Hard question. And what a challenge that artificial intelligence (AI), together with the Internet of Things (IoT) and Cloud computing or cloud processing, faces because human intelligence is not capable of reaching a global consensus to address one of the great evils that threaten us, and that is none other than climate change and global warming. And it is that today more than a quarter of the planet is in danger of desertification due to global warming. In Spain, for example, the Ministry for Ecological Transition estimates that the extension of the desert during this century will continue to expand across the Iberian Peninsula and will cover from the Costa del Sol to Cantabria, occupying around 80% of the country’s surface.
And it is that climate change is accelerating the processes of loss of fertile soil. Water scarcity and prolonged dry spells exacerbate this problem, especially in the southern half of Spain, where water resources are limited. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) indicates that to meet the food demand of the world population in 2050 it will be necessary to increase production by around 50%. If in Spain we do not have enough soil to increase or maintain current crops, we will find ourselves in a bleak scenario.
Microsoft is one of the companies that is betting on promoting projects with AI to accelerate the preservation of the environment. Through its AI for Earth initiative, it will invest 50 million euros in projects such as the one being developed in southeastern Spain by Cetaqua to build, with machine learning tools, geospatial data analytics techniques and artificial vision, a model predictive of the contributions and demands of water in the agricultural sector of the Murcia region.
Another example of how technology helps increase efficiency in the use of water resources is the collaboration between Microsoft and Ibercaja to support Aragonese farmers in optimizing their farms through the development of smart agriculture. By installing IoT devices in the field and analyzing data in the cloud, farmers can more efficiently consume natural resources, especially water. Artificial intelligence analyzes the evolution of environmental temperature, humidity … and thus facilitates decision-making at each moment of the production cycle. In addition, thanks to this initiative, producers can monitor their crops in real time and in detail.
Not only in Spain, Microsoft collaborates with other companies to use artificial intelligence, such as the Argentine company S4 Agtech, a pioneer in the development of the world’s first index to cover the effects of the drought. The information is obtained from a constellation of NASA satellites that is responsible for measuring the vital signs of the planet, and is analyzed with machine learning tools from the American company. Through the use of algorithms, this technology recognizes the type of crop in each satellite image and determines its growth to later turn it into a risk transfer instrument to cover crops in the event of any eventuality.
Will these few but relevant initiatives succeed in curbing desertification with the help of artificial intelligence? I am not able to answer this question, but if they proliferate, with artificial intelligence, but especially with human and emotional intelligence, it will surely help to alleviate the effects of climate change and global warming.
