Technologies

Scientists estimate 85% of world’s population affected by climate change

Over 60,000 studies were crunched by researchers in Germany using machine learning. The findings aren’t comforting.

Climate change is going to get a lot worse if we don’t act soon. While that’s not breaking news, it was the thrust of a landmark report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, released in August. The IPCC’s report warned that every region of the planet will be affected by rising temperatures.

A new paper, published in the journal Nature Climate Change on Oct. 11, adds some specificity to that forecast. Using machine learning technology to analyze over 60,000 climate change-related studies, researchers in Germany estimate that 85% of the population is affected by human-induced climate change. The study was led by Max Callaghan of Berlin’s Mercator Research Institute on Global Commons and Climate Change.

«There is overwhelming evidence that the impacts of climate change are already being observed in human and natural systems,» the paper reads. «We infer that attributable anthropogenic impacts may be occurring across 80% of the world’s land area, where 85% of the population reside.»

The study comes ahead of COP26, the UN Climate Change Conference in Glasgow that runs from Oct. 31 to Nov. 12. COP26 will bring together world leaders, including US President Joe Biden and UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson but notably not China’s Xi Jinping, in hopes they’ll make new commitments to lowering carbon emissions. It was at COP21 in 2015 that the Paris Accords were struck, and observers hope that more ambitious commitments to carbon neutrality can be agreed to in Glasgow.

Machine learning is a type of artificial intelligence that gets smarter as it’s fed more information: think speech-to-text software, which gets more accurate the more hours of voices it’s able to hear. Callaghan and the team aimed not just to highlight the planet’s plight as climate change’s impacts become more known, but also to use machine learning to reveal gaps within scientific study.

The researchers fed machine learning software called BERT (or «bidirectional encoder representations from transformers») 2,373 abstracts on papers related to climate change. Having digested the information on climate change, the algorithm then identified studies that may show the impacts of climate change even if those studies didn’t attribute their findings to climate change. The paper referenced one such study on the relationship between the timing of snowmelt and the population growth of mammals.

«Our objective is to map all possibly relevant studies on climate-related changes, rather than a list of studies where the relationship between an observed climate trend and specific impacts has been demonstrated with high confidence,» the paper reads. «While traditional assessments can offer relatively precise but incomplete pictures of the evidence, our machine-learning-assisted approach generates an expansive preliminary but quantifiably uncertain map.»

Technologies

Samsung’s iPhone Fold Killer Is Leaked

Technologies

How to Tell if Someone Else’s Apple AirTag Is Tracking You

These settings can help make sure your iPhone alerts you to unwanted location trackers.

The biggest benefit of Apple’s AirTags is that they help you find your belongings, whether you’re looking for lost keys or keeping track of your luggage while traveling. But AirTags can also be used to track you without your knowledge.

AirTags work by combining built-in sensors, wireless signals and Apple’s wide Find My network to let you keep tabs on your valuables. If you ever lose your wallet with an AirTag inside, for example, you can use the Find My app to locate it on a map, have it play a sound to help you find it nearby, or mark it as «lost,» which allows other Find My users to help you find it.

One of the biggest complaints about AirTags, however, is that someone with malicious intent could easily slip one of the tiny tags into your bag and then track your movements without your consent. Multiple people have reported AirTag-related stalking incidents where the victims didn’t know the trackers were placed on them until much later.

Apple and Google (Android users have their own choice of Bluetooth trackers, such as the Moto Tag, which works with Google’s Find Hub) have since collaborated on an industry standard that alerts the user if a device is being used to track them without their knowledge. Thanks to this collaboration, Android users will be able to know if an AirTag is being used to track them, too.

Apple, for its part, has also made some changes in the past few years that improve the ability to detect an unwanted AirTag. In the initial rollout, an AirTag would make a sound three days after it’s separated from its paired device. Now, that duration is 8 to 24 hours. If you have unwanted tracking notifications enabled (which we’ll get to below), you’ll receive an audible alert.

We should note here that the new AirTag is 50% louder than the first-generation model, and would therefore be theoretically better at alerting you to the unwanted AirTag. Apple has also said that the speaker on the second-gen AirTag is harder to remove than on the first-gen model, in case bad actors try to remove it.

Detecting unwanted trackers

To be able to detect unwanted trackers, first enable unwanted-tracking notifications. For AirTags or other Find My accessories, these pop-up notifications (e.g., «AirTag found moving with you») are available on devices with iOS 14.5 or later. For other Bluetooth tracking devices, these notifications are enabled on iOS 17.5 or later.

You should enable Location Services, Find My iPhone, Bluetooth and Allow Notifications. Here’s how:

Head to Settings, then Privacy & Security, then Location Services and toggle it on.
After that, head to Settings, then Apple Account, select Find My and turn Find My iPhone on.
To enable Bluetooth, go to Settings, then Bluetooth and turn that on.
Then go to Settings, then Notifications, scroll down to Tracking Notifications and toggle on Allow Notifications. Make sure airplane mode is off, or you won’t receive tracking notifications.

What to do when you get the tracking notification

If you do get a notification like «Unknown tracker alert» or «Item detected near you,» you can try to find the unwanted AirTag by tapping it. Tap continue and then tap Play Sound or tap Find Nearby to locate the AirTag in question.

If it doesn’t play a sound or you’re unable to find it, the item may no longer be on your person. Apple suggests checking your other belongings or the area around you, just in case. If you want to review the notification at a later time, you can open the Find My app, tap Items and then tap Items Detected With You.

Be aware that there are often «false positives,» when notifications are triggered when someone nearby has a tracker on them. If you’re traveling on a train, plane or bus, waiting in line or seated in a public space, a mistaken tracking alert could stem from glitches or high-density Bluetooth environments.

If you get an alert, though, it’s always a good idea to take it seriously and investigate what might be causing it.

If you do find an AirTag that doesn’t belong to you, hold the top of your iPhone near the tracker until you see a notification. Tap it, and this will launch a website that provides information like its serial number, the last four digits of the phone number or a blurred-out email address of its owner. If the AirTag is marked as «lost,» you may see a message with instructions on how to contact them.

If you’re concerned that the tracker is being used to monitor your movements and location, Apple advises taking a screenshot of the information above for your records. You can then disable the AirTag by pressing down on the back of the AirTag, turning it counterclockwise to remove the cover and removing the battery.

Of course, before making any of these changes, it’s important to come up with a safety plan, especially if you’re afraid you’re being tracked by a current or former abusive partner. Contact your local law enforcement if you feel like your safety is at risk, or the National Domestic Violence Hotline 800-799-SAFE (7233).