In 2024, the global reality is sobering, as humanity is faced with serious challenges—like climate change—that aren’t slowing down. Researchers at Copernicus say that 2024 is likely to be the warmest year on record, with global average temperatures 0.49°F warmer than the same period in 2023. As climate change has worsened, its effects have wreaked havoc on environments, industries, and livelihoods.
For example, the Fourth Global Bleaching Event has threatened coral reefs worldwide and mass coral bleaching has been confirmed in at least 62 countries and territories worldwide. According to the National Interagency Fire Center, as of August 5, 2024, 29,132 fires have burned almost 4.75 million acres. In 2024, around 50% of the world's population will experience severe water scarcity for at least part of the year, which is expected to increase with climate change. Moreover, the farming industry is forecasted at $245.7 billion in 2024, a decrease of $16.7 billion (6.3 percent) from 2023.
That means Earth’s oceans, forests, water, and food need saving, fast. According to the head of the United Nations climate agency, we only have two years left to “save the world” by making dramatic changes in releasing heat-trapping emissions and financially backing such a massive shift.
The big questions are: “Is there hope?” And, “What can be done now?” Innovations in data and AI suggest that all may not be lost after all. We looked at five uses cases where businesses are setting things right for the planet by combining AI advancements with the world’s #1 open source database, Postgres.
1. MERMAID harnesses Postgres and AI to revolutionize coral reef conservation
In a year marked by unprecedented oceanic heat, the health of our coral reefs is at greater risk than ever before. The loss of living corals threatens the livelihoods of nearly one billion people who rely on coral reefs for food, medicine, and tourism revenue. If carbon emissions aren’t lowered by 2030, an estimated 70-90% of coral reefs are at risk from climate change
MERMAID, an initiative of the Wildlife Conservation Society, has faced this challenge head on by providing scientists and stakeholders with a cutting-edge open-source web application for collecting and managing coral reef ecosystem data in real-time through Postgres and AI. MERMAID transforms low-tech underwater data collection processes into clean, global data by leveraging Postgres, one of the most advanced open-source databases. The open source app helps coral reef scientists collect, manage and share their data in real time. This process, previously costing hundreds of millions and taking months, can now be completed within hours.
It is the flexibility of Postgres that allows MERMAID to build for the future, incorporating AI capabilities and features using image recognition to quickly classify corals. MERMAID has helped scientists collect data from over 6,100 coral reef sites in 44 countries—and modernizing data collection and storage with Postgres has increased scientific efficiency by at least three to five times, driving positive outcomes for the coral reef crisis.
This signifies a prime instance of how basic technology, such as affordable underwater cameras, easy data sharing, and AI applications, can markedly contribute to the planet's sustainability. The open systems and the power of AI-driven networks formed by open source developers are influencing significant positive change.
EDB is proud to sponsor MERMAID and support its effort to fuel the translation of underwater insights into evidence-based actions for fighting the coral reef crisis. With funding from EDB, this technology is enhancing the efficiency and effectiveness of ecological data collection, enabling rapid response to bleaching events. EDB’s sponsorship will help enable MERMAID to harness the full power of Postgres to improve the accuracy and speed of coral reef identification and monitoring. Additionally, MERMAID will soon incorporate AI algorithms that can analyze vast amounts of data collected from reefs, identifying patterns and predicting potential bleaching events before they become critical.
Thanks to the power of data and AI working together, the future of our oceans—and millions of lives that depend on them—have a brighter future.
2. The USDA Forest Service protects forestland with Postgres performance
The USDA Forest Service, which stewards more than 600 million acres of US forestland, traditionally used Oracle database schemas to store mission-critical ESRI geodatabases for daily work. The Forest Service stored its ESRI geodatabases inside of Oracle schema. But in 2018, ESRI announced it would no longer support that model in its ArcGIS geodatabase beyond version 10.6.x. ESRI had set a hard deadline after which it would no longer support ArcGIS versions prior to 10.7: December 1, 2023.
The Forest Service needed to migrate their workloads to a more modern database model when ESRI stopped supporting this geodatabase management type. The team began the search for a new, fully-supported platform that would have minimal impact on customers, who relied heavily on his databases to do their work.
Postgres was the obvious choice for two reasons: its deep compatibility with Oracle and ArcGIS’ support for storing geodatabases inside of Postgres schema through the PostGis extension. The Forest Service needed a replacement that could reuse hundreds of thousands, even millions, of lines of existing PL SQL code in their databases and move it to a landing spot where they could modernize it.
Under a tight migration deadline, the Forest Service was able to complete a very successful move to EDB Postgres—achieving a 70% improvement in performance at less than 30% of the cost. EDB Postgres Advanced Server (EPAS) offered all that Oracle compatibility and potential plus the full support the team needed. Ultimately, the Forest Service beat the migration deadline easily and described the migration as a triumphant success. With a modernized database—Postgres—the flexibility, reliability, and scalability of the Forest Service’s data and capabilities ensure that they’re building for the future.
3. Metasphere preserves Earth’s water with scalable Postgres for sustainability
As the impact of climate change continues to unfold, monitoring water networks has become a global challenge of utmost importance. Metasphere, a leader in telemetry, planned to expand globally to meet these growing demands with a database that could handle the 10x increase in expected industry demand and support environmental sustainability.
With EDB powering its database, user response times and speed to access data within their platform improved, which meant utility companies could take action even faster to prevent leaks. The migration allowed Metasphere to dramatically reduce licensing costs for both themselves and their clients. And as a result of the partnership, Metasphere expanded their market opportunity—offering both a lower-priced on-premises solution built on Postgres as well as a cloud-hosted offering for regulators and smaller organizations.
With EDB Postgres, Metasphere can now confidently take on the massive 10x increase in expected industry demand and support the universal need for environmental sustainability.
4. Agriculture Tech Leader feeds the world with Postgres extreme high availability
The landscape of farming and agriculture has evolved dramatically in recent decades as businesses face intense pressure to harness technology—real-time data, predictive analytics, and automation—to operate with maximum efficiency. The impacts can be huge.
Leaders at one international agriculture company rely on high-volume applications for important supply chain functions, including quality control and transport logistics and felt trapped by their legacy Oracle database system. The clear solution was to migrate to the cloud, which would enable freer and more effective data movement and interaction. With Postgres, they knew they’d be able to achieve high availability so that data would deliver and perform when—and where—it matters most.
The agriculture company identified EDB as an ideal business partner and moved essential supply chain workloads to AWS cloud by deploying EDB Postgres Distributed on the fully managed EDB Postgres AI Cloud Service. EDB’s Oracle compatibility meant their data looked, felt, and operated the same, so they didn’t need to learn and adapt to a new system. Now, the company has a geo-distributed database solution with near-zero downtime assurance. They’re better equipped to serve their current customers and now that they’re free from vendor lock-in, they have the flexibility to grow their business, too—which means more food production for the world.
5. EDB sponsors Sheldrick Wildlife Trust elephants for a thriving future
The elephant is a cultural symbol around the world of wisdom and endurance, strength, and memory. The elephant has been the beloved symbol of Postgres for the past 25 years and counting, and in a nod to PostgreSQL's iconic mascot, EDB has partnered with the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust to adopt 150 orphaned elephants, supporting their rehabilitation in Kenya and underscoring a commitment to both wildlife and open-source innovation.
Just as the elephant continues as the symbol of Postgres, EDB continues our commitment to Postgres. That’s why we’ve made an investment to the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust, an orphan elephant rescue and wildlife rehabilitation program in Kenya. As one of Africa’s oldest wildlife charities, the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust is a pioneer in the conservation and protection of wildlife. EDB’s commitment supports 150 elephants for three years across the period of their care at the center, ensuring a strong and healthy future for these powerful and majestic beings.
At EDB, we believe in the potential of Postgres to make a real impact not only for technological and economic advancements but also for environmental protection and the care of our planet. From elephant sanctuaries to water security to coral reef conservation, we know the positive impact Postgres can have on our most important natural resources, and we remain steadfast in our commitment to unleash the power of Postgres for the AI generation and build a promising future.
Interested in exploring how EDB Postgres AI can help you drive positive change? Check it out here.