The Lessons of Nature

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[Music]

[Applause]

[Music]

i’m going to tell you about an amazing

being

that was taken from her home in the

pacific northwest

she was then taken to miami florida and

has been living her

life away from her family in isolation

in captivity she’s just like you and i

she’s self-aware she’s conscious

she has the ability to think about her

emotional state

her state of being with herself with her

family

and her neurology shows us that she can

think about something greater

than community i’m talking about lolita

she’s an orca that was taken nearly 50

years ago

from the pacific northwest and she has

been in captivity for that long away

from her family

in my early 20s i started working for

other broadcasters like national

geographic and discovery and

and i had the honor to be in the kingdom

of the dolphins

and in the company of wales and what

i’ve learned over these years is

something that i want to share and story

and

and hopefully maybe with some humor

today

i’m not the voice of the whales because

they sing

we just have to listen we find nature

in the sounds of a bird singing we find

nature in the pause

i’ve had the honor to be able to find

nature and myself

through the call of a humpback whale or

of the smile of a dog

or of the laughter of children we are

all of these things

and as we explore what these wrongs are

they can be very insurmountable climate

change

global warming sea level rise the

pollution of our sacred waters

the pollution of ourselves how do we

right

these wrongs of the crimes against

nature that we’ve done

over so many years and many of the

things that i’ve learned over the last

25 years working with

marine mammals dolphins and whales is

that there’s wisdom there

and the wisdom comes in the most

simplest of forms

the message of the whales is something

that is all around us

it’s actually right now in the sound of

a bird song

if you listen we need to listen

on the different points we have to find

some accountability

we have to know what our decisions are

that can make a difference the world is

in a global pause

with this pandemic and many of us have

been reflecting on what is it

within our lives that we can change and

sometimes it can be full of

indecision of fruit of fear and maybe

even going into apathy

i’m going to share something with you

it’s a little vulnerable

maybe a little surprising but i used to

be terrified of the water

the movie jaws came out and as

remarkable of a film that is and the

author

peter benchley and the filmmaker steven

spielberg

i was a seven-year-old kid and it scared

me out of the water

i was so terrified of sharks that my big

brother had me afraid of pool sharks

those are the invisible ones that live

in the deep end of the pool of course

but what i did instead of living in that

fear

is that i learned as much as i could

about the oceans i learned about

dolphins

and how they are kind of the protectors

against sharks

i found myself years later in a place

on the other side of the world in

rengiroa french polynesia

and there i was doing a behind the

scenes shot for

for a discovery film and it was my first

time in the water with sharks

and what happened with me is that i had

to do

a surrender i had a choice

i could either have my worst nightmares

come to fruition and be torn to shreds

as hollywood shows

or something else something of the

remarkable

the unknown at the count of three i dove

back

went down to the depth was breathing

because when you’re on scuba you have to

be a conscious breather

but as i looked around i saw how

magnificent they were

my fear was immediately back to

curiosity

be curious we should never lose our

curiosity

because we feel that we have failed or

that we have too many big problems in

the world

the problems that we’re facing of

climate change and global warming and

sea level rise and how we’re polluting

beautiful sacred waters we have

solutions within us

and we can join with our communities to

make a difference

many people say that we’re past the

tipping point

and that it’s more about readiness

rather than

an action to find a solution

there are so many issues and so many

entities out doing the wrong thing

we do the wrong thing too so let’s stop

with the blame game

and let’s start with more solutions

we need to start doing something about

it

i’m going to share with you another

story um i’ve been spending

many years out filming and communing

with a group of wild dolphins and it’s

been a remarkable experience it changed

my life

and shifted my life from where i was

going to where i

am now and

it’s also reflective of what’s happening

with us

remember earlier i was telling you about

how dolphins are self-aware

they’re highly intelligent even though

we can’t even measure our own human

intelligence

we know that neurologically biologically

they use more of their brain

their larger brains in this

self-awareness

they have the same aspects of us and yes

they have conflict

but with their conflict they have

solutions

so we need to look at these messages of

the wild of the wild places the kingdoms

of the dolphins

and see that through their conflict they

find solutions

the dolphins are leaving their home

grounds because of

ocean acidification the collapse of

their own

food source they’re moving out of their

home

this is parallel to what’s happening

with us

we’re going to be moving out of our

homes moving out of our countries

we already have places like the maldives

that sea level rise is happening and we

have

climate change refugees the dolphins

aren’t a canary in the coal mine

they’re happening now with what happens

with them happens with us

let’s see how we can truly be more

proactive

i’m not asking you or myself to change

the world

just change ourselves and from that we

can build community

we can look at what’s gonna happen in

five years ten years

and we will see that world that we have

imagined

where we’re thriving

i may be a little bit of a romantic when

it comes to these things

and i will not apologize for it

because there is great loss

and that’s what’s at risk if we don’t do

these things

and change things and set a goal for the

next 10 years

we’re not going to hear this we’ll be

listening

but there won’t be a song

so how do we go into a sense of hope

how do we go into that world in which we

want to all collectively

visualize where we’re thriving

but i want to visualize a world in which

we are thriving

that we are further connected that we

are

using our skill sets and our own

intelligence

to raise life

as it’s intended to work in concert with

but for me personally i’m going to show

that accountability through my actions

through that pause and through the

lessons and messages of the whales and

of nature

not just visualizing that world in which

we can thrive and be

in these are solutions that are very

easy

be accountable be the change

you