Questão 1629795

1 The Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, the largest

private funder of Amazon rainforest conservation, is playing an

unheralded but integral role in the development of the Earth

4 Engine platform, a system that combines the computing power

of Google with advanced monitoring and analysis technologies

developed by leading environmental scientists. The platform,

7 which was officially unveiled at climate talks in Copenhagen,

promises to enable near real-time monitoring of the world’s

forests and carbon at high resolution at selected sites before

10 COP-16 in Mexico.

The Earth Engine builds upon decades of research by

scientists at a range of institutions, including NASA, the

13 Woods Hole Research Center, Brazil’s Imazon, and the

Carnegie Institute. While it is so far only available for the

Amazon and the Andes region in South America, the model is

16 highly scalable and could eventually be applied virtually

anywhere on Earth, enabling three-dimensional mapping of

ecosystems and rapid reporting of land cover change, including

19 alerting of deforestation and incidence of fire. The tool could

play a critical role in helping countries win compensation under

REDD, a mechanism that rewards countries for reducing

22 emissions from deforestation and forest degradation. REDD is

seen by many as perhaps the best way to generate funds for

protection and sustainable use of forests.

Internet: <news.mongabay.com> (adapted).

According to the text above, judge the following items.

The word “unheralded” (l.3) means expected.