Today, artificial intelligence is used in a variety of fields, including education and industry. Can AI save the earth, though? What role might AI play in combating climate change? Are there any potential ways that AI could harm the environment?
Climate Surveillance
AI technology may be utilised to monitor our climate, enabling us to spot certain trends that haven’t been picked up by more conventional approaches. AI may potentially make significant predictions about the future of our environment, enabling us to better manage its harmful impacts. To do this, orbiting satellites may be given artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities to create a more comprehensive image of the status of the globe. On a smaller scale, AI climate monitoring might be used to examine the dynamics of a particular ecosystem. We could better grasp how our behaviours influence the environment with the use of machine learning.
- Carbon Footprint Monitoring
A massive cause of climate change, carbon emissions have released 1.5 trillion tonnes of CO2 since 1750. AI may be used to monitor the carbon footprints of significant businesses, specific people, or whole populations. Future carbon emissions might be predicted by predictive AI, allowing us to anticipate how things will develop based on our existing behaviours. AI might also be used to pinpoint the main causes of this problem by identifying the locations of significant sources of carbon emissions. Well both on a small-scale and a large-scale, this might give us important information about what or who is endangering our planet.
- Land Use Change Monitoring
The utilisation of the land on our planet has a significant role in climate change. Through carbon emissions and the destruction of natural ecosystems, large-scale agriculture, deforestation, home construction, and roads all contribute to global warming. We require additional approaches to land use that are less harmful to the environment if we are to lessen this. AI may be employed to keep an eye on how land is being utilised or mistreated and to generate fresh suggestions for better land usage. Examples include constructing solar panel farms in deserts or exploiting coastal locations to capture tidal energy.
- Developing New Eco-Friendly Concepts
AI is a type of intelligent technology that can learn and understand data, making it valuable in coming up with fresh, creative solutions to combat climate change. Data about existing energy consumption practises, new technologies, and environmental objectives we want to achieve might be supplied to AI systems. AI may help the general population figure out how to save energy at home or provide businesses with more efficient ways to run equipment, move commodities, and other things. Additionally, AI might be used into eco-friendly apps to help users discover new methods of lowering their daily carbon footprints. AI systems provide hope for our efforts to make the world a better place.
- Environmental Hazard Notification
Natural catastrophes like floods and forest fires, which may be devastating and kill many lives, have increased as a result of climate change. Predictive AI may be used to monitor the globe and notify the appropriate parties of any coming hazards. AI might be integrated into sensors, surveillance equipment, and other devices to understand the natural patterns of various settings and alert users when something has changed. In the case of a disaster, AI may also be used to create efficient evacuation, rescue, or rebuilding plans. For example, it might help architects design better disaster-resistant structures or identify viable evacuation routes.
The Environmental Impact of AI
Though there are several ways in which AI could assist us in combating climate change, this technology is already causing harm.
It takes time and effort to develop and test AI systems. According to the MIT Technology Review, a single AI model may release up to 626,000 pounds of carbon dioxide equivalent, which is comparable to the whole lifetime CO2 emissions of five ordinary American automobiles.
It’s crucial to highlight that, for all of its potential benefits, developing AI technology has a substantial carbon footprint, which contributes considerably to our present climate crisis.
AI Might Aid in Saving the Planet
While AI is still in its early phases, there is little doubt that technology has the potential to play a significant role in climate change mitigation.
Though AI cannot fix the climate catastrophe on its own, incorporating it into our environmentally friendly practises might have a significant impact on how things unfold. We may see this technology make significant gains towards cooling our planet in the near future, but its environmental effect must also be acknowledged and perhaps reduced as AI grows more popular.
