I made it down, of course, but when I hit terra firma, I was overcome; I began to sob and laugh uncontrollably.
For Terra-I to work, the researchers had to train the system to differentiate between seasonal changes in vegetation and human-induced impacts.
While such programs have existed in Brazil for several years, the program, called Terra-I, fills a much-needed gap for some smaller Latin countries that are losing forests at an equal or higher rate.
"We can expect to see a surge in Chinese investment in the Amazon in this manner in years to come". Louis Reymondin is the main developer of a satellite imagery programme called Terra-i, which is used by governments and environmental groups to monitor deforestation, and he said the technology offers a dose of optimism.
The Rio+20 attendees and others seemed to respond favorably to Terra-I's debut, Dr. Mulligan said, with the Web site logging around 2,300 hits on the first day of the conference.
As we abseil back down to terra firma, I realise I'm somewhere in between the two – unable to work out if the thrill outweighs the terror, so overwhelming are they both.
Davydov says he would have never approached her on terra firma: "I think being in limbo, in that space when I was traveling, I was susceptible to unusual things.
Now, as I swung my legs over the side of the Zodiac on to terra firma, I was in danger of breaking rule No 1: a few metres away stood an adult gentoo, head cocked to the side, looking at me quizzically.
On that damned boat, puttering slowly along the Indian Norfolk Broads, I ran the gamut of Dr Elisabeth Kübler-Ross's four initial stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, and depression, but as we returned to terra firma, I had come around to the fifth and final stage: acceptance.
If my impacted sites just happened to fall into swamps and my protected sites were in terra firme, I wouldn't be comparing human impact between similar forest types.
