GISWatch 2020 Sneak Peek! Read a selection of full-length reports on tech and the environment

The 2020 edition of Global Information Society Watch (GISWatch) will be launching soon! In anticipation, you can now read a selection of full-length reports in the GISWatch 2020 Sneak Peek!

This highly-anticipated edition explores the theme of "Technology, the environment and a sustainable world: Responses from the global South".

The world is facing an unprecedented climate and environmental emergency. Scientists have identified human activity as primarily responsible for the climate crisis, which together with rampant environmental pollution, and the unbridled activities of the extractive and agricultural industries, pose a direct threat to the sustainability of life on this planet.

This edition of Global Information Society Watch seeks to understand the constructive role that technology can play in confronting the crises. It disrupts the normative understanding of technology being an easy panacea to the planet’s environmental challenges and suggests that a nuanced and contextual use of technology is necessary for real sustainability to be achieved. A series of thematic reports frame different aspects of the relationship between digital technology and environmental sustainability from a human rights and social justice perspective, while 46 country and regional reports explore the diverse frontiers where technology meets the needs of both the environment and communities, and where technology itself becomes a challenge to a sustainable future.

In this 2020 GISWatch Sneak Peek, you can read the following full-length reports:

• Introduction: "Returning to the river" by long-time GISWatch editor Alan Finlay (APC)

• Thematic report: "The Sustainable Development Goals and the environment" by David Souter

• Thematic report: "Community networks: A people and environment-centred approach to connectivity" by the “Connecting the Unconnected” project team

• Country report: "A capitalocentric review of technology for sustainable development: The case for more-than-human design" by Queensland University of Technology and Deakin University (Australia)

• Country report: "Towards a coherent and gender-inclusive approach for high frequency radio connectivity projects" by Brazilian Association of Digital Radio (ABRADIG) (Brazil)

• Regional report: "White gold, digital destruction: Research and awareness on the human rights implications of the extraction of lithium perpetrated by the tech industry in Latin American ecosystems" by Gato.Earth (Latin America)

• Country report: "Catching the poachers: Artificial intelligence in wildlife conservation" by Space for Giants (Uganda)

To download the 2020 GISWatch Sneak Peek, click here.

Keep your eye on this space and giswatch.org for upcoming news about the launch!