Greg Asner: Ecology from the air
Greg Asner: Ecologie vanuit de lucht
Greg Asner’s mapping technology produces detailed, complex pictures of how humans’ activities affect our ecosystems. Full bio
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de natuur beter te begrijpen.
kan zien in alle richtingen,
zijn dichte vegetatie,
we know about nature.
van onze tropische bossen te vertragen.
bij de wetenschap.
wat we niet begrijpen?
van wat we niet weten
per seconde meten
samenleven.
they're impossible to understand
that occupy the rainforest.
from any other vantage point,
questions with you today.
amount of carbon in the trees,
koolstof in de bomen.
van de aarde willen voorkomen.
and automobiles combined.
treinen en auto's samen.
closed-canopy tropical forest,
on a high-resolution, first-time tour
op gebied van koolstofgeografie,
spreading out in orange.
in the western Amazon.
van de westelijke Amazone,
kleinste tropische landen,
een enorme variatie aan koolstof.
is lost in the lowlands,
is het grootst in het laagland.
around the Panama Canal.
handel te beschermen
prepare for climate change
the climate changing already.
we're getting a lot of droughts,
about the size of Western Europe.
zoals op deze foto onderaan.
exposure to climate change.
van klimaatverandering.
in a system like this, obviously.
in dit soort systemen
als je er nog niet bent geweest.
we werken met de autoriteiten
and the Andes Amazon corridor,
the geography of biodiversity in the region,
spectroscoop van de CAO
in kaart te brengen
different species in different colors.
with about lions hunting,
over de leeuwen
that they're protecting.
met maar een paar bomen.
the technology we've developed
single tree in the savanna,
and how much that's happening
that are more nuanced
that I just showed you.
the structure of the ecosystem,
de gevolgen ervan op het ecosysteem,
om de aarde in stand te houden
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Greg Asner - Airborne ecologistGreg Asner’s mapping technology produces detailed, complex pictures of how humans’ activities affect our ecosystems.
Why you should listen
The remote sensing techniques developed by Greg Asner and his team are viewed as among the most advanced in the world for exploring Earth’s changing ecosystems in unprecedented detail and richness. Using airborne and satellite technologies such as laser scanning and hyperspectral imaging, combined with field work and computer modeling, Asner measures and qualifies humans’ impact on regions from the American Southwest to the Brazilian Amazon.
“We’re able to see, if you will, the forest and the trees at the same time,” Asner says. “We’re able to now understand an image, map and measure huge expanses of the environment while maintaining the detail. Not just the spatial resolution, but the biological resolution—the actual organisms that live in these places.” For Asner, who is on the faculty at the Carnegie Institution and Stanford and leads the Carnegie Airborne Observatory project, this is science with a mission: to influence climate change treaties and save the forests he studies.
Greg Asner | Speaker | TED.com