1 00:00:11,879 --> 00:00:13,819 A student walked into my office one day 2 00:00:13,819 --> 00:00:17,209 and said he'd like to talk to me about an undergraduate research project 3 00:00:17,209 --> 00:00:19,689 and I said, "Sure, what are you thinking about?" 4 00:00:19,689 --> 00:00:24,129 And he said, "Well, there's been so much research done on bottlenose dolphins 5 00:00:24,754 --> 00:00:29,044 that we now know they meet the universal definition of persons." 6 00:00:30,477 --> 00:00:33,427 And I said, "Keep talking." 7 00:00:33,510 --> 00:00:35,820 And I didn't even realize until that moment, 8 00:00:35,820 --> 00:00:40,280 that I had never thought of persons as anything but humans, 9 00:00:40,280 --> 00:00:42,580 just like, you know, interchangeably. 10 00:00:42,983 --> 00:00:46,573 The implications though, if dolphins are persons, 11 00:00:46,573 --> 00:00:49,683 is that they have moral standing, and what that means, 12 00:00:49,683 --> 00:00:52,393 from an environmental policy and management perspective, 13 00:00:52,393 --> 00:00:56,513 is that we wouldn't be managing populations of dolphins, 14 00:00:58,064 --> 00:01:00,794 they would actually, individually have rights. 15 00:01:01,024 --> 00:01:04,494 In that project we looked at which rights, in the Bill of Rights, 16 00:01:04,494 --> 00:01:06,894 and in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 17 00:01:07,505 --> 00:01:09,415 would be extended to dolphins. 18 00:01:09,415 --> 00:01:13,555 Or we would actually, really, recognize that they already have those rights. 19 00:01:13,960 --> 00:01:17,960 And I'm not going to talk about that project tonight specifically. 20 00:01:20,344 --> 00:01:22,564 What is a person now? 21 00:01:22,564 --> 00:01:25,834 Philosophers have lots of ideas about this, 22 00:01:25,834 --> 00:01:29,564 there's rough consensus, discussed by Thomas White in his book, 23 00:01:29,564 --> 00:01:31,674 'In Defense of Dolphins', 24 00:01:31,674 --> 00:01:33,644 around eight criteria. 25 00:01:41,612 --> 00:01:44,852 A person is alive, aware, 26 00:01:44,852 --> 00:01:48,292 feels positive and negative sensations, and has emotions. 27 00:01:48,292 --> 00:01:53,932 A person also has a sense of self, controls its own behavior, 28 00:01:54,652 --> 00:01:57,492 recognizes other persons and treats them appropriately, 29 00:01:57,492 --> 00:02:00,092 and has a variety of sophisticated cognitive abilities: 30 00:02:00,092 --> 00:02:02,792 problem-solving, abstract thought, etc. 31 00:02:02,792 --> 00:02:05,872 I'm not going to make the case that dolphins are persons tonight. 32 00:02:05,872 --> 00:02:08,432 I'm just going to tell you some stories. 33 00:02:08,432 --> 00:02:11,512 Also because many definitions of personhood 34 00:02:11,512 --> 00:02:14,772 have a big weakness, that has to do with verbal communication, 35 00:02:14,772 --> 00:02:16,392 which I think is kind of funny, 36 00:02:16,392 --> 00:02:19,152 because the language spoken by more organisms 37 00:02:19,152 --> 00:02:21,132 than any other language on Earth, 38 00:02:21,132 --> 00:02:23,522 is actually bioluminescence. 39 00:02:23,522 --> 00:02:26,402 So our use of language and communication are pretty limited. 40 00:02:27,513 --> 00:02:32,713 Several years ago there was a man, he was at an aquarium, 41 00:02:32,933 --> 00:02:35,713 and he was looking through the window 42 00:02:35,713 --> 00:02:38,163 at this baby dolphin on the other side of the glass. 43 00:02:38,163 --> 00:02:39,643 And he was smoking a cigarette, 44 00:02:39,643 --> 00:02:41,223 because it was several years ago. 45 00:02:41,223 --> 00:02:44,653 He took a drag off his cigarette, and he blew it toward the baby dolphin, 46 00:02:44,653 --> 00:02:46,863 and it spread out on the glass. 47 00:02:47,181 --> 00:02:49,981 And the baby dolphin swam away to its mother, 48 00:02:49,981 --> 00:02:53,451 and got a mouthful milk, and swam back and faced him, 49 00:02:53,651 --> 00:02:57,081 and squirted the milk out, yeah, yeah. 50 00:02:59,010 --> 00:03:02,170 Where is that in the list? 51 00:03:02,270 --> 00:03:06,270 So, abstract thought, material substitution ability? 52 00:03:06,776 --> 00:03:08,586 Pretty impressive. 53 00:03:09,396 --> 00:03:10,536 Another story, 54 00:03:10,536 --> 00:03:13,216 there's a diver, who's diving down at about 60 feet. 55 00:03:13,216 --> 00:03:15,096 He was on the bottom doing something, 56 00:03:15,096 --> 00:03:16,776 and three dolphins swam up to him: 57 00:03:16,776 --> 00:03:19,376 two adults and a baby in between them. 58 00:03:19,376 --> 00:03:21,055 And they swam right up to him 59 00:03:29,448 --> 00:03:33,128 was wrapped around its fin and was cutting into it. 60 00:03:21,055 --> 00:03:24,521 and the adults held the baby down on the bottom in front of him. 61 00:03:24,521 --> 00:03:29,431 And the baby dolphin had a hook in front of its tail, and the fishing line 62 00:03:33,128 --> 00:03:35,708 So they held this dolphin down in front of this human. 63 00:03:35,708 --> 00:03:38,708 And the guy took out his knife and he cut the lines 64 00:03:38,708 --> 00:03:40,728 and unwrapped the fishing line. 65 00:03:40,728 --> 00:03:42,888 And he tried to pull the hook out 66 00:03:42,888 --> 00:03:45,048 but it was too embedded for him to pull out, 67 00:03:45,646 --> 00:03:47,856 and the dolphins were still holding that thing. 68 00:03:47,856 --> 00:03:49,806 And so he cut it out with his knife, 69 00:03:49,806 --> 00:03:53,346 which, without question, was quite painful for the baby dolphin. 70 00:03:53,346 --> 00:03:55,040 But he got it all cleaned up. 71 00:03:55,040 --> 00:03:57,340 So one adult and the baby swam off, 72 00:03:57,340 --> 00:04:00,700 and the other adult swam right up to his mask, 73 00:04:00,700 --> 00:04:02,530 and put his snout right into his face, 74 00:04:02,530 --> 00:04:04,125 which is normally aggression, 75 00:04:04,125 --> 00:04:06,955 but he said it was clearly not an aggressive move at all. 76 00:04:06,955 --> 00:04:08,329 And that dolphin -- 77 00:04:08,501 --> 00:04:11,151 they just they just looked into each other's eyes 78 00:04:11,151 --> 00:04:14,881 for a long time, and then the dolphin swam away. 79 00:04:18,961 --> 00:04:21,672 Dolphins see with their eyes, 80 00:04:21,672 --> 00:04:24,232 but they really experience the world through sonar. 81 00:04:25,840 --> 00:04:28,270 So if a dolphin is in front of us underwater, 82 00:04:28,270 --> 00:04:31,508 it would be able to see and tell all the differences in density, 83 00:04:31,508 --> 00:04:34,678 so it would be able to see all of our organs, individually. 84 00:04:34,678 --> 00:04:38,048 They can tell differences in thickness down to a millimeter, 85 00:04:38,048 --> 00:04:39,498 or probably less. 86 00:04:39,498 --> 00:04:42,028 That's as far as we can figure out what they can tell. 87 00:04:42,028 --> 00:04:44,188 It would see our blood flowing, 88 00:04:44,188 --> 00:04:46,228 it would see all kinds of activity. 89 00:04:46,228 --> 00:04:48,238 Dolphins can tell when humans are pregnant, 90 00:04:48,238 --> 00:04:50,188 because it's like, "Yep, that's in there. 91 00:04:50,188 --> 00:04:52,238 I know what that's about, you know." 92 00:04:52,238 --> 00:04:55,528 There's actually a case where a dolphin indicated a woman was pregnant 93 00:04:55,528 --> 00:04:57,628 before she knew she was pregnant. 94 00:04:58,249 --> 00:05:02,249 But they see with sonar, which raises lots of questions. 95 00:05:02,446 --> 00:05:06,466 And I'm sure that dolphin was doing all kinds of sonar stuff with the human 96 00:05:06,646 --> 00:05:09,946 but we don't have sensory equipment for that. 97 00:05:11,633 --> 00:05:12,833 Can they lie? 98 00:05:13,427 --> 00:05:17,187 When humans lie, our palms sweat, our heart rate changes, and things. 99 00:05:17,187 --> 00:05:19,217 Dolphins could see all of that happening, 100 00:05:19,217 --> 00:05:21,277 and they can see it happening in each other. 101 00:05:21,277 --> 00:05:25,047 So unless they could lie with no physiological change, 102 00:05:25,047 --> 00:05:27,547 it might be that they can't, or don't lie. 103 00:05:27,547 --> 00:05:29,987 Or maybe they do, but it's interesting to think 104 00:05:29,987 --> 00:05:32,837 what would a society be like, 105 00:05:34,317 --> 00:05:38,597 if lying weren't possible, and had never been possible? 106 00:05:40,962 --> 00:05:41,692 Wow! 107 00:05:41,792 --> 00:05:44,232 I don't think we'd actually have the climate crisis, 108 00:05:44,232 --> 00:05:46,202 and a lot of other things. 109 00:05:50,957 --> 00:05:52,587 A woman researcher, 110 00:05:53,009 --> 00:05:55,929 she swam with dolphins a lot, worked with them. 111 00:05:56,082 --> 00:05:58,206 There was a storm, her boat turned over, 112 00:05:58,206 --> 00:06:00,736 there was a plastic bag with a bunch of tools in it, 113 00:06:00,736 --> 00:06:02,696 that fell down to the bottom and was lost. 114 00:06:02,696 --> 00:06:04,676 After the storm, she's down at the beach, 115 00:06:04,696 --> 00:06:07,506 she's going out for a swim, there's a dolphin there waiting, 116 00:06:07,506 --> 00:06:09,706 as was often the case, to go swimming with her, 117 00:06:09,736 --> 00:06:12,756 and the dolphin takes her out to a spot, and dives down, 118 00:06:12,756 --> 00:06:14,846 and brings up her toolkit in its mouth. 119 00:06:15,334 --> 00:06:18,244 And hands it too her. You know? No! (Laughter). 120 00:06:18,244 --> 00:06:20,924 So she takes the toolkit, and then the dolphin swam away. 121 00:06:20,924 --> 00:06:23,074 I mean, that was its purpose, 122 00:06:23,074 --> 00:06:25,674 like, "I'm going to get your stuff, come on, let's go." 123 00:06:25,674 --> 00:06:26,854 (Laughter) 124 00:06:27,122 --> 00:06:28,892 They are also artists. 125 00:06:28,892 --> 00:06:30,412 Dolphins blow bubble rings. 126 00:06:30,412 --> 00:06:32,432 I couldn't find a non copyrighted picture. 127 00:06:32,432 --> 00:06:35,102 But go online and search on that, dolphins' bubble rings. 128 00:06:35,102 --> 00:06:37,692 So they blow rings, they look like doughnuts, 129 00:06:37,692 --> 00:06:40,022 and they can change them into all kinds of shapes, 130 00:06:40,022 --> 00:06:42,172 they like to swim through them and be creative 131 00:06:42,172 --> 00:06:44,812 and do multiple bubble rings. 132 00:06:44,812 --> 00:06:47,762 And they also express frustration, 133 00:06:48,004 --> 00:06:50,284 If the bubble rings aren't doing what they want, 134 00:06:50,284 --> 00:06:52,664 and they slap them with their tails, and, you know, 135 00:06:52,664 --> 00:06:55,844 exhibit feelings, like it seems that they're frustrated. 136 00:06:56,313 --> 00:06:57,293 Maybe not. 137 00:06:58,575 --> 00:07:01,365 Dolphin brains are very different from our brains, 138 00:07:01,365 --> 00:07:04,345 they are larger, and what makes them larger 139 00:07:04,385 --> 00:07:07,285 is that they have more brain material 140 00:07:07,285 --> 00:07:10,365 in the area of the brain that is devoted to higher functions. 141 00:07:10,365 --> 00:07:14,895 Dolphins also have more grey matter than humans, 142 00:07:14,905 --> 00:07:18,515 and their grey matter has more folds in it than humans' grey matter. 143 00:07:20,562 --> 00:07:22,742 At first, when I heard about this, I thought, 144 00:07:22,742 --> 00:07:24,912 "You know, other things would be persons too, 145 00:07:24,912 --> 00:07:26,932 like elephants, dogs, and this and that." 146 00:07:26,932 --> 00:07:29,122 But then, after these details, I thought, 147 00:07:29,122 --> 00:07:32,612 "Oh, actually, dolphins have the second most complex brain on the planet, 148 00:07:32,722 --> 00:07:34,532 and there's no close third." 149 00:07:35,306 --> 00:07:37,636 Their brains are way more complex than great apes, 150 00:07:37,636 --> 00:07:39,406 they're much closer to us 151 00:07:39,406 --> 00:07:42,516 in a lot of different ways of measuring intelligence and things. 152 00:07:43,268 --> 00:07:46,988 They also have the emotional centers of their brains more integrated 153 00:07:47,068 --> 00:07:49,488 with their motor and sensory perception, 154 00:07:49,488 --> 00:07:52,708 and also their higher functioning parts of their brains 155 00:07:52,738 --> 00:07:54,518 where we would be doing reasoning. 156 00:07:54,518 --> 00:07:56,008 So, as opposed to us, 157 00:07:56,008 --> 00:07:58,238 where our emotional center is more isolated, 158 00:07:58,238 --> 00:08:02,938 in dolphins it's pretty integrated, they are touching along a lot of surface. 159 00:08:02,948 --> 00:08:04,858 So it might be possible 160 00:08:04,858 --> 00:08:09,388 that dolphins can't be out of touch with their emotions. 161 00:08:10,364 --> 00:08:12,214 And they clearly have emotions, 162 00:08:12,214 --> 00:08:13,764 and they clearly grieve, 163 00:08:13,764 --> 00:08:15,544 and they clearly experience joy, 164 00:08:15,544 --> 00:08:17,184 or whatever they call it, joy. 165 00:08:18,497 --> 00:08:20,157 So my student said to me, 166 00:08:21,247 --> 00:08:22,657 "By dolphin standards, 167 00:08:23,587 --> 00:08:25,207 humans might be autistic." 168 00:08:25,503 --> 00:08:27,353 (Laughter) 169 00:08:27,923 --> 00:08:30,063 I know, it's kind of funny, 170 00:08:30,365 --> 00:08:32,184 but this is very meaningful too, 171 00:08:32,404 --> 00:08:34,506 because he grew up with an autistic brother, 172 00:08:34,506 --> 00:08:36,276 so he knew what he was talking about. 173 00:08:36,276 --> 00:08:38,146 He was like, "We're probably autistic," 174 00:08:38,146 --> 00:08:40,826 and I said, "Oh my gosh, we're autistic compared to dogs, 175 00:08:40,826 --> 00:08:43,776 we're autistic compared to, you know, you've got a long list." 176 00:08:44,756 --> 00:08:47,506 There are all kinds of cetaceans, 177 00:08:47,506 --> 00:08:52,476 and it's not just dolphins, that we find amazing relationships. 178 00:08:53,072 --> 00:08:57,082 There was a humpback whale, so 40-50 feet long, a humpback whale. 179 00:08:57,195 --> 00:08:59,635 Up the coast of San Francisco, in 2005, 180 00:08:59,635 --> 00:09:02,825 this was the very first successful time 181 00:09:02,825 --> 00:09:06,905 we ever unwrapped a humpback whale that was trapped in all kinds of ropes. 182 00:09:07,097 --> 00:09:10,517 And it had crab pot ropes all over, it had twenty of them. 183 00:09:10,737 --> 00:09:14,457 They are about 240 feet long, they have weights every 60 feet, 184 00:09:14,457 --> 00:09:19,337 and several of them had 90-pound crab pots still on them. 185 00:09:19,407 --> 00:09:23,947 And there was one wrapped multiple times around its tail, 186 00:09:23,947 --> 00:09:26,507 there was one in its mouth, all over it. 187 00:09:26,677 --> 00:09:29,897 It was in very bad shape, and a call went in, 188 00:09:29,897 --> 00:09:33,877 some highly experienced divers went out, and risked their lives, 189 00:09:33,917 --> 00:09:37,627 because one swish of a humpback's tail could easily kill a diver. 190 00:09:37,627 --> 00:09:40,471 The whale stayed still, 191 00:09:40,471 --> 00:09:44,351 it had little trouble staying up because of the weights connected to it, 192 00:09:44,351 --> 00:09:46,461 while they carefully, with curved knives, 193 00:09:46,461 --> 00:09:48,721 because the ropes were cutting into its blubber, 194 00:09:48,721 --> 00:09:52,301 with curved knives they cut all of the ropes away. 195 00:09:53,961 --> 00:09:55,351 And the whale, 196 00:09:56,631 --> 00:09:59,221 when it realized it was free, 197 00:09:59,561 --> 00:10:03,371 it swam all over the place, and they said it looked like it was frolicking, 198 00:10:03,742 --> 00:10:07,752 and then they had this vibration going on in the water, the whole time, 199 00:10:07,752 --> 00:10:09,092 that they could feel. 200 00:10:09,092 --> 00:10:13,372 Then the humpback whale, this is a 50 ton animal, 201 00:10:13,422 --> 00:10:18,922 went up to every single diver, individually, and nuzzled them, 202 00:10:19,453 --> 00:10:20,933 and then swam away. 203 00:10:32,021 --> 00:10:34,351 So we're in this intimate relationship with them, 204 00:10:34,351 --> 00:10:36,331 of course we already live together, 205 00:10:36,331 --> 00:10:38,351 but we're being like really bad roommates. 206 00:10:38,351 --> 00:10:39,951 We're being like roommates that 207 00:10:39,951 --> 00:10:42,371 threw all of our garbage in our roommates' bedroom, 208 00:10:42,371 --> 00:10:44,741 and we ate all their food, 209 00:10:44,741 --> 00:10:46,951 and their parents came over and we killed them, 210 00:10:46,951 --> 00:10:48,551 and then we ate them! 211 00:10:48,551 --> 00:10:50,551 (Laughter) 212 00:10:50,551 --> 00:10:52,701 And this is the truth. 213 00:10:53,511 --> 00:10:55,041 And then we figure out, 214 00:10:55,041 --> 00:10:57,781 "Wow, oh my gosh, this roommates are actually really cool, 215 00:10:57,781 --> 00:11:00,421 wonderful individuals, I'd like to get to know them. 216 00:11:00,441 --> 00:11:02,881 I've been treating them so badly, this is terrible." 217 00:11:02,881 --> 00:11:05,171 So we have a great opportunity 218 00:11:05,171 --> 00:11:09,251 to expand our relationships, which is wonderful. 219 00:11:10,151 --> 00:11:12,271 What's not wonderful is that 220 00:11:16,430 --> 00:11:18,470 scientists predict that we're going to lose 221 00:11:18,470 --> 00:11:22,510 most of the dolphins to extinction, forever, by 2100. 222 00:11:26,955 --> 00:11:29,385 And that is not acceptable to me. 223 00:11:29,385 --> 00:11:30,735 Can I get a witness? 224 00:11:30,819 --> 00:11:33,559 (Applause) 225 00:11:33,559 --> 00:11:35,249 Yeah, that is not acceptable. 226 00:11:35,249 --> 00:11:36,639 The extinction crisis, 227 00:11:36,639 --> 00:11:39,719 the numbers we're on track for, right now, for all life on Earth, 228 00:11:39,719 --> 00:11:43,199 is somewhere between 25 and 50% becoming extinct by 2100. 229 00:11:45,695 --> 00:11:48,345 Somewhere between 25 and 50% becoming extinct by 2100. 230 00:11:48,345 --> 00:11:51,115 Usually this is where people want to turn off their minds, 231 00:11:51,115 --> 00:11:53,535 like, "That hurt, maybe I didn't hear that right", 232 00:11:53,535 --> 00:11:55,905 or it bounces off because it's such a high number. 233 00:11:55,905 --> 00:11:58,245 But we have to look at this, even though it hurts. 234 00:11:58,245 --> 00:12:00,735 I think a bit like, if I went into an emergency room, 235 00:12:00,735 --> 00:12:03,795 or somebody goes into an emergency room and they're hurt, badly, 236 00:12:03,795 --> 00:12:06,675 and the doctors are like, 'Wow! I don't want to look at that, 237 00:12:06,675 --> 00:12:08,625 oh man, that's gonna be bad! 238 00:12:08,625 --> 00:12:10,385 When do I get off?" 239 00:12:10,854 --> 00:12:13,794 You know we've got to go, "Okay, what's the situation? 240 00:12:13,794 --> 00:12:15,654 And how are we going to handle it?" 241 00:12:15,654 --> 00:12:16,974 Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! 242 00:12:19,197 --> 00:12:21,387 So, the cool thing about the extinction crisis, 243 00:12:21,447 --> 00:12:24,327 is that we all go, or nobody goes. 244 00:12:26,597 --> 00:12:32,677 We can't save dolphins without saving millions of other species in the process. 245 00:12:32,925 --> 00:12:34,205 Which is fantastic. 246 00:12:35,424 --> 00:12:37,234 So we all go, or nobody goes. 247 00:12:38,083 --> 00:12:39,723 The challenge right now, 248 00:12:39,997 --> 00:12:42,187 like the late Thomas Perry said, 249 00:12:42,187 --> 00:12:44,777 "What we have to do is the great work." 250 00:12:46,571 --> 00:12:49,841 I say, "What we have to do is restore World Garden. 251 00:12:50,003 --> 00:12:51,003 That's what I call it. 252 00:12:51,003 --> 00:12:52,893 We have to restore world garden. 253 00:12:52,893 --> 00:12:55,593 (Applause) 254 00:12:55,593 --> 00:12:58,243 Yeah! 255 00:12:59,788 --> 00:13:01,458 And it's a big get to. 256 00:13:01,458 --> 00:13:04,878 So, what I want to talk about are -- 257 00:13:05,977 --> 00:13:08,807 all my degrees are Environmental Sciences degrees. 258 00:13:08,807 --> 00:13:10,817 I was actually a tree hugger as a child, 259 00:13:10,817 --> 00:13:12,917 I didn't even know there was a term for that, 260 00:13:12,917 --> 00:13:14,777 and I was hugging trees as a child. 261 00:13:14,777 --> 00:13:16,007 Really! 262 00:13:17,327 --> 00:13:20,017 I was eating dirt, too. 263 00:13:22,080 --> 00:13:28,400 So I'm going to give you four big ideas, that are things that we need to do 264 00:13:28,440 --> 00:13:32,440 if we're going to restore World Garden. 265 00:13:32,440 --> 00:13:37,470 The first one is the hardest, but it's not optional. 266 00:13:38,908 --> 00:13:40,408 And that's not it. 267 00:13:41,089 --> 00:13:43,279 Am I pushing the wrong button? 268 00:13:43,279 --> 00:13:44,519 Oh, there it is. 269 00:13:44,519 --> 00:13:46,359 Uh, you cannot even tell what that is. 270 00:13:46,359 --> 00:13:48,159 That is a really bad image of a plan 271 00:13:48,159 --> 00:13:51,399 from the Fish and Wildlife folks up in Vermont, 272 00:13:51,399 --> 00:13:55,079 but what we need to do is reconnect our habitats. 273 00:13:55,079 --> 00:13:58,539 We have fragmented our habitats, and that's one of the major reasons 274 00:13:58,539 --> 00:14:00,559 for the extinction crisis. 275 00:14:00,559 --> 00:14:04,279 So, what we've created on terrestrial Earth, is a bunch of islands, 276 00:14:04,279 --> 00:14:05,919 they are isolated. 277 00:14:05,919 --> 00:14:08,809 So, if you imagine a Persian carpet, a large Persian carpet, 278 00:14:08,809 --> 00:14:11,779 and it's got a beautiful, complex design on it, 279 00:14:11,779 --> 00:14:13,569 and every part of that carpet 280 00:14:13,569 --> 00:14:15,889 is connected to every other part of that carpet 281 00:14:15,889 --> 00:14:19,109 through the warp and the weft, in a series of complex relationships, 282 00:14:19,109 --> 00:14:21,579 it's a good metaphor for an ecosystem. 283 00:14:21,579 --> 00:14:22,969 So we cut that up, 284 00:14:22,969 --> 00:14:24,939 paved over some of it, burned some of it 285 00:14:24,939 --> 00:14:27,249 thrown it away, whatever, planted rice on it, 286 00:14:27,249 --> 00:14:29,679 and there are pieces left, but they're isolated, 287 00:14:29,679 --> 00:14:34,439 and each one is not as incredible as the entire Persian carpet, 288 00:14:34,990 --> 00:14:38,170 and each one is commencing to fall apart. 289 00:14:39,683 --> 00:14:41,473 So we need to restore them, 290 00:14:41,473 --> 00:14:43,993 and have protected areas with corridors in between. 291 00:14:43,993 --> 00:14:45,283 This is difficult, 292 00:14:45,283 --> 00:14:47,713 we run into the Fifth Amendment, on property rights, 293 00:14:47,713 --> 00:14:51,243 and all kinds of other things, but it's actually not optional. 294 00:14:51,641 --> 00:14:54,261 If we want to be stewards of the future of life 295 00:14:54,261 --> 00:14:56,591 and maintain habitability on this Planet, 296 00:14:56,633 --> 00:14:58,833 this is not optional, so we might as well say, 297 00:14:58,833 --> 00:15:00,193 "Yeah, we get to do it." 298 00:15:00,193 --> 00:15:03,103 The fact that it's not optional makes the fact that it's hard 299 00:15:03,103 --> 00:15:04,993 pretty much irrelevant. (Laughter) 300 00:15:04,993 --> 00:15:06,853 As far as I'm concerned. 301 00:15:06,853 --> 00:15:10,373 (Applause) 302 00:15:12,481 --> 00:15:16,111 And just like Drew said, most of the things worth having, 303 00:15:16,141 --> 00:15:19,451 or most of the accomplishments worth achieving, are hard. 304 00:15:19,561 --> 00:15:20,891 So this is fantastic, 305 00:15:20,891 --> 00:15:23,051 restore World Garden on this one. 306 00:15:23,364 --> 00:15:27,884 Another tremendous opportunity, is microalgae. 307 00:15:27,994 --> 00:15:31,994 We already have a sustainable fuel available, 308 00:15:32,465 --> 00:15:35,145 and I've been preaching about microalgae for years, 309 00:15:35,145 --> 00:15:37,185 and I'm going to preach about it tonight! 310 00:15:37,185 --> 00:15:42,145 And you'll know why, and you walk out with microalgae forever in your soul. 311 00:15:42,514 --> 00:15:44,254 I'm going to save you. 312 00:15:44,254 --> 00:15:47,074 Alright, I'm going to heal you. 313 00:15:48,298 --> 00:15:51,358 Some species of microalgae are very fatty. 314 00:15:51,358 --> 00:15:54,128 They are 70% or more lipid by weight. 315 00:15:54,128 --> 00:15:55,698 We can grow them, 316 00:15:56,138 --> 00:15:58,638 we don't do this in the ocean, and squeeze the ocean, 317 00:15:58,638 --> 00:16:01,428 we grow them in an isolated place. 318 00:16:01,428 --> 00:16:04,888 So we grow them, and we can press the oil out of them, 319 00:16:04,888 --> 00:16:07,548 and then we can use that oil for lots of industries. 320 00:16:07,548 --> 00:16:10,638 You can just burn straight in, or we convert it to biodiesel, 321 00:16:10,638 --> 00:16:12,418 or whatever we want. 322 00:16:12,418 --> 00:16:14,688 The incredible thing about microalgae is this. 323 00:16:15,941 --> 00:16:21,141 The best crop we have right now, for producing oil, is oil palm. 324 00:16:21,763 --> 00:16:26,773 With oil palm we can produce, maybe, 650 gallons per acre per year, 325 00:16:26,773 --> 00:16:29,713 maybe a couple more hundreds than that. 326 00:16:29,713 --> 00:16:31,003 But that's it. 327 00:16:31,003 --> 00:16:32,233 In North Carolina, 328 00:16:32,233 --> 00:16:34,623 most promising for us would be rapeseed, 329 00:16:34,623 --> 00:16:37,373 which may be 47 gallons per acre per year. 330 00:16:37,373 --> 00:16:39,073 With microalgae, by 1999, 331 00:16:39,073 --> 00:16:41,973 the US government had already demonstrated 332 00:16:41,973 --> 00:16:45,573 5 to 10 thousand gallons per acre per year. 333 00:16:47,137 --> 00:16:49,747 There's a company out there that, a couple years ago, 334 00:16:49,747 --> 00:16:52,387 said they demonstrated 30,000 gallons per acre per year, 335 00:16:52,387 --> 00:16:55,437 and they knew they could do 100. 336 00:16:55,617 --> 00:16:58,357 So, if we do this sustainably, there's no downside, 337 00:16:58,357 --> 00:17:02,367 and if you go online and you search Green XPrize and microalgae, 338 00:17:02,427 --> 00:17:04,657 John Richard and I did a two-minute 339 00:17:04,657 --> 00:17:08,407 pitch for the Green XPrize competition, 340 00:17:08,407 --> 00:17:12,967 and you can kind of learn everything you need to know to begin, in two minutes. 341 00:17:12,987 --> 00:17:16,127 So I encourage you, if you're interested. 342 00:17:18,020 --> 00:17:20,120 If we would burn our forest, 343 00:17:21,816 --> 00:17:22,996 it could save us. 344 00:17:22,996 --> 00:17:24,856 No. (Laughter) 345 00:17:24,856 --> 00:17:27,816 This a power charcoal, this is the power charcoal, 346 00:17:27,816 --> 00:17:30,236 this is biochar, and biochar can save us. 347 00:17:30,236 --> 00:17:32,776 So, Drew was up here talking about reducing emissions, 348 00:17:32,776 --> 00:17:34,946 and getting to 3.50, we've got to get to 3.50. 349 00:17:35,286 --> 00:17:36,476 3.50 is the goal. 350 00:17:36,476 --> 00:17:40,476 So we have to turn around and take a big step forward. 351 00:17:41,915 --> 00:17:44,395 Biochar is one of the ways to do this. 352 00:17:44,500 --> 00:17:46,840 Because, since we're above 3.50, 353 00:17:46,840 --> 00:17:49,110 we've got to start doing sequestration today. 354 00:17:49,541 --> 00:17:53,701 Down in South America, there were soils that anthropologists call Dark Earth, 355 00:17:53,701 --> 00:17:57,181 Terra Preta, and they didn't know where these soils had come from, 356 00:17:57,181 --> 00:18:00,311 because they were round areas, where there had been civilizations. 357 00:18:00,311 --> 00:18:03,601 They didn't know people lived there, because the Dark Earth was there, 358 00:18:03,601 --> 00:18:05,091 because it produced a lot more, 359 00:18:05,091 --> 00:18:07,771 or if the people had somehow made these soils this way, 360 00:18:07,771 --> 00:18:09,541 that they're highly productive. 361 00:18:09,541 --> 00:18:11,691 And we found out that they made them that way, 362 00:18:11,691 --> 00:18:14,911 by making biochar, and mixing it into the soil, 363 00:18:14,911 --> 00:18:18,631 because it radically improves electron transport and some other things. 364 00:18:18,661 --> 00:18:20,771 So we've decimated our soils. 365 00:18:20,771 --> 00:18:22,741 This is a great win win, because 366 00:18:22,741 --> 00:18:25,311 we can rebuild our soils, and this is a wonderful way 367 00:18:25,311 --> 00:18:27,061 to start doing that, 368 00:18:27,061 --> 00:18:28,121 and the carbon 369 00:18:28,121 --> 00:18:29,811 that gets in there is sequestered. 370 00:18:29,811 --> 00:18:31,231 We have the data. 371 00:18:31,741 --> 00:18:33,591 People did it for us. 372 00:18:33,591 --> 00:18:36,911 The carbon stays for thousands of years, 373 00:18:36,911 --> 00:18:40,351 it doesn't just decompose and return to the atmosphere. 374 00:18:41,501 --> 00:18:44,691 Because it's not decomposing, it's just interacting with things, 375 00:18:44,691 --> 00:18:46,551 but it's not changing its form. 376 00:18:46,551 --> 00:18:48,961 So this is incredible, biochar is fantastic, 377 00:18:48,961 --> 00:18:51,471 and a way to a sustainable future. 378 00:18:51,471 --> 00:18:57,161 And finally, there's just one special class of beings that need to have 379 00:18:57,711 --> 00:19:00,301 attention paid to them, specifically. 380 00:19:01,904 --> 00:19:04,174 And that is because they are the birth of life. 381 00:19:05,204 --> 00:19:07,534 And they are the pollinators. 382 00:19:07,540 --> 00:19:10,680 A lot of people know that we're having a colony collapse disorder 383 00:19:10,680 --> 00:19:13,500 with the European honeybees, but what most people don't know 384 00:19:13,500 --> 00:19:16,130 is that for decades our native pollinators, 385 00:19:16,130 --> 00:19:18,230 which are better than the European honeybees, 386 00:19:18,230 --> 00:19:20,740 our native pollinators have been crashing. 387 00:19:20,740 --> 00:19:23,220 Those populations have been crashing. 388 00:19:23,220 --> 00:19:27,220 It's primarily because of pesticide use and a loss of habitat somewhat, 389 00:19:27,220 --> 00:19:29,080 but primarily pesticide use. 390 00:19:29,148 --> 00:19:34,298 So this is something that you and I can do for sure in our lives, 391 00:19:34,381 --> 00:19:39,546 whether we plant a pollinator garden -without pesticides- on our own property 392 00:19:39,546 --> 00:19:42,906 or encourage the city to do it, or make sure other people are doing it; 393 00:19:42,906 --> 00:19:45,456 learn about what kind of plants work for pollinators. 394 00:19:45,456 --> 00:19:47,016 When I was a little kid 395 00:19:47,016 --> 00:19:50,606 I've always had this connection to bees and wasps, I don't know why. 396 00:19:50,606 --> 00:19:52,976 There's a bumblebee, you can't see it very well, 397 00:19:52,976 --> 00:19:54,346 on my scarlet runner beans, 398 00:19:54,346 --> 00:19:57,066 which were covered with bees all summer, I just loved it. 399 00:19:57,066 --> 00:19:59,876 When I was a little kid, I used to carry bumble bees around. 400 00:19:59,876 --> 00:20:00,756 I never got stung. 401 00:20:00,756 --> 00:20:02,946 My mum would say, "You're going to get stung," 402 00:20:02,946 --> 00:20:04,376 and I'd say, "No. I'm not!" 403 00:20:04,376 --> 00:20:06,446 You know, I was just, "Wow! these are neat!" 404 00:20:06,537 --> 00:20:09,297 They're more than neat, they're the future of life, 405 00:20:09,297 --> 00:20:12,127 so they deserve special stewardship attention, 406 00:20:12,183 --> 00:20:14,393 if we care about ourselves. 407 00:20:14,393 --> 00:20:16,433 It's for our own self-interest. 408 00:20:16,433 --> 00:20:18,843 All of this is for our own self-interest. 409 00:20:18,843 --> 00:20:21,303 So back to dolphins for a minute. 410 00:20:27,881 --> 00:20:30,511 Maybe dolphins are non-human persons, 411 00:20:30,511 --> 00:20:32,961 I don't know if they are non-human persons. 412 00:20:33,806 --> 00:20:35,656 But what I do know, 413 00:20:36,526 --> 00:20:40,846 is that when we interact with non-human beings, 414 00:20:41,837 --> 00:20:45,837 and instead of thinking of them as 'it', 415 00:20:45,837 --> 00:20:49,157 -- which means you don't interact with them, they are just 'its' -- 416 00:20:49,177 --> 00:20:51,527 instead of being with them as an 'it', 417 00:20:51,527 --> 00:20:54,757 if we are with them as a 'you', or as a 'thou', 418 00:20:55,787 --> 00:20:57,887 that increases our own humanness, 419 00:20:57,887 --> 00:21:00,347 and that makes our own life far more meaningful. 420 00:21:01,247 --> 00:21:04,217 And I hope that you will walk out of here with different eyes, 421 00:21:04,342 --> 00:21:07,702 and question the other species, 422 00:21:08,215 --> 00:21:10,195 as Native Americans would say, 423 00:21:10,925 --> 00:21:13,265 the two legged people, the four legged people, 424 00:21:13,554 --> 00:21:15,562 the swimming people, the flying people, 425 00:21:15,562 --> 00:21:16,992 the crawling people, 426 00:21:17,072 --> 00:21:19,382 I would add the photosynthesizing people, 427 00:21:19,382 --> 00:21:21,312 (Laughter) 428 00:21:22,142 --> 00:21:23,942 and welcome them to the family, 429 00:21:23,942 --> 00:21:25,862 and let's restore World Garden! 430 00:21:25,862 --> 00:21:27,042 Thank you! 431 00:21:27,042 --> 00:21:33,902 (Applause)