The magic of the Amazon: A river that flows invisibly all around us
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0:00 - 0:02What do you guys think?
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0:03 - 0:07For those who watched
Shere Khan's memorable TED talk, -
0:07 - 0:10I am a typical example
of what he describes -
0:10 - 0:13as "a body carrying a head,"
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0:13 - 0:16a university professor, right?
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0:16 - 0:19You might think it was not fair
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0:19 - 0:22that I've been lined up to speak
after these first two talks -
0:22 - 0:24to speak about science.
-
0:25 - 0:28I can't move my body to the beat,
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0:28 - 0:31and after a scientist
who became a philosopher, -
0:31 - 0:33I have to talk about hard science.
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0:33 - 0:36It could be a very dry subject.
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0:36 - 0:40Yet, I feel honored.
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0:40 - 0:41Never in my career,
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0:41 - 0:43and it's been a long career,
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0:43 - 0:45have I had the opportunity to start a talk
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0:45 - 0:48feeling so inspired, like this one.
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0:48 - 0:52Usually, talking about science
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0:52 - 0:55is like exercising in a dry place.
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0:56 - 1:00However, I've had the pleasure
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1:00 - 1:03of being invited to come here
and talk about water. -
1:04 - 1:07The words "water" and "dry"
do not match, right? -
1:07 - 1:11It is even better to talk about
water in the Amazon, -
1:11 - 1:16which is the splendid cradle
of life, right? Fresh life. -
1:16 - 1:18So, this is what inspired me.
-
1:18 - 1:20That's why I'm here,
although I'm carrying -
1:20 - 1:22my head over here, sort of,
-
1:22 - 1:26I am trying, or will try to convey
this inspiration. -
1:26 - 1:30I hope this story will inspire you
and that you'll spread the word. -
1:31 - 1:36We know that there is controversy.
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1:36 - 1:38The Amazon is the "lung of the world,"
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1:39 - 1:44because of its massive power
to have vital gases exchanged -
1:44 - 1:46between the forest and the atmosphere.
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1:46 - 1:50We also hear about
the storehouse of biodiversity. -
1:50 - 1:55While many believe it,
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1:55 - 1:56few know it.
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1:56 - 1:58If you go out there, in that marsh,
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1:58 - 2:02you'll be amazed at the...
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2:02 - 2:04You can barely see the animals.
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2:04 - 2:08The Indians say, "The forest
has more eyes than leaves." -
2:08 - 2:11That is true, and I will try
to show you something. -
2:11 - 2:14But today, I'm going to use
a different approach, -
2:14 - 2:17one that, inspired by these
two initiatives here, -
2:17 - 2:20a harmonic and a philosophical one,
-
2:20 - 2:24I'll try to use an approach
that's slightly materialistic, -
2:24 - 2:27but it also attempts to convey
that, in nature, there is -
2:27 - 2:30extraordinary philosophy and harmony.
-
2:30 - 2:32There'll be no music in my presentation,
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2:32 - 2:36but I hope you'll all notice the music
of the reality I'm going to show you. -
2:36 - 2:39I'm going to talk about physiology --
not about lungs, -
2:39 - 2:43but other analogies with human physiology,
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2:43 - 2:45especially the heart.
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2:45 - 2:47We'll start...
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2:49 - 2:54by thinking that water is like blood.
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2:54 - 2:59The circulation in our body
distributes fresh blood, -
2:59 - 3:02which feeds, nurtures, and supports us,
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3:02 - 3:06and brings the used blood back
to be renewed. -
3:06 - 3:11In the Amazon, things happen similarly.
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3:11 - 3:16We'll start by talking about
the power of all these processes. -
3:16 - 3:20This is an image
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3:20 - 3:23of rain in motion.
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3:23 - 3:27What you see there
is the years passing in seconds. -
3:27 - 3:30Rains all over the world.
What do you see? -
3:30 - 3:32The equatorial region, in general,
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3:32 - 3:34and the Amazon specifically,
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3:34 - 3:37is extremely important
for the world's climate. -
3:37 - 3:39It's a powerful engine.
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3:39 - 3:44There is an intense evaporation
taking place here. -
3:44 - 3:47If we take a look at this other image,
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3:47 - 3:50which shows the water vapor flow...
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3:50 - 3:53you have dry air in black,
moist air in grey, -
3:53 - 3:54and clouds in white.
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3:54 - 4:00What you see there is an extraordinary
resurgence in the Amazon. -
4:00 - 4:02What phenomenon -- if it's not a desert,
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4:02 - 4:07what phenomenon makes water
gush from the ground into the atmosphere -
4:07 - 4:10with such power
that it can be seen from space? -
4:10 - 4:12What phenomenon is this?
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4:12 - 4:15It could be a geyser.
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4:15 - 4:19A geyser is underground water
heated by magma, -
4:19 - 4:20exploding into the atmosphere
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4:20 - 4:24and transferring this water
into the atmosphere. -
4:24 - 4:27There are no geysers in the Amazon,
unless I am wrong. -
4:27 - 4:29I don't know of any.
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4:29 - 4:33But we have something
that plays the same role, -
4:33 - 4:36with much more elegance:
-
4:36 - 4:39the trees, our good old friends,
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4:39 - 4:42that, like geysers,
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4:42 - 4:47transfer an enormous amount of water
from the ground into the atmosphere. -
4:47 - 4:53There are 600 billion trees
in the Amazon forest, 600 billion geysers. -
4:53 - 4:57This is done with
an extraordinary sophistication. -
4:57 - 4:58They don't need the heat of magma.
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4:58 - 5:01They use sunlight to do this process.
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5:01 - 5:05So, in a typical sunny day in the Amazon,
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5:05 - 5:08a big tree manages
to transfer 1,000 liters of water -
5:08 - 5:10during its transpiration.
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5:10 - 5:111000 liters.
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5:11 - 5:17If we take all the Amazon,
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5:17 - 5:19which is a very large area,
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5:19 - 5:22and add it up to all that water
that is released by transpiration, -
5:22 - 5:24which is the sweat of the forest,
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5:24 - 5:27we'll get to an incredible number:
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5:27 - 5:3020 billion metric tons of water.
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5:30 - 5:31You know, in one day.
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5:31 - 5:34Do you know how much that is?
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5:34 - 5:36The Amazon River,
the largest river on Earth, -
5:36 - 5:38one fifth of all the fresh water
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5:38 - 5:41that leaves the continents of the
whole world and ends up in the oceans, -
5:41 - 5:46dumps 17 billion metric tons
of water a day in the Atlantic Ocean. -
5:46 - 5:47This river of vapor
-
5:47 - 5:50that comes up from the forest
and goes into the atmosphere -
5:50 - 5:51is greater than the Amazon River.
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5:51 - 5:53Just to give you an idea.
-
5:53 - 5:57If we could take a gigantic kettle,
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5:57 - 6:00one that you could plug into
a power socket, an electric one, -
6:00 - 6:02and put those 20 billion
metric tons of water in it, -
6:02 - 6:05how much power would you need
to have this water evaporated? -
6:05 - 6:08Any idea? A really big kettle.
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6:08 - 6:10A gigantic kettle, right?
-
6:10 - 6:1350 thousand Itaipus.
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6:13 - 6:16Itaipu is still the largest
hydroelectric plant in the world. -
6:16 - 6:18and Brazil is very proud of it
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6:18 - 6:20because it provides
more than 30% of the power -
6:20 - 6:22that is consumed in Brazil.
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6:22 - 6:27And the Amazon is here,
doing this for free. -
6:27 - 6:32It's a vivid and extremely powerful plant,
providing environmental services. -
6:34 - 6:36Related to this subject,
-
6:36 - 6:39we are going to talk about
what I call the “Paradox of Chance”, -
6:39 - 6:41which is curious.
-
6:41 - 6:42If you look at the world map --
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6:42 - 6:44it's easy to see this --
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6:44 - 6:47you'll see that there are forests
in the equatorial zone, -
6:47 - 6:50and deserts are organized
at 30º north latitude, -
6:50 - 6:5330º south latitude, aligned.
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6:53 - 6:56Look over there, in the southern
hemisphere, the Atacama; -
6:56 - 6:59Namibia and Kalahari in Africa;
the Australian desert. -
6:59 - 7:02In the northern hemisphere,
the Sahara, Sonoma, etc. -
7:02 - 7:06There is an exception, and it's curious:
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7:06 - 7:10It's the quadrangle that ranges from
Cuiabá to Buenos Aires, -
7:10 - 7:11and from São Paulo to the Andes.
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7:11 - 7:14This quadrangle
was supposed to be a desert. -
7:14 - 7:17It's on the line of deserts.
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7:17 - 7:20Why isn't it a desert? That's why
I call it the “Paradox of Chance”. -
7:20 - 7:23What do we have in South America
that is different? -
7:24 - 7:26If we could use the analogy
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7:26 - 7:31of the blood circulating in our bodies,
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7:31 - 7:34like the water
circulating in the landscape, -
7:34 - 7:38we see that rivers are veins,
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7:38 - 7:42they drain the landscape,
they drain the tissue of nature. -
7:42 - 7:44Where are the arteries?
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7:44 - 7:46Any guess?
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7:46 - 7:48What takes...
-
7:48 - 7:53How does water get to irrigate
the tissues of nature -
7:53 - 7:57and bring everything back through rivers?
-
7:57 - 8:00There is a new type of river,
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8:00 - 8:03which originates in the blue sea,
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8:03 - 8:06which flows through the green ocean --
-
8:06 - 8:09it not only flows, but it is also
pumped by the green ocean -- -
8:09 - 8:12and then it falls on our land.
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8:12 - 8:15All our economy, that quadrangle,
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8:15 - 8:1970% of South America's GDP
comes from that area. -
8:19 - 8:21It depends on this river.
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8:21 - 8:23This river invisibly flows above us.
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8:23 - 8:25We are floating here
on this floating hotel, -
8:25 - 8:28on one of the largest rivers on Earth,
the Negro River. -
8:28 - 8:31It's a bit dry and rough,
but we are floating here, -
8:31 - 8:34and there is this
invisible river running above us. -
8:34 - 8:38This river has a pulse.
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8:38 - 8:40Here it is.
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8:40 - 8:42That's why we also talk about the heart.
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8:42 - 8:45You can see the different seasons there.
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8:45 - 8:48There's the rainy season... In the Amazon,
we used to have two seasons, -
8:48 - 8:50the humid season
and an even more humid one. -
8:50 - 8:52Now we have a dry season.
-
8:52 - 8:55You can see the river covering that region
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8:55 - 8:58which, otherwise, would be a desert.
And it is not. -
9:02 - 9:05We, scientists...
You see that I have a problem here -
9:05 - 9:08to take my head
from one side to the other. -
9:08 - 9:13Scientists study how it works, why, etc.
-
9:13 - 9:18and these studies
are generating a series of discoveries, -
9:18 - 9:19which are absolutely fabulous,
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9:19 - 9:22to raise our awareness of the wealth,
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9:22 - 9:25the complexity,
and the wonder that we have, -
9:25 - 9:28the symphony we have in this process.
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9:28 - 9:30One of them is: How is rain formed?
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9:30 - 9:34Above the Amazon, there is clean air,
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9:34 - 9:36as there is clean air above the ocean.
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9:36 - 9:38The blue sea has clean air above it
and forms pretty few clouds, -
9:38 - 9:40and there's almost no rain there.
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9:40 - 9:44The green ocean has the same clean air,
but forms a lot of rain. -
9:44 - 9:47What is happening here that is different?
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9:47 - 9:48The forest emits smells,
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9:48 - 9:51and these smells are condensation nuclei,
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9:51 - 9:54which form drops in the atmosphere.
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9:54 - 9:59Then, clouds are formed
and there is torrential rain. -
9:59 - 10:01The sprinkler of the Garden of Eden.
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10:02 - 10:07This relation between a living thing,
which is the forest, -
10:07 - 10:10and a non-living thing,
which is the atmosphere, -
10:10 - 10:12is ingenious in the Amazon,
-
10:12 - 10:17because the forest provides
water and seeds, -
10:17 - 10:20and the atmosphere forms the rain
and gives water back, -
10:20 - 10:24guaranteeing the forest's survival.
-
10:25 - 10:26There are other factors as well.
-
10:26 - 10:27We've talked a little about the heart,
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10:27 - 10:31and let's now talk about
another function: the liver! -
10:31 - 10:36When humid air, high humidity
and radiation are combined -
10:36 - 10:38with this organic material,
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10:38 - 10:43which I call “exogenous vitamin C”,
generous vitamin C in the form of gas, -
10:43 - 10:46plants release antioxidants
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10:46 - 10:49which react with pollutants.
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10:49 - 10:50You can rest assured
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10:50 - 10:54that you are breathing the purest air
on Earth, here in the Amazon, -
10:54 - 10:57because the plants take care
of this characteristic as well. -
10:57 - 11:00This benefits the way plants work,
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11:00 - 11:02another ingenious cycle.
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11:02 - 11:06Speaking of fractals,
-
11:06 - 11:08and their relation with the way we work,
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11:08 - 11:10we can establish other comparisons.
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11:10 - 11:14As in the upper airways of our lungs,
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11:14 - 11:18the air in the Amazon
gets rid of the excess of dust. -
11:18 - 11:22The dust in the air that we breathe
is cleaned by our airways. -
11:22 - 11:26This keeps the excess of dust
from affecting the rainfall. -
11:26 - 11:27When there are fires in the Amazon,
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11:27 - 11:30the smoke stops the rain,
it stops raining, -
11:30 - 11:32the forest dries up and catches fire.
-
11:32 - 11:35There is another fractal analogy.
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11:35 - 11:37Like the veins and arteries,
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11:37 - 11:40the rain water is a feedback.
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11:40 - 11:42It returns to the atmosphere.
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11:42 - 11:46Like endocrinal glands and hormones,
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11:46 - 11:49there are those gases
which I told you about before, -
11:49 - 11:52that are formed and released
into the atmosphere, like hormones, -
11:52 - 11:55which help in the formation of rain.
-
11:55 - 11:59Like the liver and the kidneys,
as I've said: the cleaning of the air. -
11:59 - 12:01And, finally, like the heart:
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12:01 - 12:06pumping water from outside, from the sea,
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12:06 - 12:08into the forest.
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12:08 - 12:12We call it "The Biotic Moisture Pump,"
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12:12 - 12:16a new theory that is explained
in a very simple way. -
12:16 - 12:18If there is a desert in the continent
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12:18 - 12:21and a nearby sea,
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12:21 - 12:22evaporation is greater on the sea surface,
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12:22 - 12:25and it sucks the air above the desert.
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12:25 - 12:29The desert is trapped in this condition.
It will always be dry. -
12:29 - 12:32If you have
the opposite situation, a forest, -
12:32 - 12:35the evaporation, as we showed,
is much greater, because of the trees, -
12:35 - 12:37and this cycle is reversed.
-
12:37 - 12:39The air above the sea
is sucked into the continent -
12:39 - 12:42and humidity is imported.
-
12:42 - 12:47This satellite image
was taken one month ago -- -
12:47 - 12:49that's Manaus down there,
we're down there -- -
12:49 - 12:50and it shows this process.
-
12:50 - 12:53It's not a common little river,
that flows into a canal. -
12:53 - 12:58It's a mighty river
that irrigates South America, -
12:58 - 13:00among other things.
-
13:00 - 13:02This image shows those paths,
-
13:02 - 13:06all the hurricanes
that have been recorded. -
13:06 - 13:10You can see that, in the red square,
there hardly are any hurricanes. -
13:10 - 13:12This is no accident.
-
13:12 - 13:15This pump that sucks
the moisture into the continent -
13:15 - 13:17also speeds up the air above the sea,
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13:17 - 13:20and this prevents hurricane formations.
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13:21 - 13:26To close this part and summing up,
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13:26 - 13:28I'd like to talk about
something a little different. -
13:28 - 13:30I have several colleagues
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13:30 - 13:33who worked in the development
of these theories. -
13:33 - 13:36They think, and so do I,
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13:36 - 13:39that we can save planet Earth.
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13:39 - 13:42I'm not talking only about the Amazon.
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13:42 - 13:44The Amazon teaches us a lesson
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13:44 - 13:48of how pristine nature works.
-
13:48 - 13:50We didn't understand
these processes before -
13:50 - 13:53because the rest of the world
is messed up. -
13:53 - 13:55Here, we can understand it.
-
13:55 - 13:58These colleagues propose
that, yes, we can, -
13:58 - 14:00save other areas,
-
14:00 - 14:02including deserts.
-
14:02 - 14:06If we could establish forests
in those other areas, -
14:06 - 14:08we can reverse climate change,
-
14:08 - 14:10including global warming.
-
14:10 - 14:13I have a dear colleague in India,
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14:13 - 14:16whose name's Suprabha Seshan,
and she has a motto. -
14:16 - 14:21Her motto is,
"Gardening back the biosphere", -
14:21 - 14:22"Reajardinando a biosfera", in Portuguese.
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14:22 - 14:25She does wonderful job
rebuilding ecosystems. -
14:25 - 14:28We need to do this.
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14:28 - 14:32Having closed this quick introduction,
-
14:32 - 14:36we see the reality that we have out here:
-
14:36 - 14:39drought, this climate change,
-
14:39 - 14:41things that we already knew.
-
14:41 - 14:43I'd like to tell you a short story.
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14:45 - 14:48Once, about four years ago,
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14:48 - 14:52I attended a declamation,
of a text by Davi Copenaua, -
14:52 - 14:55a wise representative
of the Ianomâmi people, -
14:55 - 14:57and it went more or less like this:
-
14:57 - 15:00"Doesn't the white man know
-
15:00 - 15:04that, if he destroys the forest,
there will be no more rain? -
15:04 - 15:06And that, if there's no more rain,
there will be no drinking water, -
15:06 - 15:08or food?
-
15:08 - 15:11I heard that and my eyes welled up
-
15:11 - 15:13and I went, "Oh, my!
-
15:13 - 15:16I've been studying this for 20 years,
with a super computer, -
15:17 - 15:19tens, thousands of scientists,
-
15:19 - 15:23and we are starting to get to this
conclusion, which he already knows! -
15:23 - 15:28A critical point is the Ianomâmi
have never deforested. -
15:28 - 15:30How could they know the rain would end?
-
15:30 - 15:34That bugged me and I was befuddled.
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15:34 - 15:36How could he know that?
-
15:36 - 15:40Some months later,
I met him at another event and said, -
15:40 - 15:45"Davi, how did you know that if the forest
was destroyed there'd be no more rain?" -
15:45 - 15:50He replied:
"The spirit of the forest told us." -
15:50 - 15:55For me, this was a game changer,
-
15:55 - 15:56a radical change.
-
15:56 - 15:58I said: "Gosh!
-
15:58 - 16:02Why am I doing all this science,
-
16:02 - 16:05to get to a conclusion
that he already knows?" -
16:05 - 16:11Then, something
absolutely critical hit me. -
16:11 - 16:13It is that...
-
16:16 - 16:19seeing is believing.
-
16:20 - 16:23"Out of sight, out of hear." Right?
-
16:23 - 16:28This is a need the previous speaker
pointed out: -
16:28 - 16:31We need to see things --
-
16:31 - 16:33I mean, we, western society,
-
16:33 - 16:35which is becoming global, civilized --
-
16:35 - 16:37we need to see.
-
16:37 - 16:39If we don't see,
we don't register the information. -
16:39 - 16:41We live in ignorance.
-
16:41 - 16:43Thus, I make this proposal:
-
16:43 - 16:45Let's -- of course, the astronomers
wouldn't like the idea -- -
16:45 - 16:48let's turn the Hubble telescope
upside down. -
16:48 - 16:51And let's make it look down here,
-
16:51 - 16:53rather than to the far reaches
of the universe. -
16:53 - 16:55The far reaches of the universe
are wonderful, -
16:55 - 16:57but we have a practical reality,
-
16:57 - 17:01which is we live in an unknown cosmos,
-
17:01 - 17:02and we're ignorant about it.
-
17:02 - 17:06We're trampling on this wonderful cosmos
-
17:06 - 17:08that shelters us and houses us.
-
17:08 - 17:09Talk to any astrophysicist.
-
17:09 - 17:13The Earth is a statistical improbability.
-
17:13 - 17:15The stability and comfort that we enjoy
-
17:15 - 17:17with all the droughts of the Negro River,
-
17:17 - 17:20all the heat, and cold, and typhoon, etc.,
-
17:20 - 17:23there is nothing like it in the universe,
that we know of. -
17:23 - 17:25Then, let's turn Hubble,
-
17:25 - 17:29so it'll look at the Earth.
-
17:29 - 17:32Let's start with the Amazon!
-
17:32 - 17:33Let's dive,
-
17:33 - 17:37let's reach out the reality
we live in every day, -
17:37 - 17:41and look carefully at it,
since that's what we need. -
17:41 - 17:43Davi Copenaua doesn't need this.
-
17:43 - 17:45He's already gotten something
that I think I miss. -
17:45 - 17:47I was educated by television.
-
17:47 - 17:49I think that I miss this,
-
17:49 - 17:50an ancestral record,
-
17:50 - 17:55a valution of what I don't know,
what I haven't seen. -
17:55 - 17:57He is no "doubting Thomas."
-
17:57 - 18:00He believes,
with veneration and reverence, -
18:00 - 18:04in what his ancestors
and the spirits taught them. -
18:04 - 18:06We can't do it,
so let's look into the forest. -
18:06 - 18:10Even with Hubble up there --
-
18:10 - 18:12this is a birds'-eye view, right?
-
18:12 - 18:14Even when this happens,
-
18:14 - 18:17we also see something that we don't know.
-
18:17 - 18:19The Spanish called it "the green inferno."
-
18:19 - 18:22If you go out there,
and go into the bushes, and get lost, -
18:22 - 18:24and, let's say, if you head west,
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18:24 - 18:26it's 550 miles to Colombia,
-
18:26 - 18:28and another 600 miles to somewhere else.
-
18:28 - 18:31Then, you can figure out
why they called it the green inferno. -
18:31 - 18:35But go and look at what is in there.
-
18:35 - 18:36It is a live carpet.
-
18:36 - 18:38Each color you see is a tree species.
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18:38 - 18:40Each tree, each tree top,
-
18:40 - 18:45has up to 10,000 species of insects on it,
-
18:45 - 18:49let alone the millions of species
of fungi, bacteria, etc. -
18:49 - 18:50All invisible.
-
18:50 - 18:54All of it is an even stranger cosmos to us
-
18:54 - 18:57than the galaxies billions
of light years away from the Earth, -
18:57 - 19:00which Hubble brings
to our newspapers everyday. -
19:01 - 19:03I'm going to end my talk here --
-
19:03 - 19:05I have a few seconds left --
-
19:05 - 19:07by showing you this wonderful being.
-
19:07 - 19:10When we see the Morpho butterfly
in the forest, -
19:10 - 19:13we feel like someone's left
the door to heaven open, -
19:13 - 19:16and that this creature escaped from there,
because it's so beautiful. -
19:16 - 19:18However, I cannot close
-
19:18 - 19:21without showing you a tech side.
-
19:21 - 19:24We are tech-arrogant.
-
19:24 - 19:27We deprive nature of its technology.
-
19:27 - 19:29A robotic hand is technological,
-
19:29 - 19:30mine is biological,
-
19:30 - 19:32and we don't think about it anymore.
-
19:32 - 19:34Let's then look at the Morpho butterfly,
-
19:34 - 19:39an example of an invisible
technological competence of life, -
19:39 - 19:44which is at the very heart of our
possibility of surviving on this planet, -
19:44 - 19:46and let's zoom in on it.
Again, Hubble is there. -
19:46 - 19:48Let's get into the butterfly's wings.
-
19:48 - 19:52Scholars have tried to explain:
Why is it blue? -
19:52 - 19:54Let's zoom in on it.
-
19:54 - 19:59What you see is that the architecture
of the invisible humiliates -
19:59 - 20:02the best architects in the world.
-
20:02 - 20:04All this on a tiny scale.
-
20:04 - 20:08Besides its beauty and functioning,
there is another side to it. -
20:08 - 20:11In nature,
-
20:11 - 20:15all that is organized in extraordinary
structures has a function. -
20:15 - 20:19This function, of the Morpho butterfly --
it is not blue, -
20:19 - 20:21it does not have blue pigments.
-
20:21 - 20:23It has photonic crystals on its surface --
-
20:23 - 20:25according to people who studied it --
-
20:25 - 20:27which are extremely
sophisticated crystals. -
20:27 - 20:30Our technology had
nothing like that at the time. -
20:30 - 20:33Hitachi has now made a monitor
-
20:33 - 20:35that uses this technology,
-
20:35 - 20:37and it is used in optical fibers
to transmit... -
20:37 - 20:41Janine Banes, who's been here several
times, talks about it: Biomimetics. -
20:41 - 20:43My time's up.
-
20:43 - 20:48Then, I'll wrap it up with
what is at the base of this capacity, -
20:48 - 20:51of this competence of biodiversity,
-
20:51 - 20:53producing all these wonderful services:
-
20:53 - 20:55The living cell.
-
20:55 - 20:58It is a structure with a few microns,
which is an internal wonder. -
20:58 - 21:01There are TED talks about it,
I won't talk much longer, -
21:01 - 21:05but each person in this room,
including myself, -
21:05 - 21:08has 100 trillions
of this micromachine in their body, -
21:08 - 21:11so that we can enjoy this well-being.
-
21:11 - 21:14Imagine what is out there
in the Amazon forest. -
21:14 - 21:18100 trillions. This is greater
than the number of stars in the sky. -
21:18 - 21:20We are not aware of it.
-
21:20 - 21:22Thank you so much. (Applause)
- Title:
- The magic of the Amazon: A river that flows invisibly all around us
- Speaker:
- Antonio Donato Nobre
- Description:
-
Antonio Donato Nobre studies the interactions between forests and the atmosphere. His research showed that there are actual water vapor rivers running above the Amazon forest, bringing moisture to most of the continent. South America is not a desert like in Africa because of these rivers. His research reveals the fragility of forests facing climate changes and the risks we all face.
- Video Language:
- Portuguese, Brazilian
- Team:
- closed TED
- Project:
- TEDTalks
- Duration:
- 21:35
Brian Greene edited English subtitles for Antonio Donato Nobre | ||
Brian Greene edited English subtitles for Antonio Donato Nobre | ||
Morton Bast edited English subtitles for Antonio Donato Nobre | ||
Morton Bast approved English subtitles for Antonio Donato Nobre | ||
Morton Bast edited English subtitles for Antonio Donato Nobre | ||
Morton Bast edited English subtitles for Antonio Donato Nobre | ||
Morton Bast edited English subtitles for Antonio Donato Nobre | ||
Gustavo Rocha accepted English subtitles for Antonio Donato Nobre |