Saving the Rainforest with Old Cell Phones

Rainforest Connection is saving the rainforest with something sitting in your desk drawer!

Rainforests have some of the most complicated soundscapes on the planet. In this dense noise of insects, primates, birds, and everything else that moves in the forest, how can you detect the sounds of illegal logging?

The old cell phone you have hanging around and collecting dust may have the answer.

Source: Rainforest Connection

So, how exactly does one go about saving the rainforest with old cell phones?

After a visit to the rainforests of Borneo, physicist and engineer Topher White was struck by the sounds of the forest. In particular, the noises he couldn’t hear.

While on a walk, White and others came across an illegal logger sawing down a tree just a few hundred meters away from a ranger station.

This incident set White thinking that perhaps the best way to save the Earth’s precious rainforest is to listen to its loggers and poachers. And the innovation he came up with uses old cell phones to do this!

To introduce us to the innovation he came up with, here is Topher White on the National Geographic Live stage. National Geographic is promoting some incredible things, so go check them out to see what they’ve been up to lately!