(Helsinki) The European Union unveiled a digital copy of our planet on Monday, to simulate and monitor environmental risks while finding ways to mitigate climate change.
“Destination Earth”, a project from the European Commission, is a digital model of the Earth, which will make it possible to monitor, simulate and predict the climate and other natural phenomena using an “unprecedented amount of data”, according to the initiative website.
This tool can be compared to “a ChatGPT for the Earth system” and constitutes “one of the most advanced examples of how technology can help us fight climate change”, underlined Margrethe Vestager, Commissioner for Competition present during the model’s inauguration ceremony in Kajaani (central) in Finland.
The data and “forecasting tools” will be “within the reach of a very large number of people”, rejoiced Ms. Vestager.
The tool will allow mayors to take adequate measures so that their cities can cope with extreme climatic events, she exemplified.
It’s a “turning point,” said Florence Rabier, director general of the European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, because the system will allow anyone to ask questions about climate change.
“You ask a question and “Destination Earth” can then run tailor-made scenarios […] to answer the question you ask […] with unprecedented precision,” she praised.