Over the past decade “nature-based solutions” have risen to prominence as part of international commitments to addressing different kinds of societal issues and public problems including climate change, biodiversity loss, well being, disaster reduction and economic development.
In this collaborative digital methods project we gather and repurpose online materials associated with “nature-based solutions” on a variety of platforms and online spaces in order to understand more about the origins, development and politics of this term.
The project included a series of workshops with campaigners and investigators from Global Witness, researchers from the departments of Geography and Digital Humanities at King’s College London and DensityDesign Lab at the Politecnico di Milano. It received support from the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC).
For more about the project see:
- “Nature-based solutions”: using digital methods to investigate corporate greenwashing, Global Witness, 12th July 2022
- Fossil fuel greenwash, Global Witness, 15th February 2023
- Querying nature-based solutions – “These cards are an invitation to query and re-index Google search results for ‘nature-based solutions’, looking beyond more prominent promotional narratives to surface concerns, questions, tensions and uncertainties with advocating nature as solution. Each card contains a critical quote together with its original search position and source.”