Lets protect the oceans like national parks David Lang
So, of all my childhood memories,
there is one that stands above the rest.
And that is the time that my brave parents
rented an RV, packed it
with me and my brothers,
and drove west
from our house in Minneapolis,
out to Yellowstone National Park.
We saw all the sights, like the geysers,
we stopped at the Badlands,
but more than any of the places,
I remember this as an adventure.
This was my introduction to the Wild West.
But it wasn’t until I got older
and I learned more
about the National Park System
that I realized just how lucky I was.
One, to have that experience,
but also that, hundreds of years ago,
people had the foresight
to set aside the very best places,
the very best ecosystems
in the country, for everyone.
And for future generations.
And to really appreciate
just how prescient that idea was,
you have to go back
and you have to look at the history
of the National Parks Service.
So, a lot of people know, the first
national park was Yellowstone, in 1872.
A lot of people think of John Muir,
the poet, naturalist,
who was such a visionary
in getting people inspired
by the idea of conservation –
that we need to take
the best places and protect them.
He had an audience in very high places –
there’s a great story
of Teddy Roosevelt and John Muir
going hiking, in Yosemite,
during his presidency,
four days, completely off the grid,
just the two of them.
Can you imagine a president
actually just going completely
off the grid for four days?
(Laughter)
No tweeting.
(Laughter) (Applause)
Like that idea.
(Applause)
But he had a great impact
on Theodore Roosevelt.
And he created dozens of national parks,
hundreds of thousands of square acres
of national wildlife refuges.
It was an important administration,
but it wasn’t a done deal.
Even less than 10 years
after he created all of those new places,
the future of those places
was very much in doubt.
And it wasn’t until this guy,
Stephen Mather,
a businessman from Chicago,
wrote an angry letter
to the Department of the Interior, saying,
“You guys aren’t doing a good enough job
protecting and preserving these places.”
Then, something was done about it.
The Department of the Interior
wrote him back.
“Mr. Mather, if you care
so much about this,
why don’t you come to Washington
and do it yourself?”
(Laughter)
And he did.
He took a job at the Department
of the Interior,
but more importantly,
he started a campaign.
He actually had a meeting
two blocks from here, in 1914,
in California Hall,
and he brought together the park
superintendents and a few other people
who cared about this idea of conservation.
And they put together a plan,
they hatched a campaign
that eventually led to the
National Park Service in 1916.
And that’s really important.
Because it went from an idea
that we should protect these places
to an actual plan,
a way for people to enlist
and carry that idea forward
for future generations,
so little kids like me can go
and have these amazing experiences.
That is the history
of the National Parks on land.
The ocean, what I want
to talk to you about today,
is a completely different story.
And we are almost precisely
100 years behind.
So, the first marine
sanctuary was in 1972,
after the oil spill in Santa Barbara,
people got interested
in taking that concept
and applying it
to underwater environments.
We’ve had our own John Muir,
who’s Dr. Sylvia Earle,
who’s been a tireless advocate
for creating these marine
protected areas around the world.
So, I know there’s a lot
of bad news about the ocean,
there’s plastic pollution,
coral bleaching, over-fishing –
it’s hard to take it all in sometimes.
But this idea of setting aside
places for nature is working.
Science tells us that if you
set these places aside,
nature will come back
and we can keep the oceans healthy.
So we know this idea works.
And Dr. Sylvia Earl
has been influential, like John Muir,
with administrations –
George W. Bush and Obama
were both fantastic ocean presidents,
creating marine protected areas
all around the country.
This is not a conservative idea
or a liberal idea,
it’s not even an American idea,
it’s just a good idea.
(Laughter)
(Applause)
But –
(Applause)
Here we are, a few years later.
And now the administration is proposing
to roll back a lot of the progress
we’ve made in the past 20 years.
So, so, don’t mourn – organize.
We need to do what
Stephen Mather did 100 years ago.
We need to start a campaign
to get people engaged with this idea.
And I think we need a league
of citizen scientists for the ocean.
And I’ve seen glimpses of this future,
and I know that it’s possible.
My friend Erik and I started building
underwater robots,
these little swimming cameras
with lights that you can see underwater.
We started building these
in his garage five years ago,
and we’ve watched that grow
into this community of thousands
of people around the world,
who believe that everybody
should have access to these places.
We all deserve the tools
to go and explore.
There’s stories like Laura James,
who used her robot to find out that
sea stars in her area were dying.
And she started this whole
citizen science campaign,
collected data and drove awareness
for sea-star wasting syndrome,
to try and figure out
what was happening there.
There are stories of fishermen in Mexico,
who used the robot to create
marine protected areas
where Nassau grouper were spawning,
to protect the future of this species.
It’s really amazing stuff.
We found that if you give
people the tools,
they’ll do the right thing.
But we need to take it a step further.
And, actually, I think we can dust off
Stephen Mather’s playbook.
So what did he do?
So, the first thing that he did
was he focused on infrastructure.
So 1914 wasn’t just
a time for the parks,
it was also a time for the automobile,
the Model T was rolling off the line,
and Stephen Mather understood
that this was going to be
an important part of American culture.
And so he partnered with highway
associations around the country
to build big, beautiful highways
out to these parks.
And it worked, he’s basically
invented car camping.
And he knew that if people
didn’t go to these places,
that they wouldn’t fall in love with them
and they wouldn’t care.
So that was a really insightful
idea that he had.
The second thing they did,
was they focused
on visionary philanthropy.
So, Stephen Mather was a successful
businessman from Chicago,
and anytime there was
a parks association that needed funding,
anytime there was a highway
association that needed funding,
they’d step in, write
the checks, make it happen.
There’s a great story
of his friend William Kent,
who recognized there was a small patch
of redwoods left on the base of Mount Tam,
and so he quickly bought the land
and donated it
to this National Parks effort.
That’s Muir Woods today –
it’s one of the most popular
national parks in the whole country.
My parents are visiting here
from Minnesota,
and they don’t really even
care about this talk,
all they’re talking about
is going to Muir Woods.
(Laughter)
But the last thing is critical –
Stephen Mather focused on engagement.
In one of the first meetings that they had
around this new system, he said,
“If you’re a writer,
I want you to write about this.
If you’re a business owner, I want you
to tell your clubs and your organizations.
If you work for the government,
I want you to pass regulation.”
Everybody had a job.
“Each of you, all of you,
have a role to play
in protecting these places
for future generations.”
Each of you, all of you.
I love that.
That’s the plan –
simple, three-point plan.
I think we can do the same.
So, this was the headline
when Obama created
the Papahanaumokuakea National Monument:
“Lots to see, but good luck
trying to get there.”
But like Mather, we should focus
on the technology of our time,
all of this new, amazing,
digital infrastructure
can be built to engage people
with the oceans.
So, the National Marine Sanctuary
has created all these
wonderful VR 360 videos,
where you can actually go
and see what these places look like.
Our team is continuing to build new tools,
this is our latest, this is
the trident underwater drone,
it’s a diving submarine, it’s sleek,
you can fit it in a backpack,
it can go down to 100 meters,
deeper than most divers can go.
It can see these environments
that most people have never had access to.
New tools are coming
and we need even better tools.
We can also use
more visionary philanthropists.
So, when Erik and I started this,
we didn’t have any money,
we were building this in his garage.
But we went to Kickstarter.
And we found over 1,800 people,
almost a million dollars
we’ve raised on Kickstarter,
finding other people who think,
“Yeah, that’s a good idea.
I want to be a part of that.”
We need more ways for people
to get engaged
and become visionary
philanthropists themselves.
We’ve also had
traditional philanthropists,
who’ve stepped up to fund us
in the SEE initiative –
the Science Education and Exploration,
who are going to help us get donated
units out to people on the frontlines,
people who are doing the science,
people who are telling the stories,
inspiring communities.
You can go on to OpenExplorer.com
and see what people are doing,
it’s hugely inspirational.
And it will also, hopefully,
spur you to get involved.
Because there is plenty of room
to get involved.
We want to hear what ideas you have
for telling these stories.
Because that’s just it –
this is all about engagement.
There’s all sorts of interesting,
new ways for people to participate
in the protection of these places.
And the understanding.
Like, Reef Check – scuba divers
are going down and swimming transects
and counting fish and biodiversity data.
They’re getting the information we need
to protect these places.
If you’re going down to the beach,
participate in MPA Watch.
Document what activities you see
going on in these different areas.
There is room for everybody
to participate here.
And that’s just it, that’s what we need.
We need to build a future
for our grandkids' grandkids.
Last month, I went out sailing,
and we got out to the Farallon Islands,
25 miles off the Gate.
And most people think of this
as kind of a bird sanctuary,
but we took our robot, and we sent it in.
And the people on the boat were astonished
at the life beneath the surface.
I mean, these are really,
really important ecosystems.
Really, and this is a whole
wild world we haven’t yet explored.
And we have an opportunity right now,
just as they did 100 years ago,
to protect these places, to put in a plan,
to keep people engaged.
So last year, when the executive
order came out,
putting all of the progress we’ve made,
all of these new marine protected
areas, under review,
there were over 100,000 people
who commented online.
Almost all of these letters were saying,
“Don’t do it; protecting these places
is the right thing to do.”
My message to those 100,000 people,
those 100,000 letters is:
don’t wait for Washington.
We can do this ourselves.
Thank you.
(Applause)