大數據能遏制氣候變化嗎？

????保護環境刻不容緩。美國宇航局表示，地球海平面過去100年中上升了近7英寸，北極冰面10年之內萎縮了近13%。另據美國大學大氣研究聯盟表示，地球的表面溫度也在穩步攀升。但現在，人類也進入了可以利用大數據尋找環境問題解決之道的時代。大數據在減輕交通堵塞和降低犯罪率方面已經展現了它的效果，所以我們為什么不用它來解決氣候變化呢？以下五個大數據項目可能會成為人類解決這一難題的好幫手。

????Something’s up with the environment. Sea levels have risen nearly seven inches in the past 100 years, and Arctic ice sheets are shrinking at about 13% a decade, according to NASA. Meanwhile the earth’s surface temperature has been climbing steadily upward, says the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research. But it’s also the era of using big data to find ways to solve environmental problems. Crunching data already helps with reducing traffic jams and lowering crime rates. So why not climate change? Here are five big data projects that could make a difference.

????谷歌地球引擎

????烏爾米亞湖是伊朗境內一個較大的咸水湖，它在1984年的衛星影像上呈深藍色。但幾年后的衛星影像顯示，它的湖面縮小了許多，顏色也變成了綠色。到2012年，我們只能看到它的褐色波紋。谷歌的地球引擎服務匯總了各種公開可得的衛星影像（如烏爾米亞湖的照片），供研究人員定位環境損害并加以解決。通過谷歌地球引擎，巴西科學家得以追蹤亞馬遜流域的濫砍濫伐活動。谷歌地球部門經理麗貝卡?摩爾表示，與外部研究人員合作最大的一項挑戰，就是他們一般并不了解這樣大范圍的數據的重要意義。“他們想得太小了，我們必須要說，現在你可以利用谷歌地球引擎來研究整個大洲40年來的氣候變化情況。”

????Google Earth Engine

????Lake Urmia, a large salt lake in Iran, is a deep teal blue in a satellite video from 1984. A few years later, a similar image shows a much smaller lake with a green hue. By the time the video ends in 2012, the lake is a phosphorescent streak of brown. Google Earth Engine, a service from Google, compiles publicly available satellite imagery like the images of Lake Urmia for researchers to spot environmental damage and fix it. Using Google Earth Engine Brazilian scientists have been able to track deforestation in the Amazon. According to Rebecca Moore, a manager at Google Earth, the biggest challenge of working with outside researchers is they typically don’t appreciate the scope of the data. “They are thinking too small,” she said. “We have to say, you can have an analysis for the entire continent for 40 years.”