Can technology help save the planet?
- Asad Naqvi
- Apr 15, 2019
- 4 min read
Updated: Jun 10, 2019
As the son of a marine scientist, i have grown up in the company of esteemed academicians who did not shy away from expressing their concern over climate change. While the past couple of years have seen some big steps being initiated towards curbing down the rising global temperatures, many tech leaders, such as Bill Gates, argue that this is not enough. He, along with some billionaires, has invested in starting a fund (Breakthrough Energy) that focuses on investing in the development of smart and environmental friendly technological breakthroughs. In this post we take a look at a few ways technology shows potential in helping solve challenges with climate change.
1. Internet
Monitoring our energy usage makes it possible to be smarter about it. Deploying sensors, generating customer data and applying machine learning algorithms can help build an increasingly smarter ecosystem around our personal and professional lives. For e.g.: Nest has a smart thermostat that learns your patterns and automatically adjusts itself to save energy. Moreover, the advent of smart building and green data centers, relying heavily on solar energy for their energy needs, has seen steady growth as business realize the reduced operations and overhead costs that come with adopting these practices. Moreover, there is also an increased demand for better occupant technology in offices. In research published by Dell and Intel, 44 percent of office workers worldwide responded that their offices are not smart enough. Additionally, 57 percent of them believe they will be working in a smart office within the next 5 years.
2. Transportation
Transport already represents 23% of global energy-related carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, even while the global demand for cars and two wheelers keeps increasing. There has been reasonable growth in the adoption of electric vehicles over the last 10 years, with cumulative global sales reaching 5 million units in December 2018. As per Reuters, around $300 billion is being pumped by leading car manufacturers to build electric vehicles and effective batteries. Increasing consumer demand and government regulation have played a major role in generating these investments with China, Germany and USA leading the way. I feel the best is yet to come as mass transit technologies, such as high speed trains, become more technologically sophisticated and reduce their reliance on fossil fuels. Self driving cars and ride sharing apps are redefining the meaning of car ownership and can play a major role in reducing pollution levels worldwide. Other theoretical concepts such as "hyperloop” and the "transatlantic tunnel" are promising developments that have got conversations started to layout plans for the next define the future of transportation.
© Ronnie Moore Ltd
3. Advanced agriculture
Agriculture remains one of the biggest offenders of climate change. Activities such as land clearing and tilling, livestock farming, and usage of fossil fuel use for farm equipment produces a staggering amount of greenhouse gas emissions. As global population keeps increasing, the demand of resources poses a real threat to the planet's biodiversity. Unpredictable weather patterns and limited resources have put farmers in a predicament to Farmers are finding themselves in a predicament to produce increased amount of yield while decreasing the global carbon footprint. Agricultural technologies can play a central role in addressing these challenges. The advent of cloud applications and IoT have helped farmers monitor their harvest and livestock. Precision farming , also known as Smart Farming, is technology that can gather environmental data and use it to automatically control the irrigation systems. A type of micro irrigation system, called Drip Irrigation, has the potential to save water and nutrients. These systems are designed to allow water to drip slowly to the roots of plants, either from above the soil surface or buried below the surface. The goal is to place water directly into the root zone and minimize evaporation.
4. Geo-engineering (Planet hacking)
This is where tech development gets extremely interesting. Many researchers, academicians, policy makers are now exploring a number of geo-engineering strategies to artificially manipulate the environment. There are mainly two approaches - the first approach advocates removing CO2 from the atmosphere, either via sequestration or some other alternatives to capture CO2 from the atmosphere. However, it is the second method that is more controversial. Also known as planet hacking, the theory proposes the use of reflective aerosols or mirrors high in the atmosphere to cool the planet and also repair the ozone layer. Experts argue that this might help cool down the planet, however, it might do little to impact the fundamental processes that affect global warming such as greenhouse gas emissions. Moreover, the risks of even experimenting with solar geo-engineering might be high, with the technology becoming politically dangerous leading to military use of weather altering technology. However, scientists are still finding ways to artificially cool down the planet, in case catastrophe strikes.
5. Negative emission technologies (NET's)
NETs approach climate change in a manner that is conventional to the traditional approach of seeking to reduce the amount of greenhouse gases we’ve emitted into the atmosphere. Instead, NETs focus on removing carbon dioxide currently present around us. NET’s can vary in size and complexity, ranging from simple techniques such as afforestation to engineering large physical systems to remove CO2 from air. However, due to the high costs in operating these systems (hundreds of dollars or more per ton of CO2), there is a wide range of opinion on how big an impact these techniques can have in addressing climate change. For now, negative emissions technologies remain more novelty than mainstream, as a host of questions – from the impact on future use of fossil fuels to policies governing the use of public land and ocean resources – wait for answers. While these questions demand robust discussion from a wide-range of expertise, progress on these technologies continue.
References:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/uhenergy/2018/09/14/negative-emissions-technologies-has-their-time-arrived/#21063c4e116c
https://www.spglobal.com/platts/en/market-insights/latest-news/electric-power/021119-december-global-electric-vehicle-sales-set-new-record-sampp-global-platts-data
Comments