9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Now, I'm an ethnobotanist. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 That's a scientist who works in the rain forest 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 to document how people use local plants. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 I've been doing this for a long time, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and I want to tell you, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 these people know these forests 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and these medicinal treasures 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 better than we do and[br]better than we ever will. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 But also, these cultures, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 these indigenous cultures, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 are disappearing much faster 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 than the forests themselves, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and the greatest and[br]most endangered species 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 in the Amazon rain forest 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 is not the jaguar, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 it's not the harpy eagle, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 it's the isolated and uncontacted tribes. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Now four years, I injured my foot 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 in a climbing accident 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and I went to the doctor. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 She gave me heat, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 she gave me cold, Aspirin, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 narcotic painkillers, anti-inflammatories, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 cortisone shots. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 It didn't work. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Several months later, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 I was in the northeast Amazon, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 walked into a village, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and the shaman said, "You're limping." 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And I'll never forget[br]this as long as I live. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 He looked me in the face and he said, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 "Take off your shoe 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and give me your machete." 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 (Laughter) 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 He walked over to a palm tree 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and carved off a fern, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 threw it in the fire, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 applied it to my foot, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 threw it in a pond of water, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and had me drink the tea. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 The pain disappeared for seven months. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 When it came back, I went[br]to see the shaman again. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 He gave me the same treatment, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and I've been cured for three years now. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Who would you rather be treated by? 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 (Applause) 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Now make no mistake, Western medicine 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 is the most successful system of healing 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 ever devised, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 but there's plenty of holes in it. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Where's the cure for breast cancer? 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Where's the cure for schizophrenia? 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Where's the cure for acid reflux? 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Where's the cure for insomnia? 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 The fact is that these people 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 can sometimes, sometimes, sometimes 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 cure things we cannot. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Here you see a medicine man[br]in the northeast Amazon 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 treating Leishmaniasis, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 a really nasty protozoal disease 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 that afflicts 12 million[br]people around the world. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Western treatment are[br]injections of antimony. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 They're painful, they're expensive, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and they're probably[br]not good for your heart. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 It's a heavy metal. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 This man cures it with 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 three plants from the Amazon rain forest. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 This is the magic frog. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 My colleague, the late[br]great Loren McIntyre, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 discoverer of the source lake of Amazon, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Laguna McIntyre in the Peruvian Andes, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 was lost on the Peru-Brazil border 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 about 30 years ago. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 He was rescued by a group of isolated 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Indians called the Matses. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 They beckoned for him to follow them 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 into the forest, which he did. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 There, they took out palm leaf baskets. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 There, they took out these[br]green monkey frogs 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 — These are big suckers,[br]they're like this — 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and they began licking them. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 It turns out, they're[br]highly hallucinogenic. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 McIntyre wrote about this, and it was read 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 by the editor of High Times Magazine. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 You see, the ethnobotanists have friends 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 in all sorts of strange cultures. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 This guy decided he would go down 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 to the Amazon and give it a whirl, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 or give it a lick, and he did, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and he wrote, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 "My blood pressure went through the roof, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 I lost full control of[br]my bodily functions, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 I passed out in a heap, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 I woke up in a hammock six hours later, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 felt like God for two days. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 (Laughter) 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 An Italian chemist read this and said, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 "I'm not really interested[br]in the theological aspects 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 of the green monkey frog. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 What's this about the[br]change in blood presure? 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Now, this is an Italian chemist 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 who's working on a new treatment[br]for high blood pressure 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 based on peptides in the skin 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 of the green monkey frog, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and other scientists are looking 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 at a cure for drug-resistant staph aureus. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 How ironic, if these isolated Indians 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and their magic frog 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 prove to be one of the cures. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Here's an Ayahuasca shaman 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 in the northwest Amazon, in[br]the middle of a yage ceremony. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 I took him to Los Angeles 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 to meet a foundation officer 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 looking for support 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 for moneys to protect their culture. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 This fellow looked at the[br]medicine man, and he said, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 "You didn't go to medical school, did you" 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 The shaman said, "No, I did not." 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 He said, "Well, then what can[br]you know about healing?" 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 The shaman looked at him and he said, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 "You know what? If you have an infection, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 go to a doctor," 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 but he said, "but many human afflictions 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 are disease of the heart, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 the mind, and the spirit. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Western medicine can't touch those. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 I cure them." 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 (Applause) 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 But all is not rosy in learning 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 from nature about new medicines. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 This is a viper from Brazil, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 the venom of which was studied at[br]the Universidade de São Paulo here. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 It was later developed 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 into ace inhibitors. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 This is a frontline treatment[br]for hypertension. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Hypertension kills over 10 percent 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 of all deaths on the planet everyday. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 This is a four billion dollar industry 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 based on venom from a Brazilian snake, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and the Brazilians did not get a nickel. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 This is not an acceptable way 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 of doing business. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 The rain forest has been called 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 the greatest expression of life on Earth. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 There's a saying in Suriname 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 that I dearly love: 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 "The rain forests hold answers 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 to questions we have yet to ask." 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 But as you all know,[br]it's rapidly disappearing, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 here in Brazil, in the Amazon, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 around the world. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 I took this picture from a small plane 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 flying over the eastern border[br]of the Xingu indigenous reserve 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 in the state of Mato Grosso[br]to the northwest of here. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 The top half of the picture, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 you see where the Indians live. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 The line through the middle 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 is the eastern border of the reserve. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Top half Indians, bottom half white guys. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Top half wonder drugs, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 bottom half just a bunch[br]of skinny-ass cows. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Top half carbon sequestered 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 in the forest where it belongs, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 bottom half carbon in the atmosphere 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 where it's driving climate change. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 In fact, the number two cause 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 of carbon being released[br]into the atmosphere 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 is forest destruction. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 But in talking about destruction, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 it's important to keep in mind 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 that the Amazon is the mightiest 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 landscape of all. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 It's a place of beauty and wonder. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 The biggest anteater in the world 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 lives in the rain forest, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 tips the scale at 90 pounds. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 The goliath bird-eating spider 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 is the world's largest spider. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 It's found in the Amazon as well. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 The harpy eagle wingspan 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 is over seven feet. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And the black cayman. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 These monsters can tip the scale 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 at over half a ton. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 They're known to be man-eaters. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 The anaconda, the largest snake, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 the capybara, the largest rodent. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 A specimen from here in Brazil 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 tipped the scale at 201 pounds. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Let's visit where these creatures live, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 the northeast Amazon, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 home to the Akuriyo tribe. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Uncontacted peoples 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 hold a mystical and iconic role 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 in our imagination. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 These are the people who know nature best. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 These are the people who truly live 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 in total harmony with nature. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 By our standards, some would[br]dismiss these people as primitive. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 They don't know how to make fire, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 or they didn't when they[br]were first contacted, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 but they know the forest 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 far better than we do. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 The Akuriyos have 35 words for honey, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and other Indians look up to them 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 as being the true masters 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 of the emerald realm. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Here you see the face of my friend Ponay. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 When I was a teenager rocking out 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 to the Rolling Stones in my[br]hometown of New Orleans, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Ponay was a forest normad 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 roaming the jungles of[br]the northeast Amazon 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 in a small band, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 looking for game, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 looking for medicinal plants, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 looking for a wife 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 in other small nomadic bands. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 But it's people like these 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 that know things that we don't, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and they have lots of lessons 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 to teach us. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 However, if you go into most 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 of the forests of the Amazon, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 there are no indigenous peoples. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 This is what you find: 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 rock carvings which indigenous peoples, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 uncontacted peoples, used to sharpen 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 the edge of the stone axe. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 These cultures that once danced, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 made love, sang to the gods, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 worshipped the forest, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 all that's left is an imprint in stone, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 as you see here. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Let's move to the western Amazon, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 which is really the epicenter[br]of isolated peoples. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Each of these dots represents 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 a small, uncontacted tribe, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and the big reveal today is 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 we believe there are 14 or 15 isolated groups 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 in the Columbian Amazon alone. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Why are these people isolated? 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 They know we exist, they[br]know there's an outside world. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 This is a form of resistance. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 They have chosen to remain isolated, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and I think it is their[br]human right to remain so. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Why are these the tribes[br]that hide from man? 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Here's why. Obviously some of this 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 was set off in 1492, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 but at the turn of the last century 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 was the rubber trade. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 The demand for natural rubber, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 which came from the Amazon, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 set off the botanical[br]equivalent of a gold rush. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Rubber for bicycle tires, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 rubber for automobile tires, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 rubber for zeppelins. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 It was a mad race to get that rubber, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and the man on the left, Julio Arana, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 is one of the true thugs of the story. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 His people, his company, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and other companies like them 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 killed, massacred, tortured, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 butchered Indians like the Witotos you see 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 on the right hand side of the slide. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Even today, when people[br]come out of the forest, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 the story seldom has a happy ending. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 These are Nukaks. They[br]were contacted in the '80s. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Within a year, everybody over 40 was dead. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And remember, these[br]are preliterate societies. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 The elders are the libraries. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Every time a shaman dies, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 it's as if a library has been burned down. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 They have been forced off their lands. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 The drug traffickers have taken over 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 the Nukak lands, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and the Nukaks live as beggars 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 in public parks in eastern Colombia. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 From the Nukak lands, I want to take you 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 to the southwest, to the most spectacular 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 landscape in the world: 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Chiribiquete National Park. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 It was surrounded by three isolated tribes 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and thanks to the Colombian government 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and Colombian colleagues, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 it has now expanded. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 It's bigger than the state of Maryland. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 It is a treasure trove[br]of botanical diversity. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 It was first explored botanically in 1943 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 by my mentor, Richard Schultes, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 seen here atop the Bell Mountain, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 the sacred mountains of the Carajás? 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And let me show you[br]what it looks like today. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Flying over Chiribiquete, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 realize that these lost world[br]mountains are still lost. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 No scientist has been atop them. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 In fact, nobody has been[br]atop the Bell Mountain 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 since Schultes in '43, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and we'll end up here[br]with the Bell Mountain 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 just to the east of the picture. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Let me show you what it looks like today. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Not only is this a treasure[br]trove of botanical diversity, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 not only is it home to[br]three isolated tribes, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 but it's the greatest treasure trove 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 of pre-Colombian art in the world: 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 over 200,000 paintings. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 The Dutch scientist Thomas van der Hammen 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 described this as the Sistine Chapel 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 of the Amazon rain forest. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 But move from Chiribiquete[br]down to the southeast, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 again in the Colombian Amazon. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Remember, the Colombian Amazon 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 is bigger than New England. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 The Amazon's a big forest, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and Brazil's got a big part of it, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 but not all of it. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Moving down to these two national parks, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Cahuinari and Puré 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 in the Colombian Amazon 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 — that's the Brazilian[br]border to the right — 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 it's home to several groups 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 of isolated and uncontacted peoples. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 To the trained eye, you[br]can look at the roofs 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 of these maloccas, these longhouses, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and see that there's cultural diversity. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 These are, in fact, different tribes. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 As isolated as these areas are, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 let me show you how the outside world 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 is crowding in. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Here we see trade and transport[br]increased in Putamayo. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 With the diminishment of[br]the Civil War in Colombia, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 the outside world is showing up. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 To the north, we have illegal gold mining, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 also from the east, from Brazil. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 There's increased hunting and fishing 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 for commercial purposes. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 We see illegal logging[br]come in from the south, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and drug runners are trying to move 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 through the park and get into Brazil. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 This, in the past, is why you didn't mess 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 with isolated Indians, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and if it looks like this[br]picture is out of focus 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 because it was taken[br]in a hurry, here's why. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 (Laughter) 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 This looks like — (Applause) 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 This looks like a hangar[br]from the Brazilian Amazon. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 This is an art exhibit in Havana, Cuba. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 A group called Los Carpinteros. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 This is their perception[br]of why you shouldn't 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 mess with uncontacted Indians. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 But the world is changing. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 These are Mascoteros[br]on the Brazil-Peru border 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 who stumbled out of the jungle 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 because they were essentially chased out 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 by drug runners and timber people, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and in Peru, there's[br]a very nasty business. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 It's called human safaris.