Existing solutions
- Microsoft
- Based on the assumption that forests are important to human life. If we add more trees, we can improve the carbon dioxide emission. Microsoft uses AI and satellite imaging to predict the sizes, species, and health of forest trees. By doing this, we can save countless hours of menial work. Hence, we can faster help trees grow bigger, stronger, and healthier.
- Google for energy saving
- Google deveploed an AI that would teach itself how to use a minimum amount of energy necessary to cool Google's data centers.
- IBM
- One project named Green Horizon from IBM predict weather and pollution, thus helping cities become more efficient. For instance, in China from 2012 to 2017. they help Beijing decrease their average smog level by 35%.
- Cornell University uses GANs
- They use GAN to generate images that depict geographical locations before and after extreme weather events. This visualization could help scientists predict the impacts of certain climate changes, helping people to be well prepared for disasters.
- AIRLITIX
- This software is originally developed to automate greenhouse management processes, it can also help manage the health of forests. It can collect temperature, humidity, and CO2 data, analyze soil and crop health via captured images.
- As a survey, people need to plant over 1.2 trillion trees to combat with climate change. This software is integrated into drones then can help plant trees, release plant nutrient, or even detect illegal logging.
Future Outlook For AI And Climate
As I see it, the purpose of AI is to assist mankind in solving problems. Climate change has proven to be a complex problem that humans are becoming great at studying, but I have yet to see a very positive future-outlook from environmentalists in the news.
If not to help humans influence climate change directly, couldn’t we use AI to portray doomsday scenarios that scare the world into coming together? Could we use AI to portray positive potential outlooks that would be possible if people were to do more in their daily lives to help triage climate issues?
Even with the latest Amazon fires, I didn’t see any tweets about the idea of using drones to combat the spread of flames. It’s clear to me that even with all of the impressive AI software and tech available to humans today, environmental use cases are still not widespread knowledge.
