Climate change can be considered a driver of extinction that affects our biodiversity in every corner of the planet. It refers to the long-term shift in temperatures and weather patterns. Several factors exacerbate climate changes, such as natural calamities, changes in solar activity and massive volcanic eruptions. But since 1800, human activities have been found to be the significant drivers of climate change, mainly due to burning fossil fuels such as oil, gas and coal. A major report by the World Meteorological Organisation released by the end of April has a significant take on humanity and climate change.

The advent of cutting-edge technologies like Artificial Intelligence is a glimmer of hope. As researchers suggest, AI will determine if we blow through the tipping point or row back from the brink of annihilation from climate change. AI is a significant tool that is left promising enough to fight the adversities of climate change. From risk prediction to preventing calamities like wildfires, AI has turned its hand to humanity and the planet from further extinction. Reports have been released reminding us how significant it is to incorporate AI for companies to meet their ESG goals and address climate change.

According to reports, AI is expected to contribute $15.7 trillion to the global economy by 2030, which is more than the GDP of Japan, Germany, India and the UK. Many people use AI as frequently as they use the internet. The advent of tools like ChatGPT has made it expand.

In 2018, OpenAI found that the amount of computational power required to train AI models doubled and is increasing, which brings opportunities to solve critical problems in everything from security to farming. This means the resources used today are doubling at a rate seven times faster than before.

How can AI address climate change?

Jim Bellingham, a pioneer in autonomous underwater robotics systems and executive director of the Johns Hopkins Institute for Assured Autonomy, in an interview, says, “Since the climate data sets are massive and consume a considerable amount of time to gather, analyse and use them to make a decision and enact policy changes, use of AI to factor in elements of climate change that are under constant evolution helps us to make more informed predictions on environment changes. This helps us to deploy mitigation efforts beforehand.”

AI also helps minimise the amount of carbon released into the atmosphere. AI feeds into the entire chain of activities related to transitioning from a carbon-based economy to a net carbon-zero economy. He added, “The ability to build larger and larger windmills depends on having exceptionally light and extraordinarily strong materials that can sustain extreme weather conditions. We’re beginning to learn how to use AI to assist us in designing and creating those materials”.

While clubbed with other trends, like electrification of transportation, agricultural transformations, addictive manufacturing and smart electrical grids etc., AI makes a powerful enabling capability for more energy-efficient and cost-saving solutions.

AI is a tool capable of providing insights into where uncertainties arise related to climate change, and that can help us understand what the models are conveying us, which can later feed back into better observation programs by improving the models and using AI as part of the model system. He says trust is the key aspect of using AI.

Few specific applications of AI in climate change

• To find how climate change impacts oceans: Ocean is a less researched area of the Earth regarding climate changes, as it transfers and absorbs heat equally. We are unaware of how the ocean responds to environmental changes and how climate change affects oceans. Understanding it can help reduce the risk of climate change to a great extent.
• Satellite observatories to assess earth changes: This is another application of AI in climate change, where satellites will be used to assess and observe changes in Earth by orbiting in space. These satellites will monitor the calamities like wildfire and determine the potential sources of carbon dioxide in the environment. But Jim reminds us that with the increase in satellites in orbit, we must ensure that space can withstand all the satellites involved in this assessment.
• Using AI-powered robots for analysing polar regions: With the fluctuations in temperature, the Artic region is changing rapidly. The rising temperature is regularly monitored in each season. But during the winter season, operators find it hard to travel back and forth, which leaves a significant gap in data collection and observation. Here AI-powered robots can effectively be used to collect information continuously with technology providing predictions based on trends and patterns.

However, every new generation of processors does more computations with less power. But AI demands for computation are triggering an explosion of investment in computational power. The AI technology we have now is due comparatively to the massive computational power we possess.

• Photo by Matt Palmer on Unsplash