I’m a VC specializing in startups addressing wildfire. If I can be helpful to anyone thinking about this problem, I’m bill at convectivecapital.com
xPrize Wildfire – $11M Prize Competition
51–60 of 75 posts
Re: xPrize Wildfire – $11M Prize Competition
#52Earlier quoted context omitted.
It serves the people whose houses are burned and the even larger population who has to live in smoke-polluted air for days or weeks at a time. The prize targets extreme wildfire events, as it says explicitly. Not one of the prizes relates to quashing anything, it's all detection and tracking.
Then someone should probably inform their copywriter that "End Destructive Wildfires" is not an accurate framing of the goals. More like "End Community Destruction By Wildfires"
The copy is fine, because it's not intended for consumption by robots who cannot derive context. Anyone unwilling to read the entire front page, which contains specifics as to the type and scale of wildfires targeted, is unlikely to either find much success as a contestant or otherwise have a meaningful impact on either the xPrize or wildfires.
Re: xPrize Wildfire – $11M Prize Competition
#53Earlier quoted context omitted.
Spoken like someone who hasn't had to spend weeks with off-the-charts smoke-based air quality problems, followed by hundreds of thousands of people having to replace air filters in houses and cars.
Why do you get that impression?
Because not all wildfires are forest fires, and even when they are they can occur in wildlands which are not subject to logging. Some people see "wildfire" and think about the impact on people near the fire as well as downwind communities. Other people see the term and immediately leap to economic considerations.
Re: xPrize Wildfire – $11M Prize Competition
#54Earlier quoted context omitted.
Spoken like someone who hasn't had to spend weeks with off-the-charts smoke-based air quality problems, followed by hundreds of thousands of people having to replace air filters in houses and cars.
I live in the pacific northwest... If they light the fires in Spring when it's still wet, you don't get the same magnitude of fire in the summer. It would also help if they didn't spray the areas afterwards with round-up so that Aspen (a fire break species) doesn't grow, so that they can plant round-up ready Pine (a species that promotes fires).
Forest management is crucial, and prescribed burns are an important element there, but it does nothing to stop other wildfires, like the Vantage Highway fire and the one which destroyed so much property around Lind, WA. Not all wildfires are forest fires.
Re: xPrize Wildfire – $11M Prize Competition
#55This reminds me of the competition to try and stop Asian carp from hitting the great lakes: https://www.outdoorlife.com/stop-asian-carp-earn-1-million/
I hope that's enough to generate some innovation in the area to solve a very large and growing problem.
Re: xPrize Wildfire – $11M Prize Competition
#56This reminds me of the competition to try and stop Asian carp from hitting the great lakes: https://www.outdoorlife.com/stop-asian-carp-earn-1-million/ I hope that's enough to generate some innovation in the area to solve a very large and growing problem.
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Re: xPrize Wildfire – $11M Prize Competition
#57Best way to end destructive fires is to light destructive fires. The real purpose of fighting these fires seem to be protecting the logging industry.
>The real purpose of fighting these fires seem to be protecting the logging industry.
also, the rural property owners.
Re: xPrize Wildfire – $11M Prize Competition
#58Earlier quoted context omitted.
Trees are roughly 50% carbon by weight. Each pound of carbon represents 3.67 pounds of cleaned carbon dioxide. Each pound of lumber represents 1.8 pounds of carbon dioxide our of the air. It looks like both logging trucks and flatbed timber trucks can carry around 24 tons of lumber, which would be 43 tones of carbon dioxide. Sawmills are efficient, and would make a negligible contribution to total carbon. Transportat…
Another way of thinking about this: if you burned 1,600 gallons of gasoline to sequester one 3,000 lb pine tree, you'd be net ahead. Unless I'm really off on my math.
I did do my math wrong. 220 gallons of gasoline for 3,000 lbs of timber
Re: xPrize Wildfire – $11M Prize Competition
#59Best way to end destructive fires is to light destructive fires. The real purpose of fighting these fires seem to be protecting the logging industry.
There is very little focus on protecting logging and a lot of focus on protecting suburban sprawl. We live further and further into ecosystems that up until recently could have burned with minimal impact to humans. Now those same forests are full of cabin-mansions and summer homes of people who are rich enough for the system to care about them.
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Re: xPrize Wildfire – $11M Prize Competition
#60On one hand this effort sounds like a good way to generate some interesting concepts. On the other hand, as a long-time resident of a rural, wildfire-prone area, it's also important to educate the public and politicians that there is a large body of proven land management best practices that can already significantly improve prevention, control and mitigation. While we can always do better, we often aren't sufficient…
All of these work better than suppression:
- Bury your power lines. If only PG&E would invest in fire safety… check list of funders in TFA… scratch head.
- Rake your forests. (Or “remove ladder fuels”, as it is now called.)
- Controlled burns.
I’d like my $11M now. Can we spend it on burying lines under an emergency order that bypasses California permitting?