ABOUT THE SPEAKER
George Steinmetz - Aerial photographer
Best known f­or his exploration photography, George Steinmetz has a restless curiosity for the unknown: remote deserts, obscure cultures and the ­mysteries of science and technology.

Why you should listen

Since 1986, George Steinmetz has completed more than 40 major photo essays for National Geographic and 25 stories for GEO magazine in Germany, exploring the most remote str­etches of Arabia's Empty Quarter to the­ unknown tree people of Irian Jaya. His expeditions to the Sahara and Gobi deserts have been featured in separate "National Geographic Explorer" programs. In 2006 he was awarded a grant by the National Science Foundation to document the work of scientists in the Dry Valleys and volcanoes of Antarctica.

Steinmetz began his career in photography after hitchhiking through Africa for 28 months. He then spent fifteen years photographing all of the world’s extreme deserts while piloting a motorized paraglider. This experimental aircraft enables him to capture unique images of the world, inaccessible by traditional aircraft and most other modes of transportation. He has authored four books, and his current project is documenting the challenge of meeting humanity’s rapidly expanding demand for food.

More profile about the speaker
George Steinmetz | Speaker | TED.com
TEDGlobal 2017

George Steinmetz: Photos of Africa, taken from a flying lawn chair

George Steinmetz: Fotografias da África, tiradas de uma cadeira de praia voadora

Filmed:
479,969 views

As fotos espetaculares de George Steinmetz mostram a África do ar, tiradas da aeronave mais lenta e leve do mundo. Junte-se a Steinmetz para descobrir os surpreendentes padrões históricos, ecológicos e sociopolíticos que emergem quando você voa baixo e devagar numa cadeira de praia voadora.
- Aerial photographer
Best known f­or his exploration photography, George Steinmetz has a restless curiosity for the unknown: remote deserts, obscure cultures and the ­mysteries of science and technology. Full bio

Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.

00:12
I have to tell you,
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Devo dizer a vocês
00:14
it's more than a little
intimidating being up here,
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que é um tanto intimidador
estar aqui em cima;
00:16
an old American guy
trying to tell Africans
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um velho americano
tentando dizer aos africanos
00:18
something new about your own continent.
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algo novo sobre seu próprio continente.
00:21
But sometimes, an outsider
can see things in a different way,
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Mas, às vezes, um forasteiro
pode ver as coisas de modo diferente,
00:25
like from the air.
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como das alturas.
00:27
That's what I found by flying low and slow
all over the African continent
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Foi o que descobri voando baixo e devagar
por todo o continente africano,
00:32
as I photographed
the spectacle of its diversity.
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enquanto fotografava o espetáculo
de sua diversidade.
00:35
And I wasn't always an old guy.
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E nem sempre fui um velhote.
00:37
(Laughter)
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(Risos)
00:40
This is me in 1979,
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Este sou eu em 1979,
00:42
a kid from California backpacking
his way through the Ituri Forest of Zaire.
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um garoto da Califórnia "mochilando"
pela floresta Ituri, do Zaire.
Viajava há um ano pedindo carona,
após sair da Universidade de Stanford,
00:47
I was on a yearlong hitchhiking trip.
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00:48
I had just dropped out
of Stanford University,
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fui da Tunísia a Kisangani ao Cairo,
e aprendi a viver com US$ 10 ao dia.
00:51
and I went from Tunis
to Kisangani to Cairo
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00:53
and learned how to live
on 10 dollars a day.
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00:57
It was an amazing experience for me.
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Foi uma experiência incrível pra mim.
00:58
I spent about a week
in this Dinka cattle camp
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Passei cerca de uma semana
neste campo de gado dos dinkas,
01:01
on the banks of the Nile in South Sudan.
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nas margens do Rio Nilo, no sul do Sudão.
01:04
The Dinka taught me
how to tie papyrus into a shelter,
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Os dinkas me ensinaram
a fazer um abrigo com a planta papiro.
01:07
and also I observed
how they had adapted their way of life
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e também observei como eles
haviam adaptado seu modo de vida
01:11
around the migratory needs
of their beloved cattle.
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de acordo com as necessidades
migratórias de seu amado gado.
01:14
It was a like a graduate course
in ecological ethnography,
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Foi como um curso de graduação
em etnografia ecológica,
01:17
and I got busy taking notes with a camera.
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e tratei de registrar tudo com a câmera.
01:20
With no money for rides,
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Sem dinheiro para viajar,
01:22
they often made the Mzungu
ride on the roof of the trucks,
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eles normalmente faziam a viagem
de andarilhos no topo dos caminhões,
01:25
or in this case, on the top of the train
going across South Sudan.
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ou, neste caso, no topo do trem
que cruza o sul do Sudão.
01:29
I felt like I was riding
on the back of an insect
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Senti como se estivesse viajando
nas costas de um inseto,
01:32
going across the enormous
tapestry of Africa.
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cruzando a enorme tapeçaria da África.
01:35
It was an incredible view from up there,
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Era uma vista incrível lá de cima,
mas não pude evitar de pensar:
01:37
but I couldn't help but think,
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não seria ainda mais incrível se pudesse
sobrevoar esse cenário como um pássaro?
01:38
wouldn't it be even more amazing
if I could fly over that landscape
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01:41
like a bird?
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01:43
Well, that notion stayed with me,
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Bem, aquela idea permaneceu comigo
01:45
and 20 years later,
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e, 20 anos depois,
01:47
after becoming
a professional photographer,
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após me tornar fotógrafo profissional,
01:49
I was able to talk National Geographic
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convenci a "National Geographic"
a fazer uma matéria no centro do Saara,
01:51
into doing a big story
in the central Sahara,
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e voltei com um novo tipo
de "máquina voadora".
01:53
and I came back with a new kind
of flying machine.
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01:57
This is me piloting the world's lightest
and slowest aircraft.
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Este sou eu, pilotando a aeronave
mais leve e lenta do mundo.
02:00
(Laughter)
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(Risos)
02:01
It's called a motorized paraglider.
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É um parapente motorizado,
02:03
It consists of a backpack motor
and a parachute-style wing,
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que consiste num motor numa mochila
e uma asa no estilo de paraquedas,
02:08
and it flies at about 30 miles an hour.
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que voa a uns 48 km/h.
02:10
With 10 liters of fuel,
I can fly for about two hours,
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Com dez litros de combustível,
posso voar por umas duas horas.
02:13
but what's really amazing about it
is it gives me an unobstructed view,
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O incrível é que ela dá uma visão ampla,
tanto horizontal quanto vertical,
02:17
both horizontally and vertically,
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como uma cadeira de praia voadora.
02:19
like a flying lawn chair.
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Meu sonho de caroneiro de sobrevoar
a África tornou-se realidade
02:21
My hitchhiker's dream
of flying over Africa came true
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02:24
when I spotted these two camel caravans
passing out in the middle of the Sahara.
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quando vi essas duas caravanas de camelos
atravessando no meio do Saara.
02:28
The one in the foreground
is carrying salt out of the desert,
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Esta em primeiro plano
carrega sal retirado do deserto,
enquanto a do fundo carrega forragem
para os animais que estão voltando.
02:31
while the one in the background
is carrying fodder
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02:33
for the animals heading back in.
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Percebi que não poderia tirar essas fotos
com uma aeronave convencional.
02:35
I realized you couldn't take
this kind of picture
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02:37
with a conventional aircraft.
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Um avião se move muito rápido,
02:39
An airplane moves too fast,
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um helicóptero seria barulhento,
com muita corrente de vento,
02:40
a helicopter would be too loud
with too much downdraft,
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02:43
and it dawned on me that this crazy little
aircraft I was flying
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então percebi que essa aeronave maluca
proporcionaria um novo modo de ver
02:46
would open up a new way of seeing
remote parts of the African landscape
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partes remotas da paisagem africana
como nunca tido sido possível antes.
02:50
in a way that had never
really been possible before.
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02:52
Let me show you how it works.
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Vou mostrar como funciona.
04:35
(Applause)
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(Aplausos)
04:39
Thanks.
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Obrigado.
04:40
(Applause)
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(Aplausos)
04:43
This may seem a bit dangerous,
but I am not some kind of adventure dude.
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Pode parecer meio perigoso,
mas não sou do tipo aventureiro.
04:46
I'm a photographer who flies,
and I only fly to take pictures.
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Sou um fotógrafo que voa
apenas para tirar fotos.
04:49
My favorite altitude
is between 200 and 500 feet,
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Minha altitude preferida
está entre 60 e 150 metros,
04:53
where I can see the world
three-dimensionally,
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o que me permite ver o mundo
tridimensionalmente,
04:55
but also at a human scale.
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mas também numa escala humana.
04:58
I find that a lot of what I'd done
over the years in Africa,
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Acho que muito do que fiz
ao longo dos anos na África
05:01
you could try to do with a drone,
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poderíamos tentar fazer com um drone,
mas eles não são feitos para a exploração.
05:04
but drones aren't really made
for exploration.
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05:06
They only fly for about
20 minutes of battery life
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Eles voam por uns 20 minutos,
a duração da bateria,
05:09
and about three kilometers of range,
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com cerca de 3 quilômetros de alcance,
e tudo que se vê está numa pequena tela.
05:10
and all you get to see
is what's on a little screen.
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Mas gosto de explorar.
05:13
But I like to explore.
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05:14
I want to go over the horizon
and find new things, find weird stuff,
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Quero cruzar o horizonte
e encontrar coisas novas e estranhas,
05:20
like this volcanic caldera in Niger.
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como essa caldeira vulcânica no Níger.
Se observarem o altímetro
na minha perna esquerda,
05:23
If you look at the altimeter
on my left leg,
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05:25
you'll see that I'm about
a mile above takeoff.
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verão que estou a cerca
de 1,6 km após a decolagem.
05:28
Flying that high really freaked me out,
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Voar alto assim realmente me assustou,
mas um piloto profissional
05:30
but if you talk to a pro pilot,
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05:32
they'll tell you that altitude
is actually your friend,
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dirá que a altitude é sua amiga:
quanto mais alto você estiver,
05:34
because the higher you are,
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05:36
the more time you have
to figure out your problems.
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mais tempo terá
pra descobrir seus problemas.
05:38
(Laughter)
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(Risos)
Como piloto amador,
05:40
As a rank amateur,
I figured this gave me more time
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isso me daria mais tempo
pra gritar enquanto caísse.
05:43
to scream on the way back down.
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(Risos)
05:44
(Laughter)
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Para me acalmar, comecei a fotografar,
e tudo voltou a fazer sentido novamente,
05:46
To calm myself down,
I started taking pictures,
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05:48
and as I did, it became rational again,
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05:50
and I was getting buffeted
by a Harmattan wind
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quando fui atingido por um vento harmatã
vindo do canto superior direito desta foto
05:52
which was coming out of the upper
right hand corner of this picture,
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e pude perceber como ele tinha
preenchido toda a cratera com areia.
05:55
and I started to notice how it had filled
the entire crater with sand.
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Quando cheguei ao norte do Chade,
encontrei um tipo diferente de vulcão.
05:59
When I got to the north of Chad,
I found a different kind of volcano.
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Toda a parte exterior destes foi removida
e só restou a antiga chaminé vulcânica,
06:02
These had had their entire
exteriors stripped away,
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06:05
and all that was left was the old core,
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e no meio do Saara, senti como se visse
a Terra tendo sua pele arrancada.
06:06
and in the middle of the Sahara,
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06:08
I felt like I was seeing the earth
with its living skin stripped away.
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06:12
Much of the Sahara is underlain
by an enormous freshwater aquifer.
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Sob grande parte do Saara existe
um enorme aquífero de água doce.
Quando vamos para a bacia,
às vezes podemos vê-la vazando.
06:16
When you go to the basin,
sometimes you can see it leaking out.
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Se andarmos entre essas palmeiras,
06:19
If you were to walk
through those palm groves,
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06:22
you could drink fresh water
out of your footsteps.
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podemos beber água fresca sob nossos pés.
06:24
But that green lake water?
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Mas e aquela água verde do lago?
06:26
Due to extreme evaporation,
it's saltier than seawater
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Devido à evaporação extrema, ela é mais
salgada que a água do mar e sem vida.
06:28
and virtually lifeless.
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No Níger, fiquei maravilhado ao ver
06:30
In Niger, I was amazed to see
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06:32
how the locals learned how to exploit
a different kind of desert spring.
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como eles exploram um tipo
diferente de primavera do deserto.
Aqui, misturam lama salgada
com a água de nascente
06:35
Here, they mix the salty mud
with spring water
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e a espalha em lagoas rasas
e, quando ela evapora,
06:37
and spread it out in shallow ponds,
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06:39
and as it evaporated,
it turned into a spectacle of color.
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transforma-se num espetáculo de cor.
06:43
My rig is also amazing
for looking at agriculture.
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Meu equipamento também é incrível
pra observar a agricultura.
06:46
This picture was taken
in southern Algeria,
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Esta foto foi tirada no sul da Argélia,
06:49
where the locals have learned
how to garden in a mobile dune field
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onde os habitantes aprenderam
a cultivar num campo de dunas móveis,
06:52
by tapping into shallow groundwater.
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retirando águas subterrâneas rasas.
06:55
I also loved looking at how animals
have adapted to the African landscape.
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Também adoro ver como os animais
se adaptaram à paisagem africana.
06:59
This picture was taken in Lake Amboseli,
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Esta foto foi tirada no lago Amboseli,
logo após a fronteira daqui, no Quênia.
07:01
just across the border from here in Kenya.
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07:03
The elephants have carved
the shallow lake water up
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Os elefantes esculpiram o lago raso
numa rede de pequenas vias,
07:05
into a network of little pathways,
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espaçadas o suficiente
para que somente eles,
07:07
and they're spaced just enough apart
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07:09
that only elephants,
with their long trunks,
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com suas longas trombas,
possam comer a grama mais suculenta.
07:11
can tap into the most succulent grasses.
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Na Namíbia, a zebra aprendeu a prosperar
num ambiente que não recebe chuva alguma.
07:13
In Namibia, the zebra have learned
how to thrive in an environment
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07:16
that gets no rainfall at all.
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07:18
These grasses are irrigated
by the dense coastal fog
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Estas ervas são irrigadas pela densa névoa
costeira que cobre a área todas as manhãs.
07:21
that blankets the area every morning.
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E aquelas manchas descobertas ali
são chamadas de "círculos de fadas",
07:23
And those bald patches out there?
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07:25
They call them fairy circles,
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07:26
and scientists still struggle
to understand what causes them.
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e os cientistas ainda se empenham
para entender o que os causam.
Este é Monte Visoke, com um pequeno lago
na cratera em seu topo, a 3,7 mil metros.
07:29
This is Mount Visoke, with a small
crater lake in its summit at 3,700 meters.
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07:34
It forms the roof of the Great Rift Valley
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Ele forma o teto do Grande Vale do Rift
07:36
and also the border
between Rwanda and Congo.
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e também a fronteira
entre Ruanda e o Congo.
07:39
It's also the center of the reserve
for the fabled mountain gorilla.
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É também o centro da reserva
para o lendário gorila de montanha.
Eles são, na verdade, a grande
fonte de renda de Ruanda
07:42
They're actually
the big money-maker in Rwanda,
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07:45
and on this side of the border,
conservation has become a huge success.
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e, deste lado da fronteira,
a conservação tornou-se um enorme sucesso.
07:49
Rwanda has the highest
rural population density in Africa,
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Ruanda tem a mais alta
densidade populacional rural da África,
07:53
and I saw it in almost every corner
of the country I went to.
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e vi isso em quase todo canto
do país para onde fui.
07:56
I've heard it said
that competition for land
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Ouvi dizer que a competição pela terra
foi uma das razões que levou às tensões
07:59
was one of the things
that led to the tensions
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que causaram o genocídio
da década de 1990.
08:01
that caused the genocide of the 1990s.
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08:04
I went back to South Sudan
a few years ago,
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Voltei para o sul do Sudão há alguns anos,
08:07
and it was amazing to see
how much things had changed.
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e foi incrível ver
o quanto as coisas mudaram.
Os dinkas ainda eram
apaixonados pelo seu gado,
08:09
The Dinka were still in love
with their cattle,
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mas trocaram suas lanças por kalashnikovs.
08:11
but they had turned in
their spears for Kalashnikovs.
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Os campos de gado vistos de cima
eram ainda mais espetaculares
08:14
The cattle camps from above
were even more spectacular
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08:17
than I could have imagined,
but things had changed there too.
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do que imaginava, mas as coisas
também mudaram lá.
Veem os pontinhos azuis ali?
08:20
You see those little blue dots down there?
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Os dinkas se adaptaram à nova realidade,
e agora cobrem seus abrigos de papiro
08:22
The Dinka had adapted to the new reality,
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08:24
and now they covered
their papyrus shelters
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com as lonas dos comboios
de alimentos da ONU.
08:26
with the tarps from UN food convoys.
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08:28
In Mali, the Bozo people
have learned how to thrive
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Em Mali, o povo bozo aprendeu a prosperar
nos ritmos pulsantes do Rio Níger.
08:31
in the pulsating rhythms
of the Niger River.
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À medida que a estação chuvosa
termina e a água diminui,
08:33
As the rainy season ends
and the water subsides,
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08:36
they plant their rice
in the fertile bottoms.
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eles plantam o arroz no solo fértil.
08:38
And that village
in the lower right corner,
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E aquela aldeia, abaixo à direita, é Gao,
08:40
that's Gao, one of the jumping off points
for the major trade routes
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um dos pontos de partida para principais
rotas comerciais em todo o Saara.
08:43
across the Sahara.
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No final da colheita,
08:45
At the end of the harvest,
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08:46
the Bozo take the leftover rice straw
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os bozos usam a sobra da palha de arroz
08:48
and they mix it with mud to reinforce
their roofs and the village mosque.
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para misturá-la com lama e reforçar
seus telhados e a mesquita da aldeia.
08:52
I must have flown over a dozen
villages like this along the Niger River,
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Devo ter sobrevoado uma dúzia de aldeias
como esta ao longo do Rio Níger,
08:55
and each one was unique,
it had a different pattern.
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e cada uma era única, um padrão diferente,
08:58
and each mosque was like
a sculptural masterpiece,
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e cada mesquita era uma obra-prima
escultural, todas diferentes.
09:00
and no two were alike.
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Voei por todo o mundo, e nada se compara
à diversidade cultural da África.
09:02
I've flown all over the world,
and nothing can really compare
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09:05
to the cultural diversity of Africa.
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Pode-se ver isso em todos os países,
09:07
You see it in every country,
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09:09
from Morocco
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do Marrocos
09:11
to Ethiopia,
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à Etiópia,
09:14
to South Africa,
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à África do Sul,
09:17
to Mozambique,
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a Moçambique,
09:19
to South Sudan,
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ao sul do Sudão,
09:23
to Mali.
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a Mali.
09:25
The array of environments
and cultural adaptations to them
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A variedade de ambientes
e adaptações culturais a eles
09:28
is really extraordinary,
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é realmente extraordinária,
e a história é muito legal também.
09:29
and the history is pretty cool too.
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Do ar, tenho uma janela única para
as primeiras ondas da história colonial.
09:32
From the air, I have a unique window
into the earliest waves
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09:35
of colonial history.
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Esta é Cirene,
09:36
This is Cyrene on the coastal
mountains of Libya,
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no litoral montanhoso da Líbia,
fundada pelos gregos em 700 a.C.,
09:38
that was founded by the Greeks,
in 700 BC, as a learning center,
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como centro de aprendizado.
09:41
and Timgad, which was founded
in what's now Algeria
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E Timgad, fundada onde agora fica
a Argélia, pelos romanos em 100 d.C.,
09:44
by the Romans in 100 AD.
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09:45
This was built as a retirement community
for old Roman soldiers,
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e construída como uma vila de aposentados
para antigos soldados romanos,
09:49
and it amazed me to think
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e me surpreende pensar
09:51
that North Africa was once
the breadbasket for the Roman Empire.
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que a África do Norte já foi
o celeiro do Império Romano.
09:54
But 700 years after Timgad was built,
it was buried in sand,
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Mas 700 anos após Timgad ter sido
construída, ela foi enterrada na areia,
09:58
and even then, the African climate
was wetter than it is today.
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e, mesmo na época, o clima africano
era mais úmido do que é hoje.
10:02
The African climate continues to change,
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O clima africano continua mudando,
10:04
and you see it everywhere,
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e vemos isso por todo canto,
como aqui, nos desfiladeiros de Ziz,
10:06
like here in the Gorges de Ziz,
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10:08
where a freak rainstorm
came barreling out of the Sahara
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onde uma tempestade esquisita veio
do Saara e cobriu as montanhas com neve.
10:11
and blanketed the mountains in snow.
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10:13
I never thought I would see
date palms in snow,
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Nunca pensei que viria palmeiras na neve,
10:17
but the kids that day had a great time
throwing snowballs at each other.
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mas as crianças se divertiram naquele dia,
atirando bolas de neve umas nas outras.
10:21
But it made me wonder,
how are Africans going to adapt
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Mas isso me fez pensar
como os africanos vão se adaptar
10:24
to this rapidly changing
climate going forward?
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a essa rápida mudança climática em curso.
10:26
In a continent as dynamic
and diverse as Africa,
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Num continente dinâmico
e diversificado como a África,
10:29
sometimes it seems
that the only constant is change.
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às vezes parece que a única
constante é a mudança.
10:32
But one thing I've learned
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Mas uma coisa que aprendi é que
os africanos são ótimos improvisadores,
10:33
is that Africans
are the ultimate improvisers,
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sempre se adaptando e achando
um jeito de seguir em frente.
10:36
always adapting and finding a way forward.
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10:38
Thank you.
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Obrigado.
10:39
(Applause)
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(Aplausos)
Translated by Maricene Crus
Reviewed by Raissa Mendes

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ABOUT THE SPEAKER
George Steinmetz - Aerial photographer
Best known f­or his exploration photography, George Steinmetz has a restless curiosity for the unknown: remote deserts, obscure cultures and the ­mysteries of science and technology.

Why you should listen

Since 1986, George Steinmetz has completed more than 40 major photo essays for National Geographic and 25 stories for GEO magazine in Germany, exploring the most remote str­etches of Arabia's Empty Quarter to the­ unknown tree people of Irian Jaya. His expeditions to the Sahara and Gobi deserts have been featured in separate "National Geographic Explorer" programs. In 2006 he was awarded a grant by the National Science Foundation to document the work of scientists in the Dry Valleys and volcanoes of Antarctica.

Steinmetz began his career in photography after hitchhiking through Africa for 28 months. He then spent fifteen years photographing all of the world’s extreme deserts while piloting a motorized paraglider. This experimental aircraft enables him to capture unique images of the world, inaccessible by traditional aircraft and most other modes of transportation. He has authored four books, and his current project is documenting the challenge of meeting humanity’s rapidly expanding demand for food.

More profile about the speaker
George Steinmetz | Speaker | TED.com