Ecology: How can Free Software help save the planet?
A few days after the year 2020 , and with so many things that have happened during it, especially the COVID-19 pandemic and its effects of isolation and social distancing, and the review of the causes that could cause it, among which are included the progressive deterioration or ecological deterioration of nature, due to the runaway and uncontrolled technological development and consumerism of humanity, the issue of Ecology has been brought to the fore a little more than usual.
Therefore, in this post we will explore how the Free Software has a positive impact on Ecology, directly or indirectly.
Consume less, create more. It's more fun. Better if it's Free Software!
And also to give continuation and expansion to the topic addressed a few days ago by Pavel Durov, as we discussed in our previous publication called Consume less, create more. It's more fun. Better if it's Free Software! », in which we comment that he said, among other things, the following:
"This system is not only harmful to humans, it is also unsustainable in the long term. Unlike corporate appetites, our planet's resources are finite. As a species, we have become very efficient at making and selling things we don't need, but it is the planet that pays the bill."
Reason why, if you have not read it, we invite you to do it after you finish reading it.
Ecology and Free Software
Important related concepts
Before entering fully into the subject, it is good to be clear about certain concepts, among which we will mention the following, citing the meaning described taking as reference the website of «definition of«:
What is ecology?
"Ecology is the scientific specialty focused on the study and analysis of the link that arises between living beings and the environment that surrounds them, understood as the combination of abiotic factors (among which we can mention climate and geology) and biotic factors (organisms that share the habitat). Ecology also analyzes the distribution and quantity of living organisms as a result of the aforementioned relationship."
What is the Ecosystem?
"It is the set formed by all the biotic factors of an area and the abiotic factors of the environment; in other words, it is a community of living beings with interrelated life processes."
What is the environment?
"The environment is a system made up of natural and artificial elements that are interrelated and that are modified by human action. It is about the environment that conditions the way of life of society and that includes natural, social and cultural values that exist in a given place and time."
What is environmental pollution?
"It is the consequence of a harmful change in the characteristics of the environment. Pollutants make the environment harmful or dangerous for living things."
How can Free Software help improve the Ecology of the planet?
From the philosophical and ideological
Both the Free Software (SL) such as Open Source (CA), provide a mechanism for collective and cooperative work that can serve as a basis for the pro-environmental activism. Either, adding people for acts of support or the use of free and open technologies (wikis, mailing lists, chats, forums, communication / messaging systems / platforms, blogs, web portals and social networks).
All this, in order to generate and disseminate knowledge and documentation in favor of the environment to a good number of people. Also, everything created by being posted under free and open licenses, would guarantee and improve its correct dissemination, modification and use, with its respective recognition to its creators.
Finally, the work philosophy or the SL / CA development model is more prone to ecological care because it encourages development based on the premise of share the effort for the creation of a program, and to make more efficient and effective use of the human and material resources necessary to develop its products, which are then shared without major limitations.
Which in turn favors the reuse of what was created for new functionalities or new products, favoring savings and optimization of costs and the sustainability of the systems established with their products.
As we can see, the SL / CA favors the change from the social to the technological, through a better way of carrying out the processes of training, learning and innovation, both in social communities and in public and private organizations, improving their ecological awareness by promoting the development of their activities mitigating environmental damage could generate.
From the technological
As we stated in the aforementioned related post:
"… the use of GNU Linux / BSD Operating Systems, favors planetary ecology by extending the useful life of computers, especially those old and with low resources, by requiring less computing power to function efficiently, require less electricity consumption y generate less heat in computers where it works, avoiding excessive and unnecessary consumption of electrical energy and accelerated wear and tear of computers due to heat, with its inevitable replacement by a new one. Just to mention a few things." Consume less, create more. It's more fun. Better if it's Free Software!
And finally, the Free Software, Open Source and GNU / Linux Community has long contributed to the creation of software tools used in favor of the Ecology, among which the following can be mentioned:
For various investigations
- EPA Aeromod
- EPA Cameo
- EPA Moves
- EPA Dras
- ProUCL
- QSARs
- R Project
- RAMMS
- SWAT
- USGS Mod Flow
GIS technology programs:
- S
- GvSIG
- UDIG
- OpenJUMP
- Free GIS
Others:
- Ecolab
- Earth
- SWARM
- Climate-Dynamics
- UNCERT
- EcoTopia
Conclusion
We hope this "useful little post" about How can Free Software help save the planet?, that is, help the «Ecología» global to improve the environment for the benefit of all; is of great interest and utility, for the entire «Comunidad de Software Libre y Código Abierto» and of great contribution to the diffusion of the wonderful, gigantic and growing ecosystem of applications of «GNU/Linux».
And for more information, always do not hesitate to visit any Online library as OpenLibra y jedit to read books (PDFs) on this topic or others knowledge areas. For now, if you liked this «publicación», don't stop sharing it with others, in your Favorite websites, channels, groups, or communities of social networks, preferably free and open as Mastodon, or secure and private like Telegram.