How everything helps and why nature is amazing
Transcriber: Federica Bruno
Reviewer: Rhonda Jacobs
OK. Hi, everyone. My name is Kristine.
I am 17 years old, and this is me.
Some pictures of me in my natural habitat,
as I like to call it.
Because I like to call
myself a nature nerd,
because I love spending time outside.
I love being outside.
I also love hiking, surfing,
and spending time with animals.
I’m a student at [Inaudible].
(Laughter)
I’m a student at [Inaudible],
and when I first got asked to do this talk
I was really excited and I still am,
but it was kind of hard
knowing what I would talk about.
So I started thinking about the theme:
Adapting to a Changing World.
Whenever I hear “adapting
to a changing world,”
and when it comes to our earth
and climate change,
something that really annoys me
is that I feel people think
that they either have to be really extreme
or do nothing to help our environment.
So people think that
if they can’t be like Greta Thunberg,
they can’t do anything to help.
This is very black and white,
and it annoys me because people forget
that there’s a gray area between here.
And there are also
different shades of gray.
I know that’s really awesome.
So I want to talk about a bit
about these shades
because, first of all, look at the darker
shades of gray over here.
These are the things
that you can do that are quite extreme,
but not as extreme.
You can, if you have the opportunity,
you can talk to politicians,
you can join organizations,
you can talk about it
on social media or in the newspaper
or anything else that you can do.
You can also try to never drive a car
or never take a plane
and live like plastic-free.
But these are pretty extreme things
that not everyone is able to do.
So I would also like to talk about
the lighter shades over here.
And these are my favorites
because I can be quite lazy sometimes.
And these are very few and simple things
that you can do to help our environment.
For example,
you can recycle plastic bottles,
you can recycle old trash,
you can take a walk instead of driving,
you can try to take the bus,
you can buy eco-friendly products
or buy used things and fix your things.
And people think
that these things don’t matter,
but they do.
Very simple few things that we can do.
So, also in the lighter shades,
my favorite thing we can do
is helping our nature,
using our nature.
Because we live in Norway, and we have
such an amazing and beautiful nature,
and we should be so proud of it.
I love spending time outside,
and I want to tell you about why spending
time outside is really good for you.
Several benefits from staying outside.
First of all, you get to exercise.
Instead of exercising in a gym
and using money and being inside,
you can go for a hike
or just a very short trip with your dog
around the house or something like that.
Then you exercise your muscles,
you also exercise your brain
by coordination
and thinking about where you should go
and what you should do.
When also you’re outside,
it can help you mentally
with your physical health.
So why is this being outside
good for your brain?
It’s good because it can help you relax,
it can help you take away stress,
it can take away bad feelings,
it can make you feel happier and so on.
The last thing you also get
from being outside
is you get really good experiences
both with someone, or alone,
or just seeing our beautiful nature.
Even though there are so many benefits
from being outside,
many people would rather
lay on the couch and eat chips inside,
and sometimes I want to do that, too.
There’s nothing wrong with that.
But how do we get
the motivation to go outside?
The first thing that we can think about
is we try to stay positive.
If we have the right mindset,
it will be easier to get outside.
Don’t think, “Oh, it’s -
I don’t want to go outside
because I don’t feel like it today.”
But if you try to think about
what will help if you go outside,
it might help.
Also, the weather in Norway is not
the best all the time. It rains a lot.
And that can be a really bad thing
for your motivation to get out.
So if you only enjoy
being outside when it’s sunny,
then just be outside when it’s sunny,
or if you just enjoy
being outside when it’s rainy,
just be outside when it’s rainy.
That’s OK.
Just go out whenever you want to go out.
That can also help getting out.
Also, some people feel like
they can’t go out
because they don’t have the experience,
they don’t know people
who like to be outside,
they don’t know how to,
or where to go, or what to do.
This, I understand, it can be really hard
to get out, but try to ask someone,
you can try to talk to someone you know,
you can go to Google or YouTube
to watch something.
And you can also join organizations
that have hikings and activities
that you can join
with other people who also likes it.
This will also help get outside.
So whenever you’re going to go outside,
you need to try to,
as hard as you can, to go outside.
You don’t have to just think that:
“Oh, no, I can’t.”
But think of it as you can.
Do what you can do, how you can do it.
Whenever I go outside,
I feel really lucky,
and I feel really happy,
and it makes me happy
for days and months after.
It’s a really good experience,
and I really want to tell you guys
to come outside, too.
So whenever you feel
that you can’t go outside, try to.
And if we can think about it as
we need to save our nature, too,
we can’t just use it,
we need to save it.
Because if we don’t save our nature,
we won’t have any place
to hike in or to walk in.
And I know several people who would die
if there wasn’t any nature left to hike.
Maybe I’m being a little bit dramatic,
but I am serious.
It is really important that we take care
of our beautiful nature.
And I want you to remember
the gray areas I told you about.
You don’t have to be extreme
and you don’t have to do nothing.
You can do what you can do.
And I heard lot of people say
that it doesn’t matter
if I throw away one piece of garbage,
it’s only one piece.
But we are 7.8 billion
people in the world.
And if everyone has
the same way of thinking
and everyone would throw away
one piece of garbage each,
we would have thrown away
7.8 billion pieces of garbage.
Luckily, this also works the other way.
So if everyone were to pick up
one piece of garbage each,
we would have picked up
just 7.8 billion garbage pieces,
and that could be just like
wrapping paper or something,
which is really small.
But that’s what I want to tell you,
because you don’t have to be extreme
and do everything that you can to help.
Whenever we help with the small things
and everyone does it,
it will help in the bigger picture.
So I really want you guys,
when you go home, to take a walk,
even if it’s just
for 30 minutes or three days.
And I want you to think about
the positive sides of it,
not why you shouldn’t,
why it isn’t good for you,
but why it is good for you.
And I also want you to try to do as much
as you can do for our environment.
You don’t have to look at other people,
look at yourself: What can I do?
What’s my best way of doing it?
And together, we can help the world.
So thank you so much to my friend Helena,
who asked me to do this,
and thank you to the TED team
for letting me have this talk.
And thank you for listening to me.
I hope I wasn’t too boring.
And now you’re all going to live
plastic-free lives
and never drive cars again. Right?
I’m joking, but do what you can do,
and thank you. Have a great evening.
(Applause)