Wikia Environmental Project

by Frank J. Regan

This collaborative project on the environment seems to me one of the most important and potentially successful Wikia projects since Wikipedia. The promise is to create a free, on-going white paper from everyone who has learned something about making our environment sustainable and update that information continually.

According to the UN Intergovernmental panel on Climate Change (IPCC), our environment is going to change drastically and in turn this is going to change the human condition dramatically, quantumly, and soon. Climate change also is a National Security risk. None of this is new, except for the degree of verification from expert data; many environmentalists have been predicting global warming, the loss of biodiversity, and the pollution of our land, air and water, the build up of man-made toxins in our environment and in ourselves (the body burden) for a long time. It’s just that finally the media and governments have started to Get It!

Many new opportunities, including the Internet and the Wikia encyclopedia project, offer up a chance for humanity to share their observations, their knowledge, and solutions to what appears to be a faster and faster rate of environmental change. I recently listened to a report on DemocracyNow.org Friday, May 18th, 2007 George Monbiot: "If We Don’t Deal with Climate Change We Condemn Hundreds of Millions of People to Death" and came away (again) with a sense of urgency that this issue needs. A Wikia Environmental project can deal with the quick and evolutionary change of information and solutions we will need to solve this world-wide crisis.

Many environmental solutions, either in business, in government, and even individuals have worked in one place or another. And some ideas like recycling seem simple at first blush but require a constellation of changes attitudes, inventions, transportation between collection and use, collecting and separating properly. There are different programs in different cites, offering ideas for places to continually ramp up recycling until the point where no trash enters our waters or land. For example, in some cities, garbage collectors will not pick up a resident’s garbage if, after examination, recyclable goods are found—and a fine delivered. Everything can potentially be used and reused, making endless possibilities for creating new businesses.

Of course, most ideas about sustainability are already out there in books, and are working in communities, but there is no single clearinghouse that is not managed and edited by the people themselves who want their children to survive--only governments, groups, and corporations with their own agenda. An open-source project for ideas and solutions on how best to reach a sustainable world for humans can only be accomplished with a variety of scientists, individuals, educators, and environmental groups hoping for a better world that will not collapse under its own progress.

Much in the way the first Wikipedia project matured and came to rival and then surpass the book form of an encyclopedia (which is out-dated the moment it gets published) this project can grow and change to the volatile world we are entering, where the oceans levels will rise, the Great Lakes water level will fall, and where pests and disease will migrate to areas unfamiliar with how to cope wit them will certainly occur. As some areas become warmer, the people in those areas can learn how to cope with changes from a district that has always dwelt with heat and how it affects all aspects of people's lives and the business arena.

As the site stands now, there is little there. It’s just a start. But, it’s also an opportunity to help kickoff and shape this environmental solutions project that should be at the foremost concern of all peoples and governments of the planet. So, check out Main Page - Environmentalist - a Wikia wiki and encourage others to join in.

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