Visualizing Our Relationship with Natural Resources and the Environment
Visualizing Our Relationship with Natural Resources and
the Environment: The Role of New Information Technology in Informing and Communicating Research
RFF First Wednesday Seminar
June 3, 2009
Our ability to get information is accelerating due to increasingly ubiquitous and ever-faster internet access on a global scale, as well as the declining cost of laptops and mobile devices. The information available for widespread public consumption through these devices is revolutionary: high-resolution images and related data from space and community sources provide an unprecedented ability to visualize, in wholly new ways, our relationship to the environment and Earth’s natural resources. Better than ever before, we can link local and global actions and transcend disciplinary boundaries in our research and communications.
How are these new tools influencing resource management and policy design today, and what do they offer for the future? Will they alter our notion of participatory relationships between citizens and decisionmakers in community, regional, national, and international resource issues? Can they enhance our ability to solve vexing environmental problems, or are they merely tools for communicating decisions made through more traditional means? We thank the Henry M. Jackson Foundation for their support of this seminar.
Moderator
Molly Macauley, Senior Fellow and Director, Academic Programs, Resources for the Future
Panelists
Shalini Vajjhala, Fellow, Resources for the Future
William Gail, Director within Startup Business Accelerator Group, Microsoft
Bonnie Scranton, Information Designer
Video and Audio
