IoT: Enhancing Our Chances Against Climate Change

Technology is among the major tools that can help us in catering to the climate crisis and  deal with its catastrophes. Owing to our reckless and over exploitation of the natural resources along with our ill attitude towards the environment, we are already facing the heat of the climate crisis. The industrial expansion has drastically impacted the environmental conditions with major influence on the climate dynamics and subsequently, climate change has been among the primary concerns of the entire world for about a century now and scientists, researchers along with thought leaders are focusing on developing new means via technological manifestations to contain the already slipping climatic conditions. Artificial Intelligence, Big data and satellite technologies have already made us believe that with effective use of data, better imaging tools and carbon capture technologies combined with our responsible efforts, we have a fair chance in this, not so soon ending battle. Apart from these, IoT also has helped us keep our hopes high.

Coined in the near end of the 20th century, the term Internet of Things (IoT) has been around for more than two decades now with its application primarily being in the retail sector but now emerging to encompass almost every tech enabled industry. With enabling green technologies, effective utilisation of natural resources and enhancing connectivity and communication, IoT in today's date is playing a pivotal role in dealing with climate change as well. Primarily, IoT is focused on reducing and containing carbon emissions to curtail its impact on global warming along with elevating efficiency of already existing natural resources so that we get the most out of them. IoT also helps to evaluate the impact of human activities concerning climate change and industrial outputs influencing air, soil and water quality via sensors and other devices. Thus, the technology enables us to deal with a multitude of domains ranging from industrial waste management to effective utilisation of natural resources by lowering energy consumption and becoming more efficient with the already limited raw materials.

The scope of these technologies is spread across industries such as agriculture, manufacturing, real estate, logistics and many more aiding in curbing the environmental influences of these sectors. Considering the manufacturing sector, pollution monitoring systems regularly analyse and evaluate emissions and other outputs to develop proactive measures in order to take necessary actions accordingly. Moreover, it’s also helping to optimise the overall production process thus reducing energy consumptions. In the Agriculture sector, IoT has assisted the development of “precision agriculture” where use of technologies is enabling proper study of soil samples to evaluate the exact moisture and fertiliser content required for a decent crop. This is helping with efficient material utilisation and hence preventing overexploitation of resources. Speeding up the overall logistics industry, IoT is boosting real time tracking along with advanced geo mapping. With faster communications and more sophisticated connectivities with the advancement of 5G, the industry is becoming more efficient day by day.

Besides these industrial applications to tackle the climate crisis, IoT is also enabling us to deal with the environmental impacts from our households thus finding domestic applications as well. Technologies are making our homes smart and much more efficient in terms of energy consumption. We are already harnessing the limitless potential of IoT on a personal level by using smart devices along with remote access that has made life easier as well as hessle free. Use of EVs is also emerging with people switching to greener energy sources thus depreciating the overall carbon footprint.

The numerous applications of IoT make things look too optimistic for our fight against the climate crisis but it's not the only thing we can rely on. Research suggests that even if we omit usage of fossil fuels today, still the global climate will continue to heat up, reflecting the damage that we have already inflicted on the environment. IoT in collaboration with other technological advancements, effective policies and our cohesive efforts seem to be the only possible way to become energy efficient as well as limiting further increments to the climate crisis.