The devastating effects of climate change are impacting every country on the planet, as flooded beach towns and islands are fighting for their very survival, and increasing high temperatures inland are becoming so oppressive that field workers can’t endure it, and farms fail.
Dramatic images of huge wildfires in the western U.S. millions of acres burning and spreading toxic fumes across the entire country; astronauts in orbit now see the fire and smoke from space.
The climate crisis is one of the key topics as global leaders gather this week, informed by “Climate Change 2021: the Physical Science Basis” created by a global consortium of climate scientists from 66 nations called the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
Wildfires this summer burned in Idaho, Oregon, Arizona, California, Colorado, Montana, and Nevada, according to the National Interagency Fire Center.
“Climate change, dangerous fuel accumulations, and increased development in the wildland-urban interface have caused a significant increase in catastrophic loss of life, property, and ecosystems across the United States, most dramatically in the Western U.S.,” said Nevada State Forester and Firewarden Kacey KC, in testimony at a recent hearing of the U.S. House Transportation and Infrastructure subcommittee.
More than 48,000 wildfires burned over 6.5 million acres in the United States, setting historical records, according to the national fire center. That includes 1 million acres burned across 12 Western states just this year. In Arizona, the Telegraph Fire alone burned more than 193,000 acres.
Sadly, firefighting has become its own industry, but fortunately, there are innovators who are working tirelessly to use technology to help abate future damage.
Today, Senet, Inc., a leading provider of cloud-based software and services platforms that enable global connectivity and on-demand network build-outs for the Internet of Things (IoT), and Thingy IOT, a leading innovator of environmental sensors, applications, and low-power connectivity in remote locations, announced a partnership to deliver carrier-grade LoRaWAN® network services and Thingy A.Q. Wildfire and Air Quality Monitoring Systems across the Western U.S. to help monitor for wildfires.
Through this collaboration, Senet will verify interoperability of the Thingy A.Q. sensor with its cloud-based network management platform, providing public agencies, firefighting organizations, farmers, and researchers a clear path to deploying and managing scaled deployments of remote air quality sensors to help detect wildfires and monitor wildfire smoke.
Thingy IOT will also become a Senet Radio Access Network (RAN) operator partner, utilizing Senet’s RAN provider services to deliver carrier-grade LoRaWAN network connectivity in areas without coverage and making air quality monitoring solutions more accessible in remote locations. Thingy will also operate private networks and applications for agriculture, research, and government agencies through coverage delivered by Senet’s Low Power Wide Area Virtual Network (LVN™).
“The combination of Thingy’s award-winning A.Q. Sensors and Senet’s unique network deployment models help deliver solutions where they are needed most, including remote locations where wildfires start, rural areas where smoke affects agriculture crop quality, and where workers or the public are being exposed to toxic smoke from wildfires,” said Scott Waller, CEO, and Co-Founder at Thingy IoT. “Over the past few years, we have been implementing one-off networks everywhere we place sensors. Now, as a Senet RAN and LVN partner, we have a significantly better network and device deployment and management tools, allowing us to scale our sensor deployments and improve the reliability of the data used to track wildfires.”
“It is an unfortunate fact that wildfires, the resulting damage to property and crops, and the associated recovery costs require an urgent response,” said Bruce Chatterley, CEO of Senet. “Ouhttps://www.ipcc.ch/r partnership with Thingy IoT is a great example of how low power sensing technology and easy LoRaWAN network deployment in rural areas can have an immediate and meaningful impact on society and the environment. We look forward to collaborating with Thingy IOT to reduce the dangers and impact of high-risk fire and air quality events.”
Thingy and Senet will be demonstrating wildfire sensing solutions at IoT World November 2-4 in Santa Clara in booth IOT312. To discuss opportunities with Thingy and Senet executives, please schedule a meeting.
