These tech companies think they can ‘solve’ the wildfire crisis
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Gridware sells devices that attach to electrical utility boxes so that utility companies can tell what condition their wires, poles, and transformers are in. The idea is that with this information, utility companies can act proactively to prevent a fire from starting. Until last year, the company’s slogan was “Creating a future where suburban wildfires are a thing of the past,” but Barat says they changed it after expanding into markets where wildfires aren’t a concern.
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These companies take a narrow view of what technology is—computers and chips, cameras and algorithms, the internet and telecommunications—and how it can make our lives better and solve problems. But the history of technological innovation is far more vast, encompassing time-tested methods for altering humanity’s environment in a way that eases the strain on the natural environment rather than exacerbating it. Among these are proven technological processes, such as intentional, prescribed burnings in forests across the western United States, that we’ve abandoned in the last century. Wildfire experts are in unanimous agreement this is not only a key reason why the wildfire problem has gotten out of control, but also a contributing factor to declining biological diversity and drought conditions as overgrowth sucks up water before it reaches creeks and rivers. As vast sums are spent and new technologies are developed, a central issue is a refusal to act on evidence that old technologies provide a basis for a far more viable and proven method for preventing catastrophic wildfires.
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Last year, with $35 million in investor funding, Clerico started Convective Capital, aiming to “solve” the global wildfire crisis, according to the firm’s website. Among its portfolio are companies that monitor vegetation near power lines, deploy drones to put out fires, and cameras that use algorithms to try and automatically detect wildfires. He sees these businesses as attractive to governments trying to manage the wildfire problem, but also insurance companies getting slammed with wildfire-related claims, forestry companies losing inventory, and utilities exposed to billions of dollars in lawsuits if they’re found responsible for a fire. The idea, Clerico said, is “if we can incubate new tools and technologies that ultimately end up in the hands of practitioners and people that can and are working on this problem, we increase the effectiveness of their work, and therefore, the impact on the problem.”
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The company claims it uses artificial intelligence to identify potential wildfires and then alert local authorities. Kasnter said the AI cannot reliably detect the difference between smoke and clouds, so all alerts are reviewed by humans before triggering an alert so they don’t spam fire officials with false positives. There is a free tier available to any fire official who wants it that notifies them of new fires, but to get the company’s advanced, time-lapse cameras and mapping technology, they must pay a subscription fee.
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