Reinecke

In an article published in Socio-Environmental Systems Modelling, Reinecke and his co-authors point out the lack of a clear definition of the term "Digital Twin of the Earth," which may be misleading.

Reinecke and his team at the JGU Institute of Geography work with models that encompass the whole planet, and he understands the motivation of the EU initiative.

According to Reinecke, however, the creation of new models with higher resolutions will not necessarily lead to an improvement in knowledge and results.

Finally, Reinecke and his co-authors state the question whether a Digital Twin of the Earth itself could represent a risk in that the "reductionist view of nature as a machine" may lead to the erosion of democratic principles "as they may end up being used as political instruments for justification and control."

"All digital representations of our planet are model representations. As such, they will always be detached from reality -- as a map can never fully replicate the land it depicts," said Reinecke.