Scientists say plastic on beaches can now be seen from space

Australian researchers have developed a new method for spotting plastic rubbish on our beaches and successfully field tested it on a remote stretch of coastline

RMIT University

 

image: 

Dr Jenna Guffogg on an Australian beach

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Credit: RMIT University

Australian researchers have developed a new method for spotting plastic rubbish on our beaches and successfully field tested it on a remote stretch of coastline. 

The satellite imagery tool developed by RMIT University scientists picks up differences in how sand, water and plastics reflect light, allowing plastics to be spotted on shorelines from more than 600km above.  

Satellite technology is already used to track the massive amounts of plastic floating around our oceans – from relatively small drifts containing thousands of plastic bottles, bags and fishing nets, up to gigantic floating trash islands like the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, which is three times the size of France. 

However, the satellite technology used to spot plastic floating in water doesn’t work so well in spotting plastic lying on beaches, where it can easily blend in with the sand.  

This latest advance, published in the Marine Pollution Bulletin, means we now have an effective way to spot plastic on beaches, where it can be more easily accessed and removed by clean-up operations. 

Oceans of plastic 

We're currently sending well over 10 million tonnes of plastic trash into our oceans every year. It's estimated that by 2030 that figure could reach 60 million. 

Study lead author, Dr Jenna Guffogg, said plastic on beaches can have severe impacts on wildlife and their habitats, just as it does in open waters. 

“Plastics can be mistaken for food, larger animals become entangled and smaller ones, like hermit crabs, become trapped inside items such as plastic containers,” she said.  

“Remote island beaches have some of the highest recorded densities of plastics in the world, and we’re also seeing increasing volumes of plastics and derelict fishing gear on the remote shorelines of northern Australia.” 

Guffogg said if these plastics are not removed, they inevitably fragment further into micro and nano plastics. 

“While the impacts of these ocean plastics on the environment, fishing and tourism are well documented, methods for measuring the exact scale of the issue or targeting clean-up operations, sometimes most needed in remote locations, have been held back by technological limitations,” she said. 

How it works 

The team’s Beached Plastic Debris Index is what’s known as a spectral index, essentially a mathematical formula that sorts patterns of reflected light collected by satellites as they pass over an area, to reveal what you’re most interested in seeing from the image.  

The remote sensing team at RMIT have developed similar tools for monitoring forests and mapping bushfires from space. 

The Beached Plastic Debris Index is tailored to mapping plastic debris in beach environments using high-definition data from the WorldView-3 satellite, which orbits the earth in line with the sun at an altitude of 617 km.  

To test its performance, 14 plastic targets of around two square meters each were placed on a beach in southern Gippsland, Victoria. 

Each target was made of a different type of plastic and was smaller than the satellite’s pixel size of about 3m2. 

The satellite images using the new index were compared with three existing indices, two of which were designed for detecting plastics on land and one for detecting plastics in aquatic settings. 

The BPDI outperformed all three, with the others either struggling to differentiate plastic-contaminated pixels on the beach or tending to mis-classify shadow and water as plastic. 

Study co-author, Dr Mariela Soto-Berelov, said the enhanced separability of the BPDI against water, in addition to sand, suggests its utility is superior in environments where water pixels and plastic-contaminated pixels are likely to coexist.  

“This is incredibly exciting, as up to now we have not had a tool for detecting plastics in coastal environments from space,” she said. 

“The beauty of satellite imagery is that it can capture large and remote areas at regular intervals.  

“Detection is a key step needed for understanding where plastic debris is accumulating and planning clean-up operations, which aligns with several Sustainable Development Goals, such as Protecting Seas and Oceans.”  

Soto-Berelov said the next step is to test the BPDI’s utility in real life scenarios. 

“We’re looking to partner with organisations on the next step of this research; this is a chance to help us protect delicate beaches from plastic waste,” she said. 

Guffogg led this study as part of her joint PhD research at RMIT in Australia and University of Twente in the Netherlands, and now works in the geospatial mapping industry.  

She was supported by an Australian Government Research Training Program (RTP) scholarship. The Worldview-3 imagery was accessed via DigitalGlobe, a US geospatial imagery vendor. 

‘Beached Plastic Debris Index; A modern index for detecting plastics on beaches’ by Jenna Guffogg, Mariela Soto-Berelov, Chris Bellman, Simon Jones and Andrew Skidmore is published in Marine Pollution Bulletin, (DOI: 10.1016/j.marpolbul.2024.117124)

A beach full of plastics

Credit

RMIT University

Plastic targets set up to test the new technology

Credit

RMIT University

Journal

Marine Pollution Bulletin

DOI

10.1016/j.marpolbul.2024.117124 

Method of Research

Imaging analysis

Subject of Research

Not applicable

Article Title

Beached Plastic Debris Index; A modern index for detecting plastics on beaches

A new immersive cinema is helping firefighters to better prepare for megafires

The Conversation
September 30, 2024 

Man with fire Photo: Shutterstock

As summer approaches, the threat of bushfires looms. Earlier this month, an out-of-control blaze in Sydney’s northern beaches burnt more than 100 hectares of bushland, threatening nearby homes.

Climate change is making bushfires larger, hotter and faster. Previously unthinkable catastrophes, such as the “Black Summer” megafires in Australia in 2019/2020 and the ones that ravaged Maui, Hawaii, in August 2023, are becoming more common.

Firefighters put their lives on the line to battle these fires. Yet many are not meaningfully and comprehensively prepared to respond to erratic and extreme conflagrations. This increases their chances of being injured, or worse. It may also hinder their ability to make the best decisions.

To help address this, the University of New South Wales’ iCinema Research Centre has created iFire. This cutting-edge training system allows firefighters and emergency responders to virtually teleport into a burning landscape and train for the real thing. It could revolutionize the way we prepare for other natural disasters as well.
Megafires are becoming more common

The rate of extreme fire events has doubled over the past decade. These fires can combine with the atmosphere to produce their own weather systems, generating multiple fire fronts. As the planet continues to warm, this situation will only get worse.

Much current research is focused on understanding these worsening fire threats. This is vital. But data and charts don’t meaningfully prepare firefighters for how to respond to such extreme, unanticipated fires.

“Experiential preparedness” is the missing element.

It helps firefighters prepare by virtually experiencing and rehearsing how to respond to real and future extreme fires through immersive scenarios. This can be done in a large-scale, three-dimensional cinema or on a smart tablet or phone.

Simulating the fireground

The iFire collaboration builds on iCinema’s award-winning iCasts immersive training system for mine workers.

Since it was developed in 2008, iCasts has exposed and trained thousands of miners and planners in simulations of known threats before they go underground. This has resulted in a dramatic reduction in serious injuries at Australian mine sites and many lives saved.

iFire takes a similar approach. It uses a combination of mathematical modeling of actual fires provided by CSIRO’s Data61 research institute, advanced visualization and artificial intelligence (AI) tools to recreate immersive simulations of three real case studies: a pine plantation fire, a grass fire and the 2020 Bridger-Foothills fire in the United States.

The system puts fire crews in the centre of these simulated firegrounds using immersive cinematic scenarios. The crews feel as though they are physically present. They can experience the fire from any point of view – aerial or on the ground – at any point in time, and interactively engage with it.

Importantly, the scenarios are not static reproductions of past events. Fire crews and incident commanders can adjust variables to experience the influence of changes in conditions. For example, they can change the air temperature or wind direction and see how this affects the dynamic behavior of the fire in real time.

This allows them to better perceive risks and practice making key decisions in preparation for when they are on the actual firegrounds and under enormous pressure to act fast.
A more advanced system

iFire is already in the hands of those who need it. It has recently been installed at the Fire and Rescue NSW Emergency Services Academy in Sydney using a 130‑degree, three-dimensional, cinematic theatre.

The UNSW iCinema Centre and Fire and Rescue NSW will use iFire to develop training modules for frontline response. These modules will provide simulations where fire crews practice how to be situationally aware in the face of an unpredictable fire situation. They learn how to make the best decisions in managing the unfolding fire.

But the iFire team is working towards building a more advanced AI system that learns the underlying and unforeseen patterns of fire behavior to create more precise and detailed simulations of these unpredictable fires.

This will enable incident commanders and firefighters to engage with unanticipated fireground threats and better prepare to protect people and property under threat from flames.

The longer-term goal is that the iFire system will ultimately enable firefighters on a tablet or any other smart screen device in any location to experience the look and feel of a possible future fire scenario in real time. This won’t be as immersive, but it will be effective for use in the field when managing a fire and will improve tactical and strategic responses.

Although iFire has been specially designed for firefighters, the technology behind it can be tweaked for many purposes. For example, it can be used to help better train and prepare emergency service workers for other natural disasters such as floods and earthquakes.


Dennis Del Favero, ARC Laureate Fellow and executive director, iCinema Research Centre, UNSW Sydney; Michael J. Ostwald, Professor of Architectural Analytics, UNSW Sydney, and Yang Song, Scientia Associate Professor, School of Computer Science and Engineering, UNSW Sydney

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Bushfires in northern New Caledonia, forests destroyed

Patrick Decloitre, Correspondent French Pacific Desk


Bushfire risk high in New Caledonia . Photo: Association des Sapeurs Pompiers du SIVM Nord

New Caledonia is gripped by a series of bushfires, especially the north-western tip of the main island of Grande Terre, with local firefighters strongly suspicious of criminal motives.

Since early September, local firefighters have been trying to contain several bushfires in the northern region, especially near the small towns of Koumac, Pouembout and Kaala-Gomen, in the Northern Province.

On Tuesday, local government President Louis Mapou declared a level 2 emergency situation on the communes of Koumac and Kaala-Gomen, where fire and emergency services (mostly volunteer) teams were still struggling to extinguish several blazes.

At least one house was reported to have been destroyed, and over one thousand hectares of forests and bushes had already gone up in flames, along the main provincial road RT1.

The road has had to be closed on several occasions, local media reported.

New Caledonian fire-fighters on site in Pouembout, extreme north-west of the main island of Grande Terre, on 7 September 2024. Photo: NC la 1ere
'Not natural origin'

The volunteers have also received backup from the local civil security services.

Warrant officer Kevin Leclerc, who heads the local firefighting services, told local radio RRB that he no longer believes those fires are of "natural origin".

"We must stop believing that it is of natural origin. These fires have been set alight," he said.

"We do not really understand what game the arsonist is playing, but he sure does a lot of damage.

"And only with everyone's vigilance will we perhaps stop this. Because we are really in the risky period of the year, plus the weather, this really means we cannot play with fire at the moment."

But Civil Security director Frédéric Marchi-Leccia had a less definitive approach, recalling that winds, scorching and dry weather remained a contributing factor to fan the fires.

"What is true is that most of those fires are of human origin, voluntary or not," he told RRB earlier this month.

Bushfire in Kaala-Gomen along the territorial road RP1 on 17 September 2024. Photo: Supplied

He said he did not know whether there is a link with the insurrectional situation with arson and looting, especially in the capital Nouméa.

But he feared that as a consequence of the current unrest, with firemen often called for urban fires, the civil security services could become over-stretched and "overwhelmed".

This year again, he has called for reinforcements.

Some firefighting units have arrived over the past four months, but because of the unrest, they are more specialised in urban, building fires.

"So it's not the same as bushfires," he pointed out.

"Our firemen, civil security and communal ones, volunteers, they are very brave, they are resilient, but they are tired, and this makes me fear the risk of human accident.

"Our means are not stretchable forever. So at one stage, things could get out of control. And then the situation could turn catastrophic."

Earlier this month, several other fires had already prompted another intervention from local firefighters, who managed to extinguish the blaze, but some 40 hectares of bushes had already been destroyed.

Last weekend, there was another wave of fires that had to be extinguished in nearby Poum.

Altogether, emergency services have listed over fifteen towns and villages in the region as "very high risk" zones.

During the previous season, which ended in March 2024 and was also marked by thousands of hectares of vegetation going up in flames, New Caledonia had to request reinforcement from mainland France firefighters.

Several individuals have been charged with arson for last season's fires.

The seasonal trade winds are also not helping, as New Caledonia's north has entered its driest season of the year a few weeks ago, and August has been recorded this year as one of the hottest in decades.

But just like last season, firemen have sometimes witnessed scenes where, on several occasions, not long after they had just extinguished a fire, it was re-ignited at the same location or nearby.

Citizen scientists can help save Australia’s threatened species if we give them more direction

New research examines how citizen science data contributes to decisions by governments and conservation organisations about which species are at risk of extinction, and how they can be conserved.


BY ERIN ROGER, JASMIN G PACKER, JODI ROWLEY, RACHAEL GALLAGHER, THOMAS MESAGLIO2 SEPTEMBER 20244 MIN READ

Across Australia and around the world, citizen scientists are protecting species by recording sightings, surveying landscapes and collecting samples. No job is too big or too small. As wildlife ecologists, we are indebted to this army of volunteers.

Citizen scientists are everyday people, who are not necessarily experts but who conduct scientific research. There are more than 100,000 citizen scientists in Australia alone. As a nation, we’re the third-biggest contributor to the global citizen science platform iNaturalist. This is staggering considering our relatively small population.

We wanted to find out how citizen science data contributes to decisions by governments and conservation organisations about which species are at risk of extinction, and how they can be conserved.

One of the main ways to help conserve biodiversity is through species extinction risk assessments. These allow scientists and decision-makers to determine how threatened a species is and the best ways to protect it.

Because citizen scientists collect so much data on biodiversity, this information could dramatically improve our ability to accurately assess species. But how useful is citizen science data in achieving this goal? Our new research set out to answer this question.

While we found room for improvement, it’s important to recognise and celebrate the immense value of citizen science data. We would be lost without it.


Citizen science projects can connect communities to biodiversity research and create passionate environmental advocates. © Benjamin Fleming


5 types of citizen science data

Our first step was to summarise what types of data citizen scientists are collecting. We found five key types:evidence that a species occurs at a specific location (usually an image or sound recording including the date and time)
evidence that a species has not been recorded at a specific location
answers to a set of questions about a species and its environment
physical samples such as scat (poo), soil or water samples
collected stories or oral histories, including the voices of First Nations people.

We then considered each data type in terms of its use in addressing the globally accepted criteria for assessing extinction risk. The criteria are set by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), an international organisation devoted to nature conservation and the sustainable use of natural resources.


Searching for fungi with coauthor Jasmin Packer in the Adelaide Hills. © University of Adelaide/Nelson Da Silva


Room to improve

We found the data citizen scientists typically collect were often not what was most needed to assess extinction risk under IUCN criteria.

Meeting the criteria requires more than just a record of a species occurring at a given location. Detailed information such as geographic range, and evidence of population decline, is also required.

So simply encouraging citizen scientists to record more ad hoc observations of species is not the best way to inform threatened species listing. Unfortunately, this means the assessment process can’t always benefit from the great work being done.

People charged with assessing a species’ conservation status could make better use of citizen science data. While this wasn’t an explicit finding of the research, the IUCN recognises this. Its recent white paper examines how Indigenous and local knowledge could be better harnessed.

There are ways to ensure citizen science data is better used to inform IUCN assessments. They can include:planning projects from the outset to ensure the required data is captured
asking citizen scientists to complete structured ecological surveys or collect specific samples
integrating citizen scientist data with that collected by professional scientists.

But our research also revealed good news! We found new methods of data analysis – such as extracting population numbers – are helping scientists use citizen science more effectively.


Getting a closer look at a colourful Cortinarius sinapicolor mushroom for Fungimap. © University of Adelaide/Nelson Da Silva


Australian success stories: Fungimap and FrogID

Some citizen science projects in Australia are feeding into threatened species assessments. We described two of them in our research.

The first is Fungimap, which coauthor Jasmin Packer is involved with. Members record and map fungi through iNaturalist. These records have enabled threat assessments for at least 13 species.

In Fungimap, scientists have added extra information to the data collection fields – such as habitat and what the fungus is growing in (animal, soil or wood) – to make records more useful for assessing whether a species is threatened.

The second is FrogID, led by coauthor Jodi Rowley. It’s a free smartphone app that enables people to record frog calls. Frog experts then identify which species is making the call. More than one million frog records have been collected this way in about six years.

FrogID data helped scientists understand frog persistence after the catastrophic 2019–20 bushfires in southeast Australia. Several species, including the sphagnum frog, have now been listed as threatened using FrogID data alongside professional data.

In both projects, scientists review the images and sound recordings. This ensures their accuracy and means the data is more likely to be included in government databases. Professional scientists also tell citizen scientists what they need to help provide the knowledge needed to assess a species’ extinction risk.


New England tree frog (Litoria subglandulosa). © Jodi Rowley/Australian Museum


Here’s how to get involved

Citizen science observations are now the largest source of open-source biodiversity data in Australia. It’s important to ensure the data we’re collecting keeps growing.

There are many ways to get involved. The Australian Citizen Science Association website hosts a helpful project finder. You can search for projects in your local area, on a particular subject or theme, or focus on projects suitable for children or beginners.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Fires erupt in five villages in Barwarî Bala as a result of Turkish bombardments

Bushfires were raging in five villages in Barwarî Bala as a result of Turkish bombardments.


ANF
NEWS DESK
Monday, 26 August 2024, 08:33

Bushfires, some of them severe, were raging in five villages in Barwarî Bala as a result of Turkish bombardments on Sunday. According to the NGO Community Peacemaker Teams (CPT) based in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, the villages affected by the fires were Mêrga Qesrê, Girê Sor, Elkîşkê, Cembelkê and Bêlîzanê.

CPT spokesman Kamaran Osman told RojNews news agency that Elkîşkê is particularly at risk. From Sunday morning, the flames surrounded not only several houses, cultivated areas and a cemetery, but also the access road to the village.

At least nineteen families in the village were trapped and had to wait for hours to be evacuated despite requests for help. Osman had no information on injuries or deaths. Regarding the extent of the destruction caused by the flames, he said: "We estimate that around 240 hectares of cultivated and farmland have burned so far."

The bush fires were ignited by heavy shelling by unmanned drones of the Turkish army.

Barwarî Bala - or Berwarî Bala depending on the dialect - which belongs to the Duhok governorate and borders Amêdî, is located with its garden-rich valleys in the southern Kurdish part of the Hekarî Mountains, which are considered a historical Assyrian settlement area. Very close by is the densely populated district of Kanî Masî, in the surrounding area of ​​which the Turkish army already operates several military bases and which serves as a kind of base for Turkey's ongoing occupation offensive in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. The KDP, which dominates the government in Hewlêr (Erbil), supports Ankara's occupation campaign.

Turkish war policy in South Kurdistan

Since the Turkish invasion was expanded in June, the military has regularly set fire to civilian settlements in South Kurdistan - in addition to heavy daily bombings from the ground and air. The aim is to force the population to move. According to the Community Peacemaker Teams, numerous villages in the area around Kanî Masî have already been depopulated as a result of Turkish military violence, and other villages are threatened with the same fate. The international community is ignoring Turkey's crimes in its neighboring country.

Australia greenlights world's 'largest' solar hub

Agence France-Presse
August 21, 2024 

Australia is moving forward with plans for a massive solar project, with energy production expected to begin in 2030 (STR)

Australia on Wednesday approved plans for a massive solar and battery farm that would export energy to Singapore, a project billed as the "largest solar precinct in the world".

Authorities announced environmental approvals for SunCable's US$24 billion project in Australia's remote north that is slated to power three million homes.

The project, which will include an array of panels, batteries and, eventually, a cable linking Australia with Singapore, is backed by tech billionaire and green activist Mike Cannon-Brookes.

"It will be the largest solar precinct in the world –- and heralds Australia as the world leader in green energy," said Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek.

It is hoped that energy production will begin in 2030, providing four gigawatts of energy for domestic use.

Two more gigawatts would be sent to Singapore via undersea cable, supplying about 15 percent of the city-state's needs.

SunCable Australia's managing director Cameron Garnsworthy said the approval was "a landmark moment in the project's journey".

Despite Wednesday's green light, numerous approval processes and other hurdles remain.

The project depends on sign off from Singapore's energy market authority, Indonesia's government and Australian Indigenous communities.

"SunCable will now focus its efforts on the next stage of planning to advance the project towards a final investment decision targeted by 2027," said Garnsworthy.

- 'Clean energy powerhouse' -

Countries around the world are racing to bring major solar projects online to ease the transition away from polluting fossil fuels.

China leads the way, and is building almost twice as much wind and solar capacity as every country combined.

Earlier this year it brought online the 3.5 gigawatt Midong solar farm, its largest facility so far.

In contrast, Australia remains one of the world's leading exporters of coal and gas, despite being ravaged by the effects of climate change -- from intense heat to floods and bushfires.

And although Australians are among the world's most enthusiastic adopters of household solar panels, a string of governments have been hesitant to embrace renewables.

In 2022, renewables made up 32 percent of Australia's total electricity generation -- compared to coal, which contributed 47 percent, according to the latest government data.

Plibersek hailed the project as a way of meeting Australia's projected energy shortfall, and creating "14,300 new jobs in northern Australia".

Director of the Energy Change Institute at the Australian National University Ken Baldwin said the project was a "world first" for exporting renewable electricity from solar and wind on such a scale.

"Australia has some of the best solar and wind resources of any country, and as a result, is installing solar and wind at one of the fastest rates of any country in the world on a per capita basis," he told AFP.

But this momentum must continue, particularly if Australia is to meet its net zero targets by 2050, Baldwin said.

"Australia has, over the last five years, invested heavily in solar and wind, but it needs to double and triple that investment in order to reach its climate trajectory towards a net zero future by 2050."

He added that by the 2030s, Australia will need about 100 gigawatts of solar and wind capacity -- the SunCable project will only provide four gigawatts of that need.

Climate Council chief executive Amanda McKenzie said the new solar hub was a bold step in making Australia a "clean energy powerhouse" and that such projects were essential in "delivering affordable energy and slashing climate pollution".

"With the closure of coal-fired power stations on the horizon, Australia needs to accelerate the roll-out of solar and storage at every level—rooftops, large-scale projects, and everything in between," she said.

The project would also be a significant step for Cannon-Brookes, who once described the project as "insane" before becoming an enthusiastic investor.

From climate change to landfill, AI promises to solve Earth’s big environmental problems – but there’s a hitch

AI-powered 'smart cities' technologies help make public transport systems work more smoothly, which can reduce congestion and minimise vehicle emissions

PTI Sydney 

Published 06.08.24

Representational imageTTO Graphics

Artificial intelligence (AI) has revolutionised our lives in myriad ways, from personalising our social media feeds to giving us driving directions and monitoring our health.

In recent years, hopes have grown that AI may also help humanity tackle global environmental problems such as climate change.

AI involves using computers to make them think like humans. It can solve complex problems and process huge amounts of data.

Also Read
Artificial intelligence will take over the world, but first it has to stop hallucinating

But the technology brings with it a host of environmental costs. Here, we weigh up the pros and cons.


4 ways AI can help the natural world


Energy efficiency AI systems can control and optimise energy use. For example, AI-powered “smart grids” monitor and manage electricity generation to meet the demand of consumers, which can both lower energy costs and allow for more efficient energy use.


AI can also help streamline the energy used by big commercial and industrial systems. Tech giant Google, for instance, used AI to cut the amount of energy required to cool its data centres by 40%.


Urban Infrastructure Waste management systems driven by AI may help increase recycling rates. In the United Kingdom, for example, recycling company Recycleye uses AI to identify materials for sorting, lowering contamination rates and increasing recycling volumes – and so, reducing pressure on landfill.


And AI-powered “smart cities” technologies help make public transport systems work more smoothly, which can reduce congestion and minimise vehicle emissions.


Artificial intelligence can also be deployed to improve air quality in cities. IBM, for example, uses the technology to analyse weather and air pollution data from sensors and satellites. This can help authorities pinpoint pollution sources, make air quality forecasts and issue health alerts.


Sustainable agriculture


AI-powered smart machines, robots and sensors are already used in agriculture.


They can provide real-time monitoring of weather, soil conditions and crop needs, leading to better water use and ensuring crops receive only what they need.


The technology can also identify pests, reducing the need to spray chemical pesticides on crops.


As climate change worsens, there are hopes AI can help farmers avoid reduced crop yields and become more resilient.


Environmental monitoring


AI systems can forecast floods, bushfires and other natural hazards quickly and accurately. This can minimise the effects of natural hazards on both the environment and communities.


AI can be used to track environmental change. For example, it can reportedly measure changes in icebergs 10,000 times faster than a human can.


Meanwhile, environmental group The Nature Conservancy uses AI to minimise the environmental impacts of hydropower across the Amazon.


But what about the downsides?


The path to realising the potential of AI is fraught – and the technology comes with several major downsides, as outlined below.


Energy use


Artificial intelligence guzzles a huge amount of energy. First the computer models must be “trained”, or fed a large set of data. This feeding can be relatively quick, or take up to several months – during which time big data processors are running 24/7.


And when we ask AI to solve a problem, this also requires processing power which consumes energy. Advanced AI models such as ChatGPT reportedly use ten times more energy per search than a conventional Google search, according to one estimate. Only a small fraction of this demand is met by renewable energy sources.


The International Energy Agency projects electricity consumption from data centres, AI and cryptocurrency sector could double in the four years to 2026, from 460 terawatt-hours in 2022 to more than 1,000 terrawatt-hours in 2026.


By comparison, total electricity generation in Australia in 2022 was around 273 terawatt-hours.


Greener AI systems are urgently needed – and this is looking increasingly possible. Studies have shown the energy use of AI-based computer models can be slashed through various means, such as reducing a model’s complexity without affecting its performance.


Water impacts


The water requirements of AI are significant. The data centres housing powerful AI servers generate a lot of heat. Water is used in cooling to keep the servers at operating temperature.


AI also consumes water indirectly through its energy consumption. Coal-fired power stations use water for cooling, and water is also lost through evaporation from hydro electricity schemes.


And as others have noted, the mining and manufacturing required to produce AI hardware both uses and pollutes water.


Broader environmental damage


The environmental impact of AI goes beyond its energy use. For example, as Scientific American has reported, ExxonMobil in 2019 partnered with Microsoft to deploy AI in oil extraction, substantially increasing production.


As the article also noted, the use of AI in targeted online advertising – on platforms such as Instagram and Facebook – creates demand for material goods. This leads to greater consumption of mass-produced items which creates carbon emissions and uses Earth’s natural resources.


Where to now?


As AI becomes more integrated into modern life, its environmental footprint will grow. Humanity must find the right balance to ensure AI helps the Earth, rather than harms it.


To better achieve this, standard criteria must be developed to accurately measure the effects of AI on the environment.


There is also a push from some quarters for more environmental regulation of AI, and greater transparency from companies about their AI-related emissions.


But efforts to make AI more environmentally friendly will struggle for public and industry acceptance if the effectiveness of AI systems is sacrificed. To avoid this, stronger collaboration between researchers and the AI industry is needed.


The Conversation


Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by The Telegraph Online staff and has been published from a syndicated feed.

Rare sighting of Britain's loudest bird at County Durham nature reserve

Tom Burgess
Sun, 4 August 2024 


Bittern sighting at Rainton Meadows (Image: Brian Howes)


An amateur photographer has captured the moment a rare Bittern appeared at a County Durham nature reserve.

Brian Howes, 75, heard that there had been glimpses of the elusive booming bird at Rainton Meadows.

After a fruitless morning on Monday and a second attempt in the afternoon that day he went home to Great Lumley disappointed.


Mr Howes caught a glimpse of the bittern on Wednesday, but it was not until Friday morning that he got a full look at the majestic booming bird in flight.

(Image: Brian Howes)

He said: "It was first spotted in Rainton Meadows on Monday, it's been in the reeds all week.

"I went down this morning and it poked its head up before taking flight and going back into the reeds.

"It was beautiful. Someone was saying it has been 10 or 15 years since we had one hanging around for a few days.

"It is especially rare to see one in Rainton Meadows.

(Image: Brian Howes)

"We have seen them flying past overhead but not sticking around.

"It was just nice to see it and with the sun shining too. That made the pictures even nicer."

Bitterns are Britain's loudest birds and they were nearly driven to extinction in the 1870s because of over hunting.

Their numbers are still low but conservation efforts are working and the occasional sighting of them is made in the North East.

In 2012, a male bittern was heard booming for the very first time at RSPB Saltholme, in Stockton, in an attempt to attract a female but was sadly unsuccessful.

Then in 2022 a male Bittern was once again heard booming and this time sightings of regular feeding flights to a nest indicated a successful breeding pai



One of Australia’s most elusive birds, a 2,200km journey and a mid-winter mystery solved

Andrew Stafford

THE GUARDIAN
Sat, 3 August 2024 


A 2020 survey estimated there may be as few as 340 Australian painted-snipe remaining in the wild.Photograph: Peter Stevens


It had been three months without a peep, and the ecologist Matt Herring thought Gloria had perished. He had captured the elusive bird on 22 October 2023, on a property north of Balranald in New South Wales – the first Australian painted-snipe to be fitted with a satellite tracker.

But contact had been lost, and there was a sticky complication: Gloria’s tracker had been financed by a successful crowdfunding campaign. Herring started preparing an obituary for the avian pioneer for her species.

And then she reappeared – more than 1,000km north of where she was first captured, near Birdsville in outback Queensland. Herring guesses the tiny solar panel on the two-gram tracker may have been obscured by one of the bird’s feathers, causing the outage.

The second painted-snipe he’d caught, Marcelina, had made an even more epic journey from the same Balranald property. Captured on 3 January this year, she is now in Daly Waters in the Top End – a journey of more than 2,200km, as the painted-snipe flies.

The Australian painted-snipe is an enigmatic waterbird, most active from dusk to dawn. They hide in vegetation during the day, camouflaged by intricately patterned plumage. Almost all sightings are in summer, suggesting the species is at least partially migratory or nomadic.

Herring’s project, Australian Painted-snipe Tracking, aims to uncover where the birds go during winter. It’s becoming clear why, until now, no one knew. “When you look at where these two birds have gone, they’re some of the most remote parts of the country,” he said.

By tracing its movements, Herring hopes to help save one of our least-known and rarest species. The 2020 Action Plan for Australian Birds – which summarises the conservation status of all Australian avifauna – estimated there may be as few as 340 remaining in the wild.

However, Herring said that figure is likely to be underestimated. Consecutive La Nina years since the report was published have gone some way to replenishing water flows in the Murray-Darling basin, where the bird breeds.

But Herring cautioned that while overall numbers had probably been boosted, there had not been the dramatic jump in sightings recorded in 2011–2012, after the breaking of the millennium drought.

About 400 Australian painted-snipe were logged during that period. In the two years before the black summer bushfires, however, the species was recorded from just half a dozen locations, raising grave fears for their survival.

By comparison, between July and December last year, 61 birds were recorded from 25 sites, suggesting only a partial recovery. This was during a period Herring said “more people were out looking than ever”, after a post-Covid boom in birdwatching.

It’s great to figure out their movement patterns, but the key is actually having sites to organise conservation

Matt Herring

Herring said satellite-tracking the birds was the most efficient way of monitoring the specie’s movements. This in turn was helping to identify the painted-snipe’s habitat requirements, and where conservation efforts needed to be targeted.

The first six months of data provided by the movements of Gloria and Marcelina had pinpointed the locations of over a dozen individual wetlands used by the species across three states, plus the Northern Territory.

“That gives us the opportunity to work with those wetland managers, be they farmers or traditional owners or national park rangers,” Herring said. “It’s great to figure out their movement patterns, but the key is actually having sites to organise conservation for them.”

Remarkably, surveys conducted over summer showed Australian painted-snipe making extensive use of human-modified habitat, with a gathering of about 25 birds feeding in flooded wheat stubble on the property where Marcelina and Gloria were tagged.

The landowners, Peter and Sue Morton, are making dedicated changes of their own to benefit the birds, using designated environmental flows to help create a mixture of shallow water, mudflats and low cover the painted-snipe naturally favour.

“I do a lot of bird photography, so I had cameras everywhere set up,” Morton said. “I pumped a bit of water [into the channel] out of the firefighting unit and you wouldn’t believe it, the footage came back and there were 10 painted-snipe there, including Gloria.”

He said he was now working on fencing off the woodland. “I’m on a Cat loader now and I’ve got four blokes putting up an exclusion fence,” he said. “We’re putting the exclusion fence up to keep the stock out.”

Related: Leonardo DiCaprio calls on Australia to save critically endangered swift parrot

The New South Wales Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water recently announced it had partnered with the Commonwealth environmental water holder to manage the area specifically for Australian painted-snipe.

Herring said it was the first government-sponsored, targeted conservation initiative for the Australian painted-snipe. He said that it would also benefit other threatened species, including fish such as the southern pygmy perch, and frogs like the southern bell frog.

He said that crowdfunding for conservation work was a good way to engage people directly in species’ recovery – though he agreed it was a poor precedent, since the protection of nationally threatened species is a federal government responsibility.

But, he said, the plight of the Australian painted-snipe was too urgent to wait. “A lot of large-scale conservation and academic research funds can take six months or a year,” he said. “What are we going to do, just sit around and wait for new funding streams to be announced?”

This article was amended on 4 August 2024. An earlier version stated Australian painted-snipes were fitted with radio transmitters; the birds were fitted with satellite trackers.

A Canadian Wildfire Grew So Intense It Made Its Own Weather

WORD OF THE DAY; PYROCUMULONIMBUS

Austyn Gaffney
Updated Sat, July 27, 2024 

A helicopter buckets water onto smouldering fires outside Jasper, Alberta, Canada, on Friday July 26, 2024. AMBER BRACKEN/Pool via REUTERS


Officials said Thursday that they feared as much as half the town of Jasper, Alberta, had been destroyed by wildfires so intense they generated their own weather.

“It’s a sad day here because Jasper is such a gorgeous place,” Mike Flannigan, a professor of wildland fire at Thompson Rivers University in British Columbia, said Thursday.

The town is the gateway to Jasper National Park, a crown jewel of the Canadian parks system. At least 25,000 residents and tourists were evacuated from their homes before firefighters and emergency personnel also had to flee toxic smoke. The mayor called the destruction “almost beyond comprehension.”

That fire was worsened by a pyrocumulonimbus, or a fire-generated thunderstorm, according to Flannigan.

“They’re by far the most intense fires in the world,” he said.

What are these storms?

A pyrocumulonimbus is a huge, smoke-filled thunderstorm generated when the intense heat from wildfires combines with atmospheric conditions ripe for storm formation.

Although these heat-generated storms don’t produce much rain, they can create other types of weather such as hail, strong winds, lightning and tornadoes. Tornadolike winds were reported near the Park fire, which is burning in California.

These storms can also create smoke plumes that can surpass the cruising altitude of a commercial aircraft. They act like a giant chimney: Smoke is pulled up from the wildfire and as the air escapes, more air moves quickly in at the ground level, feeding the fire more oxygen before funneling up and away.

This feedback loop can push out so many smoke particles that the result can be similar to a volcanic eruption.

In the 2019-20 Black Summer fire season in Australia, for example, 38 such storms, also known as pyroCbs, were observed. They injected enough smoke into the atmosphere that scientists likened it to a nuclear winter.

Wildfires that are exacerbated by these types of storms can become nearly impossible to put out. They’re also more hazardous for firefighters, creating more extreme wind conditions and darkening skies.

“They tried to put helicopters on it,” Flannigan said of the wildfires that fueled at least two of these storms this week near Jasper. “They couldn’t stop it, which is unfortunate because it led to a good chunk of the town burning down.”

Why are fire-generated storms happening more often?

Unlike the study of other extreme weather events such as heat waves and hurricanes, the study of these storms is relatively new in scientific circles.

Because data only dates to 2013, it’s difficult to determine a trend, said David Peterson, a meteorologist at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory in Monterey, California.

“There’s been an increasing number of large and intense wildfires in North America in recent years that likely would suggest there would be more pyroCbs,” Peterson said. “But we still don’t know enough.”

But over the past decade, the number of these storms has grown.

In 2017, four pyroCbs in British Columbia created a volcanic-scale smoke plume that traveled around the globe, lasting more than six months. Then, the Black Summer in Australia sent a smoke plume up that lasted more than year. In 2021, 100 pyroCbs were recorded worldwide, but 2023 shattered that record with 169.

Western Canada seems to be a hot spot. The country’s 2023 fire season spawned 142 of these storms, almost tripling its previous record of 50 in 2021.

Although research has yet to link these types of storms to climate change, studies show that as climate change increases how often extreme wildfires happen, they could also become more frequent.

“In a general sense, if you have more fires, you’ll have more pyroCbs because there are more opportunities to have them sink up, but it depends on atmospheric conditions, too,” Peterson said. “An intense wildfire definitely increases the odds.”

More than 50 pyroCbs have been observed in western North America so far this year, which already puts 2024 in the top three years in the 12-year-old record.

When will we know more?

In October, Peterson and his partners will begin a five-year, NASA-funded study to better understand the effect these wildfires could have on our climate.

“The big open question right now is what is the role of pyroCbs in a warming climate system?” Peterson said. “What are the effects of pushing smoke up extremely high into the stratosphere, especially when smoke that high persists for a year?”

The study will use two NASA aircraft: one that can fly up to 70,000 feet above the storm, requiring the pilot to wear a spacesuit, and a second that can fly through the storm’s upper clouds. The aircraft will collect data in the summers of 2026 and 2027.

In the meantime, the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory is also working with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and other agencies to develop a more sophisticated warning system. The science is complex because it merges wildfire science with thunderstorm meteorology.

“We need to develop a warning capability for fires that are more likely to generate pyroCbs because it means something different if you’re fighting it, evacuating people, and predicting where the smoke is going,” Peterson said. “Right now, we’re in catch-up mode.”

c.2024 The New York Times Company

Posted in:  Weather  

Posted on:  15 July 2020

Read time:  1 minute

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Pyrocumulonimbus Clouds

Pyrocumulonimbus clouds are thunder clouds created by intense heat from the Earth’s surface. They are formed similarly to cumulonimbus clouds, but the intense heat that results in the vigorous updraft comes from fire, either large wildfires or volcanic eruptions. So it is, for this reason, the prefix ‘pyro’ is used – meaning fire in Greek.

Pyrocumulonimbus clouds were reported during the Australian bushfires in late 2019/early 2020, and a number have more recently been observed in Siberia with the Arctic heatwave. These intense wildfires reach temperatures above 800°C and can essentially create their own weather systems.

The hot smoke released from these fires acts as a plume of heat into the atmosphere. Hot and very buoyant, the air in the plume rapidly rises. As it rises, it cools and expands. Once cooled sufficiently, water vapour condenses on the ash to form a grey or brown cloud above the plume. At this stage, the cloud is called a pyrocumulus. Still, if enough water vapour is available and the updraft intensifies, it can develop into a pyrocumulonimbus cloud. Then, similar to other thunderstorms, there may be a downburst of intense localised rain. This rain can create a downdraft of cooler air, which can then carry embers from the fire, igniting spot fires away from the source. In some cases, dry lightning from these storms can strike without rain, further spreading the wildfire. They have also been known to dangerously generate fire tornadoes.

Pyrocumulonimbus clouds are thought to be responsible for several aerosol pollutants (such as smoke and ash) trapped in the stratosphere and upper atmosphere. However, a paper by the American Meteorological Society, ‘The Untold Story of Pyrocumulonimbus’, re-evaluated the data from previous stratosphere studies to conclude that volcanic eruptions had been wrongly attributed to these pollutants. Dr Glenn K. Yue, one of the paper’s authors, stated in an article by NASA that one of the reasons for this misinterpretation was that it was initially thought the only force strong enough to penetrate the tropopause in a short period was a volcanic eruption.

As our climate changes, these unusual but significant storms could occur more frequently due to hotter and drier conditions increasing the risk of wildfires.

 

Complex impact of large wildfires on ozone layer dynamics unveiled

by Chinese Academy of Sciences

Credit: Vladyslav Dukhin from Pexels

In a revelation that highlights the fragile balance of our planet's atmosphere, scientists from China, Germany, and the U.S. have uncovered an unexpected link between massive wildfire events and the chemistry of the ozone layer. Published in Science Advances, this study reveals how wildfires, such as the catastrophic 2019/20 Australian bushfires, impact the stratosphere in previously unseen ways.

The ozone layer, a crucial shield protecting life on Earth from harmful ultraviolet (UV) radiation, has been on a path to recovery thanks to the Montreal Protocol. This landmark international treaty, adopted in 1987, successfully phased out the production of numerous substances responsible for ozone depletion.

Over the past decades, the ozone layer has shown significant signs of healing, a testament to global cooperation and environmental policy.

However, the stability of this vital atmospheric layer is now facing a new and unexpected challenge. During the 2019/20 Australian wildfires, researchers observed a dramatic increase in stratospheric aerosols—tiny particles that can influence climate, health and atmospheric chemistry.

Utilizing advanced satellite data and numerical models, the research team successfully demonstrated the impact of wildfires through a novel phenomenon: the smoke-charged vortex (SCV).

"The SCV is a powerful, smoke-laden whirlpool that transports wildfire emissions into the stratosphere, reaching altitudes of up to 35 kilometers," explained Prof. Hang Su from the Institute of Atmospheric Physics at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, one of the corresponding authors of the study.

"This process led to at least a doubling of the aerosol burden in the southern hemisphere's middle stratosphere. These aerosols, once reaching such high altitudes, initiated a series of heterogeneous reactions that impacted ozone concentrations."

The international team discovered that these wildfire-induced aerosols facilitated heterogeneous chemical reactions, which paradoxically led to both ozone depletion and ozone increase at different atmospheric layers.

While the lower stratosphere experienced significant ozone loss, they found that the enhanced chemical reactions on aerosols at higher altitudes, i.e., the middle stratosphere, lead to increase of ozone. In Southern Mid-Latitudes, this complex interplay managed to buffer approximately 40% (up to 70%) of the ozone depletion observed in the lower stratosphere in the following months of the mega-bushfire events.

So why does this matter?

"Our study demonstrates an unexpected and crucial mechanism, by which the absorbing aerosols in wildfire smoke, such as black carbon, can induce and sustain enormous smoke-charged vortices spanning thousands of kilometers," said Prof. Yafang Cheng, another corresponding author from the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry.

"These vortices can persist for months, carrying aerosols deeply into the stratosphere and affecting the ozone layer in distinct ways at different altitudes. This highlights the need for continued vigilance and research as climate change progresses."

The ozone layer's role in filtering UV radiation is crucial for protecting all life forms on Earth. The Montreal Protocol's success in reducing ozone-depleting substances was a monumental achievement, but the new findings highlight that natural events, exacerbated by climate change, pose additional risks to this fragile layer.

With the increasing frequency and intensity of wildfires driven by global warming, the formation of SCVs and their impact on the stratosphere could become more common, threatening the delicate balance of the ozone layer.

This study opens new avenues for research into how wildfire and other climate-driven events might influence stratospheric chemistry and ozone dynamics in the future.

More information: Chaoqun Ma et al, Smoke-charged vortex doubles hemispheric aerosol in the middle stratosphere and buffers ozone depletion, Science Advances (2024). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adn3657. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adn3657

Journal information: Science Advances 

Provided by Chinese Academy of Sciences 

Spillover of tropospheric ozone is affecting measurements of stratospheric ozone recovery more than previously realized