Three ways AI can help the environment

Artificial intelligence isn’t just for self-driving cars and generating absurd images.

Nov 23, 2022

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Hector’s dolphin. Image credit: Liz Slooten/Earthrace Conservation via Flickr (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0).

When you think of artificial intelligence (AI), you might think of something like HAL 9000 from 2001: A Space Odyssey. Or the Terminator. But most of today’s AI is less robots-that-want-to-kill-you and more like complex computer algorithms performing tasks we’d usually need a human brain for. Stuff like recommending a TV show on Netflix, speech recognition, detecting patterns in data, and visual perception. We can put AI to use in service of sustainability, too. Here are three examples of AI lending a helping hand to our environment here in Aotearoa, inspired by the AI Forum’s report on the topic.

Tracking the world’s rarest dolphins

The team at not-for-profit MAUI63 has developed an autonomous, AI-powered drone that can find and track Māui and Hector’s dolphins, the world’s rarest dolphin species. As the AI improves, it will be able to distinguish adults from calves, and identify unique individuals based on their cute wee dorsal fins that look like Mickey Mouse ears. This will allow researchers to survey the population and figure out where the dolphins like to hang out, so we can protect them from threats such as fishing.

Mapping land use changes for greenhouse gas reporting

In order to meet our international climate reporting obligations, we need to know how our landscape is changing. Are we planting more forests? And what sort of deforestation is happening? Mapping this is time consuming, so to speed things up, the Ministry for the Environment turns to the Land Use and Carbon Analysis System (LUCAS). LUCAS uses machine learning to assess aerial images for different types of land cover, such as forests, pasture or new planting. This allows tracking of deforestation over time, and rapid assessment for our required greenhouse gas accounting.

Detecting invasive predators

When ZIP (Zero Invasive Predators) made progress on their quest to rid the Perth River Valley in South Westland of pests, they realised that the traditional methods of monitoring weren’t going to cut it. Manually checking chew cards and tracking tunnels was just too labour intensive in the remote and rugged mountain valley. Instead, they trained an AI using 30,000 images of pests (possums, stoats, rats mice) to detect the unique heat signatures of different species. The resulting backcountry thermal camera can report reinvasions of specific predators in near-real-time, meaning an incursion response can be mounted quick-smart.

Investing in an EV can be expensive, so as an energy retailer Electric Kiwi is helping to reduce the cost of charging for their customers, both at home (with smart charging experts Evnex) and now in the wild, by partnering with world famous EV charging network JOLT.
JOLT chargers will soon be popping up at shopping centres, retail precincts, community facilities and other destination locations around NZ, offering EV owners 7kWh of free power to charge every single day, worth about 40-50km in range.
Electric Kiwi understands that concerns about batteries and charging are a major barrier to EV ownership, but if we get the recharging infrastructure right, more people will see EVs as something they can be genuinely excited about in our low carbon future. Look out for our cast of Electric Kiwi characters on your local JOLT chargers soon.

Cop27 wraps up with funding arrangement for loss and damage

After running overtime earlier this week, Cop27 finished up with delegates agreeing to an historic loss and damage fund, but little to suggest phasing out of fossil fuels anytime soon. The Bulletin nicely summarised how the global climate summit ended on Monday. The Science Media Centre has collated expert commentary on the Cop27 outcomes, including this from Pacific historian Marco de Jong: “On what is a historic day for Pacific diplomacy, we mark the climax of 30 years of self-sacrifice. Pacific nations will face certain disaster, but they may just have saved millions of others in the developing world.” This Bloomberg piece on the island nation Palau, accompanied by striking photography, is a potent reminder of the plight of our Pacific neighbours. Hours after Cop27 wrapped up, the UN climate chief said he intends to review the Cop process, which has been criticised for its inability to procure meaningful emissions reductions and its painful and “chaotic” negotiations.

Junior rat catchers absolutely killing it

More than 40 kids on Rakiura have competed in a rat-catching competition, with prizes for biggest body size, biggest teeth and weirdest tail. The schoolchildren smashed their 500 rat target over 100 days, and are said to be excited about the prospect of one day having kiwi roaming their backyard. 11-year-old Bella McRitchie-King was the overall winner, catching a whopping 64 rats. And as for the supreme individual whopper, the biggest rat measured a disgustingly large 45cm.

Reducing concrete’s carbon footprint

About 30% of concrete is made up of sand, but we’re running out of this finite resource that’s essential for construction. This video from Nature features interviews with two researchers investigating how to make the most of sand through recycling concrete and extending the life of our existing buildings. It also features a very impressive sandcastle. In fact, concrete production is responsible for 4–8% of global carbon emissions. Some manufacturing companies have developed roadmaps for reducing this to zero using emerging tech and clever chemistry, according to Knowable Magazine.

Can hydrogen help us decarbonise?

We may have a handful of hydrogen-powered trucks here in Aotearoa, but many reckon hydrogen is unlikely to play a big role in transport. Instead, this low-emissions fuel could power decarbonisation across a variety of industrial processes, like manufacturing steel. This article from Nature explores the benefits and downsides of the emerging “hydrogen revolution”.

In other energy news, research commissioned by the Electricity Networks Association suggests that electric power will be cheaper than fossil fuels as early as 2025.

Plastic pledges fail to lower pollution

Corporate commitments to tackle the world’s plastic problem from big companies like Coca-Cola aren’t actually translating into less plastic pollution, according to new research. What a surprise eh. Most companies with pledges are focusing on upping the recycled content of their plastic products or downsizing packaging, rather than promoting reuse or scaling down production. Bodo Lang, an associate professor at the University of Auckland, said that, “Businesses have started the journey towards reducing plastic at the easiest points (recycling and reduction). After these starting points, we will see an increasing shift towards potentially more powerful initiatives, such as maintaining products for longer and leasing products rather than purchasing them.” Here’s hoping!

The stories we tell about climate change and the environment matter. I've been writing The Spinoff's weekly Future Proof newsletter since July, sharing hopeful but honest news about the climate and our natural world. It's rewarding work – showcasing the people, mahi and solutions that will help us navigate the climate crisis.

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