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In Brazil, Trees To Call For Help If Illegally Felled
Damien1972 writes "The Brazilian government has begun fixing trees in the Amazon rainforest with a wireless device, known as Invisible Tracck, which will allow trees to contact authorities once they are felled and moved. Here's how it works: Brazilian authorities fix the Invisible Tracck onto a tree. An illegal logger cuts down the tree and puts it onto a truck for removal, unaware that they are carrying a tracking device. Once Invisible Tracck comes within 20 miles (32 kilometers) of a cellular network it will 'wake up' and alert authorities."
Fell Alert! (0:30)
When the foot seeks the place of the head, the line is crossed. Know your place. Keep your place. Be a shoe.
so when a tree falls in the forest we will know if it makes a sound.
I got to the chocolate box before you, that's why the hard ones have teeth marks.
Why do they need to be recharged in a year? Simply checking orientation with a microcontroller in deep sleep the rest of the time shouldn't take that much power.
Anything that raises the hassle level to untracably do illegal/harmful activity will probably either catch or deter a reasonable chunk of the would-be criminals. We live with knowing that the locks we use in our homes could be picked, and if someone *really* wanted to take the time and the risk or spend the money, they could probably get in in various ways, just like we never achieve 100% safety from other crimes. That doesn't mean our safety measures are worthless though.
For every problem, there is at least one solution that is simple, neat, and wrong.
Elegant solution to a complex and difficult situation, made possible by technological advance. This is progress (and what slashdot is all about)
Illegal timber is big business, there are huge profits and people are prepared to get violent about it. A single hardwood tree can be worth tens of thousands of dollars, particularly fine furniture species. I imagine they would attach these things to the most valuable trees. There are other schemes to track where legal logs come from but they require a lot of manpower to police since each log needs to be checked to find unregistered logs. This idea certainly won't catch everyone but as you say these illegal loggers are a businesses with heavy equipment, a tree that calls home will expose the entire company behind the operation.
BTW: How would one use an EMP without also frying the electronics in the trucks and bulldozers?
And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
Or maybe just make your own cellular signal near where you want to cut the tree (it's not as if anyone else in the middle of the rain forest will notice), and look for the signal of the device trying to phone home in order to find and remove it. Bonus: It even helps with finding the valuable trees, because those will be the ones equipped with the device.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
Brazil has to make up its mind, are the trees a natural resource, or national treasure? Trees are not immortal, they get old and die. Controlled harvesting can support the population and the forest. It's over two million square miles, does all of it have to remain pristine?