Discussing circularity and AI over two consecutive DLD days has shown how closely linked they are and how technology can be the enabler at scale for a more sustainable future on Earth. We need to work with the environment and not greenwash it. AI and LLMs in particular will provide us with massive productivity gains every day, everywhere, with anything we do, how we manufacture things, how we grow things, how we get around, how we stay warm and cool things and how we can predict and prevent climate and environmental disasters. All of this can contribute to substantially lower carbon emissions.
But we need to look beyond planet Earth and use the possibilities space technologies provide. “The reason we’ve got to go to space,…, is to save the Earth,” Jeff Bezos once said. This ranges from images and data, satellite internet that eventually replaces mobile towers on Earth all the way to solar power stations in space that could beam near-limitless energy back to Earth or moving heavy industries off Earth. The combination of AI and space technologies will be very powerful and effective when tackling our troubled global realities on Earth.
A very good example for that is OroraTech. Axel Roennecke, the CCO of the company, joined me on our panel “Earth, Wind and Fire – let’s talk circularity” at DLD Circular 2023. Some 20% of the world’s carbon emissions are caused by wildfires. And this large portion is expected to grow further. Climate change is drying out our forests. This causes wildfires to be so much larger, more frequent, and deadlier. The overall economic impact is hundreds of billions every year.
Traditional technologies (watch towers, water bombing aircraft) cannot break this vicious cycle. Even if governments are investing more and more money. In the US funding for fighting wildfires has grown by double-digits, but forest fires have been more severe than ever.
We need a game changer: This is what thermal intelligence from space can do. This is done by measuring the Earth’s temperature with thermal cameras in orbit. Effectively, this is like having millions of thermometers on the ground every 200 meters.
But wildfires are just one application where thermal intelligence is essential. Managing irrigation, carbon emissions, urban heat and ocean climate – all of these applications require thermal data. AI helps – inside the camera – to determine within seconds whether a hot spot it detects is actually a fire, not a chimney or some other heat source. The information on the fire size and exact location can directly be sent from space to the user’s mobile device, within minutes.
The deployment of space technologies will accelerate once companies such as SpaceX or Relativity Space will be able to launch rockets every week. Examples like OroraTech show what massive opportunity the combination of modern technologies like AI and space will provide us with to make the future on Earth more sustainable. At scale and long-lasting.
