Help from the skies to tackle climate change
IT’S TIME to seed bomb Calderdale with drones.
We need a radical approach to tackle climate change and reforest our environment. Drones are already used for a range of applications. Read on to find out why they could prove to be a valuable tool for reforesting Calderdale.
The Council is shortly to set its budget for next year. Currently despite the hot air about tackling the climate emergency, there is nothing in the draft proposals that provide additional resources. The budgets proposals are lacking of any vision, or ambition for our Borough.
Yet without resources and money to tackle climate change all we can do is sit around and talk about it.
Aerial vehicles are already used for all sorts of purposes. We deploy helicopters to tackle moorland fires, we undertake aerial surveys. Estate agents use drones now to take pictures of houses for sale.
They can also be adapted to plant trees via the use of seed bombs. Drones can plant trees 10 times faster than humans and can do so at a fraction of the cost.
We need to do this because woodland in the UK is in a sorry state of affairs. Currently just 13 per cent of the UK is covered in Forest, which falls far behind our European continental average of 35 per cent.
In Calderdale we fall way below even the UK average for forest coverage. That’s why we need radical plans to reforest Calderdale. We need to seed bomb our open spaces using drones, and create beautiful forests.
These drones can work alongside the excellent volunteers and people who spend their time and energy planting trees. I’ve been out with these volunteers and it’s an excellent experience and thing to do.
Using drones will complement and add to their work rather than replacing it. They will be especially useful in hard to reach places and steep banks where it’s not easy to plant trees on foot.
In addition to the use of drones to seed bomb Calderdale, we can also look for other technological solutions to the environmental problems we face.
For example in London artificial trees are being deployed to tackle air pollution, WiFi connected air monitoring stations are now cheap and affordable. Superfast internet (if installed everywhere) enables us to work just as effectively from home, therefore reducing traffic pollution and time wasted stuck in jams.
Now the artificial tree name is a bit of a misnomer, as they are essentially ventilated wooden frames for moss to grow on.
These smart frames can also monitor pollution levels. Each ‘artificial tree’ can scrub the air equivalent of 350 ordinary trees.
So we need to get some of these deployed on streets with high levels of air pollution.
With a number of air quality management zones in Calderdale, these would seem the obvious place to start.
But the Council is strapped for cash, how can we afford this? Quite simply when we send out Council tax bills we invite all residents to contribute a voluntarily monthly donation to help create a reforestation fund.
I believe many Courier readers would be prepared to make a small regular donation for a reforestation programme. All of these things are possible with visionary leadership, and drive on Calderdale Council.