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too
few can feel i am the sea
and the sea is me
growing up in catalonia in the 1970s
every sunday i would sit in front of la
caja tonta
the dumb box watching my hero
jack cousteau
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the exotic places
the daring underwater explorers the
spectacular creatures
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it was all i wanted to do with my life
and sometimes dreams do come true
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now i've traveled the world many times
over
falling in love with nature over and
over again
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following in my hero's footsteps
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but a lot has changed since khrushchev's
time
in 2019 i explored near shore waters of
costa rica
the unprotected areas where gusto might
have found a thriving ecosystem
barren a few small fish
and no sharks the top predators
that should be hunting here like lions
in the savannah
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when nature has taken millennia to
create
we humans have destroyed in only a few
generations
here i could be anywhere on our planet
where life isn't protected or valued
these beautiful places are incredibly
fragile
and without them we will not survive
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i am dr enrixala a national geographic
explorer
and like many of you around the world i
have been spending my time at home
to help stop the spread of coffee 19.
the pandemic has been keeping me from
doing what i love
exploring the ocean
twelve years ago i started the pristine
seas project at national geographic
which uses a combination of research and
media to help convince
government leaders to create marine
protected
areas in their waters
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the need to protect our wild places on
land
as well as underwater couldn't be more
urgent
to understand why we are suddenly at the
crossroads
when our grandparents generation seem to
live in a time of abundance
requires some quick historical
perspective
the way we fished farmed raised
livestock
and developed the land was for centuries
and even millennia
done at a pace that did not have global
consequences
but everything changed with industrial
revolution
in just the past couple hundred years we
got so good
so fast at extracting these same
resources
at scales once unimaginable that the
consequences are
biting back at us
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those of us who study these connections
see again and again
that where biodiversity is destroyed
ecosystems
break down with unintended and
disastrous consequences
in the eastern united states humans
hunting the gray wolf to extinction
caused a chain reaction that likely led
to the epidemic of lyme disease
that persists to this day
the devastating indonesian tsunami of
2004
was made far more destructive because of
the cutting of mangrove forests
which normally act as a shield buffering
the impact of storm waves
in the line islands in the central
pacific the waters in overfished areas
were filled with pathogens including
bacteria like vibrio
which can cause cholera in humans
bottom trolling the sea floor
clearing forest in the amazon
and melting permafrost in the arctic are
all releasing
tons and tons of carbon into our
atmosphere
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and in wuhan china a virus that would
have dispersed itself naturally
in a biodiverse environment instead
made its way to humans
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likely from bats animals whose habitats
have been systematically raided and
destroyed for decades
these examples just scratched the
surface of how humanity's
reckless relationship with nature has
had disastrous effects
my life has been dedicated to figuring
out how we can have
thriving natural ecosystems and
resilient human populations
together what i found is nothing short
of
miraculous
remember the desolate waters i explored
of costa rica
well just 10 miles from the coast is an
island called
isla del cano
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the difference is stark and it's no
accident
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here the waters are fully protected no
fishing to stress the ecosystem toward
collapse
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natural checks and balances keep
predator and prey
in a sustainable balance
it's a strong resilient constantly
regenerating environment
the abundance of marine life spills over
invisible boundaries
creating more catch for local fishermen
food security for communities
and increased tourism revenue from world
travelers
who want to experience these treasures
first hand
this one truth is at the heart of my
life's work
whereby diversity is allowed to flourish
healthy ecosystems
thrive and we all benefit
protecting intact ecosystems works
because it allows
nature to do the hard work for us
our natural world can be a sustainable
resilient
engine of regeneration we just need to
give it some space
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re-introducing wolves to yellowstone
national park in the 1990s
caused a positive cascade throughout the
food web
leading to a return of plants and
animals of all kinds
creating a more diverse and balanced
ecosystem
during a cyclone in mozambique in 2019
the gorongosa national park
absorbed the rainwater equivalent of 800
000
olympic swimming pools protecting many
populated areas
from the worst of the flooding
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in the pristine southern line islands
giant clams are abundant these
incredible animals which are over fished
in much of the pacific
are like the n95 masks of the coral reef
lagoons
like other marine animals they filter
bacteria and pathogens
including vibrio out of the water
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and living wild animals in the wild
and their habitats intact helps to keep
viruses from arriving
on our doorstep
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so on top of providing us with oxygen
food carbon sequestration recreation
and spiritual inspiration nature is also
shielding us from disease
and natural disasters my team and i have
spent over a decade
bringing this message to world leaders
and decision makers
who have the power to change policy
and create protections for nature
one year after i came to washington dc
to launch pristine cities with national
geographic
i found myself sitting in the white
house
as the president of the united states
signed a proclamation
creating the pacific remote islands
marine
national monuments one of the largest
marine reserves
in the world i couldn't believe
that our research our images our stories
about that place
helped to inform one of the most
important ocean policy decisions
in the history of the united states but
my next thought was
we can do this again 12 years
later we've done this 22 times
we've helped to protect almost 6 million
square kilometers of ocean
and we can do the same on the land
we must protect the critical wilderness
areas we depend
on our target is ambitious
30 percent of the planet protected by
2030
but pristine cis has proven that
thinking big
can pay off
i dream of the day we can all be in
nature again
perhaps with a deeper understanding of
its importance
it's not too much to say that if we
protect nature
she will protect us as well
that's life imbalance
that's why we need the wild
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you