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Stunning photos of the endangered Everglades

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    So I've had the great privilege
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    of traveling to some incredible places,
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    photographing these distant landscapes
    and remote cultures
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    all over the world.
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    I love my job.
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    People think it's this
    string of epiphanies
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    and sunrises and rainbows.
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    When in reality,
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    it looks more something like this.
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    (Laughter)
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    This is my office.
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    We can't afford the fanciest places
    to stay at night,
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    so we tend to sleep a lot outdoors,
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    as long as we can stay dry,
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    that's a bonus.
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    We also can't afford
    the fanciest restaurants.
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    So we tend to eat whatever's on
    the local menu.
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    And if you're in the Ecuadorian Paramo,
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    you're going to eat a large rodent
    called a Cuy.
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    (Laughter)
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    What makes our experiences, perhaps,
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    a little bit different
    and a little more unique
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    than that of the average person
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    is that we have this gnawing thing
    in the back of our mind
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    that even in our darkest moments,
    in those times of despair,
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    we think, "Hey, there might be
    an image to be made here,
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    there might be a story to be told."
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    And why is storytelling important?
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    It helps us connect with our cultural
    and our natural heritage.
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    And in the Southeast,
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    there's an alarming disconnect
    between the public
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    and the natural areas that allow
    us to be her win the first place.
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    We're visual creatures,
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    so we use what we see
    to teach us what we know.
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    Now the majority of us
    aren't going to go
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    way down into a swamp.
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    So how can we expect those same people
    to advocate
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    on behalf of their protection?
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    We can't.
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    My job, then, is to use photography
    as a communication tool
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    to help bridge the gap
    between the science and the aesthetics.
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    To get people talking,
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    to get them thinking,
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    and to hopefully, ultimately,
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    to get them caring.
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    I started doing this 15 years ago
    right here in Gainesville,
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    right here in my backyard,
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    and I fell in love with
    adventure and discovery.
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    Going to explore
    all these different places
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    that were just minutes from
    my front door step.
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    There's a lot of
    beautiful places to find.
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    Despite all these years that have passed,
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    I still see the world through the eyes
    of a child
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    and I try to incorporate
    that sense of wonderment
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    and that sense of curiosity
    into my photography
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    as often as I can.
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    And we're pretty lucky
    because here in the South,
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    we're still blessed with a relatively
    blank canvas
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    that we can fill with
    the most fanciful adventures
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    and incredible experiences.
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    It's just a matter of how far
    our imagination will take us.
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    See, a lot of people look at this
    and think,
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    "Oh wow, that's a pretty tree."
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    But I don't just see a tree,
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    I look at this and I see opportunity.
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    I see an entire weekend.
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    Because when I was a kid,
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    these were the types of images
    that got me off the sofa
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    and dared me to explore,
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    dared me to go find the woods
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    and put my head underwater
    and see what we have.
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    And folks, I've been photographing
    all over the world
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    and I promise you,
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    what we we have here,
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    what we have in the Sunshine State
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    rivals anything else that I've seen.
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    But yet out tourism industry is busy
    promoting all the wrong things.
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    Before most kids are 12,
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    they'll have been to Disney World
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    more times than they've been
    in a canoe
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    or camping under a starry sky.
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    And I have nothing against Disney
    or Mickey,
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    I used to go there, too.
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    But they're missing out on those
    fundamental connections
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    that create a real sense of pride
    and ownership
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    for the place that they call home.
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    And this is compounded by the issue
    that the landscapes
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    that define our natural heritage
    and fuel our aquifer for our drinking water
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    have been deemed as scary and dangerous
    and spooky.
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    See, when our ancestors first came here,
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    they warned, "Stay out of these areas,
    they're haunted.
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    They're full of evil spirits and ghosts."
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    I don't know where they came up
    with that idea.
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    But it's actually led to
    a very real disconnect,
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    a very real negative mentality
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    that has kept the public disinterested,
    silent,
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    and ultimately, our environment at risk.
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    We're a state that's surrounded
    and defined by water.
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    And for centuries,
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    swamps and wetlands have been regarded
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    as these obstacles to overcome.
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    And so we've treated them as
    second-class ecosystems
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    because they have
    very little monetary value
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    and of course, they're known
    to harbor alligators and snakes,
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    which I'll admit, these aren't
    the most cuddly of ambassadors.
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    (Laughter)
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    So it became assumed, then, that
    the only good swamp
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    was a drained swamp.
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    And in fact, draining a swamp
    to make way
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    for agriculture and development
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    was considered the very essence
    of conservation
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    not too long ago.
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    And now we're backpedaling,
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    because the more we come to learn
    about these silent landscapes,
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    the more secrets we're starting
    to unlock
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    about interspecies relationships
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    and the connectivity of habitats,
    watersheds and flyways.
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    Take this bird, for example:
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    This is the prothonotary warbler.
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    I love this bird because
    it's a swamp bird,
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    through and through,
    a swamp bird.
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    They nest and they mate and they breed
    in these old grown (?) swamps
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    in these flooded forests.
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    And so after the spring,
    after they raise their young,
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    they then fly thousand of miles
    over the Gulf of Mexico
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    into Central and South America.
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    And then after the winter,
    spring rolls around
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    and they come back.
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    They fly thousands of miles
    over the Gulf of Mexico.
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    And where do they go,
    where do they land?
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    Right back in the same tree.
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    That's nuts.
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    This is a bird the size
    of a tennis ball.
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    I mean, that's crazy.
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    I used a GPS to get here today,
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    and this is my hometown.
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    (Laughter)
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    That's crazy.
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    So what happens, then, when this bird
    flies over the Gulf of Mexico
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    and into Central America for the winter
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    and then the spring rolls around
    and it flies back,
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    and it comes back to this:
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    A freshly salted golf course.
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    This is a narrative that's
    all too commonly unraveling
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    here in this state.
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    And this is a natural process
    that's occurred for thousands of years
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    and we're just now learning about it.
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    So you can imagine all else we have
    to learn about these landscapes
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    if we just preserve them first.
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    And despite all this rich life
    that abounds in these swamps,
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    they still have a bad name.
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    Many people feel uncomfortable
    with the idea of wadding
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    in Florida's black water.
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    I can understand that.
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    But what I loved about growing up
    in the Sunshine State
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    that for so many of us,
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    we leave with this latent,
    but very palpable fear
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    that when we put our toes into the water,
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    there might be something much more ancient
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    and much more adapted than we are.
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    Knowing that you're not top dog
    is a welcomed discomfort, I think.
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    How often in this modern and urban
    and digital age
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    do you actually have the chance
    to feel vulnerable,
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    or consider that the world may not
    have been made for just us?
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    So for the last decade,
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    I began seeking out these areas
    where the concrete yields to forest
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    and the pines turn to cyprus
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    and I viewed all these mosquitos
    and reptiles,
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    all these discomforts,
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    as affirmations that I'd found
    true wilderness,
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    and I embraced them wholly.
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    Now as a conservation photographer
    obsessed with black water,
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    it's only fitting that I'd end up
Title:
Stunning photos of the endangered Everglades
Speaker:
Mac Stone
Description:

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Video Language:
English
Team:
closed TED
Project:
TEDTalks
Duration:
19:15

English subtitles

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