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It's great being here at TED.
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You know, I think there might be some presentations
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that will go over my head,
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but the most amazing concepts
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are the ones that go right under my feet.
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The little things in life,
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sometimes that we forget about,
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like pollination, that we take for granted.
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And you can't tell the story about pollinators --
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bees, bats, hummingbirds, butterflies --
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without telling the story about the invention of flowers
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and how they co-evolved
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over 50 million years.
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I've been filming time-lapse flowers
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24 hours a day, seven days a week,
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for over 35 years.
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To watch them move
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is a dance I'm never going to get tired of.
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It fills me with wonder, and it opens my heart.
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Beauty and seduction, I believe,
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is nature's tool for survival,
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because we will protect what we fall in love with.
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Their relationship
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is a love story that feeds the Earth.
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It reminds us that we are a part of nature,
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and we're not separate from it.
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When I heard about the vanishing bees, Colony Collapse Disorder,
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it motivated me to take action.
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We depend on pollinators
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for over a third of the fruits and vegetables we eat.
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And many scientists believe
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it's the most serious issue facing mankind.
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It's like the canary in the coalmine.
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If they disappear, so do we.
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It reminds us that we are a part of nature
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and we need to take care of it.
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What motivated me to film their behavior
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was something that I asked my scientific advisers:
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"What motivates the pollinators?"
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Well, their answer was,
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"It's all about risk and reward."
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Like a wide-eyed kid, I'd say, "Why is that?"
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And they'd say, "Well, because they want to survive."
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I go, "Why?"
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"Well, in order to reproduce."
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"Well, why?"
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And I thought that they'd probably say, "Well, it's all about sex."
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And Chip Taylor, our monarch butterfly expert,
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he replied, "Nothing lasts forever.
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Everything in the universe wears out."
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And that blew my mind.
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Because I realized
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that nature had invented reproduction
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as a mechanism for life to move forward,
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as a life force that passes right through us
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and makes us a link in the evolution of life.
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Rarely seen by the naked eye,
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this intersection
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between the animal world and the plant world
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is truly a magic moment.
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It's the mystical moment
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where life regenerates itself,
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over and over again.
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So here is some nectar from my film.
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I hope you'll drink, tweet
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and plant some seeds
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to pollinate a friendly garden.
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And always take time to smell the flowers,
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and let it fill you with beauty,
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and rediscover that sense of wonder.
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Here are some images from the film.
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(Music)
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(Applause)
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Thank you.
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Thank you very much.
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(Applause)
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Thank you.
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(Applause)