8 ms·

Can drone practice take place on poachers?

negamax 12y ago
Won't it be better to educate people and crackdown on buyers of animal products. Although poachers are doing the dirty work; they are not entirely at fault here. Drones and use of technology can make their work tough; but it won't deter them.
- disputin 12y ago
  We've been educating and cracking down for decades. I'm not suggesting an alternative, rather an additional tool. I think a bomb might be quite educational. I would be happy with peaceful monitor drones, thermal imaging cctv, a DARPA challenge for autonomous vehicles to fly over reserves and locate poachers, maybe tag them, or dart them, then alert authorities, but that has far less chance of happening than military training exercises with an added benefit. Edit: I have more to say. AI monitoring is needed because the areas are too large for people to watch. Is a geostationary satellite able to scan a large reserve for people, or are numerous cameras closer to ground level needed? Securing the reserve boundaries - how far away are we from forcefields? Towers with some sort of array of detectors monitoring the boundaries, broken beams? Radar? Lidar? Seismometers? Pressure sensors? Money often talks louder than education, as does short-term mindedness over long-term. Education hasn't stopped murder, burglary, mugging, rape, ... if it does stop poaching, it won't be any time soon. This sounds like the opportunity for challenges which techies like to solve. My knowledge of technology is unfortunately too broad and superficial, as you've probably gathered, but someone's surely got to be tempted.
- dredmorbius 12y ago
  There are a number of factors at play. One is the demand for ivory and other products derived from endangered animals, much of it driven by new wealth in China (but also elsewhere). Another is the lack of economic opportunity throughout much of sub-Saharan Africa. As I recently realized doing the maths, Kenya's electrical generation amounts to about 37 watts per person. That's enough to run a typical laptop, maybe. With projected wind potential of up to 1 GW, wind could supply over 2/3 of total present generating capacity in the country. A gigawatt is about the size of a large coal or nuclear plant. More: http://redd.it/2dm7b0 http://redd.it/2dm7b0 And there's corruption and the lack of resources in policing wildlife refuges and reserves. I'm watching the opening episode of Years of Living Dangerously, one storyline follows a similar history evolving in Indonesia with palm-oil plantations taking over virgin equatorial rainforest with nominally protected status. Over 80% of the "protected" forest is described as destroyed or degraded by slash-and-burn, conversion to farmland, logging, or other activities (17,000 hectare remain of 85,000 hectare total). The pressures of people, industrialization, economic growth, and other factors on the planet are unsustainable and have been recognized by many in the ecological and other communities for decades. General awareness is only slowly starting to leak out.

Won't it be better to educate people and crackdown on buyers of animal products. Although poachers are doing the dirty work; they are not entirely at fault here. Drones and use of technology can make their work tough; but it won't deter them.

disputin 12y ago
We've been educating and cracking down for decades. I'm not suggesting an alternative, rather an additional tool. I think a bomb might be quite educational. I would be happy with peaceful monitor drones, thermal imaging cctv, a DARPA challenge for autonomous vehicles to fly over reserves and locate poachers, maybe tag them, or dart them, then alert authorities, but that has far less chance of happening than military training exercises with an added benefit. Edit: I have more to say. AI monitoring is needed because the areas are too large for people to watch. Is a geostationary satellite able to scan a large reserve for people, or are numerous cameras closer to ground level needed? Securing the reserve boundaries - how far away are we from forcefields? Towers with some sort of array of detectors monitoring the boundaries, broken beams? Radar? Lidar? Seismometers? Pressure sensors? Money often talks louder than education, as does short-term mindedness over long-term. Education hasn't stopped murder, burglary, mugging, rape, ... if it does stop poaching, it won't be any time soon. This sounds like the opportunity for challenges which techies like to solve. My knowledge of technology is unfortunately too broad and superficial, as you've probably gathered, but someone's surely got to be tempted.
dredmorbius 12y ago
There are a number of factors at play. One is the demand for ivory and other products derived from endangered animals, much of it driven by new wealth in China (but also elsewhere). Another is the lack of economic opportunity throughout much of sub-Saharan Africa. As I recently realized doing the maths, Kenya's electrical generation amounts to about 37 watts per person. That's enough to run a typical laptop, maybe. With projected wind potential of up to 1 GW, wind could supply over 2/3 of total present generating capacity in the country. A gigawatt is about the size of a large coal or nuclear plant. More: http://redd.it/2dm7b0 http://redd.it/2dm7b0 And there's corruption and the lack of resources in policing wildlife refuges and reserves. I'm watching the opening episode of Years of Living Dangerously, one storyline follows a similar history evolving in Indonesia with palm-oil plantations taking over virgin equatorial rainforest with nominally protected status. Over 80% of the "protected" forest is described as destroyed or degraded by slash-and-burn, conversion to farmland, logging, or other activities (17,000 hectare remain of 85,000 hectare total). The pressures of people, industrialization, economic growth, and other factors on the planet are unsustainable and have been recognized by many in the ecological and other communities for decades. General awareness is only slowly starting to leak out.