How surfing the web can save the environment: Next time a new small-scale ecological problem grows into a larger one, the internet may give us a chance to stop it from blowing out of proportion. So says Tim Daw from the University of East Anglia in Norwich, UK. He proposes that software be designed to crawl the web and hunt for early warning signs of ecological change, to give us the chance to react before it is too late.
The concept has been proven to work for human health, says Daw. For example a web crawler called GPHIN picked up the beginnings of the 2002 SARS outbreak three months before the World Health Organisation confirmed it.
