Protecting our planet
We’re facing unprecedented challenges from climate change: pollution, flooding, drought, loss of biodiversity, and a rapidly growing population of almost eight billion people. Lives, livelihoods, and natural resources hang in the balance.
But there’s still hope to reverse the damaging cycles we’ve created. Together, we can work to ensure a safer, healthier, and more sustainable future for our planet.
Restoring Earth’s ecosystems
Our planet’s ecosystems are a vital source of biodiversity. How can technology play a role in helping us conserve these valuable resources?
Microsoft is taking on that challenge by partnering with organizations like SilviaTerra, The Nature Conservancy, and many others as part of our AI for Earth Initiative. And all of this work is building towards the creation of a Planetary Computer that connects trillions of data points about our environment with the power of machine learning—empowering experts with actionable insights.
Telling our tree stories
This Earth Day, we share the stories of people who’ve devoted their professional lives to eco-advocacy. And they share with us why our forests are more important than ever and what we can do—even from our homes—to ensure they’re protected for years to come.
The forest is talking to us
In every forest stands a carefully balanced ecosystem of trees that’s critical to sustaining life, from filtering our water supply to absorbing carbon emissions to serving as a habitat for wildlife. But fires, pests, drought, and deforestation are threatening this delicate equilibrium.
That’s why SilviaTerra created the most detailed United States forest map ever. Using satellite imagery and AI, it allows us to see—at 100x the resolution—what we couldn’t see before. This helps researchers and foresters pinpoint urgent environmental problems, and then tap into what nature is telling us to find solutions.
Get an inside look at six national parks to see how SilviaTerra’s data can help foresters better understand and preserve US forests and their precious, life-giving, air-cleaning, wildlife-protecting trees.
A billion begins with one
A Planetary Computer for a
sustainable future
Preserving nature for the benefit of current and future generations is one of humanity’s greatest challenges. Using technology to support this global effort is one of ours.
That’s why Microsoft AI for Earth is working to empower organizations and individuals around the world to harness the power of big data—so they can better advance sustainability, protect ecosystems, and stabilize the planet.
Together, we’re solving some of today’s toughest environmental challenges and building the foundation for a dynamic planetary computer that uses big data and technology to give us real-time actionable insights into the natural world. This global environmental data network can help us:
- Better monitor and understand wildlife—and protect biodiverse ecosystems
- Diagnose the health of our forests and manage the impact of climate change
- Help farmers improve crop yields to sustainably feed a growing population
- Develop a replenishable global supply of clean, safe, and accessible water
AI for Earth
Microsoft is invested in AI for Earth to increase our impact and help scale innovations that help organizations build on each other’s environmental breakthroughs.
We’re also committed to reducing our impact on our planet by advocating for public policy that preserves ecosystems and taking responsibility for our land footprint—by protecting more land than we use by 2025. Learn more about our commitment and our AI for Earth partners.
Explore natural wonders with a virtual field trip like this one to Yellowstone National Park
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