(May 20, 2021 – New York City) – Space & Satellite Professionals International (SSPI) today released Footing the Climate Bill for the World, its newest Better Satellite World video. It tells the story of the Norwegian government’s partnership with Planet, Airbus and KSAT to use satellite imagery to detect and help prevent illegal deforestation around the world. Footing the Climate Bill for the World is made possible by funding from Planet.
Stopping deforestation is hard. The poor people most affected by it have little power to change things. Much of it breaks national laws, but overstretched governments struggle to stop it. The government of Norway is the first in the world to fund programs that help tropical nations rein in deforestation. A grant to Brazil in 2008 helped preserve enough forest to keep 3 billion tons of carbon out of the air. A 2010 agreement with Indonesia offered incentive payments for reducing emissions – and that nation’s carbon output dropped by half in just a few years. In 2020, Norway took another step. It announced a first-of-its-kind public-private partnership with Planet, Airbus and KSAT. Together, they would provide access to detailed satellite imagery covering 64 countries – all for free.
Planet operates a vast fleet of small satellites called Doves. They take pictures of all the Earth’s landmass every day. Those pictures are detailed enough to reveal individual trees. Airbus is adding an archive of images captured by its Spot satellites since 2002. These allow today’s forests to be compared to those from years ago. The Norwegian company KSAT is pulling together all this data and providing technical support to users, who can view and download the files from Global Forest Watch or Planet.
“We are grateful to Planet for helping us tell this remarkable story,” said SSPI executive director Robert Bell. “At a time when the impact of climate change grows greater every year, this kind of public-private partnership offers hope for the future. The story is especially inspiring because, as we learned in producing the video, it was a quest for better data on the environment that prompted the founding of Planet.”
You can watch Footing the Climate Bill for the World on SSPI’s website and on Youtube.
About SSPI
Founded in 1983, Space & Satellite Professionals International (www.sspi.org) is on a mission to make the space and satellite industry one of the world’s best at attracting and engaging the talent that powers innovation. The space and satellite business has never seen a time of greater experimentation and disruption than we see today. Investment is the fuel for transformation, but people are the engine. SSPI helps the industry attract, develop and retain the talented people it needs to keep the engine turning. People who connect through high-profile events and gain recognition from prestigious awards. People who rely on SSPI for a broader understanding of the industry as much as for individual networking and career mentoring. From young people seeking a career path to industry veterans with wisdom to share, SSPI connects them all.
Talent, investment and opportunity flow to industries that make a difference. SSPI is the only organization that also promotes the enormous value of space and satellite through dramatic stories of our technologies and companies making a better world. Those stories overturn misconceptions about the industry that hold it back. They inspire our people and attract new ones to the industry. They help justify investment and give new customers a reason to care about our services and products. Through the stories we tell and the people we serve, SSPI inspires the growth of the $1 trillion space economy of the future.
For More Information
Victoria Krisman
Communications Manager
Space & Satellite Professionals International
vkrisman@sspi.org