WEBVTT 00:00:18.806 --> 00:00:20.987 In the early 1970s, the Beatles broke up, 00:00:20.987 --> 00:00:22.937 and nine months later, I was born. 00:00:22.937 --> 00:00:24.316 (Laughter) 00:00:24.316 --> 00:00:26.698 To this day, I still kind of harbor some resentment 00:00:26.698 --> 00:00:28.460 because I think my mother's to blame. 00:00:28.460 --> 00:00:30.317 I think she's somehow involved in that. 00:00:30.317 --> 00:00:35.546 But I grew up within walking distance of here, actually, in West Philadelphia, 00:00:35.546 --> 00:00:38.517 and it was a little wood house, called a row house, 00:00:38.517 --> 00:00:42.538 with fake brick and fake shutters that were glued to the side. 00:00:42.538 --> 00:00:45.996 And in that context, I started designing buildings. 00:00:46.246 --> 00:00:47.298 That's me, by the way. 00:00:47.298 --> 00:00:49.321 I'm a cherry hot fudge sundae. 00:00:49.321 --> 00:00:51.615 (Laughter) 00:00:52.525 --> 00:00:56.366 And in this context - this is what I grew up in, right? - 00:00:56.366 --> 00:00:57.369 so as a kid, 00:00:57.369 --> 00:01:01.499 I remember distinctly McDonald's released the first Happy Meal in 1979, 00:01:01.499 --> 00:01:04.883 and three days later, Three Mile Island exploded. 00:01:05.361 --> 00:01:08.178 And somehow, I always thought that they were connected. 00:01:08.488 --> 00:01:10.609 (Laughter) 00:01:11.609 --> 00:01:15.184 And right around that same time, my mother took me to see this building. 00:01:15.444 --> 00:01:18.064 This is the Beth Shalom Synagogue by Frank Lloyd Wright. 00:01:18.064 --> 00:01:20.211 It's his only building in Philadelphia, 00:01:20.211 --> 00:01:22.311 and I encourage you all to see it if you can, 00:01:22.311 --> 00:01:23.502 but it was the first time 00:01:23.502 --> 00:01:26.427 that I realized that a building could be more than just a box. 00:01:26.427 --> 00:01:29.684 And I remember distinctly this memory of sitting inside that atrium 00:01:29.684 --> 00:01:34.146 and watching birds fly overhead and seeing their shadows trail along the floor. 00:01:34.146 --> 00:01:36.733 And I realized that buildings could be about something, 00:01:36.733 --> 00:01:38.352 they could be bigger than us, 00:01:38.352 --> 00:01:41.165 so I spent the rest of my life, essentially, 00:01:41.165 --> 00:01:43.822 studying Mr. Wright and studying the designs of nature, 00:01:43.822 --> 00:01:46.673 and realized that nature has a wealth of opportunities for us 00:01:46.673 --> 00:01:48.643 if we just open our eyes to it. 00:01:48.643 --> 00:01:50.450 But when I went to architecture school 00:01:50.450 --> 00:01:52.713 and I started learning about real construction, 00:01:52.713 --> 00:01:56.313 I had these questions, and I didn't like the answers I was getting. 00:01:56.313 --> 00:01:58.692 When I said, "Why would we knowingly build that way 00:01:58.692 --> 00:02:00.070 when we know that it's toxic? 00:02:00.070 --> 00:02:02.217 Why would we do that when we know it's wrong?" 00:02:02.217 --> 00:02:03.457 And the answer always was, 00:02:03.457 --> 00:02:05.733 "Because that's the way we've always done it." 00:02:05.733 --> 00:02:09.373 So nature was just this kind of casualty on the path to progress, 00:02:09.373 --> 00:02:11.130 and it didn't really work. 00:02:11.983 --> 00:02:13.080 This is my daughter. 00:02:13.080 --> 00:02:15.372 I know she's cute. You don't need to make noise. 00:02:15.372 --> 00:02:16.642 (Laughter) 00:02:16.912 --> 00:02:20.180 And I took her to see this NetZero energy project that we did - 00:02:21.030 --> 00:02:24.326 meaning that this building generates more energy than it consumes - 00:02:24.326 --> 00:02:26.091 and this project was a little unusual 00:02:26.091 --> 00:02:27.330 because the solar panels 00:02:27.330 --> 00:02:29.410 weren't on the roof, they were on the ground 00:02:29.410 --> 00:02:31.605 because it was a government project and a mess. 00:02:31.605 --> 00:02:33.228 But anyway, they're on the ground, 00:02:33.228 --> 00:02:34.231 (Laughter) 00:02:34.231 --> 00:02:36.326 but you could play on them and climb on them. 00:02:36.326 --> 00:02:38.090 And she said "Daddy, what are these?" 00:02:38.090 --> 00:02:40.090 I said, "Oh, honey, those are solar panels. 00:02:40.090 --> 00:02:43.619 They produce energy from the sun for free." 00:02:44.151 --> 00:02:46.734 And with the mind of a child, of course she says, 00:02:46.734 --> 00:02:49.589 "Well, daddy, why not all buildings have this? Daddy, why?" 00:02:50.149 --> 00:02:54.070 And so I leaned down and I looked in her cute little face, 00:02:54.070 --> 00:02:58.216 and I said, "Oh, honey, that's because most people are poopy heads." 00:02:58.216 --> 00:03:00.645 (Laughter) 00:03:03.535 --> 00:03:05.403 What am I going to tell her? The truth? 00:03:05.403 --> 00:03:06.403 (Laughter) 00:03:06.403 --> 00:03:07.449 "Well, you see, honey, 00:03:07.449 --> 00:03:10.635 there's this oil and coal cartel that controls all of energy policy; 00:03:10.635 --> 00:03:12.398 they're haunting you in your dreams." 00:03:12.398 --> 00:03:14.732 She'll have nightmares. I can't tell her that. 00:03:14.982 --> 00:03:16.890 Poopy heads. That's what it's got to be. 00:03:16.890 --> 00:03:19.174 If you look at the modern environmental movement, 00:03:19.174 --> 00:03:21.456 we have failed, we're the losers here. 00:03:21.456 --> 00:03:23.167 We're the good guys and we're losing 00:03:23.167 --> 00:03:24.974 because it seems that environmentalism 00:03:24.974 --> 00:03:27.355 is trying to lead you to one inevitable conclusion, 00:03:27.355 --> 00:03:28.592 which doesn't work for me. 00:03:28.592 --> 00:03:31.261 This one doesn't help. This is not a good idea. 00:03:31.261 --> 00:03:32.287 (Laughter) 00:03:32.287 --> 00:03:36.342 And I realized that we're dumb - I'm dumb, you're dumb, you're all dumb. 00:03:36.342 --> 00:03:38.060 We think we're smart, but we're not. 00:03:38.060 --> 00:03:39.394 And if you don't believe me, 00:03:39.394 --> 00:03:42.727 remember that we share 50% of our DNA with bananas. 00:03:42.727 --> 00:03:45.266 (Laughter) 00:03:45.266 --> 00:03:47.632 That'll humble you down a little bit. 00:03:49.030 --> 00:03:51.742 I was driving the other day and I saw this bumper sticker, 00:03:51.742 --> 00:03:53.965 and I was going to run him off the road, 00:03:53.965 --> 00:03:55.153 but I didn't. 00:03:55.153 --> 00:03:56.153 (Laughter) 00:03:56.453 --> 00:03:57.624 And then I realized 00:03:57.624 --> 00:04:00.731 you never see this bumper sticker shared with this bumper sticker; 00:04:00.731 --> 00:04:03.547 you never see the two together. 00:04:03.547 --> 00:04:05.696 (Laughter) 00:04:05.696 --> 00:04:07.496 (Applause) 00:04:12.214 --> 00:04:15.171 I know causation is not correlation, but you get it. 00:04:15.462 --> 00:04:17.070 So the problem that we're facing 00:04:17.070 --> 00:04:20.164 is that we knowingly put cancer-causing chemicals in our building. 00:04:20.164 --> 00:04:22.718 We do this knowingly, so we're clearly idiots. 00:04:22.718 --> 00:04:25.138 And to set the context for how dumb we are, 00:04:25.138 --> 00:04:28.972 I want to show you this video just to kind of start the afternoon off right. 00:04:28.972 --> 00:04:31.318 [The unchained goddess] 00:04:32.199 --> 00:04:34.208 (Video) … extremely dangerous questions 00:04:34.208 --> 00:04:37.610 because with our present knowledge, we have no idea what would happen. 00:04:37.610 --> 00:04:41.640 Even now, man may be unwittingly changing the world's climate 00:04:41.640 --> 00:04:44.222 through the waste products of his civilization. 00:04:44.222 --> 00:04:47.490 Due to our release through factories and automobiles every year 00:04:47.490 --> 00:04:50.967 of more than six billion tons of carbon dioxide, 00:04:50.967 --> 00:04:53.874 which helps air absorb heat from the sun, 00:04:53.874 --> 00:04:56.255 our atmosphere seems to be getting warmer. 00:04:56.708 --> 00:04:59.908 Eric Corey Freed: Now this video was directed by Frank Capra, 00:04:59.908 --> 00:05:02.477 who did "It's a Wonderful Life," which is kind of neat, 00:05:02.477 --> 00:05:05.752 and it stars a very young, very handsome Dick Cheney, 00:05:05.752 --> 00:05:06.753 which is weird. 00:05:06.753 --> 00:05:08.304 That's just weird to me. 00:05:08.304 --> 00:05:11.498 But this video's from 1958. 00:05:12.108 --> 00:05:15.305 Everything he says is true; in fact, all the numbers are much worse. 00:05:15.305 --> 00:05:16.883 So what have we done since 1958? 00:05:16.883 --> 00:05:17.934 The answer is, really, 00:05:17.934 --> 00:05:20.080 we've lost our window, we've lost our time. 00:05:20.080 --> 00:05:21.609 If you think that climate change 00:05:21.609 --> 00:05:24.657 is this abstract thing that will happen sometime in the future, 00:05:24.657 --> 00:05:26.355 it's happening now. 00:05:26.865 --> 00:05:31.457 Last year, we had 400,000 people that died due to climate change, 00:05:31.457 --> 00:05:33.168 and I don't mean in an indirect way. 00:05:33.168 --> 00:05:34.744 I'm talking in a very direct way, 00:05:34.744 --> 00:05:36.843 from drought and malaria and food disruption. 00:05:36.843 --> 00:05:37.953 So, 400,000 people. 00:05:37.953 --> 00:05:40.432 And I didn't know 400,000 people was a lot of people. 00:05:40.432 --> 00:05:42.101 I mean, it sounds like a lot to me, 00:05:42.101 --> 00:05:44.904 but I also know that we lose 8,000 a day to AIDS, right? 00:05:44.904 --> 00:05:47.189 So in the grand scheme of things, maybe it's not. 00:05:47.189 --> 00:05:49.518 Well, turns out 400,000 people is a lot of people: 00:05:49.518 --> 00:05:52.907 400,000 people is two and a half times the amount of people 00:05:52.907 --> 00:05:55.560 we're going to lose to lung cancer in the US this year; 00:05:55.560 --> 00:05:57.182 it's 10 times the amount of people 00:05:57.182 --> 00:05:59.528 we're going to lose to breast cancer this year. 00:05:59.528 --> 00:06:01.603 So where's our ribbon? Can I design it? 00:06:01.603 --> 00:06:04.560 These are the kind of questions I have: Can it be polka-dotted? 00:06:04.560 --> 00:06:06.503 This is what I want to know, right? 00:06:06.503 --> 00:06:08.743 And it just led me to this inevitable conclusion 00:06:08.743 --> 00:06:11.770 that just by design, we're just, ugh, the worst mammals ever. 00:06:11.770 --> 00:06:13.689 We're just, like, awful - 00:06:17.010 --> 00:06:18.672 that one person likes that joke - 00:06:18.672 --> 00:06:19.907 (Laughter) 00:06:19.907 --> 00:06:22.000 400,000 is more than what we're going to lose 00:06:22.000 --> 00:06:25.191 to strokes, accidents, Alzheimer's, and diabetes combined this year. 00:06:25.191 --> 00:06:26.670 You need to realize something - 00:06:26.670 --> 00:06:29.576 everything you've ever bought, everything you've ever owned, 00:06:29.576 --> 00:06:31.330 it's still here. 00:06:31.873 --> 00:06:33.917 We didn't jettison it into space; it's here. 00:06:33.917 --> 00:06:34.917 Remember in the '90s 00:06:34.917 --> 00:06:37.825 when you're really into Nirvana and bought that flannel shirt? 00:06:37.825 --> 00:06:39.418 That shirt's here somewhere. 00:06:39.418 --> 00:06:41.090 It's probably in New Jersey. 00:06:41.090 --> 00:06:42.279 I don't know where it is, 00:06:42.279 --> 00:06:43.278 (Laughter) 00:06:43.278 --> 00:06:44.637 but it's here. 00:06:45.010 --> 00:06:46.968 Remember when you were getting into shape 00:06:46.968 --> 00:06:49.581 and bought those roller blades you needed for a week 00:06:49.581 --> 00:06:51.244 and you were like, "My knees hurt"? 00:06:51.244 --> 00:06:52.242 They're here. 00:06:52.242 --> 00:06:54.050 They're probably bobbing in the ocean. 00:06:54.050 --> 00:06:55.383 Because it's all still here. 00:06:55.383 --> 00:06:58.907 Tonight, you're going out for dinner, and maybe you'll get some nice sushi, 00:06:58.907 --> 00:06:59.913 and you'll be like, 00:06:59.913 --> 00:07:02.868 "What's this in my sushi? Oh, it's little bits of rollerblade." 00:07:02.868 --> 00:07:05.737 That's why. That's basically why. It's your fault. (Laughter) 00:07:05.737 --> 00:07:08.684 And it doesn't help that we brag about our dominion over a mat. 00:07:08.684 --> 00:07:11.160 We're sore winners. That's what we are, basically. 00:07:11.160 --> 00:07:13.313 And just by design, we're just awful creatures 00:07:13.313 --> 00:07:16.435 because first of all, we get tired at the drop of a hat, 00:07:18.520 --> 00:07:20.317 we cry for no reason, 00:07:20.317 --> 00:07:21.405 (Laughter) 00:07:21.405 --> 00:07:25.229 we're easily trippable, I mean, easily - you never see a zebra trip, do you? - 00:07:25.229 --> 00:07:27.578 and we just die in just the dumbest ways possible. 00:07:27.578 --> 00:07:29.991 It's just so annoying. 00:07:29.991 --> 00:07:32.563 And this is why your cat looks at you the way it does - 00:07:32.563 --> 00:07:35.540 it's just, "Ugh," it's just fed up. 00:07:35.540 --> 00:07:37.080 (Laughter) (Applause) 00:07:37.080 --> 00:07:38.462 And we're not getting better; 00:07:38.462 --> 00:07:40.128 we're not learning from experience. 00:07:40.128 --> 00:07:41.317 I'll give you an example: 00:07:41.317 --> 00:07:43.594 This was the world's largest man in 1903, 00:07:43.594 --> 00:07:45.596 and this was just some cop I saw in Newark. 00:07:45.596 --> 00:07:47.358 Do you see what I'm saying? (Laughter) 00:07:47.358 --> 00:07:48.480 We're not learning. 00:07:48.480 --> 00:07:50.056 The warning signs had been there, 00:07:50.056 --> 00:07:52.198 louder and louder, closer and closer together, 00:07:52.198 --> 00:07:54.144 and we're not hearing them. 00:07:54.994 --> 00:07:57.236 These last few years have also been a key moment 00:07:57.236 --> 00:07:58.766 because it's the first time ever 00:07:58.766 --> 00:08:01.435 we spent more in dealing with the cost of extreme weather 00:08:01.435 --> 00:08:03.241 than on the federal education budget - 00:08:03.241 --> 00:08:04.811 2.6 billion on federal education, 00:08:04.811 --> 00:08:07.682 three billion dealing with things like hurricane Sandy. 00:08:07.682 --> 00:08:10.633 And as much as that seems like just an obscene amount of money, 00:08:10.633 --> 00:08:12.826 it's nothing compared to the 8 billion we spent 00:08:12.826 --> 00:08:14.690 subsidizing the oil and coal companies. 00:08:14.690 --> 00:08:17.606 Maybe we could just move the money from one pile to the other. 00:08:17.606 --> 00:08:18.944 Maybe that's not a big deal. 00:08:18.944 --> 00:08:20.944 Because the act of building is disruptive: 00:08:20.944 --> 00:08:21.943 Every year, 00:08:21.943 --> 00:08:24.895 we produce 3 tons of concrete for every single person on Earth; 00:08:24.895 --> 00:08:28.410 every year, we cut down two trees for every single person on Earth; 00:08:28.410 --> 00:08:29.350 and every year, 00:08:29.350 --> 00:08:32.731 we produced 600 pounds of steel for every single person just in the US. 00:08:32.731 --> 00:08:34.578 Empowering all this is not good vibes 00:08:34.578 --> 00:08:37.887 but fossil fuels, and just an immense amount of fossil fuels. 00:08:37.887 --> 00:08:41.997 One company, Exxon, is sucking 4 million barrels of oil a day 00:08:41.997 --> 00:08:43.137 out of the ground - 00:08:43.137 --> 00:08:44.554 every single day. 00:08:44.554 --> 00:08:47.606 And as much as that just seems like an absurd amount of anything, 00:08:47.606 --> 00:08:49.621 it's nothing compared to the 92 million 00:08:49.621 --> 00:08:52.765 that all the oil companies are sucking constantly out of the ground 00:08:52.765 --> 00:08:54.740 every single day. 00:08:55.610 --> 00:08:56.967 Shea Kimani famously said, 00:08:56.967 --> 00:08:59.759 "The Stone Age didn't end because we ran out of stones." 00:09:00.350 --> 00:09:02.589 The oil age won't end because we run out of oil; 00:09:02.589 --> 00:09:05.185 it's just going to get harder and harder to get. 00:09:05.185 --> 00:09:07.137 And that's what you've been experiencing. 00:09:07.137 --> 00:09:10.281 So far, we've been the proverbial frog in the boiling pot of water. 00:09:10.281 --> 00:09:12.604 It's kind of snuck up on us a little bit. 00:09:12.604 --> 00:09:15.411 But now that you're aware of it, now that you know about it, 00:09:15.411 --> 00:09:17.361 now it's just going to get uncomfortable. 00:09:17.361 --> 00:09:18.360 You know, 00:09:18.360 --> 00:09:19.360 (Laughter) 00:09:19.360 --> 00:09:22.580 it's just going to be an awkward conversation, basically. 00:09:24.410 --> 00:09:25.985 If you were an astronomer 00:09:25.985 --> 00:09:28.802 and you thought that the sun went around the Earth - 00:09:29.152 --> 00:09:30.146 which by the way, 00:09:30.146 --> 00:09:32.716 it totally doesn't do that, it's the other way around - 00:09:32.716 --> 00:09:36.186 but if you thought that, you'd do some pretty bad astronomy, wouldn't you? 00:09:36.186 --> 00:09:38.164 And that's basically what we've done. 00:09:38.164 --> 00:09:40.694 We've done some basically pretty bad building. 00:09:41.040 --> 00:09:42.380 It turns out, all the while, 00:09:42.380 --> 00:09:45.623 we've essentially been building this kind of dead, lifeless skeleton. 00:09:45.623 --> 00:09:48.190 What we should have been building is the whole creature 00:09:48.190 --> 00:09:49.719 because the creature respirates, 00:09:49.719 --> 00:09:52.293 it produces its own energy, it processes its own waste; 00:09:52.293 --> 00:09:54.878 and a few of us, we're dabbling, we're playing with it, 00:09:54.878 --> 00:09:57.307 but we're getting there, we're getting better at it. 00:09:57.307 --> 00:09:59.819 But what I do know is that this is a dead end. 00:10:00.159 --> 00:10:04.559 I mean, it's a pretty building, granted, but a metal building in Los Angeles? 00:10:04.559 --> 00:10:07.030 You're telling me not one person at the meeting said, 00:10:07.030 --> 00:10:08.558 "Hey, maybe that's a dumb idea." 00:10:08.558 --> 00:10:10.384 Nobody said anything? 00:10:10.384 --> 00:10:14.632 Plus I've seen how people react when we put them around living buildings, 00:10:14.632 --> 00:10:17.343 natural buildings, buildings that grow out of their sight; 00:10:17.343 --> 00:10:19.101 they actually reach out and pet them. 00:10:19.101 --> 00:10:21.268 It's bizarre to me they touch them. (Laughter) 00:10:21.544 --> 00:10:22.698 So that's what we need - 00:10:22.698 --> 00:10:25.223 buildings rooted in the soil the same way nature does. 00:10:25.223 --> 00:10:26.416 That's how nature builds. 00:10:26.416 --> 00:10:30.634 As you're sitting here, seemingly idle, your bodies are a whirlwind of activity. 00:10:30.634 --> 00:10:33.622 These big black things you see, those are called "leukocytes." 00:10:33.622 --> 00:10:35.100 They're fighting off infection, 00:10:35.100 --> 00:10:37.675 because frankly, half the people in this room are sick, 00:10:37.675 --> 00:10:40.535 and those disgusting germs are attacking you as you sit here. 00:10:40.535 --> 00:10:42.633 Your body just fights them off. It's amazing. 00:10:42.633 --> 00:10:44.493 Those little shimmering things you see, 00:10:44.493 --> 00:10:47.109 those are little energy packets your body's sending out; 00:10:47.109 --> 00:10:48.391 it's called cholesterol. 00:10:48.391 --> 00:10:50.873 By the way, some of you have too much energy packets; 00:10:50.873 --> 00:10:52.778 you got to cut down on the cholesterol. 00:10:52.778 --> 00:10:53.924 But it's amazing, right? 00:10:53.924 --> 00:10:57.157 So, your body's very much this habitat, this incredible habitat. 00:10:57.157 --> 00:11:01.130 As you sit here, there's one to two pounds of bacteria living on and in you. 00:11:01.380 --> 00:11:02.715 It's actually kind of gross. 00:11:02.715 --> 00:11:04.637 You got two pounds of bacteria on you. 00:11:04.637 --> 00:11:05.645 It's disgusting. 00:11:05.645 --> 00:11:07.785 But still, your body's very much this habitat, 00:11:07.785 --> 00:11:09.883 but your body's also this incredible machine, 00:11:09.883 --> 00:11:11.463 pumping, processing, filtering, 00:11:11.463 --> 00:11:14.413 all the while you're just sitting there shifting in your chair. 00:11:14.413 --> 00:11:15.406 It's incredible. 00:11:15.406 --> 00:11:18.409 And it turns out John Mayer was right: your body's a wonderland. 00:11:18.409 --> 00:11:23.816 It's this incredible Wonderland - I mean, some of you more than others - 00:11:23.816 --> 00:11:27.300 but still, it's this Wonderland, it's incredible. 00:11:27.870 --> 00:11:30.573 Every day, your body's producing 50 trillion new cells 00:11:30.573 --> 00:11:32.428 to make up for the ones that have died. 00:11:32.428 --> 00:11:35.765 Every day you're pumping 1,900 liters of liquid which you then pee out. 00:11:35.765 --> 00:11:36.773 It's incredible. 00:11:36.773 --> 00:11:39.485 Every day, you're breathing in 11,000 cubic liters of air. 00:11:39.485 --> 00:11:42.128 You take the oxygen out and you expel carbon dioxide, 00:11:42.128 --> 00:11:44.988 which the plants then take and then do the reverse in return. 00:11:44.988 --> 00:11:45.994 It's wonderful. 00:11:45.994 --> 00:11:47.325 As I'm telling you all this, 00:11:47.325 --> 00:11:49.516 your big brains are processing this information 00:11:49.516 --> 00:11:50.935 at 170 miles an hour, 00:11:50.935 --> 00:11:53.240 faster than any known computer. 00:11:53.240 --> 00:11:56.080 Holding up that big skeleton of yours is a structural system 00:11:56.080 --> 00:11:58.397 that's four times the strength of concrete, 00:11:58.397 --> 00:12:00.373 and half the weight, by the way. 00:12:00.373 --> 00:12:02.599 You can even produce your own energy; 00:12:02.599 --> 00:12:04.794 at your peak, like on a bike, you can produce - 00:12:04.794 --> 00:12:05.941 you've seen The Matrix - 00:12:05.941 --> 00:12:06.991 2,000 watts of energy. 00:12:06.991 --> 00:12:08.384 It's incredible. 00:12:08.384 --> 00:12:12.611 And powering all this is not fossil fuels but food, glorious food. 00:12:12.891 --> 00:12:15.608 In your lifetime, you will eat about 50 tons of the stuff, 00:12:15.608 --> 00:12:18.478 so every now and again, eat a salad - that's all I'm saying. 00:12:18.478 --> 00:12:19.870 (Laughter) 00:12:20.702 --> 00:12:22.324 And as a byproduct of all of this, 00:12:22.324 --> 00:12:25.984 all of you, all of you are farting 14 times a day. 00:12:26.254 --> 00:12:28.277 All of you - I'm telling you. 00:12:28.277 --> 00:12:31.357 And you're like, "Not me." Yes, you. All of you. 00:12:31.877 --> 00:12:33.689 And I know what else you're thinking - 00:12:33.689 --> 00:12:37.060 it's like a balloon's worth, it's like this much. 00:12:37.584 --> 00:12:40.298 So right now, I'm picturing a balloon over all your heads, 00:12:40.298 --> 00:12:42.406 which just makes me happy. 00:12:43.371 --> 00:12:45.178 Our buildings respond to none of this. 00:12:45.178 --> 00:12:47.736 They ignore all of it. They're dead, lifeless spaces. 00:12:47.736 --> 00:12:50.116 They're filled with known cancer-causing chemicals. 00:12:50.116 --> 00:12:52.356 We put in windows and make sure they don't open, 00:12:52.356 --> 00:12:54.498 and we put our kids in there for 8 hours a day 00:12:54.498 --> 00:12:56.257 and make them learn how to read good, 00:12:56.257 --> 00:12:57.562 and it doesn't work. 00:12:57.562 --> 00:13:00.414 We then surround the site with more dead, lifeless materials. 00:13:00.414 --> 00:13:01.895 We make hot places even hotter. 00:13:01.895 --> 00:13:04.342 And then we just kind of crap these houses out 00:13:04.342 --> 00:13:07.050 and ignore where is the sun and where is the wind. 00:13:07.050 --> 00:13:08.965 And this is why the system doesn't work; 00:13:08.965 --> 00:13:11.485 this is why the whole economic thing every eight years 00:13:11.485 --> 00:13:12.980 is just teetering all the time: 00:13:12.980 --> 00:13:15.050 because it's not sustainable. 00:13:15.050 --> 00:13:16.780 So let's reverse this trend. 00:13:16.780 --> 00:13:18.540 Let's build living buildings, 00:13:18.540 --> 00:13:20.906 buildings that are teeming with aliveness, 00:13:20.906 --> 00:13:25.850 with life just like your own bodies - not this fake life, real life. 00:13:25.850 --> 00:13:26.916 (Laughter) 00:13:27.780 --> 00:13:32.870 Because if you look at plants very closely and you pay attention to them, 00:13:33.850 --> 00:13:35.992 it almost looks like they're alive. 00:13:36.212 --> 00:13:37.424 (Laughter) 00:13:37.424 --> 00:13:39.234 Because they're alive, they're plants. 00:13:39.234 --> 00:13:41.286 It's a joke - they're alive, they're plants! 00:13:41.286 --> 00:13:44.612 We're not the first creatures to build; lots of creatures build things. 00:13:44.612 --> 00:13:47.567 This is the paper wasp. It builds its nest in a matter of days. 00:13:47.567 --> 00:13:50.280 It takes wood pulp from local trees, mixes it with saliva, 00:13:50.280 --> 00:13:51.598 and makes a form of cement; 00:13:51.598 --> 00:13:55.129 it can change the hydrology of the cement based on the humidity in the air; 00:13:55.129 --> 00:13:57.702 and it does it on this cool hexagonal grid, by the way. 00:13:57.702 --> 00:13:58.884 This is the weaver bird. 00:13:58.884 --> 00:14:00.833 It builds its nest in a matter of hours. 00:14:00.833 --> 00:14:04.325 It takes local grasses and uses its own body as a tape measure, 00:14:04.325 --> 00:14:05.996 and it makes the opening big enough 00:14:05.996 --> 00:14:08.663 so the bird can get in and out but none of its predators, 00:14:08.663 --> 00:14:11.050 and it builds this on this cool tripod shape. 00:14:11.050 --> 00:14:12.585 And what do we do? 00:14:12.585 --> 00:14:14.342 We put the birdhouses everywhere. 00:14:14.342 --> 00:14:15.541 It's insulting. 00:14:15.541 --> 00:14:16.977 [birds already have houses] 00:14:16.977 --> 00:14:18.127 (Laughter) 00:14:18.127 --> 00:14:23.292 I mean, they're building out of tripods, and we're putting up Section 8 Housing. 00:14:23.292 --> 00:14:24.645 (Laughter) 00:14:24.950 --> 00:14:27.332 This is why they're pooping on your car, basically. 00:14:27.332 --> 00:14:28.333 That's why. 00:14:28.333 --> 00:14:29.539 (Laughter) 00:14:29.539 --> 00:14:31.104 This is a butterfly egg. 00:14:31.104 --> 00:14:32.428 This is an owl egg. 00:14:32.428 --> 00:14:36.517 Just a wealth of color and form and geometry are awaiting us 00:14:36.517 --> 00:14:38.856 if we just open our eyes and pay attention to it - 00:14:38.856 --> 00:14:41.713 incredible mathematical formula's, just there for the taking, 00:14:41.713 --> 00:14:45.691 all told about 3.8 billion years of research and development. 00:14:45.871 --> 00:14:48.386 All we have to do is promote living buildings, 00:14:48.386 --> 00:14:50.034 buildings that grow, 00:14:50.034 --> 00:14:51.657 buildings that we feed and nourish 00:14:51.657 --> 00:14:53.658 the same way we feed and nourish ourselves. 00:14:53.658 --> 00:14:56.466 We're just scratching the surface, but we're getting better. 00:14:56.466 --> 00:14:58.707 But what it takes is to put this in your mindset 00:14:58.707 --> 00:15:00.474 as a priority and something important 00:15:00.474 --> 00:15:01.474 so when you see this, 00:15:01.474 --> 00:15:04.373 this should be your inspiration for what a skyscraper could be 00:15:04.373 --> 00:15:06.804 because that's how nature builds - nature is strong. 00:15:06.804 --> 00:15:07.801 (Laughter) 00:15:07.801 --> 00:15:09.850 Nature will kick your butt every time. 00:15:10.185 --> 00:15:11.266 And how do we build? 00:15:11.266 --> 00:15:12.610 Just the exact opposite way. 00:15:12.610 --> 00:15:14.846 Just "Whang," brute force, "Whang," shove it in. 00:15:14.846 --> 00:15:16.259 It doesn't work. 00:15:16.259 --> 00:15:18.591 And we look at nature as this obstacle like this - 00:15:18.591 --> 00:15:20.525 ugh! - this thing we have to get around. 00:15:20.525 --> 00:15:21.525 (Laughter) 00:15:21.525 --> 00:15:22.536 And we do it badly. 00:15:22.536 --> 00:15:24.558 We just don't do a good job of it. 00:15:24.558 --> 00:15:25.558 (Laughter) 00:15:25.768 --> 00:15:27.841 And the results are just absurd. 00:15:27.841 --> 00:15:29.720 They're just weird. 00:15:29.910 --> 00:15:31.340 You have to realize something: 00:15:31.340 --> 00:15:33.147 no matter how many resources you have, 00:15:33.147 --> 00:15:35.999 if you use them the wrong way, they will never be enough. 00:15:35.999 --> 00:15:39.452 Our resources have a value, some of the resources even have a history, 00:15:39.452 --> 00:15:43.080 and if we pay attention to the history, we can benefit, but we don't do that. 00:15:43.080 --> 00:15:46.322 You've all seen developments like this, with these cute little names, 00:15:46.322 --> 00:15:48.946 but you know that here, they've just decimated the creek 00:15:48.946 --> 00:15:50.761 to build the nonsense they build here. 00:15:50.761 --> 00:15:52.852 Here, they just drove out all the wild horses 00:15:52.852 --> 00:15:54.667 to build the nonsense they build here, 00:15:54.667 --> 00:15:55.682 and really, frankly, 00:15:55.682 --> 00:15:58.018 I'm terrified to think of what they cut down here. 00:15:58.018 --> 00:15:59.338 (Laughter) 00:16:00.698 --> 00:16:02.141 So this has been my charge. 00:16:02.141 --> 00:16:05.520 This has been what I've dedicated my career to for the last 25 years. 00:16:05.520 --> 00:16:07.708 I'm an architect; I've been building buildings, 00:16:07.708 --> 00:16:09.190 and that didn't go fast enough, 00:16:09.190 --> 00:16:12.101 so then I started writing books and now I'm at the 11th book. 00:16:12.101 --> 00:16:15.860 Last year, I joined my old friends at the International Living Future Institute. 00:16:15.860 --> 00:16:19.384 What we do is we have a rating system called the Living Building Challenge, 00:16:19.384 --> 00:16:23.707 and it says that most buildings are bad and green buildings are less bad. 00:16:23.985 --> 00:16:26.979 We don't want to do that. We want to be good. How do we be good? 00:16:26.979 --> 00:16:28.170 And we set that as a bar. 00:16:28.170 --> 00:16:31.690 Now we have hundreds of living buildings in 30 countries all over the world 00:16:31.690 --> 00:16:32.975 that are aiming to be good. 00:16:32.975 --> 00:16:34.122 And what does good mean? 00:16:34.122 --> 00:16:37.820 Well, good means really five things for us - simply, anyway. 00:16:37.820 --> 00:16:40.782 First, that every building is going to generate its own energy 00:16:40.782 --> 00:16:42.308 because that's what nature does. 00:16:42.308 --> 00:16:44.875 Two, every building will grow a portion of its own food 00:16:44.875 --> 00:16:46.258 because that's what's needed. 00:16:46.258 --> 00:16:48.596 Three, every building will process its own waste - 00:16:48.596 --> 00:16:51.507 this could be composting or bio-remediation or something else. 00:16:51.507 --> 00:16:54.118 Four, every building's going to clean its own water; 00:16:54.118 --> 00:16:55.556 it could be a living machine. 00:16:55.556 --> 00:16:58.746 Number five we do automatically if you do the first four correctly - 00:16:58.746 --> 00:17:00.077 we sequester our own carbon. 00:17:00.077 --> 00:17:02.409 That's what nature does. That's how nature builds. 00:17:02.409 --> 00:17:04.359 I was talking to a developer, and I said, 00:17:04.359 --> 00:17:07.590 "Oh, my God. We're going to grow food on the outside of the building. 00:17:07.590 --> 00:17:09.260 It'll be amazing and so beautiful." 00:17:09.260 --> 00:17:12.966 And all I got was wave after wave of, like, excuse why we couldn't do that. 00:17:12.966 --> 00:17:13.967 He said, 00:17:13.967 --> 00:17:17.447 "You can't grow food on the building. Um, the homeless people will eat it. 00:17:17.447 --> 00:17:18.450 Hah! 00:17:18.450 --> 00:17:19.766 (Laughter) 00:17:20.180 --> 00:17:23.820 Feeding homeless people fruits and vegetables! 00:17:23.820 --> 00:17:26.346 What will they say? You'll be pilloried in the press." 00:17:26.346 --> 00:17:28.303 I didn't know where he's going with this. 00:17:28.303 --> 00:17:29.302 (Laughter) 00:17:29.302 --> 00:17:31.288 And I said, "You know what? Calm down. 00:17:31.288 --> 00:17:33.000 If you start to see this everywhere, 00:17:33.000 --> 00:17:34.198 we'll take the food down. 00:17:34.198 --> 00:17:37.099 [Will work for Balsamic Vinegar] (Laughter) 00:17:37.099 --> 00:17:39.710 But in the meantime, let them eat. What's the big deal? 00:17:39.710 --> 00:17:42.395 Besides, there's probably other crops you could grow 00:17:42.832 --> 00:17:44.625 that'll make you more money anyway. 00:17:44.625 --> 00:17:46.105 That's what we need to get to - 00:17:46.105 --> 00:17:49.295 the point where this is just seen as an opportunity for what it is - 00:17:49.295 --> 00:17:50.350 that's what's needed - 00:17:50.350 --> 00:17:53.061 where developers start to realize how to sell this better. 00:17:53.061 --> 00:17:54.107 Instead of telling you 00:17:54.107 --> 00:17:56.347 about their fitness rooms and gyms and nonsense, 00:17:56.347 --> 00:17:59.257 they could sell you on the fresh oxygen the building produces. 00:17:59.257 --> 00:18:00.731 And I hope you all help join me 00:18:00.731 --> 00:18:03.939 in establishing this as a new sense of victory for the 21st century. 00:18:03.939 --> 00:18:05.233 Thank you very much. 00:18:05.233 --> 00:18:08.661 (Applause) (Cheers)