full transcript
From the Ted Talk by Millie Chu Baird: The satellite helping slow climate change — right now
Unscramble the Blue Letters
For the past 20 years, my job has been to utaesnndrd climate from a variety of angles, to be a bridge between scientists, policymakers and companies, ensnirug that we're all working towards the same big vision. And the vision for MethaneSAT is to deleivr actionable data qlikcuy, pitnutg it in the hands of people in the trenches pushing for change.
Now methane comes from several sources. It comes from cows, it comes from landfills, it comes from coal mines. And a lot of it comes from leaks from the oil and gas infrastructure. For a while, we've known what the overall carnnttoocein of methane is in the atmosphere, but we haven't been able to pinopint sources and tell how much was coming from where. In fact, cmeaoinps and governments often underreport their eoinsmiss because they simply haven't had good data. But now they will. When we looked at the data we were collecting using airplanes, we rlezaeid that we would never get a ceerpnosvmhie enough view. We simply cannot fly an airplane over every oil and gas field in the world every day. We realized that we needed to be cellnoictg our data using a satellite. And that slelitate would need spectrometers that did not yet exist. So we went to the world's most innovative instrument experts, and they helped us build two stprmcteroees that would allow us to see methane emissions from 590 kilometers away, from space. They had to develop a new manufacturing technique to create a prism that would allow us to see how even the smallest concentrations of methane interact with light. It's pretty amazing.
Open Cloze
For the past 20 years, my job has been to __________ climate from a variety of angles, to be a bridge between scientists, policymakers and companies, ________ that we're all working towards the same big vision. And the vision for MethaneSAT is to _______ actionable data _______, _______ it in the hands of people in the trenches pushing for change.
Now methane comes from several sources. It comes from cows, it comes from landfills, it comes from coal mines. And a lot of it comes from leaks from the oil and gas infrastructure. For a while, we've known what the overall _____________ of methane is in the atmosphere, but we haven't been able to ________ sources and tell how much was coming from where. In fact, _________ and governments often underreport their _________ because they simply haven't had good data. But now they will. When we looked at the data we were collecting using airplanes, we ________ that we would never get a _____________ enough view. We simply cannot fly an airplane over every oil and gas field in the world every day. We realized that we needed to be __________ our data using a satellite. And that _________ would need spectrometers that did not yet exist. So we went to the world's most innovative instrument experts, and they helped us build two _____________ that would allow us to see methane emissions from 590 kilometers away, from space. They had to develop a new manufacturing technique to create a prism that would allow us to see how even the smallest concentrations of methane interact with light. It's pretty amazing.
Solution
- companies
- concentration
- realized
- pinpoint
- emissions
- collecting
- understand
- comprehensive
- spectrometers
- quickly
- deliver
- ensuring
- putting
- satellite
Original Text
For the past 20 years, my job has been to understand climate from a variety of angles, to be a bridge between scientists, policymakers and companies, ensuring that we're all working towards the same big vision. And the vision for MethaneSAT is to deliver actionable data quickly, putting it in the hands of people in the trenches pushing for change.
Now methane comes from several sources. It comes from cows, it comes from landfills, it comes from coal mines. And a lot of it comes from leaks from the oil and gas infrastructure. For a while, we've known what the overall concentration of methane is in the atmosphere, but we haven't been able to pinpoint sources and tell how much was coming from where. In fact, companies and governments often underreport their emissions because they simply haven't had good data. But now they will. When we looked at the data we were collecting using airplanes, we realized that we would never get a comprehensive enough view. We simply cannot fly an airplane over every oil and gas field in the world every day. We realized that we needed to be collecting our data using a satellite. And that satellite would need spectrometers that did not yet exist. So we went to the world's most innovative instrument experts, and they helped us build two spectrometers that would allow us to see methane emissions from 590 kilometers away, from space. They had to develop a new manufacturing technique to create a prism that would allow us to see how even the smallest concentrations of methane interact with light. It's pretty amazing.
Frequently Occurring Word Combinations
ngrams of length 2
| collocation |
frequency |
| methane emissions |
5 |
| helped put |
2 |
| carbon dioxide |
2 |
| people challenge |
2 |
| reduce methane |
2 |
Important Words
- actionable
- airplane
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- methane
- methanesat
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- needed
- oil
- people
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- policymakers
- pretty
- prism
- pushing
- putting
- quickly
- realized
- satellite
- scientists
- simply
- smallest
- sources
- space
- spectrometers
- technique
- trenches
- underreport
- understand
- variety
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- working
- world
- years