Show Notes
Wildfires are putting more towns and critical infrastructure at risk every year. In 2024, the largest wildfire in Texas history spread rapidly toward the town of Borger until it reached the edge of town and just… stopped. The town was spared because months earlier the Borger Fire Department had deliberately set fire to the land surrounding the town. This is called prescribed burning, an ancient land management practice designed to remove the vegetation that fuels catastrophic wildfires. Today, the challenge is safely doing prescribed burning at the scale needed to protect modern landscapes. Luckily, there are people working to provide a modern solution to this problem. In our first episode of Disasterproof, we visit BurnBot’s headquarters to meet CEO Anukool Lakhina and see the machines designed to make prescribed fire faster, safer, and more scalable. We also sit down with Archie Stone, the Wildland Fire Coordinator who advocated for the prescribed burns that ended up saving the town of Borger. Together, they make the case that the best way to fight fire is with fire. Subscribe for new episodes: https://www.youtube.com/@disasterproofhq?sub_confirmation=1 Disasterproof Hosts: Kat Manalac and Bill Clerico Director/Producer: Zach Both Cinematographer: Matt Piniol Assistant Camera: Matt Breetzke Editors: Josh and Amanda Deisler Motion Graphics: Jules Verardi
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The Great Salt Lake has lost more than half its surface area since 1850, and the snowpack that's supposed to refill it is disappearing too. This past winter was the worst in at least 50 years, with precipitation increasingly falling as rain instead of snow. In this episode of Disasterproof, we go on the ground with Rainmaker, a company using autonomous drones to seed clouds with silver iodide and coax more snow out of the sky. Rainmaker says it's the first company in history to unambiguously prove it's inducing precipitation, and it's now working with the state of Utah to try to reverse the decline of the Great Salt Lake within the decade. Cloud seeding itself isn't new, the U.S. has been doing it for over 70 years. What's changed is the urgency, and the technology now being used to validate it. We also look at the Aral Sea's cautionary tale, and sit in on Rainmaker's "Save Our Snow" pitch to a room full of investors, skiers, and scientists who all want to know the same thing: can this actually work? Chapters: 00:00 The Great Salt Lake's Vanishing Act 01:54 On the Ground With a Snow Scientist 04:04 70 Years of Cloud Seeding, Reinvented 05:55 Inside Rainmaker's Operations Center 07:16 How Silver Iodide Seeds a Cloud 08:32 A Live Flight Over a Cow Field 09:43 Proving the Precipitation Is Real 10:30 The Aral Sea's Warning 11:40 Project Save Our Snow 12:32 Q&A: Funding, Ethics, and Skepticism 14:38 Fact vs. Fear on Cloud Seeding