None of this post will interest Aggregate Industries.
You only have to take a look at AI’s record on CO2 emissions and its multi-million mile haulage plans for Straitgate Farm to see how much interest AI has in tackling climate change.
Almost every day another climate-related disaster seems to hit the headlines. After the devastating California wildfires: Rain now brings threat of mudslides.
Yesterday, the the World Meteorological Organization reported that carbon dioxide levels reached 405 parts per million (ppm) in 2017:
"The science is clear. Without rapid cuts in CO2 and other greenhouse gases, climate change will have increasingly destructive and irreversible impacts on life on Earth. The window of opportunity for action is almost closed."
"Every fraction of a degree of global warming matters, and so does every part per million of greenhouse gases," said WMO deputy secretary general, Elena Manaenkova. "CO2 remains in the atmosphere for hundreds of years and in the oceans for even longer."
The Earth has been warmer than average for 406 months in a row: "This means no one under the age of 32 has ever experienced a cooler-than-average month on this planet" https://t.co/XrEOKn4VxR #GlobalWarming #ClimateCrisis— Carbon Tracker (@CarbonBubble) November 21, 2018
"No-one can opt out anymore," said Dr Debra Roberts, who's a co-chair of the IPCC. "We all have to fundamentally change the way we live our lives; we can't remain remote from the problem anymore."
But if AI is not taking this existential threat to humanity seriously, some companies are.
In Sweden, Volvo and Skanska have been running the 'Electric Site' research project, testing a range of hybrid and electric equipment in a bid to create the world's first ultra-low emission quarry:
For decades, Vikan Kross quarry just outside Gothenburg has been excavated for granite and aggregates, producing around 1.25 million tonnes of material each year for use in the construction, asphalt, and cement industries. And, just like any other mining site around the world, a raft of diesel-guzzling heavy machinery has traditionally been used to carry out the hefty, load-bearing work.
The site is Skanska's oldest and largest quarry in Sweden, but for the past 10 weeks or so, the construction and engineering giant has been piloting new electric and autonomous machinery at the site - including excavators, crushers and load carriers - in the hope a new wave of clean technologies can cut costs, emissions and air pollution. The plan is to turn Vikran Kross into the world's first emissions-free quarry...
Research had suggested the project would be able to reduce CO2 emissions from the quarry by 95 per cent... "Based on the measurements we have seen so far, we believe we could even go up to a 98 per cent reduction in CO2 emissions"
Even if it's just a research project at this stage, that's remarkable stuff, even more so when you consider that a "70% reduction in energy cost and a 40% reduction in operator cost" was also achieved.
In comparison, and after announcing in 2006 that "climate change... it’s happening and we have to take action now", what has AI achieved over the last few years to help us avoid a climate catastrophe?
2011: We set a target in 2008 to reduce our total carbon emissions on a per tonne basis by 20% with 2008 as a baseline… In 2009 this stayed relatively flat but since then has steadily increased...
2012: Controlling and reducing carbon emissions is central to a responsible environmental policy. At Aggregate Industries we have understood the impacts of our carbon emissions for some time... Worryingly, carbon emissions associated with logistics within our business have been working against trend, rising steadily for the last four years on a per tonne basis... By 2016 we will reduce process carbon emissions by 20% on 2012 levels in absolute terms.
2015: Absolute process carbon emissions continue to rise and are 20% above the 2012 baseline.
