Planetary Insights: How Satellites Could Transform Our Understanding of Earth's Predicament with Will Marshall
The Great Simplification with Nate Hagens
Nate Hagens
4.8 • 552 Ratings
🗓️ 16 April 2025
⏱️ 76 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
When we are able to see the full scope of a problem, rather than a fragment, it changes how we respond. Throughout history, comprehensive data has catalyzed transformative change—from the measurements that spurred the halting of ozone depletion to the coral reef monitoring networks that revealed the devastating impacts of ocean acidification. Yet, the average person remains disconnected from visualizing their lifestyle's impact on Earth's systems, leaving an incomplete perception of our collective footprint. But what transformations might occur if we could observe the full consequences of our consumption patterns as they ripple across forests, oceans, and the atmosphere in real time?
In this episode, Nate is joined by Will Marshall, co-founder and CEO of Planet Labs. Planet Labs' mission is to capture daily images and real-time data of the entire Earth using a fleet of hundreds of satellites, in order to make global change visible, accessible and actionable. Will shares how this data is being harnessed to tackle environmental challenges like deforestation and reducing methane emissions, and how AI is analyzing it to help governments, NGOs, and businesses make informed – and planet friendly – decisions. Will also emphasizes Planet Labs' commitment to transparency and accountability on a global scale, ultimately aiming to make substantial contributions to the pursuit of Earth's ecological integrity.
How can we harness this extraordinary technological innovation (and others like it) to better fulfill our roles as planetary stewards? What sorts of environmental projects – such as carbon trading or protecting coral reefs – benefit most from this new data? Finally, how are small communities using this data to create targeted, local environmental strategies that will build ecological wealth for future generations?
(Conversation recorded on March 14th, 2025)
About Will Marshall:
Will Marshall is the Co-Founder and CEO of Planet Labs, where he leads the overall company strategy and direction. Prior to Planet, Will was a Scientist at NASA/USRA where he was a systems engineer on lunar orbiter mission "LADEE", a member of the science team for the lunar impactor mission "LCROSS", served as Co-Principal Investigator on PhoneSat, and was the technical lead on research projects in space debris remediation. Will received his Ph.D. in Physics from the University of Oxford and his Masters in Physics with Space Science and Technology from the University of Leicester. Will was also a Postdoctoral Fellow at George Washington University and Harvard.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | I think sustainability and security are totally wrapped up together. |
| 0:03.2 | It was the drought in Syria that led to a crop failure that led to a humanitarian crisis |
| 0:09.4 | and refugees spreading all over that region and Europe. |
| 0:12.6 | When Ukraine goes into war, we lose access to food and food security goes out the window. |
| 0:17.9 | I think it happens that those things are interrelated and can be |
| 0:22.1 | solved together with these sorts of smart technical systems. |
| 0:27.9 | You're listening to the Great Simplification. I'm Nate Hagen's. On this show, we describe how |
| 0:33.8 | energy, the economy, the environment and human behavior all fit together and what it might |
| 0:39.6 | mean for our future. By sharing insights from global thinkers, we hope to inform and inspire |
| 0:45.7 | more humans to play emergent roles in the coming great simplification. |
| 1:01.7 | I'm pleased to be joined today by Will Marshall, who is the co-founder and CEO of Planet Labs, |
| 1:06.6 | which provides governments, businesses, and research institutions with the highest frequency satellite data, images, and analytics available today, including the photographing of the entire planet |
| 1:14.4 | at least once per day. He and I discussed the current projects at Planet Labs that are working to |
| 1:20.2 | improve the health of our Earth's ecological systems from tracking illegal deforestation in the |
| 1:26.0 | Amazon to identify methane leaks that might otherwise go undetected, coming from fracking operations. |
| 1:32.8 | Prior to co-founding Planet, Will was a scientist at NASA and the University Space Research Association, |
| 1:40.0 | where he was a systems engineer on lunar orbiter missions and was the technical lead on research |
| 1:46.0 | projects in space debris remediation. Alongside past and future projects, Will Marshall shares the |
| 1:53.5 | mission behind Planet Labs work, which is to image all of Earth's landmass every day and make global change visible, accessible, |
| 2:04.4 | and actionable. In my opinion, the data coming from Planet Labs is one of the most positive |
| 2:09.5 | use cases of artificial intelligence, with the potential to enable an unimaginable number of other |
| 2:16.2 | projects and initiatives that are in service of life. |
... |
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