forest fires
The Role of Technology in Forest Management
In Brazil’s Pará region, new roads are cutting through the pristine Amazon rainforest, opening up once-untouched areas to human activities. Expansive stretches of lush greenery are vanishing at an alarming pace, yielding to barren patches and freshly cleared land.
Meanwhile, far into space, the European Space Agency captures high-resolution satellite images of the region that unveil an important pattern: deforestation occurs predominantly near these newly constructed roads.
Back in 2016, it sparked a question: what if there were a tool to monitor these roads and forecast potential deforestation areas? Not long after PrevisIA was born.
In 2021, Microsoft with Vale Fund and the Amazon Institute for Man and the Environment (Imazon) developed a new AI tool called PrevisIA, to predict deforestation hotspots in the Amazon. Using satellite imagery from the European Space Agency and an algorithm developed by Imazon, the tool produces heat maps showing the most exposed conservation areas, Indigenous lands, and other settlements, along with rankings for states and municipalities.
Daniel Beltrá: Capturing Earth’s Beauty and Humanity’s Impact
Daniel Beltrá, a Madrid-born photographer now calling Seattle, Washington, his creative haven; has a distinctive approach to his photography. His most captivating works are large-scale photographs taken from the air, providing viewers with a sweeping panorama of our world’s wonders and woes.
His unwavering passion for conservation can be seen from this elevated vantage point as he skillfully reveals the contrast of nature’s magnificence and humanity’s destructive footprint.
Forests & Earth’s Temperatures
Seeing the forest through the trees is an expression you may not think of when the topic of global warming comes up. However, 31% of the earth’s surface is covered by trees and each one is working overtime to sequester carbon to combat global warming. Carbon sequestration is a natural or artificial process by which carbon dioxide is removed from the atmosphere and held in solid or liquid form, and it is estimated that forests absorb approximately 7.6 billion metric tons of carbon annually.