How can smart tech tackle climate change?

The recent 2021 IPCC report declared a code red for humanity, with 2019’s atmospheric CO₂ concentrations higher than at any time in at least two million years. Our only chance of averting irreversible climate change is to reduce our carbon, methane and nitrous oxide emissions to net zero. And one way we can achieve this is by making our technologies more sustainable.

For instance, we can embed artificial intelligence into our buildings and let them reduce power to lights, ventilation or lifts that are not in use.

Zero-emission electric cars will also have AIs to assist our driving, making them safer and more efficient. Home energy storage solutions mean that power from solar panels can be stored, bringing us towards a distributed power grid where all buildings contribute power as well as consuming it.

AI provides us with ever more accurate models of the environment and can also mitigate the risks of climate change, by simulating exactly where floods or storms may damage property. AI can enable smarter, more efficient agriculture, and instant analysis of planetary data so we can detect illegal deforestation, water extraction, fishing and poaching. Machine learning may even have the potential to invent new materials to create technology such as room temperature superconductors.

Put together, this tech could increase the chance of Earth’s survival.

Read more:

• If a virus killed half the world, would this prevent climate change?
• Do we really know what climate change will do to our planet?
• Can planting billions of trees help tackle climate change?
• Could climate change turn Earth into Venus?

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