Hi guys! Marina Ventura here… your adventurer into the wonders of the world! I’m on a mission to explore one of the biggest adventures of the 21st century… the world of Artificial Intelligence and how it can benefit our future energy. Wanna come too? Excellent!

Today, we’re looking at how AI can help protect our planet – from saving animals and forests to even fighting climate change!

AI can help because it can process huge amounts of information and help scientists spot problems and find solutions faster than ever before.

AI-powered drones flying over forests, oceans and mountains can spot animals from the sky and identify endangered animals, track their movements and even spot poachers trying to harm them. That helps rangers protect wildlife and stop illegal hunting. AI can also help scientists study forests, checking on their health and analyse pictures taken with special satellites to see if trees are being cut down too fast.

If it spots illegal logging or damage, teams can act quickly to protect those precious trees.

Now, we all know climate change is a huge problem. AI can help predict extreme weather conditions like floods and heatwaves by studying weather patterns, helping communities prepare and minimise damage. And when disasters do happen, AI can quickly analyse what people are posting on social media and create maps showing where help is needed most, so emergency teams know exactly where to go.

Did you know that weather forecasting computers can perform 60 quadrillion – that’s a number with 16 zeros, calculations per second, running a model containing the understood physics, with over a million lines of code and using 215 billion weather observations.

AI can help farmers know exactly when to water crops or add nutrients, using data from the soil, weather and plants. It can also help farmers find effective pest control methods that don’t involve using dangerous chemicals. That means less wasted water, fewer chemicals, and healthier food.

AI even helps reduce waste. Waste management systems use cameras to sort rubbish into the right bins automatically, promoting a circular economy by maximising what we recycle. It can also plan the best routes for rubbish trucks, so they use less fuel and creating less pollution.

There’s also lots of new tech in buildings like homes and schools. AI systems can monitor how people use the buildings and control heating, lights and air conditioning so we only use energy when we need it. Even things like new smart meters can help us to use energy more efficiently.

By learning how each household uses heat and lighting, AI can help cut down on wasted power. Good for the planet and your parents’ electricity bill too.

Even renewable energy gets a boost. AI can help optimise the performance of renewable energy like wind and solar farms by anticipating energy output and controlling electricity distribution to get the most power from our sunshine and wind – certainly known to be unpredictable here in the UK!

AI is all about learning and predicting – in this case identifying when demand might be higher and therefore combining wind and solar energy into the power grid, assuring a consistent and dependable supply of clean energy.

As you can see, AI isn’t just smart, it can be green too! And that’s important because the more AI we use, the more energy we’ll need to power it.

MARINA MISSION!

So now over to you! I want you to have a think about one way AI could help the environment. Maybe it could it clean up the oceans or train seagulls to pick up litter? How about a robot that catches plastic bottles before they float out to sea?

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