Topher White: What can save the rainforest? Your used cell phone
Topher White: Qu'est-ce qui peut sauver la forêt tropicale ? Votre vieux portable
Through his startup Rainforest Connection, Topher White transforms used cell phones into guardians of the rainforest. Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
en faisant du tourisme,
as a tourist,
la forêt tropicale de Bornéo.
for the very first time,
of the forest that struck me the most.
qui m'ont le plus impressionné
a rhinoceros hornbill.
avec des congénères éloignés.
over a great distance.
dans une réserve de gibbons,
was in fact a gibbon reserve,
provenant de la forêt,
was coming out of the forest that time
had actually noticed it.
une réserve de gibbons,
à se réadapter à la Nature
rehabilitating gibbons,
beaucoup de temps
to spend a lot of their time
du déboisement illégal.
that takes place on the side.
de la forêt,
les insectes et le reste,
the insects, and the rest,
comme bruit de fond,
in recordings you heard,
au loin.
at great distance.
travaillant dans ce sanctuaire,
who were posted around this sanctuary
to guard against illegal logging,
le protéger du déboisement illégal.
en touristes dans la forêt,
again as tourists, out into the forest,
en train d'abattre un arbre,
who was just sawing a tree down,
du poste des gardes forestiers.
from the ranger station.
les tronçonneuses
to hear the chainsaws,
la forêt est très, très bruyante.
the forest is very, very loud.
que de nos jours
that in this modern time,
from a ranger station in a sanctuary,
d'une réserve d'animaux,
someone who has a chainsaw gets fired up.
le bruit d'une tronçonneuse en action.
mais c'est pourtant vrai.
but in fact, it was quite true.
la déforestation illégale ?
chercher une solution follement high tech,
always to come up with a high-tech,
dans la forêt tropicale,
de l'évolutif.
it has to be scalable,
pendant notre séjour
while were there was that
déjà sur place.
pour éradiquer le problème,
that would allow us to stop this
Qu'avait-on déjà dans la forêt ?
already in the forest?
à plein temps,
dedicated, three full-time guards,
d'empêcher le déboisement.
ce qui se passait dans la forêt.
what was happening out in the forest.
la clé de tout,
out in the forest.
en pleine jungle.
way out in the middle of nowhere.
au milieu de nulle part.
se trouve à des centaines de km,
from the nearest road,
but they had very good cell phone service,
les portables passent parfaitement.
tout le temps sur Facebook,
were on Facebook all the time,
grâce à leurs téléphones.
that in fact it would be possible
qu'il serait possible
le vrombissement des tronçonneuses
of chainsaws programmatically,
en haut des arbres.
to go up in the trees.
pouvant capter les sons
to listen to the sounds of the forest,
au réseau existant,
network that's there,
aux gens sur place,
la solution à ce problème.
to this issue for them.
to talk about saving the rainforest,
sauver la forêt tropicale,
depuis toujours.
definitely all heard about forever.
have heard about saving the rainforest
has never changed:
c'est super urgent,
it's super urgent,
détruits depuis hier,
have been destroyed yesterday.
about half of the rainforest remains,
il reste la moitié de la forêt
plus urgents
problems like climate change.
que j'ignorais alors :
that I didn't realize at the time:
for more greenhouse gas
trains, cars, trucks and ships combined.
camions et bateaux du monde.
to climate change.
de changement climatique.
dans la jungle
that takes place in the rainforest
like the illegal logging that we saw.
à appliquer la loi,
enforce the rules that are there,
ce 17%
into this 17 percent
sur le court terme.
in the short term.
et le plus rapide
fastest way to fight climate change.
le changement climatique.
qu'on a conçu :
se fait entendre,
is heard in the forest,
of the chainsaw,
le réseau GSM
GSM network that's already there
et empêcher l'abattage.
and stop the logging.
and finding a tree that's been cut.
trouver un arbre déjà coupé,
par satellite
a tree from a satellite
en temps réel.
et plus rapide de le faire,
and fastest way to do it,
they weren't able to do it,
si facile ou bon marché.
were actually cell phones,
étaient des portables,
bon marché.
by the hundreds of millions every year,
de millions chaque année,
rien qu'aux États-Unis,
which of course we should do,
ce qu'on devrait bien sûr faire,
c'est génial.
pour saisir les sons.
to the sounds of the forest.
Il faut les mettre dans cette boîte.
that you see here,
engineering challenges
défis que l'ingénierie devait relever
under a tree canopy,
sous le feuillage
ou source, au cœur de la forêt,
under a tree canopy,
non résolu.
solar panel design that you see here,
unique qu'on voit ici,
byproducts of an industrial process.
d'un processus industriel.
en fait.
for allowing me to do that.
laissé faire.
sur un arbre
this is a device up in a tree.
is that they are pretty well obscured
dans le feuillage,
they are able to hear chainsaw noises
pouvant capter les bruits de tronçonneuse
about three square kilometers,
environ trois km carrés,
it would make the area unprotected.
la zone resterait sans protection.
on est retourné en Indonésie,
we took it back to Indonesia,
mais c'était
by illegal logging.
par la déforestation illégale.
des tronçonneuses illégales.
illegal chainsaw noises.
Everyone had just gotten back down.
on était encore au pied de l'arbre.
and they all quiet down,
tout le monde se tait,
until that moment.
jusqu'à cet instant.
to actually stop these loggers.
pour arrêter les bûcherons.
arrived close to where the loggers are.
en les approchant,
de m'être embarqué dans cette histoire.
where I'm actually regretting
de l'autre côté de la colline,
the other side of this hill.
plus courageux que moi.
jamais arrêtés.
been interrupted before --
event for them,
ils ne sont jamais revenus.
they have not been back since.
de A à Z.
the entire operation works,
définitivement
on the spot was that
et arrêter les abatteurs,
in real time and stop people,
revenir.
they won't come back.
Merci.
because we told a lot of people,
parce qu'on en a beaucoup parlé,
ont commencé à arriver.
amazing stuff started to happen.
appelaient, écrivaient :
started to send us emails, phone calls.
throughout Asia,
people throughout South America,
we thought might be exceptional,
pretty good cell phone service.
ce n'était pas exceptionnel,
dans la périphérie des forêts
of the forests that are most under threat.
really amazing happened,
vraiment incroyable :
their own old cell phones.
leurs vieux portables.
people who are already there,
qu'on peut améliorer
and use the existing connectivity,
that are being sent to us
du monde entier
ait une seconde vie.
something else in their afterlife,
vient du recyclage
can be completely recycled,
de la pure économie circulaire.
an entirely upcycled device.
because of any sort of high-tech solution.
une solution high tech.
what's already there,
qui existent déjà.
that if it's not phones,
ce ne sont pas les portables,
à partir de laquelle créer
going to be enough there
in new contexts.
dans son contexte.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Topher White - Conservation technologistThrough his startup Rainforest Connection, Topher White transforms used cell phones into guardians of the rainforest.
Why you should listen
In 2012, Topher White founded Rainforest Connection, a startup which converts recycled cell-phones into solar-powered listening devices to monitor and protect remote areas of the rainforest. Now an established NGO, Rainforest Connection has helped stop illegal logging and poaching operations in Sumatra, and the system is being expanded to three more rainforest reserves in Indonesia, the Amazon and Africa.
With a background in physics and engineering, White worked as web chief of ITER and co-founded Enthuse, a sports engagement and mobile rewards platform. For Rainforest Connection, he’s fashioned a simple device made of discarded cell phones and solar panels that detects and sends alerts when it picks up the sound of chainsaws in protected rainforests, allowing for intervention in real time.
Topher White | Speaker | TED.com