there’s still the last frontier and I
think there is work for generations of
explorers I woke up I could fill a polar
bear where’s mom attend we have never
seen anything like this
really in 16 drugs we found 8 new
species of fish
you
we’re gonna hit each of them a chance
just to describe what they do in their
own words and then we will begin to quiz
them so we can learn more about how they
do it said dish do I have to be first
you have to be first all right being a
wildlife filmmaker and photographer
that’s all just a fancy title at the end
of the day all I am really is a
storyteller and I like to bring those
stories to you and that’s one of the
things that I do is follow a mission and
that mission is conservation through
education not just education it’s also
about engagement and how do I engage you
by telling you fascinating stories that
capture your imagination by powerful
imagery it’s not just about taking
pretty pictures it’s also about going
back there and sitting behind a computer
for six months in compiling them into a
book or something that makes tangible
sense and these books have gone out to
UNESCO I was part of the submission
dosia that got a UNESCO to declare the
Western gods of the world heritage site
and one hat is a photographer and the
other hat is that of a filmmaker so I
also make documentaries a recent one for
National Geographic was that on clouded
leopards and I realized the visual image
is so powerful that I’ve now had to
combine it all and create a multimedia
thing called a funny thing called an
appt anyone heard of that yeah so that’s
why I’m here to bring these stories to
you so thank you all for being here next
emerging explorers Bethany album who was
a professor of planetary science at
Caltech and also a research scientist
the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and
bringing a spec exciting information
about one of our our favorite planet to
Mars so Bethany yeah thank you boy so
after sandesh is beautiful images of
this world and the story of conservation
I’m going to tell you about another
world and the connections between Mars
and our own earth so some of you may
know Mars 4th planet out from the Sun
today very thin atmosphere it’s cold
it’s dry no liquid water on the surface
and yet we have data images in this case
a map of the elevation of Mars that
shows there’s once abundant evidence for
water so here what you’re doing you’re
peering down into the northern lowlands
of Mars and you see it’s a low people
have thought oh well maybe there was an
ocean there in the past you can
certainly see rivers heading into that
lowland draining down into that Center
but none of that is here today and so
the question is did Mars once look like
the image on the Left covered in water
presumably a place that could be an
abode teeming with life much like our
own planet a place where there could be
habitats why did it change that’s the
key question that really that really
drives my work as a planetary geologist
we then in some cases are able to go to
the ground and how many of you saw the
amazing landings of the Curiosity rover
in August are you watching that as it
happened yeah yeah pretty amazing right
great engineers at JPL landing on
another planet what we’ve been exploring
with curiosity some of some of these
types of environments looking for life
hunting for habitats that might have
existed early in the history of the
planet trying to answer that question
why did Mars change but doing it not as
geologists on the surface but through
our proxies the robots that we that we
send for us we’re looking to understand
what happened to Mars what happened to
those potential water rich habitats and
why did it all change and can we use
those lessons to understand our own
planet a little bit more so that’s what
drives me to explore thanks
next is our new emerging explorer Jason
de Leon who is a archaeologists
anthropologist but instead of digging
way into the past he’s actually digging
into the present as he’s studying a
undocumented migration and often you
look through what people leave behind to
understand how they lived what they did
so he’s finding what they leave behind
he said professor at University of
Michigan explain more the problem with
undocumented migration is polarizing as
it is most of us know very little about
what it actually looks like and as an
anthropologist a social scientist and
archaeologist my job is to put names
faces and stories to the many statistics
that are thrown around by different
media people if you don’t know just
quickly the bulk of undocumented
migration board illegal border crossings
occur in southern Arizona in what’s
called the Tucson Sector by Border
Patrol we use a policy currently called
prevention through deterrence it’s
virtually impossible to cross in any
urban area yet the back door in southern
Arizona has been left open essentially
by by federal law enforcement agencies
because we use what’s called the
prevention that insurance to use the
desert itself the Sonora Desert is
rugged inhospitable very difficult
terrain and people are having to walk
upwards of 60 70 and 80 miles across
this environment to get into the United
States and where the thinking is that
the desert itself will become a better
form of deterrence than Border Patrol
just some quick statistics on who’s
coming through this desert or who has
come through this desert we know that
about 4.5 million people have been
caught in southern Arizona since 2000
that’s only caught there’s probably you
can probably push that to about 7
million coming through southern Arizona
and more importantly about 5,600 bodies
have been recovered along the border
since 1998 those numbers probably
grossly underestimate who’s actually
died during this process and I’ll show
you why I think that what I’ve tried to
do then is say it’s to say okay people
are coming through they’ve got stories
are interesting how can anthropology
help us put names and faces to these
migrants were coming who are coming
through the desert and why is it
important as an anthropologist I use a
bunch of different tools the first one
is ethnography so I hang out with
migrants in the in northern Mexico I
talked to them as they’re preparing to
cross I give them cameras have them
photographed border cross
for anonymous publication and then I
interview them post deportation to see
what exactly happened in the desert I
also look at what how they prepare what
do migrants by in northern Mexico to get
across the desert there’s specialized
vendors who sell things to migrants to
survive first aid equipment specialized
water bottles backpacks camouflage
clothing migrants then oftentimes leave
this stuff behind while in route this
stuff then ends up accumulating over
time in some of these giant arkla what I
would consider to be archaeological
sites and these are rich repositories of
information about this process an
archaeology can help us understand the
material elements of this but then also
more importantly I’m interested in what
happens to those that go missing and
those that died hundreds of people die
every single year and we know that
bodies disappear quickly in the desert
and what we’ve tried to do is use
forensic tech anomic experiments pigs
are a very good proxy that forensic
scientists use to understand how human
bodies decomposed here’s a pig that has
been put out into the desert a carcass
it’s been dressed and over the course of
just a few days vultures get involved
and you’ll see here once they start
consuming a body it takes about 24 hours
for the body to be completely
disarticulated consumed and widely
spread and so using all these different
tools have been helpful to understand
this very hidden clandestine process
and if you’ve been a reader of National
Geographic magazine during the last 15
years then you have probably seen the
work of Joel Satori who’s done many
important articles for us taking the
pictures for them but he’s also an
articulate voice for conservation Joel
thanks Boyd well I’ve been with
Geographic now for 22 or 23 years as a
contributing photographer and I notice
that these pictures are nice they’re all
fine and well but maybe we need to do
something more maybe I needed to do
something more and that is look these
animals in the eye that I go out
photograph I do mainly conservation work
instead of just getting him before he’s
consumed in the bush meat market in
Equatorial Guinea we bring black velvet
along and make him immortal so I started
a project eight years ago called the
photo arc it’s my attempt to document
whatever I can while we have it
amphibians are of great concern to me
they’re going extinct around the globe
because of climate change habitat loss
pollution and a disease called Kittredge
fungus and they are amazing amazing
creatures so I’m very nervous when I see
something like that at a lab in Quito
Ecuador down to eight down to 64 to now
you’re looking at the very last of this
animal this species is down to this one
individual it’s a rabs fringe limb tree
frog and as I’m photographing and I’m
thinking okay I’m going to take its
story back to folks like you and try to
convince you that this is a tragedy of
epic proportions to lose even one and
yet we stand to lose half of all species
we share the planet with by the turn of
the next century by 2100 half of all
species this rabbit’s already gone
seventy five to eighty percent of our
muscles fauna now is in serious danger
of extinction why should you care about
clams they don’t even have eyes well
because they’re telling us they’re
screaming at us our water is so filthy
and so polluted now we can’t live in it
anymore any of you drink water okay so
so what do I need to do to get the
public engaged in something more then
what’s the price of the pump
on TV whatever I have to do I will do it
if it means taking pictures of things
that look like us they’re
anthropomorphic they’re weird they look
like they’re from another planet they’re
colorful their charismatic whatever it
takes that’s the goal of the photo arc
to get the public engaged first to learn
about these things after all we can’t
save something if we don’t know it
exists to get them engaged and then to
be moved to act to save these things the
beautiful thing is most of what you’re
seeing here can be saved we’ve done it
before but it takes recognition and it
takes compassion and it takes scaring
and we basically need to make this fun
and engaging every bit as fun as playing
a video game in a way but it’s a video
game with very dire consequences after
all it’s falling to think that you can
do the rest of creation to extinction
and not have it come back to bite us
very hard isn’t it we have done this
before we have saved species when we
caught it in when we caught them in time
we have safe species like the giant
panda we’ve saved species like the
Mexican gray wolf we’ve saved species
like the California condor and the
black-footed ferret and the whooping
crane we can do it we certainly can the
goal is to get all six thousand species
in the world zoos and aquariums I’m
almost halfway there now after eight
years at about twenty eight hundred and
fifty five species at who’s counting
alright so that’s what you’re trying to
do to make it look different of these
animals that are in captivity to tell
this important story and it’s just got
to be tough to know you took this
picture of one of those animals and two
months later you get a call that one’s
gone and that was the last one it stinks
and it’s tragic and I don’t ever want it
to happen again and that’s why and it
has happened I’ll sure several times
yeah a couple of things you stop they’re
gone now but the goal is to get people
find people to care I mean it doesn’t
take that many people to change the
world it really doesn’t I mean and
there’s never been a better time to save
species this is the time but if you want
to individually save a species you can
do it now there’s plenty of them need
your help centers you’ve got a different
problem because you’re trying to you
don’t have to get them in front of a
black and white background you just have
to find them I want to show people this
because when i first met you just finish
this film on
Tigers in the park hazaragi and you got
these incredible shots because they’re
feeding on a rhino well we’re luckily
for this I wasn’t there that’s the
beauty of camera trap technology right
you set up your camera’s you think about
where the tiger is going to come and and
tigers typically feed from the rear of
the animal and so you set it up in such
a way that you get the image that you
want that you pre conceived in your mind
my camera trap was doing the job at
night but I wanted to actually film them
in the daytime and it took six days of
waiting from five in the morning till
six in the night every single day until
the seventh day I had three Tigers show
up and feed on this Rhino carcass that
was the most amazing day in my life now
everybody’s trying to bring back
information and you think you’ve got a
eager public I want to find out about
these last species or I want to find out
about Tigers I want to find out about
behavior I want to know what Mars is
made of you’ve got a different problem
Jason let’s pull up slide number two so
you have people taking pictures of what
they’re doing it’s giving us information
and i would think there’s a huge part of
the population says you know we kind of
got our minds made up on undocumented
workers and if you’re bringing the
information i really don’t want any
facts to weaken my position so it’s not
like they’re eager to see what you’re
showing them for me it’s an
uncomfortable research project and i
think that’s it’s good i would rather be
uncomfortable and have more and have
sound systematically collected data
about a process than to just have it be
completely mysterious do you worry that
when you show pictures of the guy even
you know you’re not identifying who
these people are they’re going over this
rock this particular incline there’s
somebody to say alright that’s a route
they’re taking let’s go target that yeah
we’ve we’ve seen over the last 15 years
that the billions of dollars we’ve
thrown at border enforcement
I don’t hopefully nobody works at for
any of these contractors but we’ve seen
it that billions of dollars of money
spent to try to secure this border it’s
not enough money to defeat the human
spirit and so for me showing these
pictures is basically you know they’re
probably drone planes you know somewhere
in the background and there and they’re
just not effective at keeping people out
we know that some statistics say that
over ninety percent of people who
attempt a border crossing or successful
it may take them nine times to do it but
eventually they’re going to get through
jewel not only takes pictures he does
great descriptions of what’s involved in
getting those pictures and I read if
you’re a writer you want the opening
line to just grab people and he wrote
one of the best opening lines I couldn’t
I couldn’t wait to rush through the
whole article when I read he said it
gets kind of depressing wondering if
you’ll be dead by next weekend Joel yes
what were you talking about I was
talking about I was in a bat cave in
Uganda and I got was wearing my my
filter mask from home depot and a pair
of reading glasses what could pass
possibly go wrong I took off my glasses
when I was hiking out of the cave and I
looked up and the whole bat cave emptied
out it was dusk and I looked up like and
of course the bats are all pooping when
they leave the cave I got a big hot
blonde Oh splash right my left eye and
and I called the CDC Centers for Disease
Control they had an operative there and
he said you really shouldn’t have gone
in there I said well why not I remember
I was really hungry when I called the
guy but I better check he says well
that’s a wet contact kind of like a bike
like a bite and Marburg virus circulates
in the faith and I said what’s the
Marburg virus he said well it’s it’s
like Ebola but it kills you quicker and
you don’t bleed quite as much so you got
that going for you
but I did not get it here I am how are
the bat pictures they were really good
wait we had the editor magazine did he
put the pictures in the mad cuz you know
these guys take twenty thirty thousand
picture maybe ten get in yeah they
weren’t that good Chris didn’t pick any
for the magazine way to go Chris Chris
would you have published them if he had
gotten the virus yes come on no no it’s
a no from Chris I’ve been good India a
little bit and I know that sometimes
soldiers that were going through jungle
areas where Tigers were they actually
had masks a face that they would put on
the back of their head because Tigers
are known to come around to the back
side to attack and they see the face and
they felt that would give them
protection if the Tigers looking at him
they won’t come up so you’re so focused
on that carcass and now we know there’s
more than one tiger out there yeah and I
think one of the biggest misconceptions
that I’d like to address is that animals
are not out there to get you I mean I
mean I make television alright I make
documentaries but that’s not the message
I try to bring across unlike some
documentaries that you might watch on TV
that scares you but some of the things
and one guy was asked this question
earlier today what was your most
dangerous incident and it was something
similar to joels it was a mosquito that
got me cerebral malaria and I was down
knocked out you know eight hours away
from the city now that’s the kind of
stuff that we get you the things you’re
not prepared for yeah we look up at the
sky and we see all these stars so really
the little sons and we assume there
could be solar systems around them with
planets so we’re always saying there’s
with all those billions and billions of
stars out there there must be a few with
planets circling them that are really
like Earth in that zero the 40 degrees
Celsius range where life as we know it
could exist we have trouble spotting
them
we do although we’re getting we’re
getting better and better at this
looking outward to distant worlds around
other stars in fact this is one of the
most exciting things going on i think in
planetary science right now so not only
are we pushing the frontiers in our own
solar system you know sending missions
to other worlds landing Rovers on Mars
we’re also looking outward using
telescopes based on earth and also in
orbit out in space we’re looking at
these distant pinpoints of light were
actually where a board detecting planets
hundreds thousands of planets have now
been found in the last decade or so
they’re called exoplanets so extrasolar
planets planets outside of our own solar
system you probably read a little bit
about them in the news we’re sailing
seeing solar systems though that really
aren’t anything like ours but we found
recently not too long ago a planet that
was they thought was sort of like earth
but explain this because the stars have
life so that’s how we see them planets
are dark they are gay and reflected
light so you can’t really see it so
we’re saying there’s a planet how do we
know that well this is one of the great
things about space exploration it really
pushes the boundaries of what is
technologically possible so there’s sort
of two big ways that we find these these
planets around other stars the first is
the fact that when the planets orbiting
okay there’s there’s gravity so every
time the planet orbits it exerts a
slight tug on the star there’s a slight
East centricity it exerts a little tug
we can actually measure that wobble from
Earth requires incredible precision but
we can get that the other thing and this
is just coming online now is using light
itself so you have your telescope you’re
staring up at your star and you’re just
staring at monitoring monitoring
monitoring if the planet passes between
your line of sight and the star there’s
a darkening darkening curve and then
when the planets done passing comes back
up it’s an eclipse from billions and
billions of miles away but from that you
can detect a planet you can get a sense
of their size together with the wobble
you get a son
of their mass and even if you’re lucky
if they have a thick atmosphere you can
even see a bit of that atmosphere in the
spectrum that comes off of that star so
you can get a sense of what what the
gases are in the atmospheres of planets
in other solar systems that you can’t
see without actually seeing you cannot
see with the naked eye what kind of
interaction because i’m sure that Border
Patrol people see you when you’re out
there doing your research do they say
you’re really not helping the situation
or or don’t whatever you do don’t help
one of these get migrants that you find
you know what we’re doing is not we’re
not trying to help or hinder we’re
trying to document but for me at the end
of the day if I run into someone in the
desert it’s usually it’s because they
need help and they’ve been left behind
maybe they don’t have any their feet are
so blistered and so you know the legal
the legal bounds of the research are I
can call 911 medical assistance I can
give them food and water I can’t further
their journey I can put them in the car
and drive in the Tucson but I can’t put
them in the car and driving to the
emergency room on 3rd on death’s door
but I think what I do is so weird to a
lot of people migrants look at me like
you want to look in my backpack what you
know why are you ask me about my shoes
or asking me about what I’m carrying
Border Patrol looks at me and they’re
like what are you doing out here you’re
doing archaeology of migrants stuff I
don’t so I think right now I’m weird
enough that nobody really knows what to
make of me
a perfect college professor joy you’re
trying to get us to care about the
planet through the photos and but
primarily likely you’ve been focused on
animals that are in captivity and where
this needs to be solved is with those
that are in the wild how does how does
that get us from captive animals zoo
animals to wild animals well the the
truth matter is a lot of animals only
exist in captivity now azuz our zoos are
basically arcs now for many species so
if I want to photograph a certain type
of primate or a bird I number one can’t
do the process in the wild unless I’m
with a group of people that are let’s
say miss netting birds for tagging for
identification bird banders then I could
go along and do that but for most of
things that I want to photograph they
they exist in zoos that’s that’s where i
can get the pictures but for people that
don’t care for zoos i have to tell you
there’s nobody cares more about animals
than people in zoos they’re the place
that most of the world sees wild animals
anymore since we’re mostly urban now and
and the only hope for a lot of species
you saw in the in the show that flashed
by the only place you’ll see breeding
populations now are in zoos and several
the species i showed tonight would be
gone without zoos so i’m actually a
pretty big fan and zoos put a lot of
money into back to your question boy
zoos put a lot of money into into
preserving habitat and poaching patrols
that kind of thing they’re they’re a
real player now well over nearly two
hundred million dollars alone last year
by zoos put into foreign countries
outside the US to buy us zoos to try to
stop the slaughter in the extinction
this is one of your pictures picture of
Monarch butterflies now the story i’m
going to mission doesn’t really have to
do with monarch butterflies but it was
when you were in the DD national mark in
bolivia you were trying to get
butterflies a different kind of
butterfly to come in around you and do
that you’re relying in your own urine
sure oh yeah and that attracts
butterflies well in the jungle salts a
very
just commodity and butterflies like to
come in and get the salt and minerals in
urine so I laid in the late on the
mudflat middle of the day when that much
was going on the butterflies would come
out and they’re real that some species
were very active in the middle of the
day and they’d all congregate on you
know where I’d peed and I laid there for
about three days and I got this rash on
my stomach and my guide said you know I
wouldn’t lay there anymore if I were you
we’ve all been peeing in that spot to
help you out and but that picture did
run thank you Chris that’s the story
that’ll get your picture in the magazine
I’m sure that you guys have some
questions out here since you have this
opportunity to talk to our merging
explorers and to one of our great
photographers directly we have some mics
if you raise your hand we’ll race them
right down to you right back where you
are a question for Jason what what is
the biggest misunderstanding that people
have when they when they think about
your work like basically like when they
when they think about border crossings
and what their life is like I think a
big misconception is that they just took
a flight over here and sort of showed up
and we’re like you know I’m ready to go
to work I think that most people don’t
know that they’ve gone through a lot
just to be in the sort of shadows we
have down front if you raise a mic down
here what do you say that the idea of
Rudy Genesis or cloning extinct species
has been more of a help or hindrance to
the effort to preserve endangered
species young man that is not the
question I expected you to ask I like
the look that’s pretty cool cloning of
extinct species and bringing them back
to life well we had a de extinction
conference right here on this stage and
boy I’d love to see a mastadon or a
woolly mammoth I think that’d be cool
cooler than hell to be exact see a
passenger pigeon or a Carolina parakeet
or a Heath hen or a grey dog I would
love that but that just might take our
eye off the ball see we have all these
species that are a lot
right now going extinct if we get the
public in their infant s imel little bit
of attention span they have left to say
oh you know what will just freeze that
will let everything go extinct we can
bring them back anytime we want it’s
like going on the grocery store I think
I’ll take that one this year this is a
big problem because we already don’t
focus enough time and attention on what
we have living with us so I’m a little
torn but not that much I would really I
would as much as I would dearly love to
see extinct species brought back I’ve
seen them right before they go extinct
and I can tell you we really need to be
focusing on how to save everything
that’s right here and put our resources
into that that’s just my question oh
this one right back there and they I’m
back yeah hand up comes a mite flying
down hi there I have a question on space
explorer Asian every few weeks we see a
headline about oh we’ve discovered a new
planet that’s in the in the direct zone
yes the word that I can’t come up with
or we see some see something posted that
the Mars Explorer has found or
discovered or something along those
lines but it’s always tinged when you
read it it’s like well maybe it is maybe
it’s not what is your thoughts on the
dangers of overexposure to some of these
things about over about about basically
making the public tired of a message
that is still pushing us forward but not
as dramatically as some people would
expect it’s a great question I was
actually talking to a few folks today
about that you know the headline water
found on Mars a lot of you probably
heard that one before so what the
message is if i were to reframe it not
say water found on Mars you know x 10
what i would say is that mars three
billion years ago was a diverse place
and a lot like earth that depending on
where you looked on the planet
there is a different kind of environment
that involved water just just like there
is here on earth today it’s a challenge
I think to those of us who work as
scientists to be clearer more articulate
communicators as to what exactly is it
that is important about any given
discovery and it’s also a challenge for
the media same question what exactly
about this discovery is it that makes it
significant so there’s a there’s a
push-pull going on there and I think you
know those of you in the audience can go
out and be great communicators about
this is you know the literate public
who’s curious about exploration and you
know share that excitement with other
people tell them what that headline
means well thank you all for coming
tonight listening to our emerging
explorers a photographer Joel I think
we’ve got a sense that National
Geographic after 125 years is still
committed to going out and telling
stories about our world other worlds to
give us a better sense of who we are
what we are here I think we’ve learned
something tonight don’t lie down in your
own urine especially don’t lie down in
strangers urine but we’ve also learned
that National Geographic is finding some
amazing minds to be emerging explorers
who are tackling these big challenges
out there and that the people who have
already been doing it for 20 years for
us are still going to extraordinary
links to bring these stories back that
hopefully will make this planet the
wonderful place that we call home so
thank you for joining us
Oh
think there is work for generations of
explorers I woke up I could fill a polar
bear where’s mom attend we have never
seen anything like this
really in 16 drugs we found 8 new
species of fish
you
we’re gonna hit each of them a chance
just to describe what they do in their
own words and then we will begin to quiz
them so we can learn more about how they
do it said dish do I have to be first
you have to be first all right being a
wildlife filmmaker and photographer
that’s all just a fancy title at the end
of the day all I am really is a
storyteller and I like to bring those
stories to you and that’s one of the
things that I do is follow a mission and
that mission is conservation through
education not just education it’s also
about engagement and how do I engage you
by telling you fascinating stories that
capture your imagination by powerful
imagery it’s not just about taking
pretty pictures it’s also about going
back there and sitting behind a computer
for six months in compiling them into a
book or something that makes tangible
sense and these books have gone out to
UNESCO I was part of the submission
dosia that got a UNESCO to declare the
Western gods of the world heritage site
and one hat is a photographer and the
other hat is that of a filmmaker so I
also make documentaries a recent one for
National Geographic was that on clouded
leopards and I realized the visual image
is so powerful that I’ve now had to
combine it all and create a multimedia
thing called a funny thing called an
appt anyone heard of that yeah so that’s
why I’m here to bring these stories to
you so thank you all for being here next
emerging explorers Bethany album who was
a professor of planetary science at
Caltech and also a research scientist
the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and
bringing a spec exciting information
about one of our our favorite planet to
Mars so Bethany yeah thank you boy so
after sandesh is beautiful images of
this world and the story of conservation
I’m going to tell you about another
world and the connections between Mars
and our own earth so some of you may
know Mars 4th planet out from the Sun
today very thin atmosphere it’s cold
it’s dry no liquid water on the surface
and yet we have data images in this case
a map of the elevation of Mars that
shows there’s once abundant evidence for
water so here what you’re doing you’re
peering down into the northern lowlands
of Mars and you see it’s a low people
have thought oh well maybe there was an
ocean there in the past you can
certainly see rivers heading into that
lowland draining down into that Center
but none of that is here today and so
the question is did Mars once look like
the image on the Left covered in water
presumably a place that could be an
abode teeming with life much like our
own planet a place where there could be
habitats why did it change that’s the
key question that really that really
drives my work as a planetary geologist
we then in some cases are able to go to
the ground and how many of you saw the
amazing landings of the Curiosity rover
in August are you watching that as it
happened yeah yeah pretty amazing right
great engineers at JPL landing on
another planet what we’ve been exploring
with curiosity some of some of these
types of environments looking for life
hunting for habitats that might have
existed early in the history of the
planet trying to answer that question
why did Mars change but doing it not as
geologists on the surface but through
our proxies the robots that we that we
send for us we’re looking to understand
what happened to Mars what happened to
those potential water rich habitats and
why did it all change and can we use
those lessons to understand our own
planet a little bit more so that’s what
drives me to explore thanks
next is our new emerging explorer Jason
de Leon who is a archaeologists
anthropologist but instead of digging
way into the past he’s actually digging
into the present as he’s studying a
undocumented migration and often you
look through what people leave behind to
understand how they lived what they did
so he’s finding what they leave behind
he said professor at University of
Michigan explain more the problem with
undocumented migration is polarizing as
it is most of us know very little about
what it actually looks like and as an
anthropologist a social scientist and
archaeologist my job is to put names
faces and stories to the many statistics
that are thrown around by different
media people if you don’t know just
quickly the bulk of undocumented
migration board illegal border crossings
occur in southern Arizona in what’s
called the Tucson Sector by Border
Patrol we use a policy currently called
prevention through deterrence it’s
virtually impossible to cross in any
urban area yet the back door in southern
Arizona has been left open essentially
by by federal law enforcement agencies
because we use what’s called the
prevention that insurance to use the
desert itself the Sonora Desert is
rugged inhospitable very difficult
terrain and people are having to walk
upwards of 60 70 and 80 miles across
this environment to get into the United
States and where the thinking is that
the desert itself will become a better
form of deterrence than Border Patrol
just some quick statistics on who’s
coming through this desert or who has
come through this desert we know that
about 4.5 million people have been
caught in southern Arizona since 2000
that’s only caught there’s probably you
can probably push that to about 7
million coming through southern Arizona
and more importantly about 5,600 bodies
have been recovered along the border
since 1998 those numbers probably
grossly underestimate who’s actually
died during this process and I’ll show
you why I think that what I’ve tried to
do then is say it’s to say okay people
are coming through they’ve got stories
are interesting how can anthropology
help us put names and faces to these
migrants were coming who are coming
through the desert and why is it
important as an anthropologist I use a
bunch of different tools the first one
is ethnography so I hang out with
migrants in the in northern Mexico I
talked to them as they’re preparing to
cross I give them cameras have them
photographed border cross
for anonymous publication and then I
interview them post deportation to see
what exactly happened in the desert I
also look at what how they prepare what
do migrants by in northern Mexico to get
across the desert there’s specialized
vendors who sell things to migrants to
survive first aid equipment specialized
water bottles backpacks camouflage
clothing migrants then oftentimes leave
this stuff behind while in route this
stuff then ends up accumulating over
time in some of these giant arkla what I
would consider to be archaeological
sites and these are rich repositories of
information about this process an
archaeology can help us understand the
material elements of this but then also
more importantly I’m interested in what
happens to those that go missing and
those that died hundreds of people die
every single year and we know that
bodies disappear quickly in the desert
and what we’ve tried to do is use
forensic tech anomic experiments pigs
are a very good proxy that forensic
scientists use to understand how human
bodies decomposed here’s a pig that has
been put out into the desert a carcass
it’s been dressed and over the course of
just a few days vultures get involved
and you’ll see here once they start
consuming a body it takes about 24 hours
for the body to be completely
disarticulated consumed and widely
spread and so using all these different
tools have been helpful to understand
this very hidden clandestine process
and if you’ve been a reader of National
Geographic magazine during the last 15
years then you have probably seen the
work of Joel Satori who’s done many
important articles for us taking the
pictures for them but he’s also an
articulate voice for conservation Joel
thanks Boyd well I’ve been with
Geographic now for 22 or 23 years as a
contributing photographer and I notice
that these pictures are nice they’re all
fine and well but maybe we need to do
something more maybe I needed to do
something more and that is look these
animals in the eye that I go out
photograph I do mainly conservation work
instead of just getting him before he’s
consumed in the bush meat market in
Equatorial Guinea we bring black velvet
along and make him immortal so I started
a project eight years ago called the
photo arc it’s my attempt to document
whatever I can while we have it
amphibians are of great concern to me
they’re going extinct around the globe
because of climate change habitat loss
pollution and a disease called Kittredge
fungus and they are amazing amazing
creatures so I’m very nervous when I see
something like that at a lab in Quito
Ecuador down to eight down to 64 to now
you’re looking at the very last of this
animal this species is down to this one
individual it’s a rabs fringe limb tree
frog and as I’m photographing and I’m
thinking okay I’m going to take its
story back to folks like you and try to
convince you that this is a tragedy of
epic proportions to lose even one and
yet we stand to lose half of all species
we share the planet with by the turn of
the next century by 2100 half of all
species this rabbit’s already gone
seventy five to eighty percent of our
muscles fauna now is in serious danger
of extinction why should you care about
clams they don’t even have eyes well
because they’re telling us they’re
screaming at us our water is so filthy
and so polluted now we can’t live in it
anymore any of you drink water okay so
so what do I need to do to get the
public engaged in something more then
what’s the price of the pump
on TV whatever I have to do I will do it
if it means taking pictures of things
that look like us they’re
anthropomorphic they’re weird they look
like they’re from another planet they’re
colorful their charismatic whatever it
takes that’s the goal of the photo arc
to get the public engaged first to learn
about these things after all we can’t
save something if we don’t know it
exists to get them engaged and then to
be moved to act to save these things the
beautiful thing is most of what you’re
seeing here can be saved we’ve done it
before but it takes recognition and it
takes compassion and it takes scaring
and we basically need to make this fun
and engaging every bit as fun as playing
a video game in a way but it’s a video
game with very dire consequences after
all it’s falling to think that you can
do the rest of creation to extinction
and not have it come back to bite us
very hard isn’t it we have done this
before we have saved species when we
caught it in when we caught them in time
we have safe species like the giant
panda we’ve saved species like the
Mexican gray wolf we’ve saved species
like the California condor and the
black-footed ferret and the whooping
crane we can do it we certainly can the
goal is to get all six thousand species
in the world zoos and aquariums I’m
almost halfway there now after eight
years at about twenty eight hundred and
fifty five species at who’s counting
alright so that’s what you’re trying to
do to make it look different of these
animals that are in captivity to tell
this important story and it’s just got
to be tough to know you took this
picture of one of those animals and two
months later you get a call that one’s
gone and that was the last one it stinks
and it’s tragic and I don’t ever want it
to happen again and that’s why and it
has happened I’ll sure several times
yeah a couple of things you stop they’re
gone now but the goal is to get people
find people to care I mean it doesn’t
take that many people to change the
world it really doesn’t I mean and
there’s never been a better time to save
species this is the time but if you want
to individually save a species you can
do it now there’s plenty of them need
your help centers you’ve got a different
problem because you’re trying to you
don’t have to get them in front of a
black and white background you just have
to find them I want to show people this
because when i first met you just finish
this film on
Tigers in the park hazaragi and you got
these incredible shots because they’re
feeding on a rhino well we’re luckily
for this I wasn’t there that’s the
beauty of camera trap technology right
you set up your camera’s you think about
where the tiger is going to come and and
tigers typically feed from the rear of
the animal and so you set it up in such
a way that you get the image that you
want that you pre conceived in your mind
my camera trap was doing the job at
night but I wanted to actually film them
in the daytime and it took six days of
waiting from five in the morning till
six in the night every single day until
the seventh day I had three Tigers show
up and feed on this Rhino carcass that
was the most amazing day in my life now
everybody’s trying to bring back
information and you think you’ve got a
eager public I want to find out about
these last species or I want to find out
about Tigers I want to find out about
behavior I want to know what Mars is
made of you’ve got a different problem
Jason let’s pull up slide number two so
you have people taking pictures of what
they’re doing it’s giving us information
and i would think there’s a huge part of
the population says you know we kind of
got our minds made up on undocumented
workers and if you’re bringing the
information i really don’t want any
facts to weaken my position so it’s not
like they’re eager to see what you’re
showing them for me it’s an
uncomfortable research project and i
think that’s it’s good i would rather be
uncomfortable and have more and have
sound systematically collected data
about a process than to just have it be
completely mysterious do you worry that
when you show pictures of the guy even
you know you’re not identifying who
these people are they’re going over this
rock this particular incline there’s
somebody to say alright that’s a route
they’re taking let’s go target that yeah
we’ve we’ve seen over the last 15 years
that the billions of dollars we’ve
thrown at border enforcement
I don’t hopefully nobody works at for
any of these contractors but we’ve seen
it that billions of dollars of money
spent to try to secure this border it’s
not enough money to defeat the human
spirit and so for me showing these
pictures is basically you know they’re
probably drone planes you know somewhere
in the background and there and they’re
just not effective at keeping people out
we know that some statistics say that
over ninety percent of people who
attempt a border crossing or successful
it may take them nine times to do it but
eventually they’re going to get through
jewel not only takes pictures he does
great descriptions of what’s involved in
getting those pictures and I read if
you’re a writer you want the opening
line to just grab people and he wrote
one of the best opening lines I couldn’t
I couldn’t wait to rush through the
whole article when I read he said it
gets kind of depressing wondering if
you’ll be dead by next weekend Joel yes
what were you talking about I was
talking about I was in a bat cave in
Uganda and I got was wearing my my
filter mask from home depot and a pair
of reading glasses what could pass
possibly go wrong I took off my glasses
when I was hiking out of the cave and I
looked up and the whole bat cave emptied
out it was dusk and I looked up like and
of course the bats are all pooping when
they leave the cave I got a big hot
blonde Oh splash right my left eye and
and I called the CDC Centers for Disease
Control they had an operative there and
he said you really shouldn’t have gone
in there I said well why not I remember
I was really hungry when I called the
guy but I better check he says well
that’s a wet contact kind of like a bike
like a bite and Marburg virus circulates
in the faith and I said what’s the
Marburg virus he said well it’s it’s
like Ebola but it kills you quicker and
you don’t bleed quite as much so you got
that going for you
but I did not get it here I am how are
the bat pictures they were really good
wait we had the editor magazine did he
put the pictures in the mad cuz you know
these guys take twenty thirty thousand
picture maybe ten get in yeah they
weren’t that good Chris didn’t pick any
for the magazine way to go Chris Chris
would you have published them if he had
gotten the virus yes come on no no it’s
a no from Chris I’ve been good India a
little bit and I know that sometimes
soldiers that were going through jungle
areas where Tigers were they actually
had masks a face that they would put on
the back of their head because Tigers
are known to come around to the back
side to attack and they see the face and
they felt that would give them
protection if the Tigers looking at him
they won’t come up so you’re so focused
on that carcass and now we know there’s
more than one tiger out there yeah and I
think one of the biggest misconceptions
that I’d like to address is that animals
are not out there to get you I mean I
mean I make television alright I make
documentaries but that’s not the message
I try to bring across unlike some
documentaries that you might watch on TV
that scares you but some of the things
and one guy was asked this question
earlier today what was your most
dangerous incident and it was something
similar to joels it was a mosquito that
got me cerebral malaria and I was down
knocked out you know eight hours away
from the city now that’s the kind of
stuff that we get you the things you’re
not prepared for yeah we look up at the
sky and we see all these stars so really
the little sons and we assume there
could be solar systems around them with
planets so we’re always saying there’s
with all those billions and billions of
stars out there there must be a few with
planets circling them that are really
like Earth in that zero the 40 degrees
Celsius range where life as we know it
could exist we have trouble spotting
them
we do although we’re getting we’re
getting better and better at this
looking outward to distant worlds around
other stars in fact this is one of the
most exciting things going on i think in
planetary science right now so not only
are we pushing the frontiers in our own
solar system you know sending missions
to other worlds landing Rovers on Mars
we’re also looking outward using
telescopes based on earth and also in
orbit out in space we’re looking at
these distant pinpoints of light were
actually where a board detecting planets
hundreds thousands of planets have now
been found in the last decade or so
they’re called exoplanets so extrasolar
planets planets outside of our own solar
system you probably read a little bit
about them in the news we’re sailing
seeing solar systems though that really
aren’t anything like ours but we found
recently not too long ago a planet that
was they thought was sort of like earth
but explain this because the stars have
life so that’s how we see them planets
are dark they are gay and reflected
light so you can’t really see it so
we’re saying there’s a planet how do we
know that well this is one of the great
things about space exploration it really
pushes the boundaries of what is
technologically possible so there’s sort
of two big ways that we find these these
planets around other stars the first is
the fact that when the planets orbiting
okay there’s there’s gravity so every
time the planet orbits it exerts a
slight tug on the star there’s a slight
East centricity it exerts a little tug
we can actually measure that wobble from
Earth requires incredible precision but
we can get that the other thing and this
is just coming online now is using light
itself so you have your telescope you’re
staring up at your star and you’re just
staring at monitoring monitoring
monitoring if the planet passes between
your line of sight and the star there’s
a darkening darkening curve and then
when the planets done passing comes back
up it’s an eclipse from billions and
billions of miles away but from that you
can detect a planet you can get a sense
of their size together with the wobble
you get a son
of their mass and even if you’re lucky
if they have a thick atmosphere you can
even see a bit of that atmosphere in the
spectrum that comes off of that star so
you can get a sense of what what the
gases are in the atmospheres of planets
in other solar systems that you can’t
see without actually seeing you cannot
see with the naked eye what kind of
interaction because i’m sure that Border
Patrol people see you when you’re out
there doing your research do they say
you’re really not helping the situation
or or don’t whatever you do don’t help
one of these get migrants that you find
you know what we’re doing is not we’re
not trying to help or hinder we’re
trying to document but for me at the end
of the day if I run into someone in the
desert it’s usually it’s because they
need help and they’ve been left behind
maybe they don’t have any their feet are
so blistered and so you know the legal
the legal bounds of the research are I
can call 911 medical assistance I can
give them food and water I can’t further
their journey I can put them in the car
and drive in the Tucson but I can’t put
them in the car and driving to the
emergency room on 3rd on death’s door
but I think what I do is so weird to a
lot of people migrants look at me like
you want to look in my backpack what you
know why are you ask me about my shoes
or asking me about what I’m carrying
Border Patrol looks at me and they’re
like what are you doing out here you’re
doing archaeology of migrants stuff I
don’t so I think right now I’m weird
enough that nobody really knows what to
make of me
a perfect college professor joy you’re
trying to get us to care about the
planet through the photos and but
primarily likely you’ve been focused on
animals that are in captivity and where
this needs to be solved is with those
that are in the wild how does how does
that get us from captive animals zoo
animals to wild animals well the the
truth matter is a lot of animals only
exist in captivity now azuz our zoos are
basically arcs now for many species so
if I want to photograph a certain type
of primate or a bird I number one can’t
do the process in the wild unless I’m
with a group of people that are let’s
say miss netting birds for tagging for
identification bird banders then I could
go along and do that but for most of
things that I want to photograph they
they exist in zoos that’s that’s where i
can get the pictures but for people that
don’t care for zoos i have to tell you
there’s nobody cares more about animals
than people in zoos they’re the place
that most of the world sees wild animals
anymore since we’re mostly urban now and
and the only hope for a lot of species
you saw in the in the show that flashed
by the only place you’ll see breeding
populations now are in zoos and several
the species i showed tonight would be
gone without zoos so i’m actually a
pretty big fan and zoos put a lot of
money into back to your question boy
zoos put a lot of money into into
preserving habitat and poaching patrols
that kind of thing they’re they’re a
real player now well over nearly two
hundred million dollars alone last year
by zoos put into foreign countries
outside the US to buy us zoos to try to
stop the slaughter in the extinction
this is one of your pictures picture of
Monarch butterflies now the story i’m
going to mission doesn’t really have to
do with monarch butterflies but it was
when you were in the DD national mark in
bolivia you were trying to get
butterflies a different kind of
butterfly to come in around you and do
that you’re relying in your own urine
sure oh yeah and that attracts
butterflies well in the jungle salts a
very
just commodity and butterflies like to
come in and get the salt and minerals in
urine so I laid in the late on the
mudflat middle of the day when that much
was going on the butterflies would come
out and they’re real that some species
were very active in the middle of the
day and they’d all congregate on you
know where I’d peed and I laid there for
about three days and I got this rash on
my stomach and my guide said you know I
wouldn’t lay there anymore if I were you
we’ve all been peeing in that spot to
help you out and but that picture did
run thank you Chris that’s the story
that’ll get your picture in the magazine
I’m sure that you guys have some
questions out here since you have this
opportunity to talk to our merging
explorers and to one of our great
photographers directly we have some mics
if you raise your hand we’ll race them
right down to you right back where you
are a question for Jason what what is
the biggest misunderstanding that people
have when they when they think about
your work like basically like when they
when they think about border crossings
and what their life is like I think a
big misconception is that they just took
a flight over here and sort of showed up
and we’re like you know I’m ready to go
to work I think that most people don’t
know that they’ve gone through a lot
just to be in the sort of shadows we
have down front if you raise a mic down
here what do you say that the idea of
Rudy Genesis or cloning extinct species
has been more of a help or hindrance to
the effort to preserve endangered
species young man that is not the
question I expected you to ask I like
the look that’s pretty cool cloning of
extinct species and bringing them back
to life well we had a de extinction
conference right here on this stage and
boy I’d love to see a mastadon or a
woolly mammoth I think that’d be cool
cooler than hell to be exact see a
passenger pigeon or a Carolina parakeet
or a Heath hen or a grey dog I would
love that but that just might take our
eye off the ball see we have all these
species that are a lot
right now going extinct if we get the
public in their infant s imel little bit
of attention span they have left to say
oh you know what will just freeze that
will let everything go extinct we can
bring them back anytime we want it’s
like going on the grocery store I think
I’ll take that one this year this is a
big problem because we already don’t
focus enough time and attention on what
we have living with us so I’m a little
torn but not that much I would really I
would as much as I would dearly love to
see extinct species brought back I’ve
seen them right before they go extinct
and I can tell you we really need to be
focusing on how to save everything
that’s right here and put our resources
into that that’s just my question oh
this one right back there and they I’m
back yeah hand up comes a mite flying
down hi there I have a question on space
explorer Asian every few weeks we see a
headline about oh we’ve discovered a new
planet that’s in the in the direct zone
yes the word that I can’t come up with
or we see some see something posted that
the Mars Explorer has found or
discovered or something along those
lines but it’s always tinged when you
read it it’s like well maybe it is maybe
it’s not what is your thoughts on the
dangers of overexposure to some of these
things about over about about basically
making the public tired of a message
that is still pushing us forward but not
as dramatically as some people would
expect it’s a great question I was
actually talking to a few folks today
about that you know the headline water
found on Mars a lot of you probably
heard that one before so what the
message is if i were to reframe it not
say water found on Mars you know x 10
what i would say is that mars three
billion years ago was a diverse place
and a lot like earth that depending on
where you looked on the planet
there is a different kind of environment
that involved water just just like there
is here on earth today it’s a challenge
I think to those of us who work as
scientists to be clearer more articulate
communicators as to what exactly is it
that is important about any given
discovery and it’s also a challenge for
the media same question what exactly
about this discovery is it that makes it
significant so there’s a there’s a
push-pull going on there and I think you
know those of you in the audience can go
out and be great communicators about
this is you know the literate public
who’s curious about exploration and you
know share that excitement with other
people tell them what that headline
means well thank you all for coming
tonight listening to our emerging
explorers a photographer Joel I think
we’ve got a sense that National
Geographic after 125 years is still
committed to going out and telling
stories about our world other worlds to
give us a better sense of who we are
what we are here I think we’ve learned
something tonight don’t lie down in your
own urine especially don’t lie down in
strangers urine but we’ve also learned
that National Geographic is finding some
amazing minds to be emerging explorers
who are tackling these big challenges
out there and that the people who have
already been doing it for 20 years for
us are still going to extraordinary
links to bring these stories back that
hopefully will make this planet the
wonderful place that we call home so
thank you for joining us
Oh
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