Topher White: What can save the rainforest? Your used cell phone
Topher White: O que pode salvar as florestas tropicais? Seu telefone celular usado.
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.
as a tourist,
for the very first time,
pela primeira vez.
o que mais me marcou.
of the forest that struck me the most.
enorme, um calau-rinoceronte.
a rhinoceros hornbill.
a uma grande distância.
over a great distance.
was in fact a gibbon reserve,
ouvir tantos deles.
was coming out of the forest that time
que vinha da floresta naquele momento
notado realmente.
had actually noticed it.
reserva de gibões.
rehabilitating gibbons,
reabilitando gibões,
to spend a lot of their time
que ocorre próximo deste local.
that takes place on the side.
dos insetos, e do resto, ao fundo,
the insects, and the rest,
in recordings you heard,
nas gravações que vocês escutaram,
a uma grande distância.
at great distance.
postavam-se em torno do santuário
who were posted around this sanctuary
contra o desmatamento ilegal.
to guard against illegal logging,
como turistas, dentro da floresta,
again as tourists, out into the forest,
que estava derrubando uma árvore,
who was just sawing a tree down,
a poucas centenas de metros do posto,
from the ranger station.
to hear the chainsaws,
the forest is very, very loud.
que nestes tempos modernos,
that in this modern time,
de um posto lorestal,
from a ranger station in a sanctuary,
o som de uma motosserra
someone who has a chainsaw gets fired up.
but in fact, it was quite true.
é bem real.
o desmatamento ilegal?
always to come up with a high-tech,
a adotar uma solução "high tech"
tem que ser adaptável,
it has to be scalable,
enquanto estávamos lá,
while were there was that
que impedisse o desmatamento
that would allow us to stop this
already in the forest?
O que já havia na floresta?
dedicated, three full-time guards,
a impedir a devastação.
what was happening out in the forest.
o que acontecia na floresta.
foi haver conexão na floresta.
out in the forest.
bem no meio do nada.
way out in the middle of nowhere.
da estrada mais próxima.
from the nearest road,
but they had very good cell phone service,
mas existia um ótimo serviço de celular.
were on Facebook all the time,
a web em seus telefones
that in fact it would be possible
se não seria possível
programadamente,
of chainsaws programmatically,
não podiam ouvi-las,
no topo das árvores, certo?
to go up in the trees.
to listen to the sounds of the forest,
que possa ouvir os sons da floresta,
network that's there,
e enviar um alerta às pessoas em terra,
uma solução para este problema.
to this issue for them.
para falar sobre salvar a floresta.
to talk about saving the rainforest,
definitely all heard about forever.
have heard about saving the rainforest
desde quando éramos crianças.
has never changed:
isto é muito urgente,
it's super urgent,
a tantos campos de futebol."
have been destroyed yesterday.
about half of the rainforest remains,
a metade das florestas tropicais
brm mais urgentes,
problems like climate change.
do qual eu não havia me dado conta:
that I didn't realize at the time:
mais gases de efeito estufa
for more greenhouse gas
caminhões e navios do mundo juntos.
trains, cars, trucks and ships combined.
da mudança climática.
to climate change.
que ocorre nas florestas tropicais
that takes place in the rainforest
como aquele que flagramos.
like the illegal logging that we saw.
as pessoas da floresta
enforce the rules that are there,
drasticamente os 17%
into this 17 percent
impacto maior, em curto prazo.
in the short term.
rápido de combater a mudança climática.
fastest way to fight climate change.
de uma motosserra é ouvido na floresta
is heard in the forest,
of the chainsaw,
o som da motosserra,
GSM network that's already there
GSM padrão que já existe ali
e parar o desmatamento.
and stop the logging.
de uma árvore que tenha sido cortada.
and finding a tree that's been cut.
uma árvore em área devastada.
a tree from a satellite
e rápido meio de fazer isto,
and fastest way to do it,
they weren't able to do it,
eles não conseguiram fazê-lo.
were actually cell phones,
fossem, na verdade, celulares,
São descartados todos os anos,
by the hundreds of millions every year,
o que é claro, nós deveríamos fazer,
which of course we should do,
to the sounds of the forest.
que vocês veem aqui,
that you see here,
engineering challenges
desafios de engenharia
under a tree canopy,
sob a copa de uma árvore,
under a tree canopy,
solar panel design that you see here,
solares que se vê aqui,
byproducts of an industrial process.
reciclados de um processo industrial.
na garagem dos meus pais.
me permitirem fazer isto.
for allowing me to do that.
no alto de uma árvore.
this is a device up in a tree.
is that they are pretty well obscured
que estão bem escondidos
pois embora possam captar
they are able to hear chainsaw noises
de cerca de1 quilômetro
uns 3 quilômetros quadrados,
about three square kilometers,
a área ficaria desprotegida.
it would make the area unprotected.
voltamos à Indonésia,
we took it back to Indonesia,
by illegal logging.
pelo desmatamento ilegal.
illegal chainsaw noises.
um alerta em tempo real.
Everyone had just gotten back down.
Todos tinham acabado de descer...
todos eles ficaram silenciosos
and they all quiet down,
muito, muito baixinho, ao fundo,
até aquele momento.
until that moment.
para interromper os desmatadores.
to actually stop these loggers.
perto de onde os desmatadores estavam.
arrived close to where the loggers are.
where I'm actually regretting
que eu estava realmente arrependido
the other side of this hill.
além do morro.
corajosos que eu.
pois nunca haviam sido interrompidos
been interrupted before --
event for them,
que eles nunaca mais voltaram.
they have not been back since.
como a operação funciona.
the entire operation works,
que agir em tempo real
on the spot was that
in real time and stop people,
os desmatadores
they won't come back.
(aplausos)
because we told a lot of people,
para muitas pessoas.
começou a acontecer.
amazing stuff started to happen.
started to send us emails, phone calls.
e-mails, telefonemas.
throughout Asia,
people throughout South America,
dizendo que poderiam fazer o mesmo.
we thought might be exceptional,
pretty good cell phone service.
das florestas que estão mais ameaçadas.
of the forests that are most under threat.
really amazing happened,
their own old cell phones.
people who are already there,
a conectividade existente.
and use the existing connectivity,
that are being sent to us
uma espécie de sobrevida.
something else in their afterlife,
can be completely recycled,
an entirely upcycled device.
because of any sort of high-tech solution.
what's already there,
that if it's not phones,
de que se não forem os celulares,
going to be enough there
in new contexts.
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