Can A.I. Change the World?

“Artificial Intelligence enables us to track environmental footprints, extreme weather events, carbon emissions, and biodiversity loss. But can it help us to find solutions to tackle some of our society’s most pressing environmental issues? AI has a staggering carbon footprint itself – but can it help us find solutions in a rapidly changing climate?” https://www.agile-rabbit.com/event/environmental-intelligence-can-ai-change-the-world/

After seeing this event advertised our curiosity aroused, we decided to board a train and walk the beautiful woodland walk to Dartington to attend. We came across 400-year old chestnut trees, listened to a melodious Great Tit and saw an Egret and a Grey Heron standing majestically in marshland. We also, serendipitously, met a couple of friends there, making it an even more interesting evening.

The panel, made up of 3 university professors from the fields of business and computer science, the CEO of the Met Office and environmental journalist and activist, George Monbiot, were presented by a BBC interviewer. Whilst they discussed how AI could model future weather patterns and climate warming to consider what plants and trees would be more suited to different areas, it was evident that AI was still a tool to be wielded by the rich and powerful. Who would ultimately control the organisations developing AI? As one speaker pointed out, look at Google. I did later, to discover it was founded in 1998 and is still owned by the same two shareholders. In 2023 the company revenue was over US$304 billion!

The dichotomy of discovery (for the good) and control (for the bad) was very evident, in the talk. We are already seeing how machines are taking over skills-based jobs in farming and supermarkets, for example. The swift tide towards the digitalisation of money is raising concerns of monitoring where and how much each of us spends our incomes.

When questions were offered to the floor, a hand shot up. “Can AI predict when the permafrost will melt?” asked my friend, Chris, a biologist of 40 years. A significant question indeed because it’s effect will not only cause inevitable land destruction, it will release millions of tons of stored carbon, methane and nitrous oxide into the atmosphere and may well rob us all of our final breaths. Climate warming is already causing permafrost to melt, creating landslides, craters and swampy land masses; without the ice keeping the soil intact, giant sinkholes are swallowing up land and releasing greenhouse gases, adding to the existing climate warming problem.

It would seem that “Current climate change forecasts may underestimate the emissions from permafrost because they only take into account gradual thawing of the ice layer.” https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/02/permafrost-ice-melt-thaw-arctic-global-warming-carbon/

Left as they have been, for thousands of years, permafrost lands act as a carbon sink, but the continuing human activity of excessive burning of fossil fuels, increasing global temperatures, are melting these frozen areas and releasing these toxic gases.

“Paleoclimate evidence reveals that current warming is occurring roughly 10 times faster than the average rate of warming after an ice age. Carbon dioxide from human activities is increasing about 250 times faster than it did from natural sources after the last Ice Age.” https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg1/downloads/report/IPCC_AR6_WGI_Chapter02.pdf

Scientists are revealing the already devastating effects through traditional methods of field and empirical research (positivistic science) that biodiversity is in peril:
“The tundra of the western Canadian Arctic has long been carpeted in cranberries, blueberries, cloudberries, shrubs, sedges, and lichen that have provided abundant food for grizzly bears, caribou, and other animals. Now, however, as permafrost thaws and slumping expands, parts of that landscape are being transformed into nothing but mud”. https://e360.yale.edu/features/how-melting-permafrost-is-beginning-to-transform-the-arctic.

It is clear that whilst AI can be used constructively for modelling predictions, more needs to be done, and fast, if we are to combat the key problems that are killing our planet. For this, AI is not necessary because we have known for decades that burning fossil fuels, mass deforestation, industrial development and chemical and waste pollution are destroying the biodiversity of our living, breathing planet.

George Monbiot’s response was crystal clear: Governments must act upon the findings of scientific research; there has to be system change. The rich are continuing to live lifestyles that literally fly in the face of sustainable living.

What good is AI if it is controlled by the rich? What benefit comes from the findings if they are not acted upon because the rich want to get richer despite the devastation they are causing? When is enough, enough?

Rachel Carson, an environmentalist, scientist and writer, fought hard, to the end of her life in 1964, to highlight to the world how pesticides were destroying birds, insects, plants and healthy soils, in her book ‘Silent Spring’. Yet, 60 years on these toxic chemicals are still being sold on supermarket shelves like sweets! Why, because Governments allow it, the media advertise them and big business sells them – the rich mediate everything, often to our detriment. How can the general public make informed decisions when so much information is polluted?

We cannot rely on believing everything we read in newspapers and on digital platforms. We have to seek and research, more deeply. As Rebel Botanists, we walk the urban streets seeking out nature, finding out for ourselves what we are looking at, what value these plants provide and have discovered that everything is ecologically connected; providing food, habitat, and medicine for human and wildlife. We use all our senses, we discuss with one another subtle differences to establish greater understanding and we do it, above all, with a sense of wonder and enjoyment in the hope of making the world a better place.

Researching to find the truth amongst the “lies, damned lies and statistics” (Mark Twain) can be daunting, but self-discovery is empowering. Talking and sharing your findings and opinions with others you trust promotes empathy, understanding and comradeship. So, please, keep talking. 🙂🤝