Thriving ecosystems drive thriving societies. From the food we eat to the future of our economies, human well-being and opportunity are deeply tied to the health of our planet.
But these vital natural systems are at risk. The World Wildlife Fund estimates that wild animal populations have declined by 73% since 1970, and the World Economic Forum ranks biodiversity loss as one of the greatest risks to global stability over the next ten years.
For more than two decades, we’ve provided a clearer picture of our changing planet with tools like Google Earth and Google Earth Engine. Building on that foundation, we’re working harder than ever to help support the worldwide initiative to protect and conserve 30% of the planet’s land and oceans by 2030 (30×30), leveraging environmental data and AI technologies to help nature and people flourish together.
Three ways we are accelerating global action for our planet
We believe that artificial intelligence offers a great opportunity to empower people everywhere to protect and restore nature. Here are three ways we help.
1. Visualize our planet and connect the dots
You can’t protect what you can’t see. We are building technologies that can give everyone an unprecedented view of our planet by turning petabytes of satellite, climate and ecosystem data into a single, coherent picture of change.
Our newly launched Google Earth AI is built on decades of modeling the world, combined with advanced predictive models and Gemini’s advanced reasoning, enabling businesses, cities and nonprofits to gain a deeper understanding of our planet. In minutes, users can create powerful insights that previously required complex analysis and years of research. For example, EarthAI’s Geospatial Reasoning capability can automatically connect disparate models—such as weather forecasts, population maps, and satellite imagery—to tackle complex analytics like spotting where a river has dried up to help communities predict the risk of dust storms during a drought and take steps to prepare in advance.
2. Understand our planet’s past, present and future
Our researchers use cutting-edge AI approaches to synthesize complex data and reveal new insights into our planet’s past, present and future. For example, our Species Distribution Modeling project uses artificial intelligence to create high-resolution maps of where species live, helping conservationists make critical decisions such as how best to protect endangered wildlife and their habitats.
In addition to helping us better understand the natural world in real time, AI also enables us to predict its future. For example, we just published a new paper and the first dataset dedicated to training deep learning models to predict deforestation risk, opening the door to opportunities to prevent deforestation before it happens.
3. Putting technology in the hands of local experts
We believe that technology’s greatest potential is realized when it empowers local communities and puts powerful tools in the hands of those who can make an impact on the ground. That’s why we partner with people on the front lines to help speed up their work.
Through Google Arts & Culture’s Forest Listeners experiment, we’re inviting everyone to help scientists identify hidden species by listening to sounds from Brazil’s rainforests and classifying the data they hear to help train Google DeepMind’s AI model. This helps enable the measurement, conservation and restoration of rainforest biodiversity. And through Google.org, we support eight Brazilian organizations that use artificial intelligence to do everything from predicting forest fires in the Amazon to mapping biodiversity with eDNA.
These efforts build on our commitment to delivering the benefits of AI for people and the planet while responsibly managing its environmental footprint – by continuing to improve efficiency across our AI systems, investing in next-generation clean energy sources, and supporting decarbonization projects that push the boundaries of science and technology to help restore the atmosphere while creating co-benefits for local communities and ecosystems.
Get involved and learn more
AI isn’t just a tool, it’s a catalyst – and it’s the partnership between AI technology and human passion that will drive real change. We invite you to delve deeper into this work: