The UK is one of the world’s most nature-depleted countries. According to a recent study, the annual State of Nature report, nearly one in six of more than ten thousand species assessed – that’s 16 per cent – could be lost in this country. Many key habitats for our nature are at risk, and this is a problem both for biodiversity but also for our ability to cope with the climate crisis. How can we protect and restore nature? And what role can technology play?
In response to this challenge, the Natural History Museum and Amazon Web Services (AWS) have launched a groundbreaking partnership to develop an innovative new tool which brings together a broad range of UK biodiversity and environmental data types in one place in real time. This will help the museum’s scientists to build on scientific understanding of the UK’s biodiversity and environment, and drive forward science-led nature recovery in the UK’s urban spaces.
In this special episode, The New Statesman’s Chris Stone meets Doug Gurr, director of the Natural History Museum, and Hilary Tam, principal for sustainability transformation of AWS to find out how the data ecosystem works and how they hope it might help reverse nature loss in Britain.
This episode is sponsored by Amazon Web Services. Find out more about their partnership with the Natural History Museum.
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