Let's archive everything on Earth - before it's too late | Chris Fisher | TEDxMileHigh
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0:11 - 0:13The most astounding place I've ever been
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0:13 - 0:15is the Mosquitia rainforest in Honduras.
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0:15 - 0:18I've done archaeological fieldwork
all over the world, -
0:18 - 0:21so I thought I knew what to expect
venturing into the jungle, -
0:21 - 0:23but I was wrong -
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0:23 - 0:25for the first time in my life,
I might add. -
0:25 - 0:28(Laughter)
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0:28 - 0:30First of all, it's freezing.
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0:30 - 0:31It's 90 degrees,
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0:31 - 0:33but you're soaking wet
from the humidity, -
0:34 - 0:36and the canopy of trees is so thick
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0:36 - 0:38that sunlight never reaches the surface.
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0:38 - 0:40You can't get dry.
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0:40 - 0:41Immediately,
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0:41 - 0:43I knew that I hadn't brought
enough clothing. -
0:44 - 0:46That first night,
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0:46 - 0:48I kept feeling things moving
underneath my hammock, -
0:49 - 0:53unknown creatures brushing and poking
against the thin nylon fabric. -
0:54 - 0:57And I could barely sleep
through all the noise. -
0:57 - 0:59The jungle is loud.
It's shockingly loud. -
0:59 - 1:02It's like being downtown
in a bustling city. -
1:03 - 1:04As the night wore on,
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1:04 - 1:08I became increasingly frustrated
with my sleeplessness, -
1:08 - 1:10knowing I had a full day ahead.
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1:10 - 1:12When I finally got up at dawn,
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1:13 - 1:15my sense of unseen things
was all too real. -
1:16 - 1:18There were hoofprints, paw prints,
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1:18 - 1:21linear snake tracks everywhere.
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1:21 - 1:23And what's even more shocking,
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1:24 - 1:26we saw those same animals in the daylight,
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1:26 - 1:28and they were completely unafraid of us.
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1:29 - 1:31They had no experience with people.
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1:31 - 1:33They had no reason to be afraid.
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1:35 - 1:37As I walked towards the undocumented city,
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1:37 - 1:39my reason for being there,
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1:39 - 1:42I realized that this was the only place
that I'd ever been -
1:42 - 1:45where I didn't see
a single shred of plastic. -
1:45 - 1:47That's how remote it was.
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1:48 - 1:52Perhaps it's surprising to learn
that there are still places on our planet -
1:53 - 1:55that are so untouched by people,
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1:55 - 1:56but it's true.
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1:57 - 1:59There are still hundreds of places
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1:59 - 2:01where people haven't stepped
for centuries, -
2:01 - 2:03or maybe forever.
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2:03 - 2:06It's an awesome time
to be an archaeologist. -
2:06 - 2:09We have the tools and the technology
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2:09 - 2:12to understand our planet
like never before. -
2:12 - 2:15And yet we're running out of time.
-
2:15 - 2:21The climate crisis threatens to destroy
our ecological and cultural patrimony. -
2:22 - 2:26I feel an urgency to my work
that I didn't feel 20 years ago. -
2:27 - 2:30How can we document everything
before it's too late? -
2:32 - 2:34I was trained
as a traditional archaeologist -
2:34 - 2:37using methodologies
that have been around since the '50s. -
2:38 - 2:41That all changed in July of 2009
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2:41 - 2:43in Michoacán, Mexico.
-
2:43 - 2:45I was studying the ancient
Purépecha empire, -
2:45 - 2:46which is a lesser known
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2:46 - 2:50but equally important
contemporary of the Aztec. -
2:50 - 2:51Two weeks earlier,
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2:51 - 2:54my team had documented
an unknown settlement, -
2:54 - 3:00so we were painstakingly mapping
building foundations by hand - -
3:00 - 3:02hundreds of them.
-
3:03 - 3:06Basic archaeological protocol
is to find the edge of a settlement -
3:06 - 3:08so you know
what you're dealing with. -
3:08 - 3:11And my graduate students
convinced me to do just that. -
3:12 - 3:16So I grabbed a couple of CLIF Bars,
some water, a walkie, -
3:16 - 3:18and I set out alone on foot,
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3:18 - 3:22expecting to encounter the edge
in just a few minutes. -
3:22 - 3:25A few minutes passed,
and then an hour. -
3:26 - 3:29Finally, I reached
the other side of the malpais. -
3:29 - 3:32Oh, there were ancient
building foundations all the way across. -
3:33 - 3:36It's a city? Oh, shit.
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3:36 - 3:37(Laughter)
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3:37 - 3:38It's a city.
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3:40 - 3:43Turns out that this
seemingly small settlement -
3:43 - 3:46was actually an ancient urban megalopolis,
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3:46 - 3:4926 square kilometers in size,
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3:49 - 3:53with as many building foundations
as modern-day Manhattan, -
3:53 - 3:56an archaeological settlement so large
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3:56 - 3:59that it would take me decades
to survey fully, -
3:59 - 4:01the entire rest of my career,
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4:02 - 4:08which was exactly how I didn't want
to spend the entire rest of my career ... -
4:08 - 4:09(Laughter)
-
4:09 - 4:12sweating, exhausted,
-
4:12 - 4:15placating stressed-out
graduate students ... -
4:15 - 4:16(Laughter)
-
4:16 - 4:19tossing scraps of PB&J sandwiches
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4:19 - 4:20to feral dogs,
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4:20 - 4:22which is pointless, by the way,
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4:22 - 4:25because Mexican dogs
really don't like peanut butter. -
4:26 - 4:29(Laughter)
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4:29 - 4:32Just the thought of it bored me to tears.
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4:32 - 4:34So I returned home to Colorado,
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4:34 - 4:36and I poked my head
through a colleague's door. -
4:37 - 4:40Dude! There's got to be a better way!
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4:40 - 4:43He asked if I had heard
of this new technology called LiDAR - -
4:43 - 4:45Light Detection and Ranging.
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4:45 - 4:46I looked it up.
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4:46 - 4:49LiDAR involves shooting
a dense grid of laser pulses -
4:50 - 4:52from an airplane to the ground's surface.
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4:52 - 4:55What you end up with
is a high resolution scan -
4:55 - 4:57of the earth's surface
and everything on it. -
4:58 - 4:59It's not an image,
-
4:59 - 5:03but instead it's a dense,
three dimensional plot of points. -
5:03 - 5:07We had enough money in to scan,
-
5:08 - 5:09so we did just that.
-
5:10 - 5:13The company went to Mexico,
they flew the LiDAR, -
5:13 - 5:15and they sent back the data.
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5:15 - 5:16Over the next several months,
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5:16 - 5:19I learned to practice
digital deforestation, -
5:19 - 5:23filtering away trees, brush
and other vegetation -
5:23 - 5:26to reveal the ancient
cultural landscape below. -
5:27 - 5:29When I looked at my first visualization,
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5:29 - 5:31I began to cry,
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5:31 - 5:33which I know comes
as quite a shock to you -
5:33 - 5:36given how manly I must seem.
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5:36 - 5:38(Laughter)
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5:39 - 5:41In just 45 minutes of flying,
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5:41 - 5:44the LiDAR had collected
the same amount of data -
5:44 - 5:46as what would have taken decades by hand:
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5:47 - 5:52every house foundation, building,
road and pyramid, incredible detail, -
5:53 - 5:56representing the lives
of thousands of people -
5:56 - 5:59who lived and loved and died
in these spaces. -
6:00 - 6:02And what's more, the quality of the data
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6:03 - 6:06wasn't comparable to traditional
archaeological research. -
6:07 - 6:09It was much, much better.
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6:10 - 6:12I knew that this technology
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6:12 - 6:15would change the entire field
of archaeology in the coming years. -
6:16 - 6:17And it did.
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6:19 - 6:22Our work came to the attention
of a group of filmmakers -
6:22 - 6:25who were searching
for a legendary lost city in Honduras. -
6:25 - 6:27They failed in their quest,
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6:27 - 6:30but they instead
documented an unknown culture -
6:30 - 6:34now buried under a pristine
wilderness rainforest, -
6:34 - 6:35using LiDAR.
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6:36 - 6:38I agreed to help interpret their data,
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6:38 - 6:42which is how I found myself
deep in that Mosquitia jungle, -
6:42 - 6:46plastic-free and filled
with curious animals. -
6:46 - 6:48Our goal was to verify
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6:48 - 6:52that the archaeological features
we identified in our LiDAR -
6:52 - 6:54were actually there on the ground,
and they were. -
6:55 - 7:00Eleven months later, I returned
with a crack team of archaeologists, -
7:00 - 7:02sponsored by
the National Geographic Society -
7:03 - 7:05and the Honduran government.
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7:05 - 7:07In a month, we excavated over 400 objects
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7:08 - 7:10from what we now call
the City of the Jaguar. -
7:11 - 7:16We felt a moral and ethical responsibility
to protect the site as it was, -
7:16 - 7:19but in the short time that we were there,
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7:19 - 7:21things inevitably changed.
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7:21 - 7:24The tiny gravel bar
where we first landed our helicopter -
7:24 - 7:26was gone.
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7:26 - 7:29The brush had been cleared away
and the trees were moved -
7:29 - 7:33to create a large landing zone
for several helicopters at once. -
7:33 - 7:37Without it, after just one rainy season,
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7:37 - 7:40the ancient canals
that we had seen in our LiDAR scan -
7:40 - 7:42were damaged or destroyed.
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7:43 - 7:47And the Eden I described
soon had a large clearing, central camp, -
7:48 - 7:51lights and an outdoor chapel.
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7:51 - 7:52In other words,
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7:52 - 7:55despite our best efforts
to protect the site as it was, -
7:56 - 7:58things changed.
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7:58 - 8:02Our initial LiDAR scan
of this City of the Jaguar -
8:02 - 8:08is the only record of this place
as it existed just a few years ago. -
8:08 - 8:12And broadly speaking,
this is a problem for archaeologists. -
8:12 - 8:15We can't study an area
without changing it somehow, -
8:15 - 8:18and regardless, the earth is changing.
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8:18 - 8:21Archaeological sites are destroyed,
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8:21 - 8:24history is lost.
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8:24 - 8:26Just this year, we watched in horror
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8:26 - 8:29as the Notre Dame Cathedral
went up in flames. -
8:30 - 8:34The iconic spire collapsed,
and the roof was all but destroyed. -
8:34 - 8:36Miraculously,
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8:36 - 8:39the art historian Andrew Tallon
and colleagues -
8:39 - 8:41scanned the cathedral in 2010 using LiDAR.
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8:42 - 8:46At the time, their goal was to understand
how the building was constructed. -
8:47 - 8:48Now, their LiDAR scan
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8:49 - 8:51is the most comprehensive record
of the cathedral, -
8:51 - 8:55and it will prove invaluable
in the reconstruction. -
8:55 - 9:00They couldn't have anticipated the fire
or how their scan would be used, -
9:00 - 9:02but we are lucky to have it.
-
9:02 - 9:05We take for granted that our cultural
and ecological patrimony -
9:05 - 9:07will be around forever.
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9:07 - 9:09It won't.
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9:09 - 9:12Organizations like SCI-Arc
and Virtual Wonders -
9:12 - 9:17are doing incredible work to record
the world's historic monuments, -
9:18 - 9:21but nothing similar exists
for the earth's landscapes. -
9:22 - 9:25We've lost 50 percent of our rainforest.
-
9:25 - 9:28We lose 18 million acres
of forest every year. -
9:28 - 9:34And rising sea levels will make cities,
countries and continents -
9:34 - 9:36completely unrecognizable.
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9:36 - 9:39Unless we have a record of these places,
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9:39 - 9:42no one in the future
will know they existed. -
9:43 - 9:47If the earth is the Titanic,
we've struck the iceberg, -
9:47 - 9:50everyone's on deck,
and the orchestra is playing. -
9:50 - 9:55The climate crisis threatens to destroy
our cultural and ecological patrimony -
9:55 - 9:57within decades.
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9:57 - 10:01But sitting on our hands
and doing nothing is not an option. -
10:02 - 10:05Shouldn't we save everything
we can on the lifeboats? -
10:05 - 10:08(Applause)
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10:13 - 10:16Looking at my scans
from Honduras and Mexico, -
10:16 - 10:19it's clear that we need
to scan, scan, scan -
10:19 - 10:22now as much as possible,
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10:22 - 10:23while we still can.
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10:24 - 10:26That's what inspired the Earth Archive,
-
10:26 - 10:31an unprecedented scientific effort
to LiDAR-scan the entire planet, -
10:32 - 10:34starting with areas
that are most threatened. -
10:35 - 10:37Its purpose is threefold.
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10:38 - 10:39Number one:
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10:39 - 10:43create a baseline record
of the earth as it exists today -
10:43 - 10:46to more effectively mitigate
the climate crisis. -
10:47 - 10:49To measure change,
you need two sets of data: -
10:50 - 10:52a before and an after.
-
10:52 - 10:56Right now, we don't have
a high-resolution before-data set -
10:56 - 10:58for much of the planet,
-
10:58 - 11:00so we can't measure change,
-
11:00 - 11:02and we can't evaluate
-
11:02 - 11:05which of our current efforts
to combat the climate crisis -
11:05 - 11:07are making a positive impact.
-
11:09 - 11:10Number two:
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11:10 - 11:14create a virtual planet
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11:14 - 11:18so that any number of scientists
can study our earth today. -
11:19 - 11:22Archaeologists like me
can look for undocumented settlements. -
11:23 - 11:28Ecologists can study tree size,
forest composition and age. -
11:28 - 11:32Geologists can study hydrology,
faults, disturbance. -
11:33 - 11:35The possibilities are endless.
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11:36 - 11:37Number three:
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11:37 - 11:41preserve a record of the planet
for our grandchildren's grandchildren -
11:42 - 11:47so they can reconstruct and study
lost cultural patrimony in the future. -
11:48 - 11:54As science and technology advance,
they'll apply new tools, algorithms, -
11:54 - 11:58even AI to LiDAR scans done today
-
11:58 - 12:02and ask questions
that we can't currently conceive of. -
12:03 - 12:09Like Notre Dame, we can't imagine
how these records will be used, -
12:10 - 12:12but we know that they'll be
critically important. -
12:14 - 12:18The Earth Archive is the ultimate gift
to future generations. -
12:18 - 12:21Because the truth be told,
-
12:21 - 12:24I won't live long enough
to see its full impact -
12:24 - 12:26and neither will you.
-
12:27 - 12:30That's exactly why it's worth doing.
-
12:30 - 12:34The Earth Archive is a bet
on the future of humanity. -
12:35 - 12:38It's a bet that together, collectively,
-
12:38 - 12:41as people and as scientists,
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12:41 - 12:44that we'll face the climate crisis,
-
12:44 - 12:47and that we'll choose
to do the right thing, -
12:47 - 12:50not just for us today,
-
12:50 - 12:53but to honor those who came before us
-
12:53 - 12:57and to pay it forward
to future generations -
12:58 - 13:00who will carry on our legacy.
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13:01 - 13:02Thank you.
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13:02 - 13:05(Applause)
- Title:
- Let's archive everything on Earth - before it's too late | Chris Fisher | TEDxMileHigh
- Description:
-
The climate crisis threatens to destroy our entire cultural & ecological heritage in a matter of decades – how can we document everything before it disappears? In this fascinating talk, archaeologist Chris Fisher will take you deep in the Honduran jungle on an expedition to find a lost city and explain why we must LiDAR scan the entire surface of the Earth, not just as a record for future generations, but as a tool to fight climate change and save our planet.
Dr. Chris Fisher is an archaeologist, National Geographic Explorer, Professor of Anthropology at Colorado State University, and the Founder & Director of The Earth Archive. In 2007, he and his team first documented the ancient city of Angamuco, a sprawling metropolis that once had as many structures as modern-day Manhattan. His recent work uses remote sensing technologies, including LiDAR, to better understand urbanism & environmental change in Mexico and Honduras. As a child growing up in Duluth, Minnesota, he developed a love for wilderness canoeing, a passion that persists today.
This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community.
Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx - Video Language:
- English
- Team:
- closed TED
- Project:
- TEDxTalks
- Duration:
- 13:18