AI Earth Summit — Climate Change
In the preamble to the AI Earth Summit, I introduced the eight central topics of our breakout sessions: (1) climate change, (2) biodiversity and conservation, (3) healthy oceans, (4) water security, (5) clean air, (6) weather and disaster resilience, (7) environmental injustice, and (8) sustainable mobility. In the coming weeks, we will be posting brief excerpts highlighting each of these issues. These are meant to be starting points: topics to center discussions around and begin building a contextual background for the climate crisis.
To establish a solid and consistent basis of understanding for this series of topics, we’ll begin with climate change. It is a unifying factor in all of the other issues and, for some of them, an underlying cause. As a result, climate change is not just a threat, but a multiplier of other threats. It poses long-term risks to our livelihood and survival, many of which are so widespread and intricate that they can be difficult to grasp. Attempts to address climate change span civil movements, federal regulations, and international conventions; actions attempting to address the other topics often hinge on climate change.
I could spend my time highlighting these interwoven connections, arguing the relevance of anthropogenic emissions in this issue, and discussing the high-level concerns it poses. That could offer some broad contextualization to the issue. However, in my experience, it’s difficult to build empathy and understanding towards any issue without a concrete, often personal, connection to which it can be tied back. So, rather than thinking of the abstract monster of climate change, I’d like to frame it in the concrete context of the recent California Wildfires.
California has always had fires — they are a natural part of the Californian ecosystems. However, over the past few decades, the fires have gotten bigger and more difficult to control. This isn’t directly due to climate change (nowhere has gotten hot enough to spontaneously combust), but climate change is creating optimal conditions for these fires to become more severe. In 2018, the state of California experienced record-breaking heat. Increased temperatures are also causing earlier ice melt and severe droughts, which leads to dried vegetation. These extended heatwaves and high temperatures created stronger afternoon winds. Add a lightning strike or stray cigarette butt to the mix, and the dried vegetation becomes fuel for the spark, the strong afternoon winds spread the flame, and the drought infested land lacks any breakers to stop the new megafire.
So while climate change may not directly spark a wildfire, it breeds the perfect conditions for the fires to grow larger and more destructive. Any camera can show the scars these flames can leave on the landscape, but harder to capture are the impacts they have on human health. The smoke from these fires made its way up and down the West Coast, until citizens as far north as Seattle were breathing higher levels of smoke than on the most polluted days in Beijing or Mexico City. In other words, people were going about their daily lives inhaling the equivalent of 20+ cigarettes a day. This lasted for weeks in some areas. Cities began recommending that citizens wear face masks or avoid going outside entirely. The smoke is particularly hazardous to children, the elderly, and people with preexisting conditions. In the short term, dry cough, nasal congestion, eye irritation, asthma, nausea, and dizziness are just some of the exposure risks. Increases in cardiovascular and lung disease, cancer, and dementia round off the long-term exposure risks. This isn’t even touching on the mental trauma and distress caused by the fires.
The wildfires left approximately 1.9 million acres of land in ashes, cost more than $3.5 billion in damages, and brought about the casualties of 98 civilians and 6 firefighters, applying a literal scorched-earth policy to a state that’s often considered a sort of paradise. And this is only one example of the threats climate change poses to the United States. By grounding these issues in real life, and by seeing their effects, both now and into the future of our world, we aim to build a consciousness for what can be gained by addressing these threats.
The complexity and abstract nature of climate change and its effects makes it difficult to approach or understand how it will affect our future. By introducing climate change as one of the Breakout Session discussion topics at AI Earth Summit, we aim to set a spark in conversation and consciousness, and fan a fire around addressing climate change in the broader context.
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Chloe Grubb is a senior in Robotics at Olin College of Engineering who has focused her time in user-centered (UX) design. She hopes to bridge the gap between engineering and design to create impactful experiences for users. Over the past four years, she has dedicated these skills to addressing the need for increased environmental awareness. Spearheading a Climate Action semester at her school and piloting a start-up, Drina, to allow users to make environmentally conscious decisions highlights her desire to utilize UX design to engage and excite people in the changes that need to happen for environmental stability. Being a contributor to AI Earth Summit is the next step in her environmental action involvement.
