Since Rebecca Moore started Google Earth Outreach in 2005, the computer scientist has used her company’s satellite-mapping
technology to mobilize the public against mountaintop-removal mining in Appalachia and genocide in Darfur. But her most
rewarding philanthropic project began in June 2007, when the chief of a small Amazonian tribe walked into her office in Mountain
View, California. In her own words, Moore describes the unlikely collaboration that followed and explains how it is paying major
dividends for the Surui people of Brazil:
Chief Almir Narayamoga Surui was the first member of his 1,200-member tribe to go to college, and during his studies he
discovered Google Earth at an Internet café. Zooming in near his home, he could clearly see that loggers were steadily encroaching
on his tribe’s 1,000 square miles of lush, green Amazon rainforest. When he returned home, he urged his Surui people to resist illegal
logging on their land. In response, the loggers put a $100,000 bounty on his head.
In 2007 a group called the Amazon Conservation Team stepped in to transport Chief Almir to safety in the United States. That’s
when he requested a meeting at Google to see if we would come teach his people how to put themselves on the map—literally. His
idea was to show the world, in a graphic way, what was happening to the forest and its inhabitants. He said it was time to put down
the bow and arrow and pick up the laptop, which seemed very Google-y to me. Over the next year, charitable groups built the Surui a computer center with satellite-based Wi-Fi, and we developed tutorials for
people who had never touched a computer. We flew down in 2008 and were greeted with a two-day ceremony. We ate, we danced,
and they painted us with tattoos. (At one point, I noticed that my watch had stopped—whether it was the humidity or the shamans, I
don’t know.) Then we got to work. We taught the Surui how to make Google maps and embed them with blogs, photos, and YouTube
videos. Their posts soon drew international attention. In 2009 we went back with GPS-equipped Android smartphones. Now the Surui could photograph evidence of environmental
crimes, put it online, and pressure authorities to enforce the laws. Apps on the phones helped the tribe take inventory of trees and
calculate their carbon content. Now the Surui are using that data to apply for the financial instrument called forest carbon offsets. In many countries,
governments and corporations have to meet greenhouse gas reduction targets. Instead of solely cutting their own emissions, these
institutions will also be able to pay the Surui to protect their carbon-holding trees. That could earn the tribe $30 million, enough to
develop sustainable agriculture and replant 17,000 acres of trees. What we have accomplished together so far can become a model
for tribes in Congo, in Indonesia—anywhere in the world where rainforests are under threat. 【題組】3. What is the underlying purpose of this article?
(A) To castigate the loggers’ reclamation of the rainforest.
(B) To undermine an Amazonian chief’s effort to save his tribe.
(C) To apprise rainforest dwellers of a way to tackle an imminent threat.
(D) To laud the government for its policy regarding greenhouse gas emissions.
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