I was 23 years old, full of wonderment, ready to do whatever I had to live that dream.

Living off the great on a sailboat powered off the solar, propelled by the wind, the dream of arriving to have forgotten island in the middle of an ocean perfect wave reeling off in the distance.

And this was my I've made it moment in life.

I was walking the walk, going to check out that perfect wave, looked from shore and meandering through the palms of this.

Lost, after all, just taking in all the sights.

You know, the smells dodging chickens.

And obviously I had to be barefoot, and it's kind of part of the criteria.

So I'm avoiding sharp rocks and there's trash, other peoples trash, and I can remember thinking who could be so disrespectful that they would litter in paradise and being the polite, young, good natured Canadian that I waas, I said, How could somebody be such a dick?

90 seconds in I went there, and by that I mean the kind of person who discards items carelessly, knowingly.

You actually know what I met and I say knowingly because we all know littering is bad.

An anti littering dates back to the 19 fifties.

I've been all over the world now and a lot of it under sail.

I can tell you, I've never met anyone.

That is pro litter.

It's awful.

It's disgusting.

We're all in agreement on this one, right?

It because I'd like to move on.

Um and I can't honestly tell you that that was my turning point from what some people would like to call slacked of ism into activism.

But it did trigger a process.

I became okay, is the youth would say, And over time, this awakening has turned.

My I've made it moment into something else.

It's become the wreckage of my innocence that keeps updating itself.

The more shorelines I see with trash on them, the more I see garbage floating past my boat in the middle of an ocean left there by the kind of person who discards items carelessly, knowingly.

So now I'm woke.

But where do we go from here?

I mean, this is where a lot of people come unstuck.

I find you see, I'm not a scientist, not an engineer.

not a philosopher.

My mom knows I've never actually been to a university or college.

I have zero official training.

This is the point where you get a lot of trust in me by trade.

I'm a boat captain, which means I've lived every moment of every day by the mood of whatever ocean I may be in.

I mean, you choose a bad Anchorage.

Neither swell wind or tied doesn't play the game.

You know about it.

Hey.

Oh, you know, I mean, you learn from your mistakes pretty fast.

The ocean holds no margin for error in a new level of respect for the immense power you're truly at the mercy of.

It's not like you can just call time out and stroll into the beach If you don't like the way that things are going.

And it's this kind of existence that builds an unbreakable bond that has you so in tune with the living world that when a threat presents itself, you're only reaction is to defend it.

So I wanted to do something big.

Ocean problems require big solutions.

So you go big right?

I learned about making a peril from recycled pet bottles.

Then I figured we could close that loop, effectively stopping £40,000 of beverage containers from becoming litter for every 10,000 pairs of swim shorts that we made.

I got introduced to the concept of gas if I ng waste plastics back into alternative fuels.

And I knew that it was possible to reduce fuel imports and waste exports in developing countries.

I mean, this just seemed like the right place to start.

You put value onto this waste and you stop it entering the ocean in the first place.

Simple.

Right.

So it turns out, inventing waste management and initiating a circular economy in a developing country is not actually that simple.

It's immense.

Who would have thought?

And, you know, we've only got 15 minutes so I can't get into all the dirty details of what happened or how it all went down.

But I will tell you this.

I did surface from that initial six years in this field, a completely different person.

And one of the most important lessons I learned is when you're looking at the problem from that side of the looking glass, it becomes magnified, almost paralyzing.

And when the curtain gets pulled back and you truly understand the implications.

What we're doing to this planet can shatter you.

I mean, there's countless times during those 1st 6 years I was ready to just throw in the towel and go back to the good.

Life was all too hard, and there seemed to be no light at the end of the tunnel.

And that's where many of us sit with these world problems, these problems that air rapidly, rendering the on Lee No.

One livable planet that we have into an unlivable condition.

And because of that, we live in fear.

And with fear comes hesitation and hesitation will cause all your worst fears to come true.

We become paralyzed, which stops us from even doing those small things.

So for those of you that have been paying attention, that's actually the second time that have quoted from point Break.

You're talking about the original with Patrick Swayze and Kano Reeves.

Let's see if I'll do it again.

All right, now, I won't ask everyone a question, and I want you to answer it honestly.

Do you really think that you can make a difference in this world that ruins the rest?

of the speech.

Many people tell me what I do is pointless won't even scratch the surface.

So if you're like everyone outside of this room, Thea answer is no.

So now talking about those other people?

The problem is they're looking at how big these problems are when the truth is a cure is right in front of him.

It's the small things, their daily choices with what they consume and how they discard.

See, I know that just a handful of people can make a huge difference.

Just imagine if everyone decided today to start lessening their everything footprint in just three areas of daily life.

The best part is you don't need to quit your job.

Start an NGO.

Our reinvent waste management, recycling infrastructure.

It's the small things.

The number one Let's take a look at littering.

When I stood there on that beach at the age of 23 looking at the two minute noodle packet, the cookie wrappers, empty tin of corned beef sitting at the bottom of that long stretch of a palm tree.

I remember thinking, How did these convenience foods even get here and what's gonna happen to them if there's no garbage truck to pick it up.

All water flows to the sea.

So what can you do to be the wave of change in this world problem?

Pick up litter on beaches, riverbanks, lake sides, ocean garbage patches, air built, one piece at a time, their beach cleanups going on all over the world.

Local projects.

Everyone can get involved in do more than just like posts of people doing this, we can show up.

We can do our part.

Number two.

Let's talk about our clothes.

Did you know that fashion is officially the second most polluting industry on the planet after oil again?

Big problem.

So what can you do to make a difference?

Why don't we look a two for one here?

Your jeans.

If you're not paying attention to the brand you buy or how to ditch your denim when you're done, you could be making one massive garbage in water footprint.

In some reports, it states that 6800 liters of water is used to just produce the cotton alone.

Then you had the washing and the dying.

We're getting close to 37,800 liters of water for one pair of jeans do not see how this demand on Virgin resources is.

What's stressing.

The planet think continuously extracting fossil fuels and tearing down rainforests when most of what we actually need is already available.

We simply need to repurpose it.

But with your dollar support, the brands that you feel are making mindful choices, think repurpose ing or even just their ability for a longer life.

So I left the easiest one for last, not the easiest title, but, uh, how our new future depends on us rethinking our plastic footprint because the future we have now is bleak.

See, I don't actually see plastic pollution.

Is this global unsolvable Armageddon?

So what can you do to make a difference?

Small things.

So last year on World Oceans Day, Canada's prime minister announced a proposed ban on single use plastics by 2021.

All right, a lot of problems going on in our country at the moment, but I think J.

T.

And the fun House gang got that one right?

Yes.

Um, so while our country works towards implementing this on a federal scale, provinces and municipalities air already seen voluntary success with local businesses, even though the Plastics Association of Canada keep putting up legal battles.

Actually, this week in Serie Alone, the province wasn't moving fast enough, so they implemented their own plastic bag.

Ben, Right, Let's get another one.

So here's the thing.

We actually don't need to wait for these bands.

We can eliminate these products from our life and shoots.

We have the technology right?

It's not even that complicated are expensive.

If you can remember your keys, your wallet and your cell phone, it's conceivable that you can actually remember your reusable products like shopping bags and cups and produce backs.

See, I want to live in this world where those thin rules of waste plastic bags you know, the ones that are in the vegetable area of your grocery store.

I want to see those is a thing of the past, and please start adding a cutlery kit before you walk out the door.

See, I know that just a handful of you can make a huge difference.

Just imagine if we all decide today to start lessening our everything footprint with the small things with what we consume and how we discard, shift our thinking to consciously making the choice to not be that person.

You know, the one who discards items carelessly, knowingly.

One simple rule.

If we want to fix the climate crisis, just don't be a dick.

Thank you.