In a historic and unprecedented move the utility company PG&E has decided to proactively enact a power outage for multiple days in the Bay Area in order to avoid starting wildfires. A drastic and startling action indicative of the new Climate Change infused reality that we find ourselves in. Some people, especially those directly affected by the power outages, think this an abuse of power. A private company should never be allowed to shut down an entire metropolis they say. But others, like myself, think this a commendable action. A far greater alternative to doing nothing and watching precious forest and homes burn to the ground. But enacting proactive power outages isn’t our only option. To counteract Climate Change and combat forest fires we may soon have another tool at our disposal, a newly designed environmentally friendly gel that could coat vegetation and prevent wildfires from spreading once they do break out.
As Wired reports:
“Stanford materials scientist Eric Appel didn’t set out to help save people from wildfire, but from disease. Usually he works on developing gels that can ferry drugs into the human body. So if you want to bestow a patient with, say, antibodies to fight off HIV infection, you’d inject them with a gel loaded with the stuff, where it might persist in the patient for perhaps a year. If used widely across an at-risk population, theoretically you can better face down an epidemic.
It wasn’t until Appel’s brother in law—Jesse Acosta, formerly a fire prevention forester for the state of Hawaii, now at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo—said hey, what about loading these gels with fire retardants and applying them to the body that is Mother Nature? That would be the same red stuff you see planes dropping on wildfires, which is effective but fleeting: The material will blow away in the wind or wash away in a rainstorm, meaning you can’t proactively treat an area long-term to be more resistant to fire.
But armed with a newfangled (and environmentally safe) gel, Appel and his colleagues have done just that. Writing today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, they detail how their goo can act as a delivery medium to coat vegetation with flame retardant, and keep it there for the whole fire season. If adopted widely (Appel has founded a startup to commercialize it) the gel could become a sort of vaccine against wildfires, applied around the roads and utility infrastructure where 84 percent of California’s 300,000 fires in the last decade have ignited.”
If this material can be mass produced and safely applied it would be a real game-changer. Of course there would be challenges associated with applying it everywhere it’s needed. A lot of vulnerable lands are true wilderness, mostly inaccessible, if at all. But that concern pales in comparison with the concerns we’re facing in the here and now. Concerns about entire cities grinding to a halt due to rolling power outages. Concerns over the power of a utility company to enact such a drastic plan of action in the first place. And most importantly, concerns about the loss of infrastructure, property, and precocious natural resources if no action is taken at all.
Is a Wildfire Vaccine the Greatest Idea Ever?
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