0:00:00.346,0:00:02.366
What do you guys think?

0:00:02.706,0:00:07.190
For those who watched[br]Shere Khan's memorable TED talk,

0:00:07.190,0:00:10.322
I am a typical example [br]of what he describes

0:00:10.322,0:00:12.956
as "a body carrying a head,"

0:00:13.346,0:00:15.737
a university professor, right?

0:00:15.737,0:00:19.217
You might think it was not fair

0:00:19.217,0:00:22.180
that I've been lined up to speak[br]after these first two talks

0:00:22.180,0:00:24.124
to speak about science.

0:00:24.774,0:00:28.272
I can't move my body to the beat,

0:00:28.272,0:00:31.184
and after a scientist[br]who became a philosopher,

0:00:31.184,0:00:33.126
I have to talk about hard science.

0:00:33.126,0:00:36.154
It could be a very dry subject.

0:00:36.154,0:00:39.679
Yet, I feel honored.

0:00:39.679,0:00:41.462
Never in my career,

0:00:41.462,0:00:43.023
and it's been a long career,

0:00:43.023,0:00:45.256
have I had the opportunity to start a talk

0:00:45.256,0:00:48.264
feeling so inspired, like this one.

0:00:48.264,0:00:52.144
Usually, talking about science

0:00:52.144,0:00:55.304
is like exercising in a dry place.

0:00:56.284,0:00:59.516
However, I've had the pleasure

0:00:59.516,0:01:02.895
of being invited to come here[br]and talk about water.

0:01:03.885,0:01:06.768
The words "water" and "dry"[br]do not match, right?

0:01:07.426,0:01:10.916
It is even better to talk about[br]water in the Amazon,

0:01:10.916,0:01:15.950
which is the splendid cradle [br]of life, right? Fresh life.

0:01:15.950,0:01:18.028
So, this is what inspired me.

0:01:18.028,0:01:20.230
That's why I'm here,[br]although I'm carrying

0:01:20.230,0:01:22.143
my head over here, sort of,

0:01:22.143,0:01:26.237
I am trying, or will try to convey[br]this inspiration.

0:01:26.237,0:01:30.097
I hope this story will inspire you[br]and that you'll spread the word.

0:01:31.317,0:01:35.637
We know that there is controversy.

0:01:35.637,0:01:38.160
The Amazon is the "lung of the world,"

0:01:38.940,0:01:44.426
because of its massive power[br]to have vital gases exchanged

0:01:44.426,0:01:46.245
between the forest and the atmosphere.

0:01:46.245,0:01:50.345
We also hear about[br]the storehouse of biodiversity.

0:01:50.345,0:01:54.651
While many believe it,

0:01:54.651,0:01:56.197
few know it.

0:01:56.197,0:01:58.075
If you go out there, in that marsh,

0:01:58.075,0:02:01.913
you'll be amazed at the...

0:02:01.913,0:02:03.957
You can barely see the animals.

0:02:03.957,0:02:08.011
The Indians say, "The forest[br]has more eyes than leaves."

0:02:08.011,0:02:10.987
That is true, and I will try[br]to show you something.

0:02:10.987,0:02:14.168
But today, I'm going to use[br]a different approach,

0:02:14.168,0:02:17.188
one that, inspired by these[br]two initiatives here,

0:02:17.188,0:02:19.869
a harmonic and a philosophical one,

0:02:19.869,0:02:23.998
I'll try to use an approach[br]that's slightly materialistic,

0:02:23.998,0:02:27.216
but it also attempts to convey[br]that, in nature, there is

0:02:27.216,0:02:30.310
extraordinary philosophy and harmony.

0:02:30.310,0:02:32.271
There'll be no music in my presentation,

0:02:32.271,0:02:36.494
but I hope you'll all notice the music[br]of the reality I'm going to show you.

0:02:36.494,0:02:39.107
I'm going to talk about physiology --[br]not about lungs,

0:02:39.107,0:02:42.635
but other analogies with human physiology,

0:02:42.635,0:02:44.744
especially the heart.

0:02:44.744,0:02:46.762
We'll start...

0:02:49.132,0:02:53.720
by thinking that water is like blood.

0:02:54.500,0:02:59.349
The circulation in our body[br]distributes fresh blood,

0:02:59.349,0:03:01.959
which feeds, nurtures, and supports us,

0:03:01.959,0:03:06.337
and brings the used blood back[br]to be renewed.

0:03:06.337,0:03:10.659
In the Amazon, things happen similarly.

0:03:10.659,0:03:15.766
We'll start by talking about[br]the power of all these processes.

0:03:15.766,0:03:20.387
This is an image

0:03:20.387,0:03:23.198
of rain in motion.

0:03:23.198,0:03:27.211
What you see there[br]is the years passing in seconds.

0:03:27.211,0:03:30.159
Rains all over the world.[br]What do you see?

0:03:30.159,0:03:32.019
The equatorial region, in general,

0:03:32.019,0:03:33.882
and the Amazon specifically,

0:03:33.882,0:03:36.751
is extremely important[br]for the world's climate.

0:03:36.751,0:03:38.916
It's a powerful engine.

0:03:38.916,0:03:44.212
There is an intense evaporation[br]taking place here.

0:03:44.212,0:03:46.834
If we take a look at this other image,

0:03:46.834,0:03:49.616
which shows the water vapor flow...

0:03:49.616,0:03:52.801
you have dry air in black,[br]moist air in grey,

0:03:52.801,0:03:54.232
and clouds in white.

0:03:54.232,0:03:59.908
What you see there is an extraordinary[br]resurgence in the Amazon.

0:03:59.908,0:04:02.031
What phenomenon -- if it's not a desert,

0:04:02.031,0:04:07.277
what phenomenon makes water[br]gush from the ground into the atmosphere

0:04:07.277,0:04:10.360
with such power [br]that it can be seen from space?

0:04:10.360,0:04:11.902
What phenomenon is this?

0:04:11.902,0:04:14.770
It could be a geyser.

0:04:14.770,0:04:18.558
A geyser is underground water[br]heated by magma,

0:04:18.558,0:04:19.998
exploding into the atmosphere

0:04:19.998,0:04:23.668
and transferring this water [br]into the atmosphere.

0:04:23.668,0:04:26.534
There are no geysers in the Amazon,[br]unless I am wrong.

0:04:26.534,0:04:28.502
I don't know of any.

0:04:28.502,0:04:32.906
But we have something[br]that plays the same role,

0:04:32.906,0:04:36.298
with much more elegance:

0:04:36.298,0:04:39.194
the trees, our good old friends,

0:04:39.194,0:04:42.008
that, like geysers,

0:04:42.008,0:04:47.086
transfer an enormous amount of water[br]from the ground into the atmosphere.

0:04:47.086,0:04:52.783
There are 600 billion trees[br]in the Amazon forest, 600 billion geysers.

0:04:52.783,0:04:56.646
This is done with[br]an extraordinary sophistication.

0:04:56.646,0:04:58.291
They don't need the heat of magma.

0:04:58.291,0:05:01.262
They use sunlight to do this process.

0:05:01.262,0:05:04.793
So, in a typical sunny day in the Amazon,

0:05:04.793,0:05:07.723
a big tree manages[br]to transfer 1,000 liters of water

0:05:07.723,0:05:10.032
during its transpiration.

0:05:10.032,0:05:11.447
1000 liters.

0:05:11.447,0:05:16.642
If we take all the Amazon,

0:05:16.642,0:05:18.505
which is a very large area,

0:05:18.505,0:05:21.585
and add it up to all that water[br]that is released by transpiration,

0:05:21.585,0:05:24.291
which is the sweat of the forest,

0:05:24.291,0:05:26.985
we'll get to an incredible number:

0:05:26.985,0:05:29.781
20 billion metric tons of water.

0:05:29.781,0:05:31.375
You know, in one day.

0:05:31.375,0:05:33.562
Do you know how much that is?

0:05:33.562,0:05:36.122
The Amazon River,[br]the largest river on Earth,

0:05:36.122,0:05:37.703
one fifth of all the fresh water

0:05:37.703,0:05:41.152
that leaves the continents of the[br]whole world and ends up in the oceans,

0:05:41.152,0:05:46.042
dumps 17 billion metric tons[br]of water a day in the Atlantic Ocean.

0:05:46.042,0:05:47.441
This river of vapor

0:05:47.441,0:05:49.566
that comes up from the forest[br]and goes into the atmosphere

0:05:49.566,0:05:51.310
is greater than the Amazon River.

0:05:51.310,0:05:53.187
Just to give you an idea.

0:05:53.187,0:05:56.743
If we could take a gigantic kettle,

0:05:56.743,0:05:59.642
one that you could plug into[br]a power socket, an electric one,

0:05:59.642,0:06:02.140
and put those 20 billion[br]metric tons of water in it,

0:06:02.140,0:06:05.490
how much power would you need[br]to have this water evaporated?

0:06:05.490,0:06:08.247
Any idea? A really big kettle.

0:06:08.247,0:06:10.432
A gigantic kettle, right?

0:06:10.432,0:06:12.518
50 thousand Itaipus.

0:06:12.518,0:06:16.264
Itaipu is still the largest[br]hydroelectric plant in the world.

0:06:16.264,0:06:17.937
and Brazil is very proud of it

0:06:17.937,0:06:20.136
because it provides[br]more than 30% of the power

0:06:20.136,0:06:22.093
that is consumed in Brazil.

0:06:22.093,0:06:26.785
And the Amazon is here,[br]doing this for free.

0:06:26.785,0:06:31.957
It's a vivid and extremely powerful plant,[br]providing environmental services.

0:06:34.047,0:06:35.608
Related to this subject,

0:06:35.608,0:06:38.596
we are going to talk about[br]what I call the “Paradox of Chance”,

0:06:38.596,0:06:40.764
which is curious.

0:06:40.764,0:06:42.476
If you look at the world map --

0:06:42.476,0:06:43.835
it's easy to see this --

0:06:43.835,0:06:46.904
you'll see that there are forests[br]in the equatorial zone,

0:06:46.904,0:06:50.116
and deserts are organized[br]at 30º north latitude,

0:06:50.116,0:06:53.199
30º south latitude, aligned.

0:06:53.199,0:06:56.243
Look over there, in the southern[br]hemisphere, the Atacama;

0:06:56.243,0:06:58.840
Namibia and Kalahari in Africa;[br]the Australian desert.

0:06:58.840,0:07:01.994
In the northern hemisphere,[br]the Sahara, Sonoma, etc.

0:07:01.994,0:07:06.433
There is an exception, and it's curious:

0:07:06.433,0:07:09.520
It's the quadrangle that ranges from[br]Cuiabá to Buenos Aires,

0:07:09.520,0:07:11.323
and from São Paulo to the Andes.

0:07:11.323,0:07:14.437
This quadrangle[br]was supposed to be a desert.

0:07:14.437,0:07:16.746
It's on the line of deserts.

0:07:16.746,0:07:20.010
Why isn't it a desert? That's why[br]I call it the “Paradox of Chance”.

0:07:20.010,0:07:23.449
What do we have in South America[br]that is different?

0:07:24.279,0:07:26.448
If we could use the analogy

0:07:26.448,0:07:30.580
of the blood circulating in our bodies,

0:07:30.580,0:07:33.662
like the water[br]circulating in the landscape,

0:07:33.662,0:07:37.788
we see that rivers are veins,

0:07:37.788,0:07:42.333
they drain the landscape,[br]they drain the tissue of nature.

0:07:42.333,0:07:44.288
Where are the arteries?

0:07:44.288,0:07:46.323
Any guess?

0:07:46.323,0:07:48.139
What takes...

0:07:48.139,0:07:53.402
How does water get to irrigate[br]the tissues of nature

0:07:53.402,0:07:56.585
and bring everything back through rivers?

0:07:56.585,0:07:59.606
There is a new type of river,

0:07:59.606,0:08:02.897
which originates in the blue sea,

0:08:02.897,0:08:06.247
which flows through the green ocean --

0:08:06.247,0:08:09.244
it not only flows, but it is also[br]pumped by the green ocean --

0:08:09.244,0:08:12.299
and then it falls on our land.

0:08:12.299,0:08:14.507
All our economy, that quadrangle,

0:08:14.507,0:08:19.037
70% of South America's GDP[br]comes from that area.

0:08:19.037,0:08:20.675
It depends on this river.

0:08:20.675,0:08:22.727
This river invisibly flows above us.

0:08:22.727,0:08:24.915
We are floating here[br]on this floating hotel,

0:08:24.915,0:08:27.870
on one of the largest rivers on Earth,[br]the Negro River.

0:08:27.870,0:08:31.259
It's a bit dry and rough,[br]but we are floating here,

0:08:31.259,0:08:34.349
and there is this[br]invisible river running above us.

0:08:34.349,0:08:37.516
This river has a pulse.

0:08:37.516,0:08:39.939
Here it is, pulsing.

0:08:39.939,0:08:42.327
That's why we also talk about the heart.

0:08:42.327,0:08:44.462
You can see the different seasons there.

0:08:44.462,0:08:47.823
There's the rainy season... In the Amazon,[br]we used to have two seasons,

0:08:47.823,0:08:50.036
the humid season[br]and an even more humid season.

0:08:50.036,0:08:51.962
Now we have a dry season.

0:08:51.962,0:08:54.671
You can see the river covering that region

0:08:54.671,0:08:58.444
which, otherwise, would be a desert.[br]And it is not.

0:09:01.633,0:09:05.151
We, scientists...[br]You see that I'm struggling here

0:09:05.151,0:09:07.634
to take my head[br]from one side to the other.

0:09:07.634,0:09:13.031
Scientists study how it works, why, etc.

0:09:13.031,0:09:17.718
and these studies[br]are generating a series of discoveries,

0:09:17.718,0:09:19.290
which are absolutely fabulous,

0:09:19.290,0:09:22.283
to raise our awareness of the wealth,

0:09:22.283,0:09:24.668
the complexity,[br]and the wonder that we have,

0:09:24.668,0:09:27.649
the symphony we have in this process.

0:09:27.649,0:09:29.997
One of them is: How is rain formed?

0:09:29.997,0:09:33.522
Above the Amazon, there is clean air,

0:09:33.522,0:09:35.440
as there is clean air above the ocean.

0:09:35.440,0:09:38.493
The blue sea has clean air above it[br]and forms pretty few clouds;

0:09:38.493,0:09:39.952
there's almost no rain there.

0:09:39.952,0:09:44.366
The green ocean has the same clean air,[br]but forms a lot of rain.

0:09:44.366,0:09:46.753
What is happening here that is different?

0:09:46.753,0:09:48.423
The forest emits smells,

0:09:48.423,0:09:51.361
and these smells are condensation nuclei,

0:09:51.361,0:09:53.625
which form drops in the atmosphere.

0:09:53.625,0:09:58.503
Then, clouds are formed[br]and there is torrential rain.

0:09:58.503,0:10:01.180
The sprinkler of the Garden of Eden.

0:10:01.900,0:10:06.712
This relation between a living thing,[br]which is the forest,

0:10:06.712,0:10:09.856
and a non-living thing,[br]which is the atmosphere,

0:10:09.856,0:10:12.133
is ingenious in the Amazon,

0:10:12.133,0:10:17.464
because the forest provides[br]water and seeds,

0:10:17.464,0:10:20.449
and the atmosphere forms the rain[br]and gives water back,

0:10:20.449,0:10:23.961
guaranteeing the forest's survival.

0:10:24.421,0:10:25.950
There are other factors as well.

0:10:25.950,0:10:27.344
We've talked a little about the heart,

0:10:27.344,0:10:30.654
and let's now talk about[br]another function: the liver!

0:10:30.654,0:10:35.715
When humid air, high humidity[br]and radiation are combined

0:10:35.715,0:10:37.775
with this organic material,

0:10:37.775,0:10:43.487
which I call “exogenous vitamin C”,[br]generous vitamin C in the form of gas,

0:10:43.487,0:10:46.317
the plants release antioxidants

0:10:46.317,0:10:48.637
which react with pollutants.

0:10:48.637,0:10:50.041
You can rest assured

0:10:50.041,0:10:53.538
that you are breathing the purest air[br]on Earth, here in the Amazon,

0:10:53.538,0:10:57.045
because the plants take care[br]of this characteristic as well.

0:10:57.045,0:10:59.662
This benefits the way plants work,

0:10:59.662,0:11:01.715
which is another ingenious cycle.

0:11:01.715,0:11:05.569
Speaking of fractals,

0:11:05.569,0:11:07.905
and their relation with the way we work,

0:11:07.905,0:11:10.493
we can establish other comparisons.

0:11:10.493,0:11:14.024
As in the upper airways of our lungs,

0:11:14.024,0:11:17.736
the air in the Amazon[br]gets clean up from the excess of dust.

0:11:17.736,0:11:21.714
The dust in the air that we breathe[br]is cleaned by our airways.

0:11:21.714,0:11:25.533
This keeps the excess of dust[br]from affecting the rainfall.

0:11:25.533,0:11:27.170
When there are fires in the Amazon,

0:11:27.170,0:11:30.224
the smoke stops the rain, [br]it stops raining,

0:11:30.224,0:11:32.426
the forest dries up and catches fire.

0:11:32.426,0:11:35.057
There is another fractal analogy.

0:11:35.057,0:11:37.009
Like the in veins and arteries,

0:11:37.009,0:11:39.805
the rain water is a feedback.

0:11:39.805,0:11:41.834
It returns to the atmosphere.

0:11:41.834,0:11:46.120
Like endocrinal glands and hormones,

0:11:46.120,0:11:48.863
there are those gases[br]which I told you about before,

0:11:48.863,0:11:52.495
that are formed and released[br]into the atmosphere, like hormones,

0:11:52.495,0:11:54.810
which help in the formation of rain.

0:11:55.490,0:11:59.435
Like the liver and the kidneys,[br]as I've said: cleaning the air.

0:11:59.435,0:12:01.234
And, finally, like the heart:

0:12:01.234,0:12:06.307
pumping water from outside, from the sea,

0:12:06.307,0:12:08.179
into the forest.

0:12:08.179,0:12:11.581
We call it "The Biotic Moisture Pump,"

0:12:11.581,0:12:15.731
a new theory that is explained[br]in a very simple way.

0:12:15.731,0:12:18.389
If there is a desert in the continent

0:12:18.389,0:12:20.477
with a nearby sea,

0:12:20.477,0:12:22.311
evaporation's greater on the sea,

0:12:22.311,0:12:25.280
and it sucks the air above the desert.

0:12:25.280,0:12:28.762
The desert is trapped in this condition.[br]It will always be dry.

0:12:28.762,0:12:31.528
If you have[br]the opposite situation, a forest,

0:12:31.528,0:12:35.266
the evaporation, as we showed,[br]is much greater, because of the trees,

0:12:35.266,0:12:36.978
and this cycle is reversed.

0:12:36.978,0:12:39.331
The air above the sea[br]is sucked into the continent

0:12:39.331,0:12:42.179
and humidity is imported.

0:12:42.179,0:12:46.676
This satellite image[br]was taken one month ago --

0:12:46.676,0:12:49.063
that's Manaus down there,[br]we're down there --

0:12:49.063,0:12:50.418
and it shows this process.

0:12:50.418,0:12:53.462
It's not a common little river,[br]that flows into a canal.

0:12:53.462,0:12:58.192
It's a mighty river[br]that irrigates South America,

0:12:58.192,0:13:00.016
among other things.

0:13:00.016,0:13:02.333
This image shows those paths,

0:13:02.333,0:13:05.638
all the hurricanes[br]that have been recorded.

0:13:05.638,0:13:10.208
You can see that, in the red square,[br]there hardly are any hurricanes.

0:13:10.208,0:13:11.786
This is no accident.

0:13:11.786,0:13:15.250
This pump that sucks[br]the moisture into the continent

0:13:15.250,0:13:17.485
also speeds up the air above the sea,

0:13:17.485,0:13:20.343
and this prevents hurricane formations.

0:13:21.053,0:13:25.645
To close this part and summing up,

0:13:25.645,0:13:28.265
I'd like to talk about[br]something a little different.

0:13:28.265,0:13:30.225
I have several colleagues

0:13:30.225,0:13:32.710
who worked in the development[br]of these theories.

0:13:32.710,0:13:36.341
They think, and so do I,

0:13:36.341,0:13:38.939
that we can save planet Earth.

0:13:38.939,0:13:41.684
I'm not talking only about the Amazon.

0:13:41.684,0:13:43.809
The Amazon teaches us a lesson

0:13:43.809,0:13:47.845
on how pristine nature works.

0:13:47.845,0:13:50.251
We didn't understand[br]these processes before

0:13:50.251,0:13:53.086
because the rest of the world[br]is messed up.

0:13:53.086,0:13:54.993
We could understand it here, though.

0:13:54.993,0:13:58.370
These colleagues propose[br]that, yes, we can,

0:13:58.370,0:14:00.077
save other areas,

0:14:00.077,0:14:02.172
including deserts.

0:14:02.172,0:14:05.597
If we could establish forests[br]in those other areas,

0:14:05.597,0:14:07.709
we can reverse climate change,

0:14:07.709,0:14:10.324
including global warming.

0:14:10.324,0:14:12.540
I have a dear colleague in India,

0:14:12.540,0:14:15.614
whose name's Suprabha Seshan,[br]and she has a motto.

0:14:15.614,0:14:20.248
Her motto is,[br]"Gardening back the biosphere",

0:14:20.248,0:14:22.286
"Reajardinando a biosfera", in Portuguese.

0:14:22.286,0:14:25.284
She does wonderful job[br]rebuilding ecosystems.

0:14:25.284,0:14:27.851
We need to do this.

0:14:27.851,0:14:32.036
Having closed this quick introduction,

0:14:32.036,0:14:35.622
we see the reality that we have out here,

0:14:35.622,0:14:38.632
which is drought, this climate change,

0:14:38.632,0:14:40.515
things that we already knew.

0:14:40.515,0:14:43.499
I'd like to tell you a short story.

0:14:44.649,0:14:48.282
Once, about four years ago,

0:14:48.282,0:14:52.169
I attended a declamation,[br]of a text by Davi Copenaua,

0:14:52.169,0:14:55.267
a wise representative[br]of the Ianomâmi people,

0:14:55.267,0:14:57.462
and it went more or less like this:

0:14:57.462,0:15:00.087
"Doesn't the white man know

0:15:00.087,0:15:03.478
that, if he destroys the forest,[br]there will be no more rain?

0:15:03.478,0:15:06.591
And that, if there's no more rain,[br]there'll be no drinking water,

0:15:06.591,0:15:08.464
or food?

0:15:08.464,0:15:11.145
I heard that and my eyes welled up

0:15:11.145,0:15:12.588
and I went, "Oh, my!

0:15:12.588,0:15:16.464
I've been studying this for 20 years,[br]with a super computer,

0:15:16.904,0:15:19.034
dozens, thousands of scientists,

0:15:19.034,0:15:22.712
and we are starting to get to this[br]conclusion, which he already knows!

0:15:22.712,0:15:27.746
A critical point is the Ianomâmi[br]have never deforested.

0:15:27.746,0:15:30.385
How could they know the rain would end?

0:15:30.385,0:15:34.327
This bugged me and I was befuddled.

0:15:34.327,0:15:35.773
How could he know that?

0:15:35.773,0:15:39.536
Some months later,[br]I met him at another event and said,

0:15:39.536,0:15:45.342
"Davi, how did you know that if the forest[br]was destroyed, there'd be no more rain?"

0:15:45.342,0:15:50.157
He replied:[br]"The spirit of the forest told us."

0:15:50.157,0:15:54.744
For me, this was a game changer,

0:15:54.744,0:15:56.447
a radical change.

0:15:56.447,0:15:57.866
I said: "Gosh!

0:15:57.866,0:16:02.105
Why am I doing all this science,

0:16:02.105,0:16:05.167
to get to a conclusion[br]that he already knows?"

0:16:05.167,0:16:11.174
Then, something [br]absolutely critical hit me,

0:16:11.174,0:16:13.127
which is...

0:16:15.697,0:16:19.072
seeing is believing.

0:16:19.932,0:16:23.140
"Out of sight, out of [mind]." Right?

0:16:23.140,0:16:27.928
This is a need the previous speaker[br]pointed out:

0:16:27.928,0:16:30.712
We need to see things --

0:16:30.712,0:16:32.900
I mean, we, western society,

0:16:32.900,0:16:35.262
which is becoming global, civilized --

0:16:35.262,0:16:36.665
we need to see.

0:16:36.665,0:16:39.188
If we don't see,[br]we don't register the information.

0:16:39.188,0:16:40.932
We live in ignorance.

0:16:40.932,0:16:42.822
So, I make this proposal --

0:16:42.822,0:16:45.274
of course, the astronomers[br]wouldn't like the idea --

0:16:45.274,0:16:48.130
but let's turn the Hubble telescope[br]upside down.

0:16:48.130,0:16:50.547
And let's make it look down here,

0:16:50.547,0:16:52.797
rather than to the far reaches[br]of the universe.

0:16:52.797,0:16:54.539
The universe is wonderful,

0:16:54.539,0:16:56.914
but we have a practical reality,

0:16:56.914,0:17:00.734
which is we live in an unknown cosmos,

0:17:00.734,0:17:02.117
and we're ignorant about it.

0:17:02.117,0:17:05.787
We're trampling on this wonderful cosmos

0:17:05.787,0:17:07.826
that shelters us and houses us.

0:17:07.826,0:17:09.492
Talk to any astrophysicist.

0:17:09.492,0:17:12.778
The Earth is a statistical improbability.

0:17:12.778,0:17:16.976
The stability and comfort that we enjoy,[br]despite the droughts of the Negro River,

0:17:16.976,0:17:19.939
and all the heat, and cold,[br]and typhoons, etc.,

0:17:19.939,0:17:22.673
there is nothing like it in the universe,[br]that we know of.

0:17:22.673,0:17:24.922
Then, let's turn Hubble in our direction,

0:17:24.922,0:17:28.951
and let's look at the Earth.

0:17:29.431,0:17:31.541
Let's start with the Amazon!

0:17:31.541,0:17:32.920
Let's dive,

0:17:32.920,0:17:37.466
let's reach out the reality[br]we live in every day,

0:17:37.466,0:17:40.693
and look carefully at it,[br]since that's what we need.

0:17:40.693,0:17:42.624
Davi Copenaua doesn't need this.

0:17:42.624,0:17:44.773
He has something already[br]that I think I missed.

0:17:44.773,0:17:46.678
I was educated by television.

0:17:46.678,0:17:48.589
I think that I missed this,

0:17:48.589,0:17:50.484
an ancestral record,

0:17:50.484,0:17:54.864
a valuation of what I don't know,[br]what I haven't seen.

0:17:54.864,0:17:56.986
He is no "doubting Thomas."

0:17:56.986,0:18:00.192
He believes, [br]with veneration and reverence,

0:18:00.192,0:18:03.563
in what his ancestors[br]and the spirits taught him.

0:18:03.563,0:18:06.337
We can't do it,[br]so let's look into the forest.

0:18:06.337,0:18:09.543
Even with Hubble up there --

0:18:09.543,0:18:11.888
this is a birds'-eye view, right?

0:18:11.888,0:18:13.758
Even when this happens,

0:18:13.758,0:18:16.862
we also see something that we don't know.

0:18:16.862,0:18:19.148
The Spanish called it "the green inferno."

0:18:19.148,0:18:22.018
If you go out there,[br]and go into the bushes, and get lost,

0:18:22.018,0:18:24.256
and, let's say, if you head west,

0:18:24.256,0:18:26.225
it's 550 miles to Colombia,

0:18:26.225,0:18:28.162
and another 600 miles to somewhere else.

0:18:28.162,0:18:31.309
So, you can figure out[br]why they called it the green inferno.

0:18:31.309,0:18:34.563
But go and look at what is in there.

0:18:34.563,0:18:36.054
It is a live carpet.

0:18:36.054,0:18:38.350
Each color you see is a tree species.

0:18:38.350,0:18:40.135
Each tree, each tree top,

0:18:40.135,0:18:44.691
has up to 10,000 species of insects on it,

0:18:44.691,0:18:48.749
let alone the millions of species[br]of fungi, bacteria, etc.

0:18:48.749,0:18:50.401
All invisible.

0:18:50.401,0:18:53.645
All of it is an even stranger cosmos to us

0:18:53.645,0:18:56.554
than the galaxies billions[br]of light years away from the Earth,

0:18:56.554,0:18:59.983
which Hubble brings[br]to our newspapers everyday.

0:19:00.983,0:19:02.853
I'm going to end my talk here --

0:19:02.853,0:19:04.664
I have a few seconds left --

0:19:04.664,0:19:06.708
by showing you this wonderful being.

0:19:06.708,0:19:09.596
When we see the Morpho butterfly[br]in the forest,

0:19:09.596,0:19:12.431
we feel like someone's left[br]the door to heaven open,

0:19:12.431,0:19:15.632
and this creature escaped from there,[br]because it's so beautiful.

0:19:15.632,0:19:18.017
However, I cannot close

0:19:18.017,0:19:20.548
without showing you a tech side.

0:19:20.548,0:19:23.758
We are tech-arrogant.

0:19:23.758,0:19:27.049
We deprive nature of its technology.

0:19:27.049,0:19:28.773
A robotic hand is technological,

0:19:28.773,0:19:30.150
mine is biological,

0:19:30.150,0:19:31.913
and we don't think about it anymore.

0:19:31.913,0:19:34.015
Let's then look at the Morpho butterfly,

0:19:34.015,0:19:39.456
an example of an invisible[br]technological competence of life,

0:19:39.456,0:19:44.083
which is at the very heart of our[br]possibility of surviving on this planet,

0:19:44.083,0:19:46.348
and let's zoom in on it.[br]Again, Hubble is there.

0:19:46.348,0:19:48.262
Let's get into the butterfly's wings.

0:19:48.262,0:19:52.465
Scholars have tried to explain:[br]Why is it blue?

0:19:52.465,0:19:53.935
Let's zoom in on it.

0:19:53.935,0:19:59.011
What you see is that the architecture[br]of the invisible humiliates

0:19:59.011,0:20:02.043
the best architects in the world.

0:20:02.043,0:20:04.440
All of this on a tiny scale.

0:20:04.440,0:20:07.968
Besides its beauty and functioning,[br]there is another side to it.

0:20:07.968,0:20:10.836
In nature,

0:20:10.836,0:20:14.529
all that is organized in extraordinary[br]structures has a function.

0:20:14.529,0:20:19.019
This function, of the Morpho butterfly --[br]it is not blue,

0:20:19.019,0:20:20.673
it does not have blue pigments.

0:20:20.673,0:20:24.717
It has photonic crystals on its surface --[br]according to people who studied it --

0:20:24.717,0:20:26.748
which are extremely [br]sophisticated crystals.

0:20:26.748,0:20:30.427
Our technology had[br]nothing like that at the time.

0:20:30.427,0:20:33.208
Hitachi has now made a monitor

0:20:33.208,0:20:34.563
that uses this technology,

0:20:34.563,0:20:36.940
and it is used in optical fibers[br]to transmit...

0:20:36.940,0:20:41.350
Janine Banes, who's been here several[br]times, talks about it: Biomimetics.

0:20:41.350,0:20:42.702
My time's up.

0:20:42.702,0:20:48.012
Then, I'll wrap it up with[br]what is at the base of this capacity,

0:20:48.012,0:20:50.584
of this competence of biodiversity,

0:20:50.584,0:20:53.006
producing all these wonderful services:

0:20:53.006,0:20:54.913
The living cell.

0:20:54.913,0:20:58.427
It is a structure with a few microns,[br]which is an internal wonder.

0:20:58.427,0:21:01.454
There are TED talks about it,[br]I won't talk much longer,

0:21:01.454,0:21:04.628
but each person in this room,[br]including myself,

0:21:04.628,0:21:08.319
has 100 trillions of these[br]micromachines in their body,

0:21:08.319,0:21:11.159
so that we can enjoy this well-being.

0:21:11.159,0:21:13.916
Imagine what is out there[br]in the Amazon forest.

0:21:13.916,0:21:17.927
100 trillions. This is greater[br]than the number of stars in the sky.

0:21:17.927,0:21:19.985
And we are not aware of it.

0:21:19.985,0:21:21.869
Thank you so much. (Applause)