NASA director calls for the use of science to protect the Amazon – 07/24/2023 – Science

On a mission to Brazil to forge agreements between the country and the United States, NASA director Bill Nelson says that Joe Biden’s government wants to put the Amazon at the center of cooperation between the two nations.

Nelson reports that negotiations with President Lula (PT) involve the use of more satellites and the sharing of information produced by the American space agency. He also defends the creation of a new economic matrix in regions that currently depend on the illegal exploitation of natural resources.

“If we destroy this unique biological and ecological diversity, of animals and plants, we destroy planet Earth. Preserving it is our main objective. And how? Using the best science we have”, he tells the Sheet.

Nelson and Lula met for over an hour this Monday (24th), along with the US ambassador to Brazil, Elizabeth Frawley Bagley.

The director argues that NASA sends real-time information produced by its satellites to the Brazilian Space Agency and that the environmental agenda is a point of convergence between the current Brazilian government and that of Biden.

The former US senator also criticizes China for not providing transparency to its scientific program and understands that the world is currently experiencing a new space race, as when Americans and Soviets disputed dominance of planetary orbit.

“They [chineses] They said they’re also going to the moon, so we have a space race.”

About what mr. and Lula talked?
I started the meeting by presenting Lula with a photograph of a spaceship, which [a própria espaçonave] took a selfie of herself in which the Moon is in the background and, further in the background, the planet.

I presented him with this photo along with images of the Brazilian-American spacecraft, the Brazilian coast and the mouth of the [rio] Amazonas, seen from space, and two flags, one for each country, which were in orbit.

I showed him records from our satellites [de monitoramento] of the Amazon that show where the forest fires are, where the deforestation is.

He also joked that he could travel to space at the age of 77. I said: “Anyway!”.

And did Lula make any requests to you?
Not exactly a request, but we were talking about a partnership, which will start tomorrow [nesta terça]at the event with the Minister of Science [Luciana Santos], in Sao Paulo. He wants her to keep negotiating the details.

And what will this partnership be?
We have satellites that give an extremely accurate breakdown of what is happening.

For example one that is able to see through a forest canopy [quando as copas de árvore criam um teto que impede que se veja de cima]reaching a location that we would not otherwise be able to see, and determine what is happening to the vegetation below the canopy of these trees: if the vegetation is diseased, if there is a chance of a fire or if the vegetation is regenerating.

We can provide information about what is happening, for example, with soil on a farm. Moisture, disease in crops, that sort of thing, so farmers can invest more smartly, know what to plant, how they need to irrigate based on very detailed information about what’s happening to the land.

I hope we close partnerships like this one in Brazil. Lula is known for helping people who need to earn a living. He knows that, in order to win the fight to preserve the Amazon rainforest, he needs to help these people, so they don’t keep cutting down the trees.

Then information of this kind can be shared with local governments and even farmers.

And we do it through US AID [Agência dos Estados Unidos para o Desenvolvimento Internacional]. I think Brazil is perfect for this program and I hope to see more of this kind of partnership as a result of my visit.

What is NASA’s view of the situation in the Amazon?
Our biggest concern is that people stop cutting down trees. Imagine how much carbon all those trees can absorb?

If we destroy this unique biological and ecological diversity of animals and plants, we destroy planet earth. Preserving it is our main objective. It is like? Using the best science we have.

And at the same time, as he [Lula] makes it clear, giving the people an alternative way of making a living other than cutting down trees to plant crops or raise cattle. Our goal is to help with that process.

This is not the solution for everything, this goes far beyond NASA. You need to give people a way to support themselves, to sell their crops, to get jobs in other areas so they don’t have to cut down the forest. They need education so that they can get decent jobs and wages.

It’s a complex social problem, but NASA can do its part.

Does the environmental agenda bring Lula closer to US President Joe Biden?
For sure. And that’s the reason for everything we’ve discussed. You can’t solve Earth’s problems if you don’t solve Amazonian problems. My view is that you have a government in which one of the main agendas is to preserve and reduce the destruction of the Amazon rainforest. No doubt they discussed it when they talked in February and will talk seriously at some point in the future.

That’s one of the reasons I’m here, as part of the Biden administration. Senator Chris Dodd is President Biden’s best friend and also the government’s envoy for Latin America. He has already spoken several times with Lula and these conversations will continue. We now have international conferences where they certainly [os presidentes] will see each other.

Does NASA have plans for partnerships with the Brazilian Space Agency?
We’ll talk about that tomorrow, but what I’m telling you is part of that. Specifically about scientific cooperation is what we are still going to discuss, but the satellite that is in the photo I gave Lula is made by Brazil and the United States, so we will certainly discuss some joint projects for the future.

Recently, Brazil signed the Artemis agreement, which deals with the peaceful use of space, especially now that we are returning to the Moon, to learn how to get to Mars.

We will also discuss the following: [a Nasa] creates information generated from 25 satellites, information that reaches Earth in real time and is transmitted within our facilities.

Weather patterns, Earth’s surface temperature, ocean currents, carbon dioxide patterns, methane gas patterns… all in real time, with satellites circling the Earth every 90 minutes.

The Brazilian Space Agency needs to have this information. That’s one of the things we’re going to discuss tomorrow [nesta terça-feira].

Currently both the United States and China are trying to reach the Moon. Is there a new space race?
Us [EUA] we’re going to the moon next year, for the first time in half a century. And in the last ten years, the Chinese have improved a lot [nesta área]. They’re very secretive, their space program is basically military — although they say it’s not.

They are not transparent. For example: when they launched their space base, their rockets had no fuel to make a controlled re-entry. [na atmosfera]. So each 1 of the 3 thrusters [que levavam as partes da base para o espaço] returned to the planet and they did not divulge the coordinates of where they would fall.

First we thought it would be Greece, then it looked like it was Saudi Arabia, and luckily, in the case of the second rocket, it ended up falling into the Indian Ocean, not hitting anyone. But at no time did they talk about it, they are always very secretive. They said they’re also going to the moon, so we have a space race. The space race is with China.

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Bill Nelson, 80
A member of the Democratic Party, he was a member of the United States Congress from Florida from 1979 to 1991 and then a Democratic Senator from 2001 to 2019. He served in the Vietnam War, traveled to space in 1986 and, in 2021, was chosen by Joe Biden as NASA administrator.