The introduction of AI has bestowed a ray of hope into the areas that used to be human driven, and required consistent hard work, and resilience. Hoping for a sustainable future ahead!
According to Gartner Inc., around 70% of the enterprises who are adopting Generative AI will figure out sustainability and digital sovereignty as the basis of selecting different public cloud Generative AI services.
Google makes use of AI to reduce the energy used for cooling its data centers. It is also being used to analyze data from satellite images and sensors in the field. It gives information on how to optimize routes, reduce fuel consumption, sorts waste accurately (better than humans), helps in increasing recycling rates, predicts waste generation patterns, optimizes waste collection routes, reduces emissions and fuel consumption. Let’s dive into details.
Sustainable development ensures rational use of natural resources, and prevents all activities that cause harm to nature.
The United Nations has adopted 17 Sustainable Development Goals (listed below) to promote prosperity and protect the planet. They recognize that ending poverty must go hand-in-hand with strategies that build economic growth and address social needs, and tackling climate change.
List of 17 SDG
- No Poverty
- Zero Hunger
- Good Health and well-being
- Quality Education
- Gender Equality
- Clean Water and Sanitation
- Affordable and clean energy
- Decent work and economic growth
- Industry, innovation and infrastructure
- Reduced inequalities
- Sustainable cities and communities
- Responsible consumption and production
- Climate Action
- Life below water
- Life on Land
- Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions
- Partnerships for the goals
Sustainability And Its Counter Measures
Sustainability is the practice of using resources wisely so that they can be maintained over a long period of time. A company is sutainable if its carbon footprint, water footprint, waste generation, energy consumption, and biodiversity impact are in place.
How Does AI Safeguard Depleting Natural Resources?
Artificial intelligence conserves natural resources by analyzing environmental conditions, optimizing energy use, and restoring damaged landscapes. An AI development company examines data on weather patterns, greenhouse gas emissions, and other environmental factors to help inform strategies for reducing emissions. Artificial Intelligence is also helpful in restoration of coral reefs and forests. It predicts future carbon emissions based on current carbon footprint data. The large amount of data at disposal of AI, facilitates it to predict, and identify patterns. This eventually helps humans make better decisions.
How Does AI Reduce Waste?
AI improves waste sorting by reducing the amount of waste sent to landfills and increases the amount to be recycled. It lets companies identify trends that contribute to excessive waste generation, which lets them develop strategies to reduce packaging waste and promote recycling. It further facilitates the design and production of more environmentally friendly packaging material.
How Does AI Reduce Global Warming?
Artificial intelligence improves energy efficiency by designing buildings, forecasting energy generation, and identifying areas for savings. It encourages green travel options by suggesting efficient routes for drivers. It helps farmers use space efficiently, detect wind conditions and vegetation moisture levels. It provides comprehensive environmental insights by integrating satellite data with model predictions. (how fast icebergs are melting and how much meltwater they release into the ocean). A fire in a smoldering stage can easily be extinguished by the forest department.
How Does AI Reduce Global Warming?
The use of Artificial intelligence encourages green travel options by suggesting efficient routes for drivers. It gives foresight to the farmers to schedule planting seasons, and optimize irrigation. It lets them predict and manage disasters. (Also consider the point on controlling forest fire, discussed above, here).
How Does AI Track Pollution Levels, Deforestation Rate & Wildlife Activity?
By making effective use of AI, the technology is being used to analyze large amounts of space data from satellites and drones, estimate the population of animals, and track the rates of deforestation.
AI algorithms are used to analyze videos and images shot in real time. This facilitates disaster risk reduction (Eco-DRR), detects and identifies wildlife and triggers alerts for potential poaching activities. This hands-on information helps officials take immediate action.
How Does AI Help In Conserving Natural Resources?
AI predicts energy usage patterns and identifies areas of waste to reduce energy consumption and carbon emissions. Google’s DeepMind uses AI to optimize cooling systems in its data centers, and Tesla uses AI to optimize driving patterns in its electric vehicles. It effectively analyzes weather patterns and energy demand to optimize the use of solar and wind energy. It helps in planning biodiversity conservation by quantifying the costs and benefits of protecting it. AI helps in detecting and preventing illegal activities that harm the environment, such as illegal logging and IUU fishing.
AI algorithms detect soil moisture levels, pH balance, nutrient content, water retention, forest fire, and determine weather conditions – preventing further loss of natural resources.
Artificial Intelligence monitors the health of the plants, tracks the population of endangered species, predicts the migration pattern of birds, detects the presence of invasive species, detects poaching (unauthorized hunting and trapping), and predicts the routes used by poachers.
AI – powered irrigation measures help in ensuring that crops get the right amount of water at the right time, reduce water wastage, manure and fertilizer intake, detecting leaks in irrigation systems, and prevent water loss.
AI optimizes traffic flow to reduce vehicle emissions. It also analyzes industrial activity and proposes measures to reduce it. It powers the transition from fossil fuels to clean energy. It optimizes the performance of wind turbines and solar panels. Wind Farms often make use of Google’s DeepMind AI to boost output.
AI development companies have structured smart grids to streamline the delivery of clean energy. SmartHome technology saves energy in buildings by automatically turning off lights or adjusting thermostat settings.
Waste management facilities are making use of AI to sort and process recyclable materials, improve waste collection by optimizing collection routes, and reduce garbage trucks.
Ships equipped with AI have sensors to locate and remove plastic waste from oceans.
Conclusive: Is AI Sustainable?
This technology is extensively being used by AI development companies to facilitate a cleaner environment. To train some models, a large amount of data is required. But AI tools like Wildbook and Protection Assistant for Wildlife Security that are used to create risk maps, and suggest patrol routes for rangers, and remove illegal snare traps, are so accurate that it is able to deduce some information, which is not being asked, or what it was not supposed to do, like finding the exact latitude and longitude of an individual.
