DESIGN PLUS MANAGING BIODIVERSITY
ADDRESSING
BIODIVERSITY
PROTECTION
Is our obsession with carbon emissions distracting attention from the
equally important issues that are related to biodiversity? By Ross Sabolcik
are inextricably linked, and the
management and protection of
biodiversity is necessary to mitigate
the negative impacts of climate
change and help humans adapt to it.
Biodiversity is, however, being lost at
an unprecedented rate, with a recent
World Wildlife Fund (WWF) report
estimating a 60 percent fall in the
populations of mammals, birds, fish,
reptiles and amphibians in just over
40 years.
Although business is becoming
more aware of this growing issue,
a recent survey of the top Fortune
100 companies found that very
few companies could quantify the
biodiversity commitments they
were making. This lack of SMART
objectives is more a reflection of the
difficulties in measuring the impact
of activities on biodiversity than
an indication of a lack of intent on
behalf of industry.
The IoT brings hope
There are good reasons for
optimism as we enter the Industry
4.0 era. High profile use cases,
such as robotics and autonomous
automobiles, may gain the most
media coverage but there are a
growing number of examples where
sensor technologies, networks,
software and IT companies are
coming together to address the
problems involved in monitoring and
quantifying the impact of business
on biodiversity.
IoT sensors are becoming smaller
and cheaper and creative power
management techniques enable
many to operate for extended periods
of time on battery power or harvested
energy.
In parallel Low-Power Long Range,
(LPWA), communications protocols
and the falling costs of satellite
communications are enabling
these sensors to communicate
economically over longer distances.
This ability to cheaply deploy
IoT networks is creating new
opportunities for the monitoring and
protection of endangered species
and their environment. Remote
sensor networks are being deployed
in many of the world’s designated
protected areas, such as Africa’s
national parks, to monitor animal
movements and distress levels,
alerting rangers to poaching activity.
The shrinking size and costs
of IoT sensors are also behind
a growing range of applications
which aim to reduce the impact of
agriculture on the environment. It
is now economically feasible, for
example, for farmers to blanket
entire fields with sensors to measure
soil temperature and moisture,
enabling more effective use of
groundwater.
Previous waves of global
economic growth have been
driven by industrial and
agricultural practices many of which,
with hindsight, have been detrimental
to the health and sustainability of life
on our planet.
In its Fifth Assessment Report,
the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change, concluded that it is
more than 95% probable that the rise
in the earth’s temperature over the
last 50 years, (Figure 1) has been
caused by human activities.
Fortunately, our society is
becoming increasingly aware of the
impact of our activities and more
and more government policies are
concerned with the protection of
endangered species, reduction of
carbon emissions, sustainability and
pollution of all types. Businesses too
are increasingly aware of their impact
on the environment, responding
with an increased focus on carbon
emissions, which have become
relatively easy to measure.
There is a growing concern,
however, that the obsession with
carbon emissions has distracted
attention from the equally important
issues related to biodiversity,
the variety of the planet’s natural
ecosystems and species. Biodiversity
protection and climate change
Figure 1: Global
Temperature rise vs
Solar Activity
(Source: https://
climate.nasa.gov/
causes/)
Author details:
Ross Sabolcik is
VP and General
Manager
Industrial and
Commercial
IoT Products at
Silicon Labs
www.newelectronics.co.uk 22 September 2020 29
/climate.nasa.gov
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