AI plays a vital role in tracking environmental challenges

As the planet is getting hotter day by day the climate tends to get worsen with it. Temperatures are likely to continue to rise around 1.5 degrees Celsius over the next 20 years, causing more frequent severe weather conditions like heat waves, storms, floods, droughts, wildfires and extreme ecosystem shifts. This increased frequency and severity of extreme weather events drive up prices of food, energy, and other necessities.

Besides, due to these events 20 per cent of species currently face extinction, and that number could rise to 50 per cent by 2100. Most of the changes prevalent in the climate are unprecedented and some of them like continued sea level rise are irreversible too. Undoubtedly climate change is one of the biggest threats confronting the world currently.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) can help us fight climate change and play a vital role in tackling environmental challenges. AI combines computer science and database, to face the related problems. Machine learning and deep learning are comprised of AI algorithms which create software or systems to predict events based on the data fed.

Reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, efficiency in power generation and consumption, sustainable transportation and agriculture, are few of the various ways where AI can help reduce Climate Change effects. AI plays a vital role by predicting and identifying the events in advance, based on the data fed. This eventually helps reduce the effects of the climate change events.

Climate change

AI helps in making strategies and innovate solutions to tackle extreme weather and climate events. AI with the help of data analysis helps predict these events in advance, eventually saving human lives and also helping prepare them to face these events in a better manner incurring minimal loss.

Satellite data is efficaciously analysed using AI to track glaciers and ice surfaces. Melting of ice is a direct consequence of rise in global temperature. AI technology, satellites, drones, data analysis, requisite equipment and tools for monitoring are essential for predicting melting of ice and glaciers. Rising sea level due to climate change is one of the biggest problems affecting our planet.

AI can measure and help minimize emissions for businesses and institutions. AI helps boost power generation efficiency, besides keeping track of any leakage, better fleet management to optimizing routes and more. AI programs have been set up for optimizing renewable solar and wind energy.

The disruptive effects of climate change on communities, weather and ecosystems is evident. Frequent weather events like hurricanes, storms, tornadoes, cyclones, wildfires, floods, landslides etc cause a heavy burden on human lives and economies. Data analytics and technology companies use AI for both storm and wildfire prediction, combining historic weather information, weather models, and data on geography and topography. Meteorologists are using AI increasingly to understand the strength of an impending storm and also how long it might last or whether it would be damaging or not. Weather forecasting has become much more accurate for humans because of AI and data analysis.

Biodiversity and conservation

AI when combined and used with satellite imagery can help in detecting land use, forest cover fallout of natural disasters and vegetation. Presence and identification of invasive species and their existence and elimination can be monitored using AI.

Ocean health

AI helps gather data that are hard to find otherwise from ocean locations and helps avoid illegal fishing, in protection of species and their habitat. AI robots are used to monitor ocean condition like temperature, pollution and pH level.

(The author is the founder of Smiling Tree)