How AI & satellites lead the climate change fight in Latin America

Policing deforestation efforts are a key focus.

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A satellite image shows the extent of flooding in Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, May 6. EU Copernicus Sentinel-2.

(Michael Molinski is a senior economist at Trendline Economics. He’s worked for Fidelity, Charles Schwab and Wells Fargo, and previously as a foreign correspondent and editor for Bloomberg News and MarketWatch.)

PORTO ALEGRE, Brazil (Callaway Climate Insights) — AI, data and satellite-driven images are leading the fight against climate change in Latin America, monitoring and providing solutions to extreme weather such as the floods that hit southern Brazil last month to the deforestation in the Amazon.

When record floods hit the southern Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul in April and May, scientists and government officials were caught off guard. The result was floods that displaced 650,000 people, killed at least 175 people, and literally wiped the town of Mariante on the banks of the Taquari River off the map.