full discussion of the motivations for using ChatGPT, and the human editors’ reflections on the process, are available in an online interview at: https://www.the-ies.org/chatgpt-editor.

The full list of articles and contributors is as follows:

1. The CAETÊ algorithm: assessing vegetation and climate change in the Amazon – Bárbara Cardeli & Bianca Fazio Rius

2. Artificial intelligence and the environmental professions – Peter Humphrey, Gary Kass and Victoria Ward

3. An introduction to artificial intelligence weather forecasts – Kieran Hunt

4. Lens on the wild: innovations in wildlife monitoring with machine learning and public engagement – Benjamin C. Evans, Marcus Rowcliffe, Chris Carbone, Emma L. Cartledge, Nida Al-Fulaij, Henrietta Pringle, Richard Yarnell, Philip A. Stephens, Russell Hill, Kate Scott-Gatty, Chloe Hartland and Bella Horwood

5. Intelligent Earth: a new generation of environmental data scientists – Philip Stier

6. It is time to reinvent animal encounters at zoos with digital twins – Daniel Pimentel

7. The unbearable lightness of blockchain – Cathy Mulligan

8. Unlocking the secrets of shipwrecks: artificial intelligence’s role in coral reef conservation – Alexandra Karamitrou

9. Drone technology for monitoring in the water sector – Mónica Rivas Casado

10. Digital environmental impact assessment: from evolution to revolution – Mark Elton