Topher White: What can save the rainforest? Your used cell phone

Topher White: ¿Qué puede salvar al bosque tropical? Tu teléfono móvil usado

Traductor: Denise RQ Revisor: Sebastian Betti

(Rainforest noises)

(Sonidos del bosque tropical)

In the summer of 2011, as a tourist,

En el verano de 2011, como turista,

I visited the rainforests of Borneo for the very first time,

visité por primera vez los bosques de Borneo,

and as you might imagine,

y como se pueden imaginar

it was the overwhelming sounds of the forest that struck me the most.

lo que más me impresionó fueron sus sonidos sobrecogedores.

There's this constant cacophony of noise.

Había una constante cacofonía de sonidos,

Some things actually do stick out.

y algunos destacaban más que otros.

For example, this here is a big bird, a rhinoceros hornbill.

Por ejemplo, este es el sonido de un gran pájaro, un cálao rinoceronte.

This buzzing is a cicada.

Este es el canto de una cigarra.

This is a family of gibbons.

Y este viene de una familia de gibones.

It's actually singing to each other over a great distance.

Se están cantando desde una gran distancia.

The place where this was recorded was in fact a gibbon reserve,

De hecho, el lugar donde he grabado era en una reserva de gibones

which is why you can hear so many of them,

por eso se oyen tantos,

but in fact the most important noise that was coming out of the forest that time

pero en ese momento, el sonido más importante venía del bosque

was one that I didn't notice,

pero no me di cuenta,

and in fact nobody there had actually noticed it.

nadie se percató de ello.

So, as I said, this was a gibbon reserve.

Como dije, era una reserva de gibones.

They spend most of their time rehabilitating gibbons,

Allí, se dedicaba la mayor parte del tiempo a rehabilitar gibones,

but they also have to spend a lot of their time

y también se invertía mucho

protecting their area from illegal logging that takes place on the side.

en la protección de la zona de tala ilegal.

And so if we take the sound of the forest

Así que si eliminamos el sonido de la selva

and we actually turn down the gibbons, the insects, and the rest,

y quitamos el de los gibones, de los insectos y el resto,

in the background, the entire time, in recordings you heard,

de fondo se puede oír todo este tiempo,

was the sound of a chainsaw at great distance.

el sonido de una motosierra en la distancia.

They had three full-time guards who were posted around this sanctuary

Había 3 guardias a tiempo completo para controlar este santuario

whose job was in fact to guard against illegal logging,

cuyo trabajo consistía en proteger la zona de la tala ilegal

and one day, we went walking, again as tourists, out into the forest,

y un día, salimos a caminar por el bosque como turistas,

and within five minutes' walk,

y 5 minutos más tarde

we stumbled upon somebody who was just sawing a tree down,

nos encontramos con alguien que acababa de cortar un árbol,

five minutes' walk, a few hundred meters from the ranger station.

5 minutos, a pocos metros de la sede de los guardias.

They hadn't been able to hear the chainsaws,

Pero ellos no oyeron las motosierras,

because as you heard, the forest is very, very loud.

porque, ya ven, el bosque es muy, muy ruidoso.

It struck me as quite unacceptable that in this modern time,

Hoy en día es inaceptable,

just a few hundred meters away from a ranger station in a sanctuary,

a unos pocos cientos de metros de la sede de las guardias, en un santuario,

that in fact nobody could hear it when someone who has a chainsaw gets fired up.

que nadie oyera cuando se pone en marcha una motosierra.

It sounds impossible, but in fact, it was quite true.

Parece imposible, pero es absolutamente cierto.

So how do we stop illegal logging?

Entonces, ¿cómo detenemos la tala ilegal?

It's really tempting, as an engineer, always to come up with a high-tech,

Como ingeniero, resulta muy tentador encontrar alguna solución

super-crazy high-tech solution,

absurda de alta tecnología,

but in fact, you're in the rainforest.

pero de hecho estamos en la selva

It has to be simple, it has to be scalable,

y debe ser algo simple, debe ser factible.

and so what we also noticed while were there was that

La otra cosa de la que nos dimos cuenta

everything we needed was already there.

fue que todo lo que nos hacía falta ya estaba allí.

We could build a system that would allow us to stop this

Podíamos construir un sistema que detuviera la tala

using what's already there.

usando lo que ya estaba allí.

Who was there? What was already in the forest?

¿Quién estaba allí? ¿Quién estaba ya en el bosque?

Well, we had people.

Bueno, la gente.

We had this group there that was dedicated, three full-time guards,

Había un grupo comprometido, 3 guardias a tiempo completo

that was dedicated to go and stop it,

comprometidos a supervisar,

but they just needed to know what was happening out in the forest.

pero necesitan saber qué pasaba en el bosque.

The real surprise, this is the big one,

La verdadera sorpresa, y es una gran sorpresa,

was that there was connectivity out in the forest.

es que había cobertura en el bosque.

Había servicio de telefonía móvil allí, en medio de la nada.

There was cell phone service way out in the middle of nowhere.

Hablamos de cientos de kilómetros hasta la carretera más cercana,

We're talking hundreds of kilometers from the nearest road,

there's certainly no electricity, but they had very good cell phone service,

y claro que no hay electricidad, pero si que había señal de red.

these people in the towns were on Facebook all the time,

La gente del pueblo tenía acceso a Facebook todo el tiempo

they're surfing the web on their phones,

navegaba en Internet con el móvil

and this sort of got me thinking that in fact it would be possible

lo que me hizo pensar ene la posibilidad real

to use the sounds of the forest,

de usar los sonidos del bosque,

pick up the sounds of chainsaws programmatically,

e identificar los sonidos de las motosierras con un programa

because people can't hear them,

ya son inaudibles,

and send an alert.

y enviar una alarma.

But you have to have a device to go up in the trees.

Pero necesitábamos un dispositivo para ponerlo en los árboles.

So if we can use some device to listen to the sounds of the forest,

Con este dispositivo para grabar los sonidos del bosque,

connect to the cell phone network that's there,

conectado a la red móvil,

and send an alert to people on the ground,

y el envío de una alarma a la gente de la zona,

perhaps we could have a solution to this issue for them.

quizá daríamos con una solución para el problema.

But let's take a moment to talk about saving the rainforest,

Hablemos un momento de la preservación de la selva tropical,

because it's something that we've definitely all heard about forever.

y es algo de que todos oímos hablar todo el tiempo.

People in my generation have heard about saving the rainforest

A mi generación se le he hablado de salvar los bosques,

since we were kids,

desde que éramos niños,

and it seems that the message has never changed:

y parece que el mensaje nunca ha cambiado:

We've got to save the rainforest, it's super urgent,

hay que salvar la selva tropical, es una emergencia,

this many football fields have been destroyed yesterday.

ayer se deforestó el equivalente a tantos campos de fútbol

and yet here we are today, about half of the rainforest remains,

y sin embargo aquí estamos hoy, con solo la mitad del bosque,

and we have potentially more urgent problems like climate change.

pero parece que el cambio climático es un problema más urgente.

But in fact, this is the little-known fact that I didn't realize at the time:

De hecho, hay un dato poco conocido que yo no sabía entonces:

Deforestation accounts for more greenhouse gas

la deforestación genera más gases de efecto invernadero

than all of the world's planes, trains, cars, trucks and ships combined.

que todos los aviones, trenes, autos, camiones y barcos del mundo juntos.

It's the second highest contributor to climate change.

Es la segunda causa del cambio climático.

Also, according to Interpol,

Además, según Interpol,

as much as 90 percent of the logging that takes place in the rainforest

el 90 % de la tala que ocurre en el bosque

is illegal logging, like the illegal logging that we saw.

es ilegal, al igual que lo que hemos visto nosotros.

So if we can help people in the forest enforce the rules that are there,

Si ayudamos a la gente del bosque aplicar las reglas existentes,

then in fact we could eat heavily into this 17 percent

podríamos reducir esto en un 17 %

and potentially have a major impact in the short term.

y generar un mayor impacto a corto plazo.

It might just be the cheapest, fastest way to fight climate change.

Podría ser que el modo más rápido y barato de combatir el cambio climático,

And so here's the system that we imagine.

y este es el sistema que hemos creado para esto.

It looks super high tech.

Parece algo de tecnología punta.

The moment a sound of a chainsaw is heard in the forest,

Al momento que oye el sonido de una motosierra en el bosque,

the device picks up the sound of the chainsaw,

el dispositivo lo capta,

it sends an alert through the standard GSM network that's already there

y envía una alarma a través de la red GSM

to a ranger in the field

a un guardia en el campo

who can in fact show up in real time and stop the logging.

que puede llegar para evitar la tala en tiempo real.

It's no more about going out and finding a tree that's been cut.

Ya no se trata de salir a buscar árboles talados,

It's not about seeing a tree from a satellite

ni a ver un árbol desde el satélite

in an area that's been clear cut,

en un área talada,

it's about real-time intervention.

sino que se trata de intervención en tiempo real.

So I said it was the cheapest and fastest way to do it,

He dicho que es la forma más barata y rápida de hacerlo,

but in fact, actually, as you saw, they weren't able to do it,

pero, como se ha visto, no pudieron aplicarla,

so it may not be so cheap and fast.

así que quizás no es tan barata y rápida.

But if the devices in the trees were actually cell phones,

Pero si los dispositivos en los árboles fueran teléfonos móviles,

it could be pretty cheap.

sí sería muy barato.

Cell phones are thrown away by the hundreds of millions every year,

Cada año se tiran cientos de millones de teléfonos,

hundreds of millions in the U.S. alone,

cientos de millones solo en EE.UU.

not counting the rest of the world, which of course we should do,

sin contar al resto del mundo, aunque deberíamos.

but in fact, cell phones are great.

De hecho son geniales.

They're full of sensors.

Están llenos de sensores.

They can listen to the sounds of the forest.

Escuchan los sonidos del bosque

We do have to protect them.

y hay que protegerlos.

We have to put them in this box that you see here,

Hay que ponerlos en una caja como esta que ven ahí,

and we do have to power them.

y hay que cargarlos.

Powering them is one of the greater engineering challenges

Cargarlos es uno de los mayores retos de ingeniería

that we had to deal with,

al que nos enfrentamos,

because powering a cell phone under a tree canopy,

porque cargar un móvil bajo la copa de un árbol

any sort of solar power under a tree canopy,

con energía solar,

was an as-yet-unsolved problem,

era un problema aún sin resolver,

and that's this unique solar panel design that you see here,

y este es el panel solar, único en su tipo,

which in fact is built also from recycled byproducts of an industrial process.

construido con derivados reciclados de procesos industriales.

These are strips that are cut down.

Estas tiras se cortan.

So this is me putting it all together

Este soy yo armándolo todo

in my parents' garage, actually.

en el garaje de mis padres.

Thanks very much to them for allowing me to do that.

Muchas gracias por dejarme hacerlo.

As you can see, this is a device up in a tree.

Como se ve este es un dispositivo en un árbol.

What you can see from here, perhaps, is that they are pretty well obscured

Lo que se puede observar desde aquí es que quizás queda bien camuflado

up in the tree canopy at a distance.

en lo alto de la copa del árbol.

That's important, because although they are able to hear chainsaw noises

Esto es importante porque, aunque pueden captar los sonidos de sierra

up to a kilometer in the distance,

hasta a un kilómetro de distancia,

allowing them to cover about three square kilometers,

y cubrir unos 3 kilómetros cuadrados,

if someone were to take them, it would make the area unprotected.

porque si alguien los quitara dejaría el área desprotegida.

So does it actually work?

¿Pero funciona realmente?

Well, to test it, we took it back to Indonesia,

Para probarlos volvimos a Indonesia,

not the same place, but another place,

no en el mismo lugar, a otro sitio,

to another gibbon reserve

en otra reserva de gibones

that was threatened daily by illegal logging.

amenazada día tras día por la tala ilegal.

On the very second day, it picked up illegal chainsaw noises.

Al segundo día de instalado, captó sonidos de tala ilegal con motosierras.

We were able to get a real-time alert.

Tuvimos una alerta en tiempo real.

I got an email on my phone.

Recibí un correo en mi teléfono.

Actually, we had just climbed the tree. Everyone had just gotten back down.

En realidad, acabábamos de subir al árbol y bajar.

All these guys are smoking cigarettes,

Algunos estaban fumando un cigarrillo

and then I get an email, and they all quiet down,

cuando recibí el e-mail, y todos se callaron,

and in fact you can hear the chainsaw

todos oímos la motosierra

really, really faint in the background,

como un sonido muy débil de fondo,

but no one had noticed it until that moment.

del que nadie se había dado cuenta hasta entonces.

And so then we took off to actually stop these loggers.

Así que nos encaminamos a detener a los madereros.

I was pretty nervous.

Yo estaba muy nervioso.

This is the moment where we've actually arrived close to where the loggers are.

Este es el momento en que llegamos hasta los madereros.

This is the moment where you can see where I'm actually regretting

Y me pueden ver casi arrepentido

perhaps the entire endeavor.

de todo el esfuerzo.

I'm not really sure what's on the other side of this hill.

No estoy seguro de lo que hay más allá de esta colina.

That guy's much braver than I am.

Ese tipo era más valiente que yo.

But he went, so I had to go, walking up,

Como continuó, yo le seguí, llegó a lo más alto,

and in fact, he made it over the hill,

paso al otro lado

and interrupted the loggers in the act.

y pilló a los madereros en acción.

For them, it was such a surprise --

Quedaron impresionados,

they had never, ever been interrupted before --

ya que nunca antes nadie los había interrumpido...

that it was such an impressive event for them,

Quedaron muy impactados

that we've heard from our partners they have not been back since.

y supimos por nuestros colegas que no han vuelto desde entonces.

They were, in fact, great guys.

En realidad eran buena gente.

They showed us how the entire operation works,

Nos explicaron cuál era su trabajo,

and what they really convinced us on the spot was that

y nos convencieron

de que si podíamos llegar en tiempo real para detenerlos

if you can show up in real time and stop people,

it's enough of a deterrent they won't come back.

era suficiente para disuadirlos.

So --

Así que...

Thank you. (Applause)

Gracias. (Aplausos)

Word of this spread, possibly because we told a lot of people,

La noticia se difundió quizá porque le dijimos a mucha gente,

and in fact, then some really amazing stuff started to happen.

y empezaron a suceder cosas sorprendentes.

People from around the world started to send us emails, phone calls.

La gente de todo el mundo empezó a escribirnos y a llamarnos.

What we saw was that people throughout Asia,

Nos dimos cuenta de que la gente de Asia,

people throughout Africa, people throughout South America,

África, América del Sur,

they told us that they could use it too,

nos decía que podrían usarlo también,

and what's most important,

y lo más importante,

what we'd found that we thought might be exceptional,

lo que pensábamos que era una excepción,

in the forest there was pretty good cell phone service.

que en el bosque había muy buena señal,

That was not exceptional, we were told,

no lo era, y nos dijeron que muchas áreas tenían señal,

and that particularly is on the periphery of the forests that are most under threat.

especialmente en la periferia de los bosques más amenazados.

And then something really amazing happened,

Luego sucedió algo increíble,

which was that people started sending us their own old cell phones.

la gente empezó a mandarnos sus viejos teléfonos.

So in fact what we have now is a system

De modo que ahora tenemos un sistema

where we can use people on the ground, people who are already there,

con personas de allí, listas

who can both improve and use the existing connectivity,

para mejorar y usar la conexión existente.

and we're using old cell phones that are being sent to us

Nosotros usamos teléfonos viejos que nos envía

by people from around the world

gente de todo el mundo

that want their phones to be doing something else in their afterlife,

que desea que sus teléfonos tengan un segundo uso,

por así decirlo.

so to speak.

And if the rest of the device can be completely recycled,

Y si el resto del dispositivo puede reciclarse por completo,

then we believe it's an entirely upcycled device.

se convierte en todo un dispositivo reaprovechable.

So again, this didn't come because of any sort of high-tech solution.

Así que, repito, no hemos inventado una solución de alta tecnología.

It just came from using what's already there,

Usamos lo que estaba disponible,

and I'm thoroughly convinced that if it's not phones,

y creo firmemente que, aún sin los teléfonos,

that there's always going to be enough there

siempre habrá algo ahí

that you can build similar solutions

con lo que desarrollar soluciones similares,

that can be very effective in new contexts.

que sean efectivas en otras situaciones.

Thank you very much.

Muchas gracias.

(Applause)

(Aplausos)