3.3 The positive impact of technology

As outlined previously, technology, in its many forms, can have a very negative impact on the climate. However, it can also have a positive impact and value in addressing the climate crisis and its many challenges.

For example, some tools based on AI technologies can enable automatic determination of the location of wildfires, enabling rescue services to receive information much faster. Other AI-based tools help extract more information from satellite images. The implementation of forecast analytics for the analysis of these photos helps to evaluate the probability of wildfires, so they can be prevented or held back before they start spreading. A 15-year-old Egyptian student, Nadine Abdelaziz, co-founded Treasury Water, an award-winning app that decreases water use in homes by monitoring and calculating water consumption and educating users on how to use water wisely.

The report ‘Climate change and AI [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)] ’ gives a detailed account of the ways in which AI is supporting action addressing the climate emergency, while also detailing AI’s detrimental impact on the environment and offering recommendations for government action. Even though some technological innovations can make a difference, they still require adoption and diffusion to bring about mass-scale positive environmental change. This can require long-term changes in both attitudes and behaviour.

Perhaps the key positive contribution of technology to sustainability is its affordance to connect environmentally conscious people and businesses, amplify their voices and provide access to information about climate emergency to the widest audience. Selwyn (2022) argues that in the future, educational technology should be reserved for disadvantaged learners. He also suggests that in the short term, education technology might be a ‘Trojan horse’ or a way to educate people without them realising. In this way, climate education can be introduced to wider society, so that everyone learns to appreciate the urgency of the climate crisis.