Helping prevent forest fires

At Children’s Climate Call, young people are challenged to find solutions to climate issues that affect their community. Chosen from more than 13,000 entries, the 2009 winners of this global challenge were a group of children from California who developed a clever idea to help prevent the forest fires that are a constant threat in their region.

The challenge

Forest fires are obviously a danger to wildlife and people. They are also a major contributor to CO2 in the atmosphere. For the children of Meadow Vista in California, a solution wouldn’t just help the planet – it would help them keep their friends and family safe.

The solution

The idea is to have a network of solar powered CCTV cameras looking out over the forest. People all over the world will log on to admire the beautiful view from each camera. In doing this they also provide thousands of sets of eyes to watch the forest and alert the authorities in the event of a fire.

The result

Sony worked with the Forest Guard project over eight months to develop a working prototype of the solar powered CCTV cameras system and tested it during the 2009 wildfire season in California. The University of Nevada, Reno offered the project local support with Dr. Graham Kent and his team helping with the testing and maintenance of the network of cameras.

“We are so pleased we could bring our technology and engineering skills to this project and help this young team’s idea become a reality”, says Morgan David, Divisional Director, Research and Development (R&D) at Sony. “To apply technology to help solve the problems of climate change is at the heart of Sony’s philosophy and we will continue to collaborate with the Forest Guard initiative and support this project.”

The Sony designs and software for the Forest Guard proof of concept is being made available in the public domain, so that the technology is available to all scientists, governments and NGOs working to combat wildfires globally.