One one level we can't stop environmental disaster,
we live on a very dynamic planet and mother nature
will do what she wants.
I would argue at our peril do we try to stop things like
hurricanes because they play an integral role in making
the ecology and environment of the planet function.
It would be hubris in the greatest sense of the classic
Greek word to imagine that we should just reach in and
turn the dial if we found a phenomenon inconvenient.
The question in that domain is what ways can we make
our communities, our economies more resilient,
able to withstand those phenomena when they happen.
Technology in the hands of virtually everyone really
gives us a a chance to mitigate environmental disaster.
In Bangladesh, there's a system that's set up where
if there's a cyclone coming, people get text messages
that have a plus sign and the more plus signs the more
they know they need to keep their boats close to shore.
Just this little, little simple technology saving
thousands of lives in the Bay of Bengal.
The other piece is nature.
Nature-based solutions are the most resilient solutions
to mitigating environmental disaster.
When you build a dike or a wall or a dam,
when you bolster up a shoreline with
riprap and sand and concrete,
ever year from that point on your maintenance cost
goes up and that structure weakens.
Nature-based solutions work in the exact opposite way.
Once you put them in place,
the longer they are the stronger they become.
The best tool is getting kids in the outdoors again.
Making them interested in what a bug is, a grasshopper.
Look at the earth from space.
That NASA picture we see all the time, the blue marble,
that's an incredible picture.
There's nothing in our DNA that says as a species,
we can get off the planet and
have a look at the entire planet, that's awesome.
It takes an incredible amount of technology to do that,
but we look at that and go, "Meh."
It's just no big deal, we take it for granted and
that sets a tone for people despite faster internet,
despite all these better tools, the most important thing
hasn't sunk in, is that this is about us.
You guys are on to small questions aren't you.
