WEBVTT 00:00:01.697 --> 00:00:06.335 OK, I would like to introduce all of you beautiful, curious-minded people 00:00:06.359 --> 00:00:08.330 to my favorite animal in the world. 00:00:08.784 --> 00:00:11.902 This is the Peter Pan of the amphibian world. 00:00:11.926 --> 00:00:13.608 It's an axolotl. 00:00:13.632 --> 00:00:15.106 It's a type of salamander, 00:00:15.130 --> 00:00:17.951 but it never fully grows up and climbs out of the water 00:00:17.975 --> 00:00:19.766 like other salamanders do. 00:00:20.178 --> 00:00:23.436 And this little guy has X-Man-style powers, right? 00:00:23.460 --> 00:00:25.261 So if it loses any limb, 00:00:25.285 --> 00:00:27.520 it can just completely regenerate. 00:00:27.544 --> 00:00:28.695 It's amazing. 00:00:28.719 --> 00:00:31.835 And, I mean, look at it -- it's got a face with a permanent smile. NOTE Paragraph 00:00:31.859 --> 00:00:32.865 (Laughter) NOTE Paragraph 00:00:32.889 --> 00:00:34.353 It's framed by feathery gills. 00:00:34.377 --> 00:00:36.421 It's just ... how could you not love that? NOTE Paragraph 00:00:36.445 --> 00:00:40.357 This particular type of axolotl, a very close relative, 00:00:40.381 --> 00:00:41.986 is known as an achoque. 00:00:42.010 --> 00:00:43.491 It is equally as cute, 00:00:43.515 --> 00:00:48.219 and it lives in just one place in a lake in the north of Mexico. 00:00:48.243 --> 00:00:49.984 It's called Lake Pátzcuaro, 00:00:50.008 --> 00:00:51.649 and as you can see, 00:00:51.673 --> 00:00:54.198 it is stunningly beautiful. 00:00:54.222 --> 00:00:57.404 But unfortunately, it's been so overfished and so badly polluted 00:00:57.428 --> 00:00:59.996 that the achoque is dying out altogether. 00:01:00.639 --> 00:01:04.454 And this is something that's a scenario that's playing out all over the world. 00:01:04.478 --> 00:01:07.263 We're living through an extinction crisis, 00:01:07.287 --> 00:01:10.899 and species are particularly vulnerable when they're evolutionarily tailored 00:01:10.923 --> 00:01:13.807 to just one little niche or maybe one lake. NOTE Paragraph 00:01:14.438 --> 00:01:15.598 But this is TED, right? 00:01:15.622 --> 00:01:18.431 So this is where I give you the big idea, the big solution. 00:01:18.455 --> 00:01:22.604 So how do you save one special weird species from going extinct? 00:01:22.628 --> 00:01:24.894 Well, the answer, at least my answer, 00:01:24.918 --> 00:01:26.971 isn't a grand technological intervention. 00:01:26.995 --> 00:01:28.370 It's actually really simple. 00:01:28.394 --> 00:01:31.781 It's that you find people who know all about this animal 00:01:31.805 --> 00:01:34.484 and you ask them and you listen to them 00:01:35.389 --> 00:01:39.060 and you work with them, if they're up for that. NOTE Paragraph 00:01:39.492 --> 00:01:42.234 So I want to tell you about how I've seen that in science, 00:01:42.258 --> 00:01:43.917 and in conservation in particular, 00:01:43.941 --> 00:01:46.777 if scientists don't team up with local people 00:01:46.801 --> 00:01:49.102 who have really valuable knowledge 00:01:49.126 --> 00:01:52.945 but a practical wisdom that's not going to be published in any academic journal, 00:01:52.969 --> 00:01:54.623 they can really miss the point. 00:01:55.084 --> 00:01:59.160 Scientists and science as an enterprise can fall at the first hurdle 00:01:59.184 --> 00:02:03.395 if it rushes in knowing that it's the experts that know best. 00:02:03.419 --> 00:02:06.252 But when scientists shake off those academic constraints 00:02:06.276 --> 00:02:09.144 and really look to people who have a totally different 00:02:09.168 --> 00:02:12.153 but really important perspective on what they're trying to do, 00:02:12.177 --> 00:02:13.905 it can genuinely save the world, 00:02:13.929 --> 00:02:16.967 one wonderfully weird amphibian at a time. NOTE Paragraph 00:02:17.540 --> 00:02:19.846 So, in the case of the achoque, 00:02:19.870 --> 00:02:21.905 these are the people you need on your team. NOTE Paragraph 00:02:21.929 --> 00:02:22.945 (Laughter) NOTE Paragraph 00:02:22.969 --> 00:02:25.762 These are the Sisters of the Immaculate Health. 00:02:25.786 --> 00:02:29.578 They are nuns who have a convent in Pátzcuaro, they live in Pátzcuaro, 00:02:29.602 --> 00:02:32.367 and they have a shared history with the achoque. 00:02:32.391 --> 00:02:34.493 And it is so mind-bogglingly wonderful 00:02:34.517 --> 00:02:38.075 that it drew me all the way there to make an audio documentary about them, 00:02:38.099 --> 00:02:40.330 and I even have the unflattering selfie 00:02:40.354 --> 00:02:41.946 to prove it. 00:02:41.970 --> 00:02:44.892 There is a room at the center of their convent, though, 00:02:44.916 --> 00:02:46.069 that looks like this. 00:02:46.093 --> 00:02:47.255 It's very strange. 00:02:47.279 --> 00:02:49.843 It's lined with all these tanks full of fresh water 00:02:49.867 --> 00:02:52.170 and hundreds of achoques. 00:02:52.194 --> 00:02:55.993 And that's because this creature, because of its regenerative abilities, 00:02:56.017 --> 00:02:59.692 it's believed has healing powers if you consume it. 00:02:59.716 --> 00:03:05.108 So the sisters actually make and sell a medicine using achoques. 00:03:05.650 --> 00:03:06.975 I bought a bottle of it. 00:03:09.681 --> 00:03:11.312 So this is it. 00:03:11.336 --> 00:03:13.697 It tastes a bit like honey, 00:03:13.721 --> 00:03:15.544 but the sisters reckon it is good 00:03:15.568 --> 00:03:18.617 for all kinds of particularly respiratory ailments. 00:03:18.641 --> 00:03:22.584 So I just want you to have a listen, if you will, to a clip of Sister Ofelia. NOTE Paragraph 00:03:22.608 --> 00:03:24.600 (Audio) Sister Ofelia: (speaks in Spanish) NOTE Paragraph 00:03:24.624 --> 00:03:28.122 (Audio) (Interpreter voice-over) Our convent was founded by Dominican nuns 00:03:28.146 --> 00:03:30.921 here in Pátzcuaro in 1747. 00:03:31.957 --> 00:03:33.160 Sometime after that, 00:03:33.184 --> 00:03:36.367 our sisters started to make the achoque syrup. 00:03:36.391 --> 00:03:38.964 We didn't discover the properties of the achoque. 00:03:38.988 --> 00:03:44.224 That was the original people from around here, since ancient times. 00:03:44.248 --> 00:03:46.973 But we then started to make the syrup, too. 00:03:46.997 --> 00:03:48.180 The locals knew that, 00:03:48.204 --> 00:03:50.810 and they came to offer us the animals. NOTE Paragraph 00:03:50.834 --> 00:03:52.243 (Audio) Victoria Gill: I see. 00:03:52.267 --> 00:03:55.169 So the achoques are part of making that syrup. 00:03:55.193 --> 00:03:57.932 What does the syrup treat, and what is it for? NOTE Paragraph 00:03:57.956 --> 00:04:01.046 (Audio) SO: (speaks in Spanish) NOTE Paragraph 00:04:01.090 --> 00:04:04.025 (Audio) (Interpreter voice-over) It's good for coughs, asthma, 00:04:04.049 --> 00:04:06.888 bronchitis, the lungs and back pain. NOTE Paragraph 00:04:06.912 --> 00:04:09.100 (Audio) VG: And so you've harnessed that power 00:04:09.124 --> 00:04:10.890 in a syrup, in a medicine. 00:04:10.914 --> 00:04:12.893 Can you tell me how it's made? 00:04:14.371 --> 00:04:18.584 You're shaking your head and smiling. (Laughter) NOTE Paragraph 00:04:18.608 --> 00:04:21.878 VG: Yeah, they're not up for sharing the centuries-old secret recipe. NOTE Paragraph 00:04:21.902 --> 00:04:22.949 (Laughter) NOTE Paragraph 00:04:22.973 --> 00:04:27.514 But the decline in the achoque 00:04:27.538 --> 00:04:31.378 actually nearly put a halt to that medicine production altogether, 00:04:31.402 --> 00:04:33.693 which is why the sisters started this. 00:04:33.717 --> 00:04:36.004 It's the world's first achoque farm. 00:04:36.028 --> 00:04:38.791 All they wanted was a healthy, sustainable population 00:04:38.815 --> 00:04:41.170 so that they could continue to make that medicine, 00:04:41.194 --> 00:04:43.186 but what they created at the same time 00:04:43.210 --> 00:04:47.468 was a captive breeding program for a critically endangered species. 00:04:47.492 --> 00:04:48.928 And fast forward a few years, 00:04:48.952 --> 00:04:51.446 and these scientists that you can see in this picture 00:04:51.470 --> 00:04:53.653 from Chester Zoo all the way over the in UK, 00:04:53.677 --> 00:04:54.971 not far from where I live, 00:04:54.995 --> 00:04:58.126 and from Michoacana University in Morelia in Mexico 00:04:58.150 --> 00:05:01.345 have persuaded the sisters -- it took years of careful diplomacy -- 00:05:01.369 --> 00:05:03.784 to join them in a research partnership. 00:05:03.808 --> 00:05:05.786 So the nuns show the biologists 00:05:05.810 --> 00:05:10.448 how you rear perfectly healthy, very robust Pátzcuaro achoques, 00:05:10.472 --> 00:05:12.784 and the scientists have put some of their funding 00:05:12.808 --> 00:05:14.220 into tanks, filters and pumps 00:05:14.244 --> 00:05:17.806 in this strange, incongruous but amazing room. 00:05:18.355 --> 00:05:22.317 This is the kind of partnership that can save a species. NOTE Paragraph 00:05:22.341 --> 00:05:24.926 But I don't think I see enough of this sort of thing, 00:05:24.950 --> 00:05:27.254 and I have been ludicrously lucky in my job. 00:05:27.278 --> 00:05:31.429 I've traveled to loads of places and just basically followed around 00:05:31.453 --> 00:05:35.445 brilliant people who are trying to use science to answer big questions 00:05:35.469 --> 00:05:37.214 and solve problems. 00:05:37.238 --> 00:05:40.105 I've hung out with scientists who have solved the mystery 00:05:40.129 --> 00:05:42.816 of the origin of the menopause by tracking killer whales 00:05:42.840 --> 00:05:44.598 off the north Pacific coast. 00:05:44.622 --> 00:05:46.305 And I've followed around scientists 00:05:46.329 --> 00:05:49.169 who've planted cameras in Antarctic penguin colonies, 00:05:49.193 --> 00:05:52.354 because they were looking to capture the impacts of climate change 00:05:52.378 --> 00:05:53.901 as it happens. NOTE Paragraph 00:05:53.925 --> 00:05:57.149 But it's this team that really stuck with me, 00:05:57.173 --> 00:05:58.760 that really showed me the impact 00:05:58.784 --> 00:06:02.839 that these delicate but really important relationships can have. 00:06:03.966 --> 00:06:06.417 And I think the reason that it stuck with me as well 00:06:06.441 --> 00:06:07.974 is because it's not common. 00:06:07.998 --> 00:06:10.387 And one of the reasons it's not common 00:06:10.411 --> 00:06:13.579 is because our traditional approach 00:06:13.603 --> 00:06:16.242 of the hierarchical system of academic achievement 00:06:16.266 --> 00:06:19.778 doesn't exactly encourage the type of humility 00:06:19.802 --> 00:06:22.668 where scientists will look to nonscientists 00:06:22.692 --> 00:06:24.763 and really ask for their input. 00:06:25.292 --> 00:06:27.785 In fact, I think we have a bit of a tradition, 00:06:27.809 --> 00:06:28.972 especially in the West, 00:06:28.996 --> 00:06:31.594 of a kind of academically blinkered hubris 00:06:31.618 --> 00:06:35.043 that has kept science historically an enterprise for the elite. 00:06:35.067 --> 00:06:36.959 And I think although that's moved on, 00:06:36.983 --> 00:06:40.578 it continues to be its downfall on occasion. NOTE Paragraph 00:06:41.673 --> 00:06:46.116 So here's my example from history 00:06:46.140 --> 00:06:49.542 and my takedown of a scientific hero. 00:06:50.458 --> 00:06:51.944 Sir Ernest Shackleton 00:06:51.968 --> 00:06:55.867 and his Trans-Antarctic Expedition more than a century ago, 00:06:55.891 --> 00:06:58.305 the celebrated ill-fated adventure. 00:06:58.329 --> 00:06:59.480 On his way there, 00:06:59.504 --> 00:07:02.501 Shackleton just didn't listen to the whalers in South Georgia. 00:07:02.525 --> 00:07:06.366 They knew that region, and they told him you won't get through the ice this year. 00:07:06.390 --> 00:07:09.217 It's too widespread, it's too far north, it's too dangerous. 00:07:09.241 --> 00:07:10.575 And look what happened. 00:07:10.599 --> 00:07:12.876 I mean, granted, that great adventure, 00:07:12.900 --> 00:07:16.073 that story of heroic leadership that we still tell, 00:07:16.097 --> 00:07:18.199 where he saved every single one of his men, 00:07:18.223 --> 00:07:21.493 we wouldn't be telling that story if he'd just hightailed it for home 00:07:21.517 --> 00:07:22.675 and taken their advice. 00:07:22.699 --> 00:07:23.902 But it cost him his ship, 00:07:23.926 --> 00:07:26.772 I would imagine quite a lot of cold injuries among the team, 00:07:26.796 --> 00:07:28.044 a good few cases of PTSD 00:07:28.068 --> 00:07:30.791 and Mrs. Chippy, the ship's cat, had to be shot 00:07:30.815 --> 00:07:34.737 because the team couldn't afford any extra food as they fought to survive. NOTE Paragraph 00:07:35.616 --> 00:07:38.296 Now, that was all a very long time ago, 00:07:38.320 --> 00:07:40.278 but as I've prepared for this talk, 00:07:40.302 --> 00:07:43.508 I've revisited some of the stories that I have covered, 00:07:43.532 --> 00:07:48.557 where these really unusual collaborations made a real positive difference. 00:07:48.581 --> 00:07:50.656 So I spoke to former poachers 00:07:50.680 --> 00:07:53.157 whose knowledge of where they used to hunt illegally 00:07:53.181 --> 00:07:56.387 is now really important in conservation projects 00:07:56.411 --> 00:07:58.162 in those same places. 00:07:58.186 --> 00:07:59.980 And I spoke to an amazing artist 00:08:00.004 --> 00:08:02.652 whose own experience of mental health struggles 00:08:02.676 --> 00:08:07.386 has actually paved the way for him to take a role in designing and creating 00:08:07.410 --> 00:08:11.404 a new, really innovative and beautiful mental health ward in a hospital. NOTE Paragraph 00:08:12.341 --> 00:08:15.462 Most recently, I worked here, in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, 00:08:15.486 --> 00:08:18.758 with a team of scientists that have been working there for decades. 00:08:18.782 --> 00:08:21.181 One of their experiments growing crops in that area 00:08:21.205 --> 00:08:23.329 has now turned into this. 00:08:23.353 --> 00:08:25.469 It's Chernobyl's first vodka. NOTE Paragraph 00:08:25.493 --> 00:08:28.388 (Laughter) NOTE Paragraph 00:08:30.925 --> 00:08:33.893 It's pretty good, too! I've tasted it. 00:08:33.917 --> 00:08:36.815 And this is actually, although it looks like a niche product, 00:08:36.839 --> 00:08:41.503 it's set to be the first consumer product to come out of the exclusion zone 00:08:41.527 --> 00:08:43.252 since the nuclear accident. 00:08:43.276 --> 00:08:46.431 And that's actually the result of years of conversation 00:08:46.455 --> 00:08:50.106 with local communities who still live on the periphery of that abandoned land 00:08:50.130 --> 00:08:54.094 and want to know when they can -- and if they can -- safely grow food 00:08:54.118 --> 00:08:57.491 and build businesses and rebuild their communities and their lives. 00:08:57.929 --> 00:09:00.108 This was a product of humility, 00:09:00.132 --> 00:09:01.345 of listening, 00:09:01.369 --> 00:09:04.702 and I saw that in spades when I visited Pátzcuaro. NOTE Paragraph 00:09:05.058 --> 00:09:08.506 So I watched as a decades-experienced conservation biologist 00:09:08.530 --> 00:09:09.846 called Gerardo Garcia 00:09:09.870 --> 00:09:11.836 listened and watched super carefully 00:09:11.860 --> 00:09:14.351 as a nun in a full habit and wimple and latex gloves 00:09:14.375 --> 00:09:17.408 showed him how, if you tap an achoque on the head really gently, 00:09:17.432 --> 00:09:20.667 it'll open its mouth so you can quickly get a DNA swab with a Q-tip. NOTE Paragraph 00:09:20.691 --> 00:09:22.180 (Laughter) NOTE Paragraph 00:09:22.204 --> 00:09:27.230 When scientists team up with, look to and defer to people 00:09:27.254 --> 00:09:30.424 who have a really valuable perspective on what they're trying to do 00:09:30.448 --> 00:09:32.014 but a totally different outlook, 00:09:32.038 --> 00:09:34.171 something really special can happen. NOTE Paragraph 00:09:36.163 --> 00:09:41.609 Now, there is a truly global and a very, very ambitious example of this 00:09:41.633 --> 00:09:45.448 called the International Panel on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services. 00:09:45.472 --> 00:09:48.312 Now, that is not a snappy title, but stick with me. 00:09:48.336 --> 00:09:50.818 This organization includes more than 130 countries, 00:09:50.842 --> 00:09:54.530 and it's aiming to do nothing less than assess the state of the natural world 00:09:54.554 --> 00:09:56.605 across our entire planet. 00:09:56.629 --> 00:09:58.850 So it recently published this global assessment 00:09:58.874 --> 00:10:00.050 on the state of nature, 00:10:00.074 --> 00:10:03.164 and that could be the foundation for an international agreement 00:10:03.188 --> 00:10:06.390 where all of those nations could sign up to finally take action 00:10:06.414 --> 00:10:09.753 to tackle the biodiversity crisis that's happening on planet Earth 00:10:09.777 --> 00:10:11.070 right now. NOTE Paragraph 00:10:11.682 --> 00:10:15.984 Now, I know from trying to communicate, trying to report on reports like this, 00:10:16.008 --> 00:10:18.191 on assessments like this for a broad audience, 00:10:18.215 --> 00:10:22.447 that these big international groups can seem so high-level 00:10:22.471 --> 00:10:25.277 as to be kind of out of reach and nebulous, 00:10:25.301 --> 00:10:28.053 but there's a group of human beings at the center of them, 00:10:28.077 --> 00:10:29.289 the report's authors, 00:10:29.313 --> 00:10:31.675 who have this formidable task of bringing together 00:10:31.699 --> 00:10:34.097 all of that biological and ecological information 00:10:34.121 --> 00:10:36.162 that paints a clear and accurate picture 00:10:36.186 --> 00:10:38.829 of the state of the natural world. 00:10:38.853 --> 00:10:41.593 And 10 years before this panel even set out to do that, 00:10:41.617 --> 00:10:43.199 to put that assessment together, 00:10:43.223 --> 00:10:46.541 they created what's called a "cultural concept framework." 00:10:46.565 --> 00:10:50.885 This is essentially a cultural concept translation dictionary 00:10:50.909 --> 00:10:55.202 for all of the different ways that we talk about the natural world. 00:10:55.226 --> 00:10:57.409 So it formally recognizes, for example, 00:10:57.433 --> 00:11:01.492 that "Mother Earth" and "nature" means the same thing. 00:11:01.516 --> 00:11:04.299 And what that means is that Indigenous and local knowledge 00:11:04.323 --> 00:11:06.134 can be brought into the same document 00:11:06.158 --> 00:11:08.646 and given the weight and merit that it deserves 00:11:08.670 --> 00:11:14.842 in that assessment of what state our natural environment is in. 00:11:14.866 --> 00:11:16.665 And that is absolutely critical, 00:11:16.689 --> 00:11:21.197 because an Inuit hunter might never publish in an academic journal, 00:11:21.221 --> 00:11:26.031 but I'll bet you she knows more about the changes to her home Arctic community 00:11:26.055 --> 00:11:27.524 because of climate change 00:11:27.548 --> 00:11:31.538 than a scientist who spent many years going to and from that region 00:11:31.562 --> 00:11:33.027 taking measurements. 00:11:33.496 --> 00:11:37.405 And collectively, Indigenous people are the caretakers 00:11:37.429 --> 00:11:42.817 of an estimated 25 percent of the entire global land surface, 00:11:42.841 --> 00:11:46.626 including some of the most biodiverse places on the planet. 00:11:46.650 --> 00:11:49.764 So imagine how much we're missing 00:11:49.788 --> 00:11:52.027 if we don't cross those cultural boundaries, 00:11:52.051 --> 00:11:53.329 or at least try to, 00:11:53.353 --> 00:11:55.780 when we're trying to figure out how the world works 00:11:55.804 --> 00:11:57.120 and how to protect it. NOTE Paragraph 00:11:58.160 --> 00:12:03.455 Every single research proposal is a new opportunity to do exactly that. 00:12:03.479 --> 00:12:07.084 So what if, every time a research project was proposed, 00:12:07.108 --> 00:12:10.861 it had to include a suggestion of a person or a group of people -- 00:12:10.885 --> 00:12:14.427 local farmers, Indigenous community leaders, nuns -- 00:12:14.451 --> 00:12:16.852 that researchers wanted to bring into the fold, 00:12:16.876 --> 00:12:19.420 invite into their team and listen to? NOTE Paragraph 00:12:20.267 --> 00:12:22.813 I just want to let Sister Ofelia give her view 00:12:22.837 --> 00:12:26.349 of why she is so particularly driven and dedicated 00:12:26.373 --> 00:12:28.512 to the survival of the achoque. NOTE Paragraph 00:12:30.466 --> 00:12:35.265 (Audio) VG: Sister Ofelia, do you think that saving this species from extinction, 00:12:35.289 --> 00:12:37.928 is that part of your work for God? NOTE Paragraph 00:12:38.545 --> 00:12:43.257 (Audio) SO: (speaks in Spanish) NOTE Paragraph 00:12:43.281 --> 00:12:45.930 (Audio) (Interpreter voice-over) It's the responsibility 00:12:45.954 --> 00:12:47.108 of every human being 00:12:47.132 --> 00:12:48.916 not to harm those who live around us. 00:12:48.940 --> 00:12:51.169 That's all living things. 00:12:51.193 --> 00:12:56.536 We're all created not only just to survive but to be happy and to make others happy. 00:12:57.143 --> 00:13:01.680 All of us here are providing happiness by protecting this animal, 00:13:01.704 --> 00:13:07.114 and we're also making Him happy. NOTE Paragraph 00:13:07.138 --> 00:13:11.940 (Audio) (Nuns singing) NOTE Paragraph 00:13:15.453 --> 00:13:18.893 VG: I feel like I should sort of slink off and let the nuns sing me out, 00:13:18.917 --> 00:13:20.736 because it sounds so lovely. 00:13:20.760 --> 00:13:22.029 But did you hear that? 00:13:22.053 --> 00:13:23.965 "We're providing happiness." 00:13:23.989 --> 00:13:26.341 Now, that's not a protocol you'd ever see outlined 00:13:26.365 --> 00:13:28.673 in any formal research project proposal -- NOTE Paragraph 00:13:28.697 --> 00:13:29.752 (Laughter) NOTE Paragraph 00:13:29.776 --> 00:13:33.962 but it's the impetus behind what's become the most successful breeding program 00:13:33.986 --> 00:13:35.141 in the world 00:13:35.165 --> 00:13:38.654 of an animal that was on the very brink of being wiped out. 00:13:38.678 --> 00:13:40.935 And isn't that just wonderful? NOTE Paragraph 00:13:41.471 --> 00:13:42.650 Thank you. NOTE Paragraph 00:13:42.674 --> 00:13:45.533 (Applause)