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Hi there.

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I'm in the habit of saying[br]I would like it if butterflies could talk,

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but I've been recently reconsidering that,

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because we already have[br]a pretty loud world.

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Can you imagine if butterflies[br]were yakking out there all over the place?

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But I would like to ask butterflies[br]one question, which is,

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what is the meaning of some of the stories[br]that we humans tell about them?

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Because remarkably, all over the world,[br]cultures have really similar stories,

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similar mythologies about butterflies[br]having to do with the human soul.

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Some cultures tell us butterflies[br]are carrying the souls of children

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who have died wrongly or too soon,

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and other cultures[br]tell us that butterflies

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are carrying the souls[br]of our ancestors among us.

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This butterfly is called[br]a Kallima inachus.

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On one side, it looks[br]like a beautiful butterfly,

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and on the other side,[br]it looks like a leaf,

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and it folds up like a leaf[br]to elude predators.

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So now you see it, now you don't,

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something hidden, something revealed.

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Maybe we got our ideas about[br]the human soul from this butterfly.

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So it's possible that butterflies[br]have some sort of outsized role

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in our afterlife.

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But in this life, in this world,[br]butterflies are in really serious trouble.

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This is a moth.

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Moths and butterflies are related.[br]Moths generally fly at night.

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This is called "praedicta," because[br]Darwin predicted that it must exist.

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So today, more than 60 species[br]of butterflies are endangered

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around the world,

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but even more than that,

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insects are declining,[br]declining, declining.

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In the last 50 years,

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we've lost nearly 50 percent[br]of the total number of bodies of insects.

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Now this is a disaster.

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It could impact us in a more serious way[br]more quickly than climate change,

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because butterflies don't do that much[br]in the ecosystem that we depend on,

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but they do things for other creatures[br]that we do depend on,

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and that's the same story[br]with all insect life.

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Insect life is at the very foundation[br]of our life-support systems.

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We can't lose these insects.

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Biodiversity all over the globe[br]is in a vast decline.

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Habitat loss, pesticides, herbicides,[br]and impacts of climate change.

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Habitat loss is very serious,

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and that's where we really[br]have to get developing better,

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more mindfully.

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It's the worst of times,

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we are kind of overloaded[br]with our problems.

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It's also the best of times --[br]there's incredibly good news.

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We have exactly what we need.

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We have exactly the platform[br]to save nature.

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It's called citizen science.

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So citizen science is generally a term[br]used to mean people without a PhD

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contributing to scientific research.

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Sometimes, it's called community science,

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which gets at the communal purpose[br]of citizen science,

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which is to do something[br]for our commons together.

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It's amateur science.

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It's being turbocharged today[br]by vast computing power,

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statistical analysis, and the smartphone,

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but it's an ancient practice[br]that people have always practiced.

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It's amateur science.

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Professional science[br]has its roots in amateur science.

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Charles Darwin was a citizen scientist.

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He had no advanced degree[br]and he worked only for himself.

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So someone showed Darwin[br]this Madagascar star orchid,

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which as a spur that's 12 inches long,

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and the spur is the part of a flower[br]that the nectar is in.

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So this person showed this[br]to Darwin and said,

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"This proves that evolution[br]does not come about in a natural way.

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This flower proves that only God[br]can make these incredibly bizarre

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and tricky-looking creatures on the earth,

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because no insect[br]could possibly pollinate this.

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God must reproduce it."

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And Darwin said, "No, I'm sure[br]that there is an insect somewhere

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with a proboscis long enough[br]to pollinate that star orchid."

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And he was right.

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This is a map of the monarch butterfly.

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So, the monarch butterfly[br]has a different story

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than that particular moth,

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but reflects the same kind[br]of fundamental idea that Darwin had

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called coevolution,

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and coevolution is at the heart[br]of how nature works,

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and it's also at the heart[br]of what's going wrong with nature today.

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So over time, as the moth[br]developed a longer proboscis,

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so the plant developed a longer spur.

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Over millions of years,

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the plant and the moth[br]developed a relationship

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whereby they both make each other's[br]chances of existence better.

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The monarch butterfly has a different kind[br]of coevolutionary relationship,

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and today, it is at the heart[br]of what's going wrong

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for the monarch butterfly.

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So this is a map of[br]the monarch butterfly migration.

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The monarch does this amazing thing,

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and over the course of a year,

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it goes over the entirety[br]of North America.

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It does this in four or five generations.

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The first generations[br]only live a couple of weeks.

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They mate, they lay eggs, and they die.

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The next generation emerges as butterflies[br]and takes the next leg of the journey.

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Nobody knows how they do it.

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By the time the fifth generation comes[br]back around -- and that one lives longer,

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they overwinter[br]in Mexico and California --

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by the time it gets there,

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those butterflies are going back[br]to where their ancestors came from,

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but they've never been there before,

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and nobody that they're immediately[br]related to has been there before either.

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We don't know how they do it.

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The reason we know[br]they do this kind of migration --

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and we still have a lot[br]of unanswered questions

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about the monarch migration --

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is because of citizen science.

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So for decades,[br]people have made observations

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about monarch butterflies,[br]where and when they see them,

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and they've contributed these observations[br]to platforms like Journey North.

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This is a map of some observations[br]of butterflies given to Journey North.

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And if you can see the dots are coded

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by what time of year[br]those observations were made.

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So these massive amounts of data[br]come into a place like Journey North,

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and they can create a map[br]of this time of over a course of a year

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of where monarchs go.

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Also because of citizen science,

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we understand that monarch butterfly[br]numbers are going down, down, down.

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So in the 1980s, the overwintering[br]butterflies here in California,

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there were four million counted.

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Last year,

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30,000. (Gasps)

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Four million to 30,000 since the 1980s.

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The monarchs on the east coast[br]are doing a little better,

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but they're also going down.

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OK, so what are we going to do about it?

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Well, very organically,[br]nobody really asking anybody to do it,

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people all over the continent[br]are supporting monarch butterflies.

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The heart of the problem[br]for monarchs is milkweed.

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It's another coevolutionary relationship,[br]and here's the story.

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Milkweed is toxic.

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It has a poison in it that it evolved[br]to deter other insects from eating it,

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but the monarch developed[br]a different kind of relationship,

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a different strategy with the milkweed.

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Not only does it tolerate the toxin,

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the monarch actually sequesters[br]the toxin in its body,

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thus becoming poisonous to its predators.

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Monarch butterflies will only[br]lay their eggs on milkweed,

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and monarch caterpillars[br]will only eat milkweed,

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because they need that toxin to actually[br]create what they are as a species.

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So people are planting milkweed[br]all over the country

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where we have lost milkweed[br]due to habitat destruction,

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pesticide use, herbicide use[br]and climate change impacts.

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You can create a lot of butterfly habitat[br]and pollinator habitat on a windowsill.

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You go to a native nursery in your area

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and find out what's native[br]to where you live,

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and you will bring[br]beautiful things to yourself.

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Now, citizen science can do even more[br]than rescue monarch butterflies.

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It has the capacity to scale

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to the level necessary[br]that we need to mobilize to save nature.

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And this is an example.

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It's called City Nature Challenge,

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and City Nature Challenge is a project[br]of the California Academy of Sciences

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and the Los Angeles[br]Museum of Natural History.

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So for four years, City Nature Challenge[br]has enjoined cities all over the globe

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to participate in counting up[br]biodiversity in their cities.

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We're up to, like,[br]a million observations of biodiversity

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collected by people[br]around the globe this past April.

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The winner this year was South Africa,[br]much to the chagrin of San Francisco.

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(Laughter)

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Look at them, they have[br]more biodiversity than we do.

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It's kind of an interesting thing,[br]what is revealed when you start seeing

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what are the natural resources[br]where you live,

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because as we go forward, you want to live[br]where there's more biodiversity.

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And by the way, citizen science[br]is a very good tool for social justice

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and environmental justice goals,[br]for helping reach them.

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You need to have data[br]and you need to show a picture,

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you need to point to a cause,

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and then you need to have[br]the surgical strike

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to help support whatever that problem is.

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So City Nature Challenge, I think,[br]should get a commendation from the UN.

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Has there ever been a global effort[br]on behalf of nature

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undertaken in this coordinated manner?

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It's amazing, it's fantastic,

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and it's really a pretty grassroots thing,

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and we get very interesting information[br]about butterflies and other creatures

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when we do these bioblitzes.

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City Nature Challenge basically works[br]with a tool called iNaturalist,

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and iNaturalist is your entry drug[br]to citizen science. (Laughs)

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I suggest signing up for it[br]on a laptop or on a desktop,

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and then you put the app on your phone.

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With iNaturalist, you take a picture[br]of a bird, a bug, a snake, anything,

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and an artificial intelligence function[br]and an expert vetting system

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works to verify that observation.

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The app gives the observation, the date,[br]the time, the latitude and the longitude,

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geolocates that observation.

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That's the data, that's the science[br]of citizen science.

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And then that data is shared,

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and that sharing,[br]that is the soul of citizen science.

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When we share data,

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we can see much bigger pictures[br]of what's going on.

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There's no way to see[br]that whole monarch migration

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without sharing data[br]that's been collected over decades,

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seeing the heart and soul[br]of how nature works

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through citizen science.

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This is a Xerces blue butterfly,

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which went extinct when it lost[br]its habitat in Golden Gate Park.

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It had a coevolutionary relationship[br]with an ant, and that's another story.

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(Laughter)

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I'll end by asking you,

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please participate in citizen science[br]in some way, shape or form.

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It is an amazingly positive thing.

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It takes an army of people[br]to make it really work.

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And I'll just add that I think butterflies

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probably really do have[br]enough on their plate

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without carrying around human souls.

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(Laughter)

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But there's a lot we don't know, right?

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And what about all those stories?[br]What are those stories telling us?

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Maybe we coevolved our souls[br]with butterflies?

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Certainly, we are connected to butterflies[br]in deeper ways than we currently know,

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and the mystery of the butterfly[br]will never be revealed

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if we don't save them.

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So, please join me[br]in helping to save nature now.

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Thank you.

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(Applause)