Sylvia A. Earle

And those of us who've been privileged to, at this stage in the 21st century, be able to go where few have gone before, it's an obligation almost.

You want to have people know who is living there, what's going on.

I mean, if people don't know, they can't care.

You can know and not care, but knowing is the key, which is why I'm talking to you right now.

When you think about it, communication, most of our history was lived without books.

That's a big thought.

No libraries.

Part of the reason that we are kind of special in all of the life on Earth, we learn things, we share what we learn, and pass it on from one generation to the next.

So when I think about the children of the 21st century, we're the luckiest.

Whether you're a child or whether you've been around for a number of decades, we are the most fortunate because of the accumulation of knowledge, language, music, numbers.

So when you think how fortunate we are, we also have the best chance we'll ever have to secure...

an enduring future for us within the natural systems that keep us alive.

We have not been doing a good job of respecting just that.

What keeps us alive?

And what are we doing that pushes the boundaries?

What are the factors that keeps Earth exceptional in a universe that is beautiful, but I wouldn't want to try living on Mars, thank you.

Well, think about the phrase, the death of a thousand cuts.

That's what we have been doing.

Mostly, the greatest pain that we have inflicted on the planet has taken place in the last 200 years or so.

When 1800, our numbers were only about one billion.