**Remarks**

USGS Director Mark Myers

Special Event -- Launch of the UNEP *Atlas of Africa*

United Nations Building, New York City

September 22, 2008

Link to UNEP website, *AFRICA: Atlas of Our Changing Environment*

<http://na.unep.net/atlas/AfricaAtlas/>

-   Although the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) is a domestic agency of
    the U.S. Federal government, we can learn much about the fundamental
    principals of earth systems and about the application of science and
    technology to important national resource management problems by
    looking at global perspectives.

-   In fact, some critical issues can only be dealt with on a global
    scale, including the vital issues of global climate change and the
    status of the world's natural resources.

-   Modern society is increasingly dependent on non-renewable mineral
    and fossil energy resources. The distribution and availability of
    key natural resources -- such as energy, minerals, and,
    increasingly, water -- directly affect the world economy and the
    economies of each nation in the world in critical ways.

-   Climate change coupled with global population growth present
    unprecedented threats -- for example, increased desertification and
    loss of biodiversity - to the world's biological resources.

-   These challenges are not just vaguely global; they are immediate and
    local. They appear at every level of natural resource management --
    from the international scale to regional, county, and municipal
    levels. The adverse effects of climate change and diminished natural
    resources are disproportionately borne by people with few economic
    resources in underdeveloped nations.

-   We at USGS are proud of our support of the United Nations
    Environment Programme (UNEP) Global Resource Information Database
    (GRID) through the North American node of UNEP GRID which is located
    at the USGS Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center in
    Sioux Falls, SD.

-   The USGS mission statement for GRID-Sioux Falls is: \"To assist UNEP
    and its partners by contributing environmental data and information,
    as well as methodological techniques for handling such data, to
    enhance the scientific basis for decision making and help advance
    sustainable development initiatives.\"

-   The USGS EROS Center has hosted GRID-Sioux Falls since 1991. A
    ten-year MOU between UNEP and the U.S. Government to cooperate on
    activities and facilities to support UNEP activities was signed in
    December 2004.

-   The USGS provides UNEP with office space, computing facilities,
    administrative support, data and access to its world-class
    infrastructure. The USGS estimated annual contribution to UNEP is
    about \$150,000 USD.

-   Since 1991, over 100 visiting scientists from 37 countries have come
    to GRID-Sioux Falls and have been trained in environmental
    monitoring tools as a part of UNEP capacity building efforts.

-   We've been told --and we were delighted to know - that UNEP is very
    pleased with arrangements at USGS-EROS and values the opportunities
    for collaboration between our organizations.

-   One of UNEP's recent products, *One Planet, Many People: Atlas of
    Our Changing Environment (2005)*, featuring paired satellite images
    that contrast historical and current environmental conditions, has
    been a phenomenal success. It has received worldwide media attention
    and quickly became UNEP's best selling publication ever.

-   A companion publication - *Africa: Atlas of Our Changing
    Environment* -- was produced by the African Ministerial Conference
    on the Environment (AMCEN) and UNEP, in partnership with a number of
    organizations from Africa and the United States of America. It was
    introduced in Africa on June 10, 2008, at a meeting of AMCEN in
    South Africa.

-   The *Atlas*, compiled in cooperation with researchers and
    organizations in Africa and elsewhere, offers a sobering assessment
    of thirty-six years of environmental change. It portrays
    grey-colored cities expanding into green countryside; protected
    areas shrinking as farms encroach upon their boundaries; the tracks
    of road networks through forests; refugee settlements scattered
    across the continent causing further pressure on the environment;
    shrinking mountain glaciers.

-   The *Atlas* indicates that Africa is losing its forests at twice the
    world's average deforestation rate. The *Atlas* also shows that
    erosion and chemical and physical damage have degraded about 65 per
    cent of the continent's farmlands.

-   Over 300 million people on the continent already face water
    scarcity. Areas experiencing water shortages in Sub-Saharan Africa
    are expected to increase by almost a third by 2050.

-   Climate change is emerging as a driving force behind many of these
    problems and is likely to intensify the already dramatic
    transformations taking place.

-   Earth observation by moderate resolution satellites, such as
    Landsat, is the most effective and efficient means of seeing the
    range and the interplay of environmental factors across the vast,
    infinitely variable continent of Africa.

-   Yet we are aware that the educational, political, and cultural
    setting in Africa for using earth observation data is much different
    than it is in more developed parts of the world.

-   At USGS, we've conducted a review of the unique remote sensing needs
    and applications of Africa. An executive summary of the review is
    available online at
    [http://edcintl.cr.usgs.gov](http://edcintl.cr.usgs.gov/)

-   In assessing African capacity and needs for remote sensing
    technology in Africa, the review found -- not surprisingly -- that
    the application of this technology across the huge continent
    (sub-Saharan Africa alone is three times the size of the
    conterminous U.S.) is a complicated and complex issue. The review
    presents nine specific actions that will advance the use of remote
    sensing technology in Africa.

-   I am pleased to announce that one limiting factor for remote sensing
    applications in Africa -- the cost of Landsat data - is no longer an
    issue. In early August, U.S. Secretary of the Interior Dirk
    Kempthorne announced that by the end of this year, all archived
    Landsat data would be available over the internet at no charge.\
    \
    \[Department of the Interior press release, Aug. 4, 2008:\
    <http://www.doi.gov/news/08_News_Releases/080804.html>\
    \
    Technical announcement of the Landsat archive's availability:
    <http://landsat.usgs.gov/images/squares/USGS_Landsat_Imagery_Release.pdf>
    \]

-   While there are many other hurdles for applying earth observation
    data to Africa's environmental needs, this new policy will assure
    that all the African specialists, universities, and government
    organizations who can use Landsat data need not consider its cost.

-   The USGS will use its extensive remote sensing resources and work in
    close cooperation with UNEP and African partners to see that there
    are more environmental success stories on the African landscape --
    stories similar to the physical and economic benefit of more trees
    across the plains of south-central Niger even as the population is
    increasing. \[see pp. 16-17, *Atlas of Africa*\]