Technology and Innovation
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What is Planetary Health?
Artificial Intelligence and Innovation
AI is rapidly reshaping economies, decision-making, and daily life, offering enormous potential while posing significant social and environmental risks.
We are entering a Hybrid Tipping Zone, where the rapid mainstreaming of artificial intelligence (AI) and the global race for technological supremacy collide with human agency and planetary limits.
— Cornelia Walthers, PhD, Chair of the AI & Innovation Working Group
Despite the potential to boost global GDP by up to 14% by 2030, the unchecked expansion of AI poses significant risks to Planetary Health. Our growing digital dependency, the erosion of decision-making autonomy, and widening ecological imbalance are pushing humanity toward the edges of planetary boundaries. This shift threatens all of Earth’s life support systems.
20% of global electricity could be consumed by digital technologies by 2030
The environmental cost of AI is mounting: digital technologies may consume up to 20% of global electricity by 2030, and fewer than 1 in 3 AI initiatives include social or environmental impact assessments.
ProSocial AI acts as a counter-catalyst: a design and governance approach that seeks to ensures technology serves both people and the planet. The 4T Framework—Tailored, Trained, Tested, Targeted—guides AI systems to be context-relevant, inclusively trained, transparently validated, and purpose-driven. This approach is anchored in Hybrid Intelligence, leveraging the complementarity of Natural and Artificial intelligences, and grounded in Double Literacy, which integrates human literacy (self, society, sustainability) with algorithmic literacy (data, design, decision-making). ProSocial AI has the potential to harness technology to benefit both people and planet, ensuring these systems are working to mitigate rather than exacerbate environmental decline.
Want to help shape the future of technology for planetary wellbeing? Join the Planetary Health Roadmap’s AI Working Group by contacting corneliacwalther@gmail.com.
Key Resources
Technology and Innovation
• Books
Human Leadership for Humane Technology
Technology and Innovation Resources
Life Stage and Reproductive Health Resource Scarcity
Data Centers Drink And Children Thirst: The AI Bubble’s Moral Mis-calculus. Forbes.
• News
Built Environment and Urbanization Disaster Preparedness and Adaptation
‘Nature Designed it to Bend’: The Bamboo Buildings that Sway in Earthquakes. BBC.
Bamboo has been used as a building material for millennia across South America, Africa, and Asia, where it grows abundantly. Recently, its strength and flexibility have gained attention for making it naturally resistant to earthquakes. Today, bamboo is being used in construction to try to protect people from earthquakes.
• News
Resource Scarcity Disaster Preparedness and Adaptation
Smart and sustainable water management: Policy, technology, and innovation pathways for resource resilience. Green Technology, Resilience, and Sustainability.
• Research & Reports
Ocean / Marine Degradation Economics and Economic Systems
Nature-Based Solutions: A Policy And Investment Framework For A Healthier Planet, People, And Communities. Forbes.
Nature-based solutions use the power of ecosystems to mitigate climate change, enhance human health, and strengthen economic and community resilience. Despite their proven ability to deliver up to 37% of needed global emission reductions, they remain underfunded, highlighting the urgent need for innovative financing and stronger protection of the Earth system.
• News
Disaster Preparedness and Adaptation Technology and Innovation
The Paint Helping Keep People and Property Safe
Have you heard about the extraordinary fire resistant paint developed by Professor Yeoh and his team at the University of New South Wales in Australia? Learn more about the paint helping keep people and property safe.
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