With the help of big data analysis, which aims to analyze large chunks of data in order to find out patterns or trends, environmentalists are now able to use data gathered from our bills and credit card statements to attain deeper insights into the human consumption pattern and its effect on the environment thereby establishing a correlation between human materialism and climate change.

The UN Global Pulse Programme and its Data For Climate Change initiative are doing some groundbreaking work by partnering with data-rich organizations and involving stakeholders to help us understand the implications of human as well as corporate activities on the climate. A few analytic companies have used data from navigation apps to understand traffic congestion and air pollution while others have tried to establish a positive correlation between mining activities and seismic occurrences.

While this data helps us understand the problem, it doesn't offer us solutions. With global warming happening at an alarming rate, most scientists do not have the time to run different scenarios. However, with cloud computing and easier availability of tech resources, it is becoming more viable to build innovative solutions that can help us understand where we need to make changes in our day-to-day lives in order to protect our Mother Earth.

Hopefully, in the near future, big data can help us know where we have gone wrong and what we can do to fix it and make our planet a better place for our communities and future generations.