Blue Whales Return to the Seychelles & AI Spots Wildfires Early | WEF | Top Stories of the Week
Channel: World Economic Forum
Date: 2023-12-16

This week's top stories of the week include:

0:15 Blue Whales have returned to the Seychelles – Blue whales are making a home in the Indian Ocean islands again after whaling nearly wiped them out in the 1960s. Film-makers and researchers captured footage of the creatures while working on an IMAX film called Blue Whales 3D.

1:47 The EU will track forest fires and logging from space – Europe's forests, covering roughly 4% of the world's total, face mounting pressure. Illegal deforestation and climate-induced wildfires are taking a toll, with 2022 alone witnessing the loss of 90,000 hectares – an area equivalent to Corsica. The EU, recognizing the urgency, has proposed a novel solution: satellite-based forest monitoring.

3:12 This AI can spot wildfires as soon as they start – Most wildfires are reported by the public, which means it can take hours to locate and verify a fire. Pano AI can help reduce this to minutes. Its high-definition, 360° cameras scan the landscape looking for the first tendrils of smoke. The early minutes of a wildfire are critical and can determine whether a small flare-up becomes a raging inferno.

6:24 This company is decarbonizing quicklime and cement – Quicklime – calcium oxide – is a key ingredient in steelmaking and cement. It’s also used to treat wastewater, make paper and as a soil additive in farming. But manufacturing quicklime is a CO2-intensive process. It’s made by heating crushed limestone to around 1,100˚C in a process called calcination. Traditionally, this process is powered by fossil fuels and the limestone also emits CO2. Manufacturing quicklime emits more than 400 million tonnes of CO2 every year. Swedish firm SaltX Technology wants to change that
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