Vietnamese Farmers Use AI to Slow Climate Change

Wildfires Lead to Contaminated Drinking Water

Around 60-65% of the U.S. drinking water comes from forested areas. As wildfires burn in those areas, they increase the risk of cancer-causing and toxic substances entering water supplies. Cleared trees and ash-covered grounds make for flash-flood conditions. When storms pass over those areas, massive amounts of carbon from burned trees and plants are introduced into nearby streams and reservoirs. Water treatment facilities may struggle to keep up, making their stores undrinkable. An estimated 53.3 million U.S. residents live in areas with significant wildfire risk, and may face damaged drinking water infrastructure from the fires. The size, intensity, and severity of the fire all factor in to the impact on clean water. With the size and severity of wildfires predicted to increase, the threat to drinking water also increases.

Daniel Wolfe and Aaron Steckelberg, The Washington Post

Reducing Prison Population to Mitigate Climate Change

The Fifth National Climate Assessment in 2023 projected that climate-related damage to state-owned infrastructure will present one of the biggest threats to Alaska in the coming years. Much of Alaska’s infrastructure was built for stable climate conditions, including it’s prisons. However, rapidly rising temperatures, permafrost degradation, flooding, melting sea ice, extreme precipitation patterns, and overcrowding of prisoners is putting the infrastructure system at risk. Environmental activists view the climate impacts to the state’s prisons as an opportunity to reevaluate the carceral system in Alaska as a way to mitigate climate change. Temperatures are rising twice as fast in Alaska compared to the global average, making it the fastest-warming state. Glacial melting alone, which can trigger landslides, avalanches, and sudden flooding, is estimated to cause over $93 million in damages to Alaska’s DOC facilities. As the climate continues to change, they will be spending more money on aging infrastructure, but activists say that if there were fewer people in prison, there would be less prisons to continually update and maintain.

Jess Zhang, The Guardian

Vietnamese Coffee Farmers Use AI to Slow Climate Change

A Singapore-based company called Enarm Agritech has developed a soil sensor that uses AI technology. This device allows farmers to receive information about their land on demand in a smartphone app by delivering information similarly to ChatGPT and allowing farmers to ask specific questions about their soil health and receive quick answers. The company says technology like this could solve the food security issue for human-kind by producing more with less by controlling the nutrients, reducing the waste, and increasing the amount of nutrients the plant can absorb. They hope to boost the amount of food grown, provide better food security, and slow climate change in the process. The company’s COO believes the technology could increase yield by 20% and cut the carbon emissions in half. It is only currently being experimented with on coffee farming, but could be used similarly in farms across the globe.

Sophie Johnson, ABC Asia

What’s in the works for ClimateWatch?

Our goal is to bring you the latest in climate issues, trends, forecasts, innovations, and more. One way we’re hoping to do that in the future is by including an in-depth analysis from one of our experts! Stay tuned for that, you won’t want to miss it.