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