Machine Learning and Climate Change
One of the biggest issues going on in the world today is climate change. Greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise despite our awareness of climate change. Scientists have discovered that the use of machine learning can play a critical role in helping them find solutions to combat climate breakdown.
Machine learning helps accelerate the search for solutions. It is responsible for many artificial intelligence (AI) advancements. Data is fed into ML algorithms and the algorithms use the data to find patterns. One example is the recommendation systems on apps we use today such as Netflix and Spotify. Machine learning finds patterns in our searches and helps these companies offer us similar recommendations.
Below I will go over two ways scientists have used machine learning to learn more about climate change and how to fight it:
AI is being used at the University of Toronto Engineering and Carnegie Mellon University to fast-track the process of turning waste carbon into a commercially valuable product. ML was used to find a material to help convert CO2 into ethylene. Professor Ted Sargent, one of the senior authors on a new paper published in Nature said, “Using clean electricity to convert CO2 into ethylene, which has a $60 billion global market, can improve the economics of both carbon capture and clean energy storage.” ML can accelerate the search of finding other combinations of materials to help convert CO2 into a different product.
We know that plants can cut carbon dioxide emissions. Scientists used machine learning to find which plants in which locations would be the best areas for absorbing CO2. They used data such as soil nutrients and climate characteristics and found that tropical forests similar to those in the Amazon and Congo have the most potential to regrow and absorb CO2.
Is machine learning the solution?
Machine learning can provide us with the tools and crucial data we need to fight climate change, but it is not a solution. We as humans need to work together and take the data found and implement it into our daily lives to make a difference. The technology paired with scientists' expertise and decision-making is a big step in our fight against climate change.
