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