This is what your house looks like on climate change: AI-fuelled site predicts the future
What would your neighbourhood look like underwater if a flash flood hit, like the one in Brooklyn in 2013?
What if a fire ripped through your community like one did in Lytton, B.C. this summer?
A site using artificial intelligence has found a way to visualize the effects of climate change in any location from Google Maps streetview.
Sasha Luccioni was working as an applied research scientist two-and-a-half years ago and wanted to put her money where her mouth to fight climate change.
"I quit my job and I convinced Yoshua Bengio, my supervisor, to take me on as a postdoc at Mila, which is the Quebec Research Institute for AI," she said. "The project that he had come up with at the time was using artificial intelligence to visualize the consequences of climate change, the potential impacts of climate change and so I joined on that project and we're working on it to us."
The result is "This Climate Does Not Exist," a website where visitors can input their address, which is transformed by flood, wildfire or smog using a simulator.
The name of the site reflects the team's desire to "emphasize that climate change is having dire consequences all around the world right now, even if you aren’t experiencing it in your own backyard."
Responses to the simulator have ranged from skepticism to excitement at its usefulness, said Luccioni.
"I am here to say, our house is on fire," said Greta Thunberg in 2019. The team at Mila wanted to produce an example of what that might literally look like.
"We're not saying your house is on fire, but the planet is on fire and the thing is, that when these extreme events happen, they're always far away and so, people always ask. Like, it's not a problem but eventually it is going to be," said Luccioni. "When it is going to be (a problem), it's going to be too late, so there's this gap between when we can take action and when we're going to be impacted."
The team is now working with a researcher in psychology that will help assess the psychological impacts of major impacts such as floods and fires. In addition, Mila is investigating what type of actions individuals and organizations are liable to take once a flood happens and what support can be offered.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
BREAKING Alice Munro, Nobel literature winner revered as short story master, dead at 92
Nobel laureate Alice Munro, the Canadian literary giant who became one of the world's most esteemed contemporary authors and one of history's most honoured short story writers, has died at age 92.
Latest updates on air quality alerts, and when the smoke may reach Ontario and Quebec
Wildfires have led Environment Canada to issue air quality advisories for parts of B.C., Alberta, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and the Northwest Territories, as forecasters warn the smoke could drift farther east.
Are these Canada's best restaurants? Annual top 100 list revealed
The annual list of Canada's top restaurants in the country was just released and here are the places that made the 2024 cut.
Attack on prison van in France kills 2 officers, inmate escapes
Armed assailants killed two French prison officers and seriously wounded three others in an attack on a convoy in Normandy on Tuesday and an inmate escaped, officials said.
Steal a car, lose your driver's licence for 10 years under new Ontario proposal
Repeat car thieves may face lengthy licence bans under proposed changes to Ontario’s Highway Traffic Act.
$1.6B parts plant for Honda electric vehicle batteries coming to Niagara Region
A Japanese company has announced it will build an approximately $1.6-billion plant in Ontario's Niagara Region that will make a key electric vehicle battery component as part of Honda's supply chain in the province.
B.C. brings in law on name changes on day that child killer's new identity revealed
The BC NDP have tabled legislation aimed at stopping people who have committed certain heinous acts from changing their names.
Manitoba premier to visit areas impacted by wildfire
Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew will get a close-up look at the devastation from a large wildfire burning in northern Manitoba Tuesday.
1 killed, 3 injured including toddler, after Hwy. 417 crash in Ottawa
Ontario Provincial Police are responding to a fatal collision involving two vehicles on Highway 417 in Ottawa's west end on Tuesday morning.