On Top of the World: why we need to protect life up above January 26, 2013 Steven Schmidt On Top of the World - With Don Perry, the 'Jacques Cousteau of the Rainforest Canopy' I want to say a few words about Don Perry, Dr. Perry, who swung in and posted a couple comments yesterday on my Facebook page about climate change, global warming and its coming impact (e.g., a big, very BIG sea level rise). Be aware, Don is not your standard scientist who has dwelt in academia, collecting accolades and plaudits for his lifetime of work and explorations of the bio-universe. Don has gone on from UCLA to literally change the way we see our world. As I used to say about Don, when we were working together back when I lived in LA and he was starting his career that would revolutionize the science of tropical forest study, Don is unique in his field, he's a pioneer (and "bioneer"), he's an explorer, an inventor. Don invented new techniques and methods for ascending and studying the 'real jungle', up above far from LA's glam, and proceeded to enable and show us what the resplendent, amazing rainforest, the richest biosphere on earth, the canopy, was like and it was wonderful... first-ever pictures and reports and science from on high. I was privileged to help as his representative and we saw Don's visions reach audiences around the world as he opened eyes to the eco-wonders of the environment we live in and the world we came from long ago, that is, if you believe in evolution... Don was a "Jacques Cousteau of the Rainforest Canopy." I meant the words when I said them and still do. Don's pioneering work has been featured in Scientific American, National Geographic, Smithsonian, New York Sunday Times magazine, Life, Newsweek, Paris Match, Quick of Germany, Popular Science, etc, etc, etc. I have to say that Don's career is one-of-a-kind, an unparalleled feat of brave, courageous ascents and creative imagination and engineering that followed, from Topanga canyon w/ Southern Cal beginnings, to cross-bows firing lines and stringing canopy webs and going up himself, then a first-gen automated canopy exploration web system, to the first aerial, eco-trams for non- scientists and tourists and eco-preneurs, and zip line projects for all of us world over, Don has been reaching up for decades, surviving close calls and still going strong. Don has changed the way we see "the jungle". I can't remember how many times I've explained over the years that the jungle isn't the way most everyone thinks about it -- it's not about Victorian-like stories, there's no machete at the ready, natives chopping away and a gun slung on a strap on your shoulder like Stanley and Livingston or Tarzan or Sheena, Queen of the Jungle, Hollywood's film versions of the jungle. Rather, the real jungle's up there, the richest biosphere, 60, 80, 100, 120 feet up and higher (think Amazon and meters if you want.) It's really up above, what I used to call "the cradle of new life forms", where evolution is still happening and happening fast... we're talking about life forms few have seen and studied, a gazillion types and
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On Top of the World With Don Perry: the Jacques Cousteau of the Rainforest Canopy
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On Top of the World: why we need to
protect life up above
January 26, 2013
Steven Schmidt
On Top of the World - With Don Perry, the 'Jacques Cousteau of the Rainforest Canopy'
I want to say a few words about Don Perry, Dr. Perry, who swung in and posted a couple
comments yesterday on my Facebook page about climate change, global warming and its coming
impact (e.g., a big, very BIG sea level rise). Be aware, Don is not your standard scientist who has
dwelt in academia, collecting accolades and plaudits for his lifetime of work and explorations of
the bio-universe. Don has gone on from UCLA to literally change the way we see our world.
As I used to say about Don, when we were working together back when I lived in LA and he was
starting his career that would revolutionize the science of tropical forest study, Don is unique in
his field, he's a pioneer (and "bioneer"), he's an explorer, an inventor. Don invented new
techniques and methods for ascending and studying the 'real jungle', up above far from LA's
glam, and proceeded to enable and show us what the resplendent, amazing rainforest, the richest
biosphere on earth, the canopy, was like and it was wonderful... first-ever pictures and reports
and science from on high. I was privileged to help as his representative and we saw Don's visions
reach audiences around the world as he opened eyes to the eco-wonders of the environment we
live in and the world we came from long ago, that is, if you believe in evolution... Don was a
"Jacques Cousteau of the Rainforest Canopy." I meant the words when I said them and still do.
Don's pioneering work has been featured in Scientific American, National Geographic,
Smithsonian, New York Sunday Times magazine, Life, Newsweek, Paris Match, Quick of
Germany, Popular Science, etc, etc, etc.
I have to say that Don's career is one-of-a-kind, an unparalleled feat of brave, courageous ascents
and creative imagination and engineering that followed, from Topanga canyon w/ Southern Cal
beginnings, to cross-bows firing lines and stringing canopy webs and going up himself, then a
first-gen automated canopy exploration web system, to the first aerial, eco-trams for non-
scientists and tourists and eco-preneurs, and zip line projects for all of us world over, Don has
been reaching up for decades, surviving close calls and still going strong.
Don has changed the way we see "the jungle". I can't remember how many times I've explained
over the years that the jungle isn't the way most everyone thinks about it -- it's not about
Victorian-like stories, there's no machete at the ready, natives chopping away and a gun slung on
a strap on your shoulder like Stanley and Livingston or Tarzan or Sheena, Queen of the Jungle,
Hollywood's film versions of the jungle. Rather, the real jungle's up there, the richest biosphere,
60, 80, 100, 120 feet up and higher (think Amazon and meters if you want.) It's really up above,
what I used to call "the cradle of new life forms", where evolution is still happening and
happening fast... we're talking about life forms few have seen and studied, a gazillion types and
insects and small creatures and green species, varieties, animals whose lives are lived out quickly
and generation to generation in a geo-minute or -second, survival or not and adaptation
happening in evolutionary timelines.
We now are seeing and witnessing and in the past few decades realizing the impacts and dangers
to the rain forests, even before we discover the genetic environments we're wiping out as we
clear cut and burn and rip away, humans interjecting profound change by destroying the rain
forests worldwide. This story that science is now beginning to bring to us stands in contrast to
green biodiversity and saving life, a pro-life position, where science and voices like Don's and
those of us who've lived the life of being green are telling us - ACT, ACT NOW, for our own
global health and well-being, act to save, be "conservative", truly conservative, not "crazy
conservative", pay attention to the facts, conserve, conserve now, fast
Don was (and is) an original eco-explorer who realized the need to see what is at stake, he saw
and he created an EcoTram, as it's now called, one of the first eco-explorer ventures designed to
teach up close. He's devoted himself to the work, taking science to the next step, acting on his
discoveries. The eco-trams jump started eco-tourism up above in the canopies, as they carry eco-
tourists thru the tropical forests where they can come eye-to-eye with life's rich diversity. In
Costa Rica as one of his trams, a first, has been running near San Juan, for years w/ travelers and
adventurers from Europe, the US, Asia and around the world experiencing personally the real,
diverse variety of life in the canopy and, as Don and our hopes began to come to be, all of these
first-timers could become evangelists, returning home to tell their stories of what the real world
is like up there and why it's worth saving. There's no better way, as Mr. Wizard, Don Herbert
would tell me, to teach than up close, hands on. People could sense, feel, touch, smell the
richness up close and personal and truly appreciate what it is, what we are trying to save when
we talk about saving the tropical forests, the lungs of the earth and much more. It's about Gaia,
it's about breathing and much more
Thank you Don
Thank you for going up there in the old days and ever since
The trees are where we came from... spires, in'spiration' we a'spire' to a 'heaven' up above,
cathedrals spire above, our language imagining goodness as we look up... and as we've evolved
since our descent, let's rediscover what we left, rich, very rich and needed life
Thank you, you've battled and your new directions, your work on more e-trams, your questioning
of human evolution beginning w/ us as the "greatest climbers", your thoughts here on the future
of sea rise as you wrote about yesterday on my my FB wall as I mulled about Doonesbury's
myFacts take on global warming deniers, (especially pertinent to us folks who live barely above
sea level), I want you to know you're truly appreciated
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Rain Forest Canopy -- and Climate Change/Global Warming -