Bertrand Piccard: The Technology to Prevent Forest Fires Already Exists
As devastating wildfires continue to rage across Europe and other parts of the world, it is easy to feel overwhelmed by the scale of the challenge. Yet solutions already exist that can help prevent small ignition points from becoming catastrophic disasters. In keeping with The Good Times’ commitment to highlighting hopeful, practical innovations, we are sharing the translated post below by Bertrand Piccard.
As many people will recall, Piccard is the Swiss psychiatrist, explorer, and environmental innovator behind the Solar Impulse Foundation. He is known for his record-breaking round-the-world flights and his advocacy of clean technologies. His work has consistently demonstrated that innovation can provide practical solutions to some of the world’s greatest challenges.
His article offers a powerful reminder that technology, when paired with the political will to act, can protect forests, homes, and lives. Investing in fire prevention could be one of the smartest responses to a changing climate.
“I can no longer stand political negligence! Technologies already exist that can detect forest fires from space at their earliest stages, even when the affected area is only around one square meter, predict how they are likely to spread, and enable intervention before they become uncontrollable. Yet many countries are still not using them.
“OroraTech, a Solar Impulse Foundation-labelled solution in which BNP Paribas has invested, is an excellent example. By combining satellite imagery with artificial intelligence, it gives public authorities valuable lead time that can save thousands of hectares of forest, homes, and human lives.
“And yet forests are burning, homes are being reduced to ashes, and hundreds of thousands of people are being displaced. This dramatic situation should compel governments to use every means available. Instead, many are still trying to delay the ecological transition.
“It is now high time to deploy solutions like this on a much larger scale. Yet, at the very moment when climate-related disasters are accelerating, dozens of climate policy rollbacks have been recorded around the world, as recently highlighted by We Don’t Have Time.
“We continue to pay the price of the consequences instead of investing in prevention, even though clean, profitable, and immediately available solutions already exist, not only to reduce emissions but also to strengthen our ability to cope with the consequences of climate change that are already unavoidable.
“The ecological transition is not a cost. It is our best life insurance.”
Source of Bertrand Piccard’s original post (in French): https://www.linkedin.com/in/bertrandpiccard/
