WattTime is a non-profit organization dealing with the development of artificial intelligence. Now, scientists are planning to create a satellite tracking system for the largest polluters. They hope to fight pollution more effectively, which causes disease and kills millions of people around the world.
According to the latest WHO report, Vidin in Bulgaria is the most polluted city of the European Union. Unfortunately, there are much more polluted places on other continents. Norms of air pollution exceeded by several dozen or even several hundred percent. During the year, up to 5 million people die because of the terrible air condition.
According to data from the report “Last Gasp, The coal companies making Europe sick” in Europe, coal-fired power plants are responsible for the emission of 26% of the entire emission of sulfur dioxide and 8% nitrogen oxides in Europe in 2016. It is easy to imagine what is happening in China, which is still largely based on coal energy. The problem is that poorly developed monitoring and unclear data on pollutant emissions makes it difficult to fight for air quality in the world. However, a reliable gathering and publicity of this type of data can help in the fight against smog and pollution more effectively.
The idea proposed by WattTime, one of the branches of the Rocky Mountian Institute, may be an opportunity. The organization wants to use satellite images to track which power plants from around the world release the most harmful smoke into the atmosphere. All data is to be tracked in real time and made available to the public for inspection.
Today, similar systems exist, but they rely on data that can be falsified. Satellite images will be much more reliable.
photo source: Air Pollution in World: Real-time Air Quality Index Visual Map
