The World Economic Forum stated on Monday that the average yearly cost of wildfires throughout the world is about $50 billion. It advocated for using artificial intelligence to battle them and reduce carbon emissions brought on by such calamities. The World Economic Forum (WEF) calculated that global wildfires will release 6,450 mega tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere in 2021 in a research that was released on the opening day of its five-day annual meeting.
Since 2000, there have been about 1.5 million wildfires in the US, while the 2019–2020 bushfire season in Australia resulted in the deaths or displacement of more than 3 billion animals.
According to data from the World Meteorological Organization, which projects an increase in catastrophic fires globally of up to 30% by 2050, this tragic trend is expected to continue, damaging lives and livelihoods all over the world.
Over 20 days a year, 30% of the world’s population is exposed to catastrophic heat waves, according to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).
Artificial intelligence’s function (AI)
The WEF stated its FireAId programme, which was introduced last year to apply AI (Artificial Intelligence) to combat the wildfire threat, was successfully implemented by Koc Holding in the Turkiye region of the South Aegean and West Mediterranean in 2022.
By merging static and meteorological statistics, this wildfire risk mapping and logistic planning initiative enhanced wildfire forecast and decreased both the response time and risk to firefighters, according to WEF.
