on October 28th I was at a marine
biology conference in Indonesia and I
went diving on a coral reef I felt like
I dropped into an impressionist painting
gliding over blue waters across orange
corals surrounded by hundreds of
colorful fish suddenly a large sea
turtle came along beside me
and we made eye contact and for the rest
of the dive we swam side by side over
that reef until at the end the turtle
turned out towards the open ocean and I
went back to the boat it was a magical
encounter three days later I was
returning home to the US and we stopped
in Taiwan to refuel for the 11 hour
journey back to Los Angeles amazingly we
were in the middle of a hurricane and
the plane shook and shuddered on the
tarmac shortly before midnight the plane
taxied out to the runway and accelerated
and we started to take off and slammed
into construction equipment which
pierced the engines and the plane
exploded in a massive fireball in the
violence of that crash I was thrown from
my seat and hurled across the plane and
then flung across the other way and as I
flew through the air I looked down and
saw a fireball shoot by where I’d been
sitting I was catapulted through the air
again this time hitting the side of the
plane and getting knocked out and I came
to under a pile of debris soaked in jet
fuel in a wreck that was on fire luckily
I found a way out and escaped and I
found myself standing on the tarmac in
Taiwan in the dress I was wearing no
shoes stunned nothing else now a plane
crash was chaotic because it’s not
supposed to happen nobody really knows
what’s going on who made it out who
didn’t who got taken to hospital what
hospital where is everybody
and for a survivor it’s particularly
bewildering for the next week I was
trying to get a passport to get home
find shoes for my feet and deal with
what I’d seen
and I just couldn’t sleep I couldn’t
rest no matter what I did I could not
sleep finally one afternoon I just
filled the bathtub and I jumped in there
under that water and I put myself back
on that coral reef with that sea turtle
immediately I felt calm I felt relaxed
I felt safe and I knew I felt ready to
take on the stresses as soon as I got
home I knew I had to get back out in
nature to heal and so I walked on
beaches I snorkelled I hiked in
mountains and in forests and it was
there in nature that I was able to
confront what I’d seen how I felt about
it and how I was going to use it to move
forward
nature was my source of resilience how I
recovered now every one of you has a
place in nature that you like to go and
I’d like you now to mentally go there
for just a minute close your eyes
experience being there and now come back
to me how do you feel that experience is
your personal resilience courtesy of
nature and it’s always there for you but
now I want to take that experience and
raise it up a notch and bring it into a
much broader round I want to take you
where that journey took me and show you
how you can purposely use nature to
build community resilience few years
after that plane crash the Indian
tsunami roared ashore and devastated
parts of Southeast Asia
those receding waves dragged debris from
land back into the ocean onto the seabed
and marine habitats and I went back to
that region as a volunteer scientist
working with many amazing other
scientists with scuba divers from Patti
from Project Aware and local groups and
we were removing debris from the reefs
and restoring ecosystems everywhere I
worked
from Sri Lanka to the Maldives to the
coast of Thailand I saw the same pattern
repeat those communities that had
protected their natural resources fared
better and were recovering faster how so
well along many coast the Barrier Reef
broke the force of the waves so this the
sea came in slower and not as far
coastal marshes did much the same but it
wasn’t only the physical presence of
those ecosystems that made a difference
in the aftermath of the tsunami healthy
reefs were a source of fish and
fisheries adjacent forests were a source
of fuel for cooking and wood for shelter
and it was these ecosystems that
provided the resilience for communities
to recover now we don’t all experience
tsunamis or hurricanes or plane crashes
fortunately but every single one of us
is experiencing the effects of a rapidly
changing climate today and for many that
experience is overwhelming it’s
traumatic and it’s confusing carbon
dioxide levels already above 400 parts
per million for cities like Miami
flooding is the new normal our planet is
on track for global average temperatures
to rise above 2 degrees C and we are
literally watching entire island nations
disappear before our very eyes how can
we not feel powerless what can we do
well plenty as it turns out first of all
realize we’re not alone in this we have
an ally nature is our ally by aligning
our actions with nature we can better
navigate these unprecedented changes
that we’re facing
how by maintaining our coastal reefs and
our oyster reefs these reefs protect us
against sea-level rise a living coral
absorbs between 80 and 90% of a waves
energy reducing flooding
a dead reef simply collapses and the
water flows in unimpeded in the valleys
of Idaho forest or key to flood
protection they bind the soil and they
absorb water with deforestation or
forest fires that kill trees we do not
have these services and our communities
are vulnerable to flooding and to
landslides as well as the economic
effects that go with it
protective forests counteract these
effects so nature is our ally we can
rely on nature but think and act locally
every one of us lives on an ecosystem
whether you’re in the mountains whether
you’re in the coast or whether you’re in
a city we construct our communities our
nature our local ecosystems provide us
with valuable services whether it’s
clean water or fisheries or fuel those
services strengthen our resilience
particularly during times of change they
always have it’s why we settled our
communities in these places in the first
time there are three actions we can take
today all of us first get acquainted
with your local ecosystem how does it
work how does it function what services
does it provide you fishing industry
food clean water secondly how healthy is
your local ecosystem today is it robust
enough to provide you with those
services you’ve identified or is it
degraded and diminished and not able to
do so thirdly take action what specific
action can your community do today to
better use nature to give you those
services now it may be as
straightforward as restoring a wetland
for flood protection but more likely
it’s a little more sophisticated today
and may involve blending ecosystems with
traditional engineering work this is
called green and gray infrastructure and
that approach is going to be
particularly important for cities
we’re half of us live today and we’re
two-thirds of us are going to live by
2050 how do we do that in these built-up
areas we look first at the landscape
beneath our feet and then we put our
houses our services our construction our
community on that landscape in a way
that works with nature and not against
her the tragedy of the flooding in
Houston caused by Hurricane Harvey was
exacerbated by us paving over nature to
such an extent that she could offer us
no protection or no value whatsoever
cities like Houston Miami and all of us
in our communities have the unique
opportunity today to better use nature
to help us build our resilience through
this time of unprecedented change the
message is simple nature is our ally
protect nature nature protects us thank
you
[Applause]
biology conference in Indonesia and I
went diving on a coral reef I felt like
I dropped into an impressionist painting
gliding over blue waters across orange
corals surrounded by hundreds of
colorful fish suddenly a large sea
turtle came along beside me
and we made eye contact and for the rest
of the dive we swam side by side over
that reef until at the end the turtle
turned out towards the open ocean and I
went back to the boat it was a magical
encounter three days later I was
returning home to the US and we stopped
in Taiwan to refuel for the 11 hour
journey back to Los Angeles amazingly we
were in the middle of a hurricane and
the plane shook and shuddered on the
tarmac shortly before midnight the plane
taxied out to the runway and accelerated
and we started to take off and slammed
into construction equipment which
pierced the engines and the plane
exploded in a massive fireball in the
violence of that crash I was thrown from
my seat and hurled across the plane and
then flung across the other way and as I
flew through the air I looked down and
saw a fireball shoot by where I’d been
sitting I was catapulted through the air
again this time hitting the side of the
plane and getting knocked out and I came
to under a pile of debris soaked in jet
fuel in a wreck that was on fire luckily
I found a way out and escaped and I
found myself standing on the tarmac in
Taiwan in the dress I was wearing no
shoes stunned nothing else now a plane
crash was chaotic because it’s not
supposed to happen nobody really knows
what’s going on who made it out who
didn’t who got taken to hospital what
hospital where is everybody
and for a survivor it’s particularly
bewildering for the next week I was
trying to get a passport to get home
find shoes for my feet and deal with
what I’d seen
and I just couldn’t sleep I couldn’t
rest no matter what I did I could not
sleep finally one afternoon I just
filled the bathtub and I jumped in there
under that water and I put myself back
on that coral reef with that sea turtle
immediately I felt calm I felt relaxed
I felt safe and I knew I felt ready to
take on the stresses as soon as I got
home I knew I had to get back out in
nature to heal and so I walked on
beaches I snorkelled I hiked in
mountains and in forests and it was
there in nature that I was able to
confront what I’d seen how I felt about
it and how I was going to use it to move
forward
nature was my source of resilience how I
recovered now every one of you has a
place in nature that you like to go and
I’d like you now to mentally go there
for just a minute close your eyes
experience being there and now come back
to me how do you feel that experience is
your personal resilience courtesy of
nature and it’s always there for you but
now I want to take that experience and
raise it up a notch and bring it into a
much broader round I want to take you
where that journey took me and show you
how you can purposely use nature to
build community resilience few years
after that plane crash the Indian
tsunami roared ashore and devastated
parts of Southeast Asia
those receding waves dragged debris from
land back into the ocean onto the seabed
and marine habitats and I went back to
that region as a volunteer scientist
working with many amazing other
scientists with scuba divers from Patti
from Project Aware and local groups and
we were removing debris from the reefs
and restoring ecosystems everywhere I
worked
from Sri Lanka to the Maldives to the
coast of Thailand I saw the same pattern
repeat those communities that had
protected their natural resources fared
better and were recovering faster how so
well along many coast the Barrier Reef
broke the force of the waves so this the
sea came in slower and not as far
coastal marshes did much the same but it
wasn’t only the physical presence of
those ecosystems that made a difference
in the aftermath of the tsunami healthy
reefs were a source of fish and
fisheries adjacent forests were a source
of fuel for cooking and wood for shelter
and it was these ecosystems that
provided the resilience for communities
to recover now we don’t all experience
tsunamis or hurricanes or plane crashes
fortunately but every single one of us
is experiencing the effects of a rapidly
changing climate today and for many that
experience is overwhelming it’s
traumatic and it’s confusing carbon
dioxide levels already above 400 parts
per million for cities like Miami
flooding is the new normal our planet is
on track for global average temperatures
to rise above 2 degrees C and we are
literally watching entire island nations
disappear before our very eyes how can
we not feel powerless what can we do
well plenty as it turns out first of all
realize we’re not alone in this we have
an ally nature is our ally by aligning
our actions with nature we can better
navigate these unprecedented changes
that we’re facing
how by maintaining our coastal reefs and
our oyster reefs these reefs protect us
against sea-level rise a living coral
absorbs between 80 and 90% of a waves
energy reducing flooding
a dead reef simply collapses and the
water flows in unimpeded in the valleys
of Idaho forest or key to flood
protection they bind the soil and they
absorb water with deforestation or
forest fires that kill trees we do not
have these services and our communities
are vulnerable to flooding and to
landslides as well as the economic
effects that go with it
protective forests counteract these
effects so nature is our ally we can
rely on nature but think and act locally
every one of us lives on an ecosystem
whether you’re in the mountains whether
you’re in the coast or whether you’re in
a city we construct our communities our
nature our local ecosystems provide us
with valuable services whether it’s
clean water or fisheries or fuel those
services strengthen our resilience
particularly during times of change they
always have it’s why we settled our
communities in these places in the first
time there are three actions we can take
today all of us first get acquainted
with your local ecosystem how does it
work how does it function what services
does it provide you fishing industry
food clean water secondly how healthy is
your local ecosystem today is it robust
enough to provide you with those
services you’ve identified or is it
degraded and diminished and not able to
do so thirdly take action what specific
action can your community do today to
better use nature to give you those
services now it may be as
straightforward as restoring a wetland
for flood protection but more likely
it’s a little more sophisticated today
and may involve blending ecosystems with
traditional engineering work this is
called green and gray infrastructure and
that approach is going to be
particularly important for cities
we’re half of us live today and we’re
two-thirds of us are going to live by
2050 how do we do that in these built-up
areas we look first at the landscape
beneath our feet and then we put our
houses our services our construction our
community on that landscape in a way
that works with nature and not against
her the tragedy of the flooding in
Houston caused by Hurricane Harvey was
exacerbated by us paving over nature to
such an extent that she could offer us
no protection or no value whatsoever
cities like Houston Miami and all of us
in our communities have the unique
opportunity today to better use nature
to help us build our resilience through
this time of unprecedented change the
message is simple nature is our ally
protect nature nature protects us thank
you
[Applause]
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