Artificial intelligence can do some pretty amazing things, including for the climate. But, as with most technology, there are significant trade offs. The energy used by AI is massive and growing. 

Tech giants like Microsoft, Google and Amazon are building enormous data centers to make AI possible. Karen Hao, a contributing writer for the Atlantic who also has an engineering degree from MIT, visited one of these data centers in Arizona. It was a 97 degree day, and the data center stretched on into the desert. Hao decided she would walk around it to get a visceral idea of how big it is. She says, “Within two legs of the rectangle. I just started feeling very, very heat exhausted and I'd run out of water. It had already taken me around 20, 25 minutes and I was like, I gotta get out of here.” Companies are making huge investments in giant data centers. Hao says Microsoft alone is spending around 10 billion a quarter now on data centers. 

Most of the hype right now is around generative AI. Think: ChatGPT. As a matter of fact, the G in ChatGPT stands for generative. The basic idea is that AI is being fed our data to train models that generate more data like that. Karen Hao says, “It's taking our writing to generate more writing. It's taking our images to generate more images.” 

But not all flavors of AI use the same amount of energy. Much of theAI that might benefit the  reasons is referred to as predictiveAI. Predictive AI tends to use existing data to help it make predictions, rather than generating new sentences or images the way generative AI does. For example: it might use our images to make a prediction about what's in another image. Hao says, “Like cancer detection systems or facial recognition systems.” And predictive AI uses far less energy. This is because predictive AI is trained on a specific task, and once it achieves the desired accuracy, its energy use falls dramatically. 

Predictive AI is also being used to track emissions. Climate TRACE, an independent greenhouse gas emissions tracker backed by former Vice President Al Gore, is one such organization. Gavin McCormick, Co-Founder of Climate TRACE, says, “we can see that some steel facilities pollute about 10 times more emissions than others to produce the same product.” That data helped companies like GM and Tesla switch to steel factories that produced less emissions. McCormick says, “Our hope is that this is a way that data can make it kind of painless to reduce emissions.” 

“AI is being used in all sorts of ways to facilitate climate action from things like helping us better forecast solar power on electric power grids in order to help us balance grids with large amounts of renewables,” says Priya Donti, Assistant Professor at MIT and Co-founder and Chair of Climate Change AI. Efficiency is one of the best ways to reduce carbon pollution. If we didn't need so much power, we wouldn't need to burn so much fossil fuel. With more efficiency we could switch to renewable energy more quickly. AI can help do that, even with simple tasks like optimizing heating and cooling systems in homes and buildings to save energy.  

Nowcasting is a weather forecasting model that combines a description of the current state of the atmosphere and a short-term forecast. Amy McGovern, Professor of Computer Science at the University of Oklahoma, says, “our current average [nowcasting] warning is about 15 minutes. Can you imagine if you could bring that up to 30 minutes or 60 minutes?”  McGovern also says, “As our climate is changing, a lot of these extreme weather events are changing. And I think AI can be used to help us improve our prediction and understanding of these events and, and be able to weather them better.”

This week join Folk Alley to celebrate Earth Day, with music for and inspired by Mother Earth. Hear songs from Pete Seeger, The Mammals, Tom Rush, Joni Mitchell, Neko Case, Steve Forbert, John Prine, The High Hawks, Kacey Musgraves, and much more.

In hour two, it's new music from Dave Alvin & Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Waxahatchee, Adeem the Artist, Lemon Bucket Orkestra, Abigail Lapell, and The Brother Brothers; an excerpt from the most recent Basic Folk podcast, discussing Community vs. Capitalism; favorites from Norman Blake and Peter Ostroushko, Lonesome Ace Stringband, Annabelle Chvostek, Bill Staines, and more.

The Malawi Broadcasting Corporation recorded a goldmine of local music in the 1960s and 70s, but the tapes were neglected and close to ruined when broadcaster Waliko Makhala raised the alarm. With help from the Norwegian embassy and Norwegian broadcaster Sigbjorn Nedland, digitization got underway. In this program, we sample the results guided by Waliko, Sigbjorn and Martin White, curator of African Poems, a website dedicated to preserving poetry from around the continent. Produced by Martin White.

Writer, naturalist and activist Terry Tempest Williams asks “Can we love ourselves, each other and the Earth enough to change?” She invokes our deepest humanity to honor and protect the wilderness that’s the cauldron of evolution – and of our own imagination. “Our power lies in the love of our homelands,” she tells us in this eloquent, heartfelt tour-de-force, and protecting the wild requires bringing democracy home.

SHOW 1008 (Air Dates: April 22 - 28, 2024) Our guest this week on Art of the Song is Colorado singer/songwriter, Gabrielle Louise. She is a nationally touring troubadour noted for her poignant lyrics and lush voice. The daughter of two vagabond musicians, she inherited the genetic predisposition to wanderlust and song. Gabrielle's music is anchored deeply in folk, but undeniably drawn to rich harmonies and melodic adventurism. She is at one moment folkie and ethereal, the next moment a smoky jazz chanteuse.

This month on Climate Connections:

Air Date           Title:

Mon., 4/15 - How expectant parents can prepare for extreme weather: If extreme weather strikes during labor or soon after you give birth, you’ll need some backup options.

Tue., 4/16 - Schools in coal country are going solar: A project in Wayne County, West Virginia, will save the district enough money to pay for three teachers’ salaries.

Wed., 4/17 - What is a passive house? These ultra-efficient homes use up to 90% less energy for heating and cooling than conventional homes.

Thu., 4/18 - Exchange program make EV ownership more affordable for low-income Colorado residents: The program offers $6,000 rebates for new electric vehicles to qualifying participants.

Fri., 4/19 - A third of U.S. adults are interested in cutting back on meat, report finds: Health and cost are the driving motivations, but plant-rich meals can also help the climate.

Mon., 4/22 - What are virtual power plants? They could help utilities balance electricity supply and demand as more renewables join the grid.

Tue., 4/23 - 44% of Latinos live in U.S. counties with a high flood risk: Compared to just 35% of non-Latinos.

Wed., 4/24 - What are fuel cell EVs? They have several advantages over battery-powered EVs for trucking.   

Thu., 4/25 - ‘Just do it!’ Wisconsin couple built a net zero home: It’s equipped with electric appliances, tight insulation, and 41 solar panels.     

Fri., 4/26 - Some anglers say Rhode Island’s Block Island wind farm has improved fishing: The bases of the turbines attract fish, survey respondents reported.

Mon., 4/29 - Alaska Native community experiments with growing food above the Arctic Circle: Climate change is making some traditional foods harder to find, so community members are looking to new ways to increase food security.

Tue., 4/30 - Former school gets new life as an energy-efficient shopping center: Loan programs in 30 states are helping owners revitalize old, inefficient buildings.

Wed., 5/1 - Climate change threatens Africa’s rhinos: Extreme heat, poaching, and habitat loss are pushing the animals closer to extinction.

Thu., 5/2 - Mom fights air pollution in North Denver: Denver has some of the highest levels of ground-level ozone in the U.S.

Fri., 5/3 - Startup mimics nature to produce zero-carbon cement: Prometheus Materials is creating a cement made from algae. 

Mon., 5/6 - A chef’s kiss for induction stoves: Induction stoves are one chef’s preferred way to serve up delicious food.

Tue., 5/7 - Prescribed burning can reduce wildfire damage: Low-intensity fires help clear out dead wood and vegetation, reducing the fuel available when a wildfire comes along.

Wed., 5/8 - Why switching to an EV is good for the climate: Over its lifetime, an electric vehicle produces much less climate-warming pollution than a similar gas-powered car.

Thu., 5/9 - Field workers, farm owners, and buyers band together to protect workers from heat: Heat-related illnesses are a growing risk as the climate warms.

Fri., 5/10 - In praise of shade trees: Urban areas with trees can be as much as 15 degrees cooler Fahrenheit than areas with less foliage.