The administration will expand its Climate Data Initiative, an effort to leverage the government’s climate-relevant data resources, to include a “Health Resiliance” theme offering more than 150 health-relevant datasets. The hope is that private-sector leaders utilize these data sets as they progress in developing tools and insights regarding climate change’s health effects.
Google has committed 10 million hours of high-performance computing and will host daily public climate-related data on its Google Earth Engine geospatial analysis platform, according to a White House release. Google will also help scientists create early warning capabilities related to global infectious diseases and update disease-risk maps.
Microsoft, too, has jointed the initiative. Microsoft Research, the computer technology research branch of Microsoft, is prototyping a system that would detect pathogens in the environment before they infect people. The system autonomously collects mosquitoes and conducts gene-sequencing and pathogen detection on the insects, which could potentially serve as an early warning system for vector borne diseases.
“The sooner we act, the more we can do to protect the health of our communities, our kids and those that are the most vulnerable,” according to the White House statement.
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