Prince William This decade calls for Earthshots to repair our planet
Transcriber: TED Translators Admin
Reviewer: Rhonda Jacobs
Hello, everyone.
Growing up in my family
gives you a certain sense of history.
I’m simply the latest in a line
that can be traced back generations.
This oak tree is close to Windsor Castle,
which has been home to my family
for over 900 years.
Thirty-nine monarchs have lived here
and enjoyed these beautiful surroundings.
I’ve walked here many times myself,
and it always amazes me
that some of the trees planted here,
living organisms, dependent
on soil, rain and sunlight,
were here as they laid
the first stones of Windsor Castle.
That makes some of the oaks here
almost 1,000 years old.
These trees germinated during the reign
of William the Conqueror in 1066,
from a simple acorn like this.
By the time that Henry VIII lived here,
they’d grown into mature,
impressive giants.
And amazingly,
some of those very same trees
still survive here today.
They’re a bit gnarled and hollowed-out,
but they’re still very much alive.
While these oaks have been growing,
around 35 billion people
have lived their lives on our planet.
That’s 35 billion lifetimes' worth
of hope, love, fear and dreams.
In that time, humankind
has invented air travel,
vaccines and computers.
We’ve explored every part of the globe,
sequenced the human genome
and even escaped Earth’s atmosphere.
Our speed of innovation
has been incredible,
but so, too, has
the acceleration of our impact.
Over my grandmother’s lifetime,
the last 90 years or so,
our impacts accelerated so fast
that our climate, oceans, air,
nature and all that depends on them
are in peril.
This oak has stood here for centuries,
but never has it faced a decade like this.
We start this new decade
knowing that it is the most
consequential period in history.
The science is irrefutable.
If we do not act in this decade,
the damage that we have done
will be irreversible.
And the effects felt
not just by future generations
but by all of us alive today.
And what’s more, this damage
will not be felt equally by everyone.
It is the most vulnerable,
those with the fewest resources
and those who’ve done the least
to cause climate change
who will be impacted the most.
These stark facts are terrifying.
How can we hope to fix
such massive intractable problems?
It may seem overwhelming,
but it is possible.
Humans have an extraordinary capacity
to set goals and strive to achieve them.
I’ve long been inspired
by President John F. Kennedy’s
1961 mission to put a man
on the moon within a decade.
He named it the Moonshot.
It seemed crazy.
We’d only just launched
the first satellite.
Putting a man on the moon
that quickly seemed impossible.
But this simple challenge
encompassed so much.
He called it a goal
to organize and measure
the best of our energies and skills.
In taking that giant leap for mankind,
the team behind the Moonshot
united millions of people
around the world –
that this crazy ambition
wasn’t so crazy after all.
And along the way, it helped the invention
of breathing equipment,
CAT scanners and solar panels.
But now, rather than a Moonshot
for this decade,
we need Earthshots.
We must harness that same
spirit of human ingenuity and purpose
and turn it with laser sharp
focus and urgency
on the most pressing challenge
we have ever faced,
repairing our planet.
The shared goals
for our generation are clear.
Together, we must protect
and restore nature,
clean our air, revive our oceans,
build a waste-free world
and fix our climate.
And we must strive
to do all of this in a decade.
If we achieve these goals,
by 2030 our lives won’t be worse,
and we won’t have to
sacrifice everything we enjoy.
Instead, the way we live
will be healthier,
cleaner, smarter and better for all of us.
The global response
to the COVID-19 pandemic
and the funds flowing
into the economic recovery
demonstrate how much can be achieved
when those in positions
of power come together
and decide to act.
We built hospitals overnight,
repurposed factories,
poured billions into the search
for a vaccine and better treatments.
And we’ve been inspired by heroes emerging
in every community across the world.
Young people no longer believe
that change is too difficult.
They witnessed the world turn on its head.
They believe that the climate crisis
and the threat to our biodiversity
deserves our full attention and ambition.
And they’re right.
So now is the time for each
one of us to show leadership.
Whether you’re a farmer in the US,
a tech owner in China,
a politician in Kenya,
a banker in Britain,
a fisherman in the Maldives,
a community leader in Brazil
or a student in India,
every single one of us has a role to play
in harnessing whatever
opportunity we have.
I’m committed to using
the unique position that I have
to help set those Earthshot goals
and reward people
across every sector of society
and in every part of the world
who do their bit to help achieve them.
Some people are motivated
to act by a crisis,
but for many,
the incentive to act only comes
when they believe that change is possible,
that it isn’t a lost cause.
If people really believe
that these challenges,
these Earthshots, are possible,
just imagine all the potential
we will unleash.
I’m determined to both start
and end this decade as an optimist.
Whilst our generation
represents just a blip
in the lifetime of these magnificent oaks,
we have the power and potential
to ensure that they and all life on earth
thrive for another
thousand years and more.
But only if we now unleash
the greatest talents of our generation
to repair our planet.
We have no choice but to succeed.
Thank you.