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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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    But people think it's
    this string of epiphanies
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    and sunrises and rainbows,
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    when in reality, 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 Páramo,
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    you're going to eat
    a large rodent called a cuy.
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    (Laughter)
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    But what makes our experiences
    perhaps a little bit different
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    and a little more unique
    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,
    and 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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    Well, it helps us to 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 here in 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 willingly go
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    way down to a swamp.
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    So how can we still expect
    those same people to then advocate
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    on behalf of their protection?
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    We can't.
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    So 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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    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 doorstep.
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    There are 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 they say,
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    "Oh yeah, 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,
    these were the types of images
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    that got me off the sofa
    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 have here in the South,
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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 our tourism industry is busy
    promoting all the wrong things.
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    Before most kids are 12,
    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; 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
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    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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    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 yet 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 these 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,
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    draining a swamp to make way
    for agriculture and development
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    was considered the very essence
    of conservation not too long ago.
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    But now we're backpedaling,
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    because the more we come to learn
    about these sodden 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-growth 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,
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    the spring rolls around
    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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    It's crazy.
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    So what happens, then, when this bird
    flies over the Gulf of Mexico
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    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 sodded 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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    Now 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 wading
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    into Florida's blackwater.
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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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    is that for so many of us,
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    we live 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 get 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 cypress,
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    and I viewed all these
    mosquitoes 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 embrace them wholly.
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    Now as a conservation photographer
    obsessed with blackwater,
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    it's only fitting that I'd
    eventually end up
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    in the most famous swamp of all:
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    The Everglades.
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    Growing up here in North Central Florida,
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    it always had these enchanted names,
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    places like Loxahatchee and Fakahatchee,
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    Corkscrew, Big Cypress.
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    I started what turned
    into a five-year project
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    to hopefully reintroduce
    the Everglades in a new light,
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    in a more inspired light.
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    But I knew this would be a tall order,
    because here you have an area
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    that's roughly a third the size
    the state of Florida, it's huge.
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    And when I say Everglades,
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    most people are like,
    "Oh, yeah, the national park."
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    But the Everglades is not just a park;
    it's an entire watershed,
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    starting with the Kissimmee
    chain of lakes in the north,
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    and then as the rains
    would fall in the summer,
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    these downpours would flow
    into Lake Okeechobee,
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    and Lake Okeechobee would fill up
    and it would overflow its banks
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    and spill southward, ever slowly,
    with the topography,
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    and get into the river of grass,
    the Sawgrass Prairies,
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    before meting into the cypress slews,
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    until going further south
    into the mangrove swamps,
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    and then finally -- finally --
    reaching Florida Bay,
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    the emerald gem of the Everglades,
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    the great estuary,
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    the 850 square-mile estuary.
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    So sure, the national park
    is the southern end of this system,
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    but all the things that make it unique
    are these inputs that come in,
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    the fresh water that starts
    100 miles north.
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    So no manner of these political
    or invisible boundaries
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    protect the park from polluted water
    or insufficient water.
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    And unfortunately, that's precisely
    what we've done.
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    Over the last 60 years,
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    we have drained, we have dammed,
    we have dredged the Everglades
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    to where now only one third of the water
    that used to reach the bay
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    now reaches the bay today.
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    So this story is not all sunshine
    and rainbows, unfortunately.
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    For better or for worse,
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    the story of the Everglades
    is intrinsically tied
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    to the peaks and the valleys
    of mankind's relationship
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    with the natural world.
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    But I'll show you
    these beautiful pictures,
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    because it gets you on board.
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    And while I have your attention,
    I can tell you the real story.
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    It's that we're taking this,
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    and we're trading it for this,
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    at an alarming rate.
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    And what's lost on so many people
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    is the sheer scale
    of which we're discussing.
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    Because the Everglades is not just
    responsible for the drinking water
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    for 7 million Floridians;
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    today it also provides
    the agricultural fields
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    for the year-round tomatoes and oranges
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    for over 300 million Americans.
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    And it's that same seasonal pulse
    of water in the summer
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    that built the river of grass
    6,000 years ago.
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    Ironically, today, it's also responsible
    for the over half a million acres
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    of the endless river of sugarcane.
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    These are the same fields
    that are responsible
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    for dumping exceedingly high levels
    of fertilizers into the watershed,
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    forever changing the system.
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    But in order for you to not just
    understand how this system works,
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    but to also get personally
    connected to it,
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    I decided to break the story down
    into several different narratives.
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    And I wanted that story to start
    in Lake Okeechobee,
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    the beating heart of the Everglade system.
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    And to do that, I picked an ambassador,
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    an iconic species.
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    This is the Everglade snail kite.
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    It's a great bird,
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    and they used to nest in the thousands,
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    thousands in the northern Everglades.
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    And then they've gone down
    to about 400 nesting pairs today.
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    And why is that?
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    Well, it's because they eat
    one source of food, an apple snail,
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    about the size of a ping-pong ball,
    an aquatic gastropod.
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    So as we started damming up
    the Everglades,
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    as we started diking Lake Okeechobee
    and draining the wetlands,
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    we lost the habitat for the snail.
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    And thus, the population
    of the kites declined.
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    And so, I wanted a photo that would
    not only communicate this relationship
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    between wetland, snail and bird,
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    but I also wanted a photo
    that would communicate
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    how incredible this relationship was,
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    and how very important it is
    that they've come to depend on each other,
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    this healthy wetland and this bird.
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    And to do that, I brainstormed this idea.
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    I started sketching
    out these plans to make a photo,
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    and I sent it to the wildlife biologist
    down in Okeechobee --
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    this is an endangered bird,
    so it takes special permission to do.
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    So I built this submerged platform
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    that would hold snails
    just right under the water.
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    And I spent months planning
    this crazy idea.
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    And I took this platform
    down to Lake Okeechobee
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    and I spent over a week in the water,
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    wading waist-deep,
    9-hour shifts from dawn until dusk,
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    to get one image that I thought
    might communicate this.
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    And here's the day that it finally worked:
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    [Video: (Mac Stone narrating)
    After setting up the platform,
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    I look off and I see a kite
    coming over the cattails.
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    And I see him scanning and searching.
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    And he gets right over the trap,
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    and I see that he's seen it.
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    And he beelines,
    he goes straight for the trap.
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    And in that moment,
    all those months of planning, waiting,
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    all the sunburn, mosquito bites --
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    suddenly, they're all worth it.
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    (Mac Stone in film) Oh my gosh,
    I can't believe it!]
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    You can believe how excited I was
    when that happened.
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    But what the idea was,
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    is that for someone
    who's never seen this bird
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    and has no reason to care about it,
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    these photos, these new perspectives,
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    will help shed a little new light
    on just one species
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    that makes this watershed
    so incredible, so valuable, so important.
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    Now, I know I can't come
    here to Gainesville
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    and talk to you about animals
    in the Everglades
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    without talking about gators.
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    I love gators, I grew up loving gators.
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    My parents always said I had
    an unhealthy relationship with gators.
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    But what I like about them is,
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    they're like the freshwater
    equivalent of sharks.
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    They're feared, they're hated,
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    and they are tragically misunderstood.
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    Because these are a unique species,
    they're not just apex predators.
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    In the Everglades,
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    they are the very architects
    of the Everglades,
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    because as the water drops
    down in the winter
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    during the dry season,
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    they start excavating these holes
    called gator holes.
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    And they do this because
    as the water drops down,
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    they'll be able to stay wet
    and they'll be able to forage.
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    And now this isn't just affecting them,
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    other animals also depend
    on this relationship,
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    so they become a keystone species as well.
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    So how do you make an apex predator,
    an ancient reptile,
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    at once look like it dominates the system,
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    but at the same time, look vulnerable?
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    Well, you wade into a pit
    of about 120 of them,
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    then you hope that you've made
    the right decision.
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    (Laughter)
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    I still have all my fingers, it's cool.
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    But I understand, I know
    I'm not going to rally you guys,
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    I'm not going to rally the troops to
    "Save the Everglades for the gators!"
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    It won't happen because
    they're so ubiquitous,
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    we see them now,
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    they're one of the great conservation
    success stories of the US.
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    But there is one species in the Everglades
    that no matter who you are,
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    you can't help but love, too,
    and that's the roseate spoonbill.
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    These birds are great, but they've had
    a really tough time in the Everglades,
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    because they started out with thousands
    of nesting pairs in Florida Bay,
  • 14:31 - 14:33
    and at the turn of the 20th century,
  • 14:33 - 14:37
    they got down to two -- two nesting pairs.
  • 14:37 - 14:38
    And why?
  • 14:39 - 14:42
    That's because women thought
    they looked better on their hats
  • 14:42 - 14:44
    then they did flying in the sky.
  • 14:44 - 14:47
    Then we banned the plume trade,
  • 14:47 - 14:49
    and their numbers started rebounding.
  • 14:49 - 14:51
    And as their numbers started rebounding,
  • 14:51 - 14:53
    scientists began to pay attention,
  • 14:53 - 14:54
    they started studying these birds.
  • 14:54 - 14:56
    And what they found out is that
  • 14:56 - 14:58
    these birds' behavior
    is intrinsically tied
  • 14:58 - 15:01
    to the annual draw-down
    cycle of water in the Everglades,
  • 15:01 - 15:04
    the thing that defines
    the Everglades watershed.
  • 15:04 - 15:06
    What they found out is that
  • 15:06 - 15:09
    these birds started nesting in the winter
    as the water drew down,
  • 15:09 - 15:13
    because they're tactile feeders,
    so they have to touch whatever they eat.
  • 15:13 - 15:16
    And so they wait for these
    concentrated pools of fish
  • 15:16 - 15:18
    to be able to feed enough
    to feed their young.
  • 15:19 - 15:22
    So these birds became the very icon
    of the Everglades --
  • 15:22 - 15:25
    an indicator species
    of the overall health of the system.
  • 15:25 - 15:29
    And just as their numbers were rebounding
    in the mid-20th century --
  • 15:29 - 15:33
    shooting up to 900, 1,000, 1,100, 1,200 --
  • 15:33 - 15:37
    just as that started happening, we started
    draining the southern Everglades.
  • 15:37 - 15:41
    And we stopped two-thirds
    of that water from moving south.
  • 15:41 - 15:43
    And it had drastic consequences.
  • 15:44 - 15:46
    And just as those numbers
    started reaching their peak,
  • 15:46 - 15:49
    unfortunately, today,
    the real spoonbill story,
  • 15:49 - 15:54
    the real photo of what it looks like
    is more something like this.
  • 15:55 - 16:00
    And we're down to less than 70
    nesting pairs in Florida Bay today,
  • 16:00 - 16:02
    because we've disrupted
    the system so much.
  • 16:02 - 16:05
    So all these different organizations
    are shouting, they're screaming,
  • 16:05 - 16:08
    "The Everglades is fragile! It's fragile!"
  • 16:08 - 16:09
    It is not.
  • 16:09 - 16:10
    It is resilient.
  • 16:10 - 16:14
    Because despite all we've taken,
    despite all we've done and we've drained
  • 16:14 - 16:16
    and we've dammed and we've dredged it,
  • 16:16 - 16:19
    pieces of it are still here,
    waiting to be put back together.
  • 16:19 - 16:21
    And this is what I've loved
    about South Florida,
  • 16:21 - 16:25
    that in one place, you have
    this unstoppable force of mankind
  • 16:25 - 16:28
    meeting the immovable object
    of tropical nature.
  • 16:29 - 16:33
    And it's at this new frontier
    that we are forced with a new appraisal.
  • 16:33 - 16:35
    What is wilderness worth?
  • 16:35 - 16:38
    What is the value of biodiversity
    or our drinking water?
  • 16:39 - 16:42
    And fortunately, after decades of debate,
  • 16:42 - 16:45
    we're finally starting to act
    on those questions.
  • 16:45 - 16:47
    We're slowly undertaking these projects
  • 16:47 - 16:50
    to bring more freshwater back to the bay.
  • 16:50 - 16:53
    But it's up to us as citizens,
    as residents, as stewards
  • 16:53 - 16:56
    to hold our elected officials
    to their promises.
  • 16:57 - 16:59
    What can you do to help?
  • 16:59 - 17:00
    It's so easy.
  • 17:00 - 17:02
    Just get outside, get out there.
  • 17:02 - 17:04
    Take your friends out, take your kids out,
  • 17:04 - 17:06
    take your family out.
  • 17:06 - 17:08
    Hire a fishing guide.
  • 17:08 - 17:10
    Show the state that protecting wilderness
  • 17:10 - 17:14
    not only makes ecological sense,
    but economic sense as well.
  • 17:14 - 17:18
    It's a lot of fun, just do it --
    put your feet in the water.
  • 17:18 - 17:20
    The swamp will change you, I promise.
  • 17:21 - 17:23
    Over the years, we've been so generous
  • 17:23 - 17:26
    with these other landscapes
    around the country,
  • 17:26 - 17:29
    cloaking them with this American pride,
  • 17:29 - 17:32
    places that we now consider to define us:
  • 17:32 - 17:35
    Grand Canyon, Yosemite, Yellowstone.
  • 17:35 - 17:37
    And we use these parks
    and these natural areas
  • 17:37 - 17:40
    as beacons and as cultural compasses.
  • 17:41 - 17:43
    And sadly, the Everglades is very commonly
  • 17:43 - 17:45
    left out of that conversation.
  • 17:46 - 17:48
    But I believe it's every bit
    as iconic and emblematic
  • 17:48 - 17:50
    of who we are as a country
  • 17:50 - 17:53
    as any of these other wildernesses.
  • 17:53 - 17:55
    It's just a different kind of wild.
  • 17:56 - 17:57
    But I'm encouraged,
  • 17:57 - 18:00
    because maybe we're finally
    starting to come around,
  • 18:00 - 18:03
    because what was once deemed
    this swampy wasteland,
  • 18:03 - 18:05
    today is a World Heritage site.
  • 18:05 - 18:08
    It's a wetland
    of international importance.
  • 18:09 - 18:12
    And we've come a long way
    in the last 60 years.
  • 18:12 - 18:16
    And as the world's largest and most
    ambitious wetland restoration project,
  • 18:16 - 18:20
    the international spotlight
    is on us in the Sunshine State.
  • 18:20 - 18:22
    Because if we can heal this system,
  • 18:22 - 18:26
    it's going to become an icon
    for wetland restoration
  • 18:26 - 18:27
    all over the world.
  • 18:28 - 18:33
    But it's up to us to decide which legacy
    we want to attach our flag to.
  • 18:34 - 18:37
    They say that the Everglades
    is our greatest test.
  • 18:38 - 18:41
    If we pass it, we get to keep the planet.
  • 18:42 - 18:43
    I love that quote,
  • 18:43 - 18:45
    because it's a challenge, it's a prod.
  • 18:45 - 18:47
    Can we do it? Will we do it?
  • 18:47 - 18:49
    We have to, we must.
  • 18:50 - 18:51
    But the Everglades is not just a test.
  • 18:52 - 18:54
    It's also a gift,
  • 18:54 - 18:56
    and ultimately, our responsibility.
  • 18:57 - 18:58
    Thank you.
  • 18:58 - 19:02
    (Applause)
Title:
Stunning photos of the endangered Everglades
Speaker:
Mac Stone
Description:

more » « less
Video Language:
English
Team:
closed TED
Project:
TEDTalks
Duration:
19:15

English subtitles

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