AI can be an ally in climate change

5

October

2021

5/5 (1)

This summer was one of the worst summers globally with record-braking natural disasters. There were wildfires in the south Europe and in sub-Arctic, serious floods in China and western Europe and heatwaves along with drought in North America. All these catastrophes are results of numerous interconnections and feedback loops in the climate system. Our planet is suffocating, and the worst consequences are yet to come, so it urgent to make changes and reverse this trend! UN has already stated that 2021 is the last year for us to take real action in the fight against rising global temperatures. Artificial Intelligence is rapidly growing and integrating in every aspect of our lives with prospects to play a major role in helping us slow down the evolving climate change

Source(https://www.indiatimes.com/technology/science-and-future/global-warming-in-last-100-years-is-worse-more-widespread-than-earth-s-past-2-000-years-372158.html)
 

How could this happen? 

There are many ways artificial intelligence can power climate change strategy and address this challenge. Some of them are the following. 

First and foremost, AI can change the way we commute and make it more efficient. This technology is used to power and improve battery energy management of autonomous electric vehicles, buses, or trains, mitigating emissions and opening the way for decarbonizing transportation. Furthermore, advanced programs and algorithms can be used optimizing traffic lights, routes for fleets and reducing traffic jam. 

Source(https://www.forbes.com/sites/cognitiveworld/2019/07/26/how-ai-can-transform-the-transportation-industry/?sh=418d98674964)

On top of that precision agriculture and the use of drones’ capabilities in surveillance of forests are another areas where AI technology impacts profoundly. Through precision agriculture drones follow up information provided by AI program and are deployed to target an area affected of specific pests though preventing mass usage of pesticides. In addition, deforestation contributes roughly 10% of global greenhouse-gas emissions (Karen Hao, 2019) but can be tackled and reversed through environmental monitoring. Satellite and drone imageries combining them with computer programs can inspect and evaluate the loss of trees at a much greater scale. 

Source (https://www.isical.ac.in/~caiml/courses/workshop001/)

Another area that AI technology can contribute to is to renewable energy by optimizing it. Generating electricity from solar and wind energy is one of the best choices but harnessing process still faces some issues because it is difficult to calculate the amount of demand regarding to the amount of supply, to predict weather conditions etc. Machine Learning and algorithms can generate and process this kind of data and turn them into useful information by gaining insights on ways of meeting those demands. Last but not least, AI by predicting weather changes could monitor and operate power plants in the most efficient way.

Source (https://medium.com/hackernoon/ai-a-promising-progression-for-renewable-energy-sector-44ad174ba40c)

Overall, AI might not be the silver bullet, but it can be deployed in order to facilitate and help us address climate change. 

Resources:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/markminevich/2021/03/31/ai-champions-driving-new-industry-solutions-for-climate-change/?sh=1808ccce4f66

https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbes-personal-shopper/2021/10/01/best-body-lotions/?

https://www.technologyreview.com/2019/06/20/134864/ai-climate-change-machine-learning/

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/article/artificial-intelligence-climate-change

https://www.mygreatlearning.com/blog/machine-learning-to-solve-climate-change/

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4 thoughts on “AI can be an ally in climate change”

  1. Very interesting article on use of AI to slow down climate change. What pops in to my mind when i read about the implementation of AI in agriculture is how can we implement it on a global scale in which developing countries also benefit from the advancements. The continent of Africa has the largest employment in agriculture rate and is going through a major agricultural revolution. The Volkskrant has a very interesting collection of articles on this subject. Here is the link for the dutch readers: https://www.volkskrant.nl/kijkverder/2018/voedselzaak/

    1. That is quite the valid point. Unfortunately, history has shown that it is very difficult for such changes to flow equally within different parts of the world because, as everything, they are highly contingent on socioeconimic factors that simply are not the same everywhere around the glode. That is perhaps the greatest of challenges, one that Jaky above also refers to. On the other hand, implications on the potential implementation of such innovations (job landscape included), were always going to be complex. I am simply laying down thoughts, I have yet to form a solid opinion on the matter, but surely if we have identified the potential, we can deal with the logistics and the adaptation, right?

  2. I very much like this kind of unexpected link between AI and climate change. There is a lot to say about climate change in general and it is indeed of the essence to take action as soon as possible. Especially now that rising temperatures and natural disasters are increasingly occurring. I personally think your blog really adds value to what AI can offer society, and especially to this issue. My blog is mainly about its disadvantages/risks and thus it is nice to also read about it from a positive point of view.

    I do worry about the feasibility of the things that were mentioned. It is clear for instance that AI has all these abilities and promising features, but can we really depend on it to be implemented? Are governments and institutional entities really willing to invest in monitoring entire forests? The point that I want to make here is that there are so many good features that AI can offer, but most of them will probably not be applied for a long time.. or not before its too late. Or am I just really pessimistic about this? Anyway, I really do hope it will be used for good causes like these.

  3. I like that you showed different examples of how AI can be implemented in the future to fight the climate crisis! I did not think about some of those applications as being feasible but i’m sure they will come sooner than we expect.
    To respond to Jacky, I do believe that these are feasible. AI will be implemented on a small scale for specified applications at first. This process will take a long time, however future investments in such technologies are going to come as the general population and it’s government gains belief in such systems. I believe that this increase in investments and efforts will be exponential as each development will warrant further investment and therefor more development.

    My question is what this will do to our job landscape. I know that the types of jobs we fulfil as humans have always evolved. Generally we have moved away from repetitive physical labour and more into tasks which involve critical thinking and human creativity. What happens when AI replaces some jobs? I believe that creativity will be the human asset that AI can’t beat us in… YET!

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