The hidden beauty of pollination Louie Schwartzberg

it’s great being here at Ted you know I

think there might be some presentations

it’ll go over my head but the most

amazing concepts are the ones that go

right under my feet the little things in

life sometimes that we forget about like

pollination that we take for granted and

you can tell the story about pollinators

bees bats hummingbirds butterflies

without telling the story about the

invention of flowers and how they Co

evolved over 50 million years I’ve been

filming time-lapse flowers 24 hours a

day seven days a week for over 35 years

to watch them move as a dance I’m never

going to get tired of it fills me with

Wonder and it opens my heart beauty and

seduction I believe is nature’s tool for

survival because we will protect what we

fall in love with their relationship is

a love story that feeds the earth it

reminds us that we are a part of nature

and we’re not separate from it when I

heard about the vanishing bees colony

collapse disorder it motivated me to

take action we depend on pollinators for

over a third of the fruits and

vegetables we eat and many scientists

believe it’s the most serious issue

facing mankind it’s like the canary in

the coal mine if they disappear so do we

it reminds us that we are a part of

nature and we need to take care of it

what motivated me to film their behavior

was something that I asked my scientific

advisors what motivates the pollinators

well their answer was it’s all about

risk and reward like a wide-eyed kid I’d

say why is that and they say well

because they want to survive

I get why well in order to reproduce

well why and I thought they’d probably

say well it’s all about sex and chip

Taylor our monarch butterfly expert he

replied

nothing lasts forever everything in the

universe wears out and that blew my mind

because I realized that nature had

invented reproduction as a mechanism for

life to move forward as a life force

that passes right through us and makes

us a link in the evolution of life

rarely seen by the naked eye this

intersection between the animal world

and the plant world is truly a magic

moment

it’s the mystical moment where life

regenerates itself over and over again

so here is some nectar from my film I

hope you’ll drink tweet and plant some

seeds the pollinator-friendly garden

I’ll always take time to smell the

flowers and let it fill you with beauty

and rediscover that sense of wonder here

are some images from the film

you

thank you

you