Computer Technologies Can Help the Environment

Computer technology is amazing nowadays. It can help us to improve the environment in a variety of ways. By using computer technologies, researchers can identify pollution in the air and water, and to clean most of it. Also, computers can help to save electricity in a less costly way and non-toxic way.
Computers can help the environment by locating the plastic in the oceans. There are lots of plastic in the oceans. Despite the massive amount of plastic, only one percent is visible on the ocean surface and the other ninety-nine percent are not visible (Alerting). Plastic Adrift, a project started by oceanographer Erik van Sebille, can locate the plastic that is invisible on the ocean surface by using a surface drifter buoys; when the device is in the ocean, it behaves like plastic that will float around in the water (Alerting). The difference is that the surface drifter buoys have a GPS sensor and the surface drifter buoys can get statistics about how garbage moved and projected the path of the garbage in the ocean (Alerting). Surface drifter buoys can really help us to know where the plastic is in the ocean and find the garbage patch. After finding the garbage patch we can try to clean the patch by using computer technologies. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is one of the most polluted areas of the ocean. Slat has a project planned to clean up 50 percent of the patch in 5 years and the idea is to use a giant floating pipe that will move with the waves to capture plastic (Raya). Then, it could gather the plastic in the center and the boat will pick it up (Raya).
Computers can help the environment by tracking water quality. When the plastic stayed in the water for a long time, it could thaw and pollute the water. Envirobot can help to track water quality by collecting water samples and testing them for a variety of contaminants (Alerting). If Envirobot senses a pollutant in water, it can swim and follow that current of 2 toxicity back to the source. Envirobot have multiple sensors for pollution detection by collecting water samples, it will detect whether the water is clean or not (Alerting).

Computers can help the environment by predicting global warming. Computer can demonstrate what the earth looked like in thousands of years, also can predicted environmental future. According to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, most of the global climate models have been quite accurate (Alan). To be this accurate, the global climate models have to encapsulate the physics of the climate and make accurate predictions on lots of factors that affect climates, such as solar variability (Alan). NCAR found that solar variability can impact the climate. The small fluctuations of the 11-year solar cycle can produce the magnitude of the observed climate signals in the tropical Pacific.By using supercomputer models, they show that not only “top-down” but also “bottom-up” mechanisms involving atmosphere-ocean interactions are required to amplify solar forcing at the surface of the Pacific (Solar Variability and Terrestrial Climate). It shows that computers can help us predict the future environment and give us a sense of what could happen in the future.
Computational toxicology is also a great example shows computer can help the environment. Computational toxicology is a branch of toxicology related to the use of computer-based models to understand and predict the interactions of biological organisms (at population, individual, cellular, and molecular levels) with pollutants in the air, water, soil and food, and their bad health effects may cause. (Computational Toxicology).Computational toxicology can help to identify whether an organism is safe or not. It can help us to improve the quality of our health.

Wind Energy is another great example of how computers can help the environment. Wind energy is one of the cleanest, most sustainable ways to generate electricity. Wind power produces no toxicity. It will not harm our health and the environment (How Wind Energy Works). Also, the wind resource is one of the cheapest sources of electricity. In recent years, an enormous amount of wind energy has been procured at the price around 2 cents per kilowatt-hour. It is way less than the average U.S. consumer pays about 12 cents per kilowatt-hour (Fares). Still, the cost could be even lower, because the wind industry can make bigger turbines to achieve lower price and higher performance. And that is working, the size of the wind turbines are increasing. The capacity of the newly installed wind turbines in the US in 2016 was 11 percent higher than the capacity over the previous 5 years (Fares). In 2010, Wind Turbine Size could be as big as 100 meters in rotor diameter and it could have 3000Kw wind turbines. And in the future, wind turbines could be 250 meters in diameter and have 20000 Kw wind turbines (How Wind Energy Works). Based on the improving progress of the size of the wind turbine, it is definitely achievable. Also, in wind resources, speed plays a significant role in its generation cost. If wind speed doubles, the power output increases eight times (How Wind Energy Works). The increasing size of the wind turbine and the wind turbine blade length can also help to generate more power output.

Bibliography

Alering, Alisa. “5 Surprising Ways Computers Are Greening Our Planet.” Science Node, sciencenode.org/feature/5-surprising-ways-computers-are-greening-our-world.php.
B. Bayat; N. Crasta; A. Crespi; A. M. Pascoal; A. Ijspeert, et al. “Envirobot.” BioRob, 1 Jan. 1970, www.epfl.ch/labs/biorob/research/amphibious/envirobot/
“Computational Toxicology.” Nature News, Nature Publishing Group, www.nature.com/subjects/computational-toxicology?proof=true19.
“How Wind Energy Works.” Union of Concerned Scientists, www.ucsusa.org/resources/how-wind-energy-works#.WjqVnVQ-doM
Raya Bidshahri, et al. “5 Organizations Using Cool Tech Solutions and Research to Clean Up the Oceans.” Singularity Hub, 20 May 2018, singularityhub.com/2018/05/20/5-organizations-using-cool-tech-solutions-and-research-to-clean-up-the-oceans/.
“Solar Variability and Terrestrial Climate.” EPA, Environmental Protection Agency, blog.epa.gov/tag/epa-scientists/.
Buis, Alan. “Study Confirms Climate Models Are Getting Future Warming Projections Right – Climate Change: Vital Signs of the Planet.” NASA, NASA, 9 Jan. 2020, climate.nasa.gov/news/2943/study-confirms-climate-models-are-getting-future-warming-projections-right/.
Fares, Robert. “Wind Energy Is One of the Cheapest Sources of Electricity, and It’s Getting Cheaper.” Scientific American Blog Network, Scientific American, 28 Aug. 2017, blogs.scientificamerican.com/plugged-in/wind-energy-is-one-of-the-cheapest-sources-of-electricity-and-its-getting-cheaper/.