CONFRONTING ISSUES OF ICTS, THE

ENVIRONMENT AND CITIZENSHIP

Hopeton S. Dunn, Ph.D.

Director,
Director, Telecommunications
Telecommunications Policy
Policy and
and Management
Management Programme
Programme
The
The University
University of
of the
the West
West Indies,
Indies, Mona
Mona
Gulf Oil Spill…..Sustainable Energy
Future?

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/04/30/louisiana-oil-spill-2010_n_558287.html#s99794
Our Environmental Commons and the
Global Citizen
• Global citizens understand the implications of their own unsustainable
environmental practices and their effects on societies beyond the
borders of their own legal citizenship

• Brundtland Report, 1987, “Our Common Future”, supported the concept

of the environment as a common space with shared resources

• The “natural commons” belong to everyone: Everyone has a right to the

natural resources and ecosystem

• Environmental challenges are a collective problem requiring collective

action not only in the interest of future generations but also for you and
me
SIDs and Disproportionate
Environmental Costs
• Small Island Developing States (SIDS), such as
the Caribbean and Pacific regions bear
disproportionate costs associated with climate
change, compared with their mainland
developed country counterparts.
• Coastal inundation already a threat to many
islands in the Pacific
 The Telecoms and ICT Sector
• In recent times we have seen the
consequences of an upsurge in what the
WSIS has termed as “information
globalization”

• ICTs have become a pervasive and

persistent feature for the global
population as they provide a wealth of
information conveniently and with
immediacy

• Each day the economy is increasingly

being played out over ICT-enabled
networks. Everyone and every country
wants to be a part of this information
knowledge economy
 Main Arguments (I)
• While ICTs have contributed considerably to the
problem of environmental degradation, at the same
time, they can be useful tools for redressing the
problem of carbon emissions and solid waste
• Strategies aiming to influence and change behaviours,
perceptions and attitudes to the environment could be
greatly enhanced through the use of ICT applications,
including the increasingly popular new media platforms
and citizens journalism.
Main Arguments (II)
• Information and communications
technologies (ICTs) can best help to reduce
the ravages of climate change precisely
through the potential impacts they can have
on adaptation and mitigation strategies
specifically at the individual or household
level.
• Other ICT enabled adaptation strategies
include dematerialization and virtualization
Concluding Remarks (I)
• The Environment is an indivisible and
interconnected shared space
• The status quo approach to environmental of
extensive reliance on interstate and
plenipotentiary diplomacy and negotiations,
seem to create an atmosphere that suggest
an absolvement of citizens from playing their
own unique roles in comabting unsustainable
environmental challenges
Concluding Remarks (II)
 Thank You!
hopetondunn@gmail.com