Greg Asner: Ecology from the air
Ekologia widziana z powietrza
Greg Asner’s mapping technology produces detailed, complex pictures of how humans’ activities affect our ecosystems. Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
we know about nature.
they're impossible to understand
that occupy the rainforest.
from any other vantage point,
questions with you today.
amount of carbon in the trees,
and automobiles combined.
closed-canopy tropical forest,
on a high-resolution, first-time tour
spreading out in orange.
in the western Amazon.
is lost in the lowlands,
around the Panama Canal.
prepare for climate change
the climate changing already.
we're getting a lot of droughts,
about the size of Western Europe.
exposure to climate change.
in a system like this, obviously.
and the Andes Amazon corridor,
the geography of biodiversity in the region,
different species in different colors.
with about lions hunting,
that they're protecting.
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,
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