WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.620 align:middle line:90% 00:00:01.620 --> 00:00:02.520 align:middle line:90% Eponymous. 00:00:02.520 --> 00:00:04.950 align:middle line:84% This is the eponymous essay from the book, 00:00:04.950 --> 00:00:09.470 align:middle line:84% and it's called "Sustainability, A Love Story." 00:00:09.470 --> 00:00:13.010 align:middle line:84% Sustainability is easy enough to define. 00:00:13.010 --> 00:00:17.420 align:middle line:84% Keeping going what is already going seems like a good idea. 00:00:17.420 --> 00:00:19.460 align:middle line:90% Is is good. 00:00:19.460 --> 00:00:24.020 align:middle line:84% It denotes being, aliveness, fact. 00:00:24.020 --> 00:00:26.750 align:middle line:84% Tucked inside the word are other good words, 00:00:26.750 --> 00:00:31.130 align:middle line:90% like sustenance, maintain, able. 00:00:31.130 --> 00:00:33.200 align:middle line:84% Something we are doing and can keep 00:00:33.200 --> 00:00:37.280 align:middle line:90% doing, present tense, simple. 00:00:37.280 --> 00:00:38.640 align:middle line:90% We sustain. 00:00:38.640 --> 00:00:40.910 align:middle line:90% We are sustaining. 00:00:40.910 --> 00:00:45.770 align:middle line:84% We will keep life as we've come to know it, keep on keeping on. 00:00:45.770 --> 00:00:49.490 align:middle line:84% The word "sustainable" attaches to environmentalism, 00:00:49.490 --> 00:00:52.130 align:middle line:84% but sustainable is reasonable, not 00:00:52.130 --> 00:00:55.190 align:middle line:84% preachy kind of environmentalism. 00:00:55.190 --> 00:00:58.640 align:middle line:84% We resist the word "environmentalism." 00:00:58.640 --> 00:01:02.090 align:middle line:90% It suggests not is, but no. 00:01:02.090 --> 00:01:03.230 align:middle line:90% Stop driving. 00:01:03.230 --> 00:01:04.700 align:middle line:90% Stop heating the house. 00:01:04.700 --> 00:01:08.580 align:middle line:84% Stop powering this computer with ill-gotten electricity. 00:01:08.580 --> 00:01:12.170 align:middle line:84% But if humans are bad at one thing, fundamentally, 00:01:12.170 --> 00:01:14.120 align:middle line:90% it is stopping. 00:01:14.120 --> 00:01:17.240 align:middle line:90% Animals animate. 00:01:17.240 --> 00:01:19.850 align:middle line:84% Going-- going is something humans do well. 00:01:19.850 --> 00:01:21.560 align:middle line:84% When I think of sustainability, I 00:01:21.560 --> 00:01:23.360 align:middle line:84% think of the possibility of cars-- 00:01:23.360 --> 00:01:27.710 align:middle line:84% high gas mileage, electric powered, even solar powered. 00:01:27.710 --> 00:01:32.060 align:middle line:84% But the solar powered car, it only seats one. 00:01:32.060 --> 00:01:34.190 align:middle line:90% It goes slow. 00:01:34.190 --> 00:01:36.770 align:middle line:84% It's hard to drive it on rainy days. 00:01:36.770 --> 00:01:38.570 align:middle line:90% I don't want no. 00:01:38.570 --> 00:01:40.010 align:middle line:90% I want forward. 00:01:40.010 --> 00:01:42.600 align:middle line:90% I want fast. 00:01:42.600 --> 00:01:45.450 align:middle line:84% Sustainability has a ring of lifestyle 00:01:45.450 --> 00:01:48.840 align:middle line:84% to which we've become accustomed about it. 00:01:48.840 --> 00:01:52.320 align:middle line:90% Let's sustain what we have now. 00:01:52.320 --> 00:01:55.650 align:middle line:84% No one wants to make that many changes. 00:01:55.650 --> 00:01:58.800 align:middle line:84% And to truly sustain the planet, not our lifestyles, 00:01:58.800 --> 00:02:01.050 align:middle line:84% we would have to give up a great deal of our lifestyle 00:02:01.050 --> 00:02:05.580 align:middle line:84% that we have tried so hard, lo this industrial revolution, 00:02:05.580 --> 00:02:07.980 align:middle line:90% to sustain. 00:02:07.980 --> 00:02:12.000 align:middle line:84% I see my neighbor vacuuming his garden rocks. 00:02:12.000 --> 00:02:16.410 align:middle line:84% The clerk at Fry's wraps one item per plastic bag. 00:02:16.410 --> 00:02:19.920 align:middle line:84% I sit here, two computers whirring, fridge humming, 00:02:19.920 --> 00:02:22.080 align:middle line:84% dishwasher running, washing machine spinning. 00:02:22.080 --> 00:02:24.540 align:middle line:84% I'm eating an orange trucked in from California. 00:02:24.540 --> 00:02:27.660 align:middle line:84% What does sustainability really look like? 00:02:27.660 --> 00:02:30.930 align:middle line:84% Washing my clothes and dishes by hand? 00:02:30.930 --> 00:02:32.880 align:middle line:90% Or is it more extreme? 00:02:32.880 --> 00:02:37.500 align:middle line:84% Does it look like washing my clothes and dishes with sand? 00:02:37.500 --> 00:02:41.040 align:middle line:84% Despite the fact that I read all of Michael Pollan's Omnivore's 00:02:41.040 --> 00:02:45.360 align:middle line:84% Dilemma, I still buy red meat from Safeway. 00:02:45.360 --> 00:02:47.880 align:middle line:84% I try not to think about the cows I've met 00:02:47.880 --> 00:02:51.000 align:middle line:90% and their bland, sorrowful eyes. 00:02:51.000 --> 00:02:54.420 align:middle line:84% I try not to think about Styrofoam, about plastic wrap. 00:02:54.420 --> 00:02:57.210 align:middle line:90% 00:02:57.210 --> 00:02:59.220 align:middle line:84% Sustainable to humans most likely 00:02:59.220 --> 00:03:02.740 align:middle line:84% means I can still have my internet and eat bacon. 00:03:02.740 --> 00:03:05.130 align:middle line:84% I can take a plane to visit my sister in Baltimore. 00:03:05.130 --> 00:03:08.400 align:middle line:84% I can take my RV, hitch my ATVs to the back, tow 00:03:08.400 --> 00:03:10.620 align:middle line:90% an SUV behind that just in case. 00:03:10.620 --> 00:03:13.110 align:middle line:84% I can go anywhere I want to, as far as I want 00:03:13.110 --> 00:03:15.000 align:middle line:90% to, with all the gas I want to. 00:03:15.000 --> 00:03:18.390 align:middle line:84% I can drive to the grocery store, forget my wallet, 00:03:18.390 --> 00:03:21.390 align:middle line:84% drive back home, pick up my wallet, go back to the store, 00:03:21.390 --> 00:03:25.020 align:middle line:84% realize I forgot my canvas shopping bags, 00:03:25.020 --> 00:03:26.640 align:middle line:90% shrug my shoulders. 00:03:26.640 --> 00:03:31.110 align:middle line:84% When the checker asks "paper or plastic," sure. 00:03:31.110 --> 00:03:34.650 align:middle line:84% I make certain to store my plastic bags in a plastic bag 00:03:34.650 --> 00:03:37.710 align:middle line:84% keeper until the plastic bag keeper explodes plastic bags 00:03:37.710 --> 00:03:41.760 align:middle line:84% all over my kitchen floor and I get mad and scoop them all up 00:03:41.760 --> 00:03:43.410 align:middle line:84% and throw them all in the garbage. 00:03:43.410 --> 00:03:47.480 align:middle line:90% 00:03:47.480 --> 00:03:49.910 align:middle line:84% What's sustainable to the human is not 00:03:49.910 --> 00:03:53.390 align:middle line:84% the same as what is sustainable to the otter. 00:03:53.390 --> 00:03:55.970 align:middle line:90% The otter prefers a cool planet. 00:03:55.970 --> 00:03:59.930 align:middle line:84% It visits his sister otter in the stream adjacent. 00:03:59.930 --> 00:04:03.710 align:middle line:84% His black, oily legs power him over to her den. 00:04:03.710 --> 00:04:06.710 align:middle line:90% Inside, she offers him crawdads. 00:04:06.710 --> 00:04:09.620 align:middle line:84% It is a good thing otters like their crawdads raw. 00:04:09.620 --> 00:04:13.850 align:middle line:84% It's hard to get a good boil on when it's 20 degrees outside. 00:04:13.850 --> 00:04:19.490 align:middle line:84% The water temperature, though, to the otter, is just fine. 00:04:19.490 --> 00:04:21.290 align:middle line:84% But what is sustainable to the crawdad 00:04:21.290 --> 00:04:24.470 align:middle line:84% is not the same as what is sustainable to the otter. 00:04:24.470 --> 00:04:27.140 align:middle line:84% The crawdad likes her water warm, 00:04:27.140 --> 00:04:28.670 align:middle line:90% not so warm as to boil her. 00:04:28.670 --> 00:04:30.170 align:middle line:84% Just warm enough that she can use 00:04:30.170 --> 00:04:32.060 align:middle line:84% the power of her plastic claws to fight back 00:04:32.060 --> 00:04:35.090 align:middle line:84% against the otter, warm enough to lubricate her legs to kick 00:04:35.090 --> 00:04:37.872 align:middle line:90% herself to a good hiding hole. 00:04:37.872 --> 00:04:41.930 align:middle line:84% A hole finds the whole world sustainable. 00:04:41.930 --> 00:04:44.360 align:middle line:90% A hole is very zen. 00:04:44.360 --> 00:04:48.280 align:middle line:84% It believes where one hole is filled, another will be dug. 00:04:48.280 --> 00:04:51.200 align:middle line:84% It has friends in crawdads, gophers, golf course designers, 00:04:51.200 --> 00:04:54.200 align:middle line:84% earthquake faults, geysers, meteors. 00:04:54.200 --> 00:04:56.330 align:middle line:84% What is unsustainable to the rest of us 00:04:56.330 --> 00:05:00.440 align:middle line:84% will be intoxicating to the hole. 00:05:00.440 --> 00:05:03.110 align:middle line:84% I recycle glass from my wine and beer bottles, 00:05:03.110 --> 00:05:05.210 align:middle line:84% but then some people don't drink. 00:05:05.210 --> 00:05:08.690 align:middle line:84% Those people are probably the most sustainable of all. 00:05:08.690 --> 00:05:12.698 align:middle line:84% They'll live forever, healthy and righteous. 00:05:12.698 --> 00:05:15.800 align:middle line:84% While holes are seemingly always sustainable, 00:05:15.800 --> 00:05:17.450 align:middle line:90% wind may well not be. 00:05:17.450 --> 00:05:20.270 align:middle line:84% Wind farms at some point may functionally stop the wind, 00:05:20.270 --> 00:05:20.825 align:middle line:90% some say. 00:05:20.825 --> 00:05:26.570 align:middle line:90% 00:05:26.570 --> 00:05:30.120 align:middle line:84% Turbines absorb the wind, turn the wind into electricity. 00:05:30.120 --> 00:05:32.300 align:middle line:84% The flapping you hear against your house at night 00:05:32.300 --> 00:05:34.010 align:middle line:90% is not a breeze. 00:05:34.010 --> 00:05:36.800 align:middle line:84% It's the sound of pollen hanging desperately off the trees, 00:05:36.800 --> 00:05:39.620 align:middle line:90% crying, "We want to go there." 00:05:39.620 --> 00:05:40.700 align:middle line:90% Where? 00:05:40.700 --> 00:05:42.650 align:middle line:90% Anywhere. 00:05:42.650 --> 00:05:45.740 align:middle line:84% Power lines have been routed away from trees. 00:05:45.740 --> 00:05:48.560 align:middle line:84% But without pollen, nobody's going anywhere. 00:05:48.560 --> 00:05:51.700 align:middle line:90% 00:05:51.700 --> 00:05:54.010 align:middle line:84% What is sustainable to me is probably not 00:05:54.010 --> 00:05:56.290 align:middle line:90% sustainable to you. 00:05:56.290 --> 00:05:58.330 align:middle line:84% I won't let my kids eat Lunchables, 00:05:58.330 --> 00:06:01.180 align:middle line:84% but those parents who do ensure their children, or at least 00:06:01.180 --> 00:06:05.860 align:middle line:84% their lunches, are preserved forever with BHT. 00:06:05.860 --> 00:06:08.160 align:middle line:84% The memory of their youth lingers 00:06:08.160 --> 00:06:12.970 align:middle line:84% on in the divided sections of plastic disposable trays. 00:06:12.970 --> 00:06:17.320 align:middle line:84% My neighbors, two kids and two sets of triplets, 00:06:17.320 --> 00:06:20.770 align:middle line:84% put two garbage cans out to the curb each Thursday night. 00:06:20.770 --> 00:06:23.440 align:middle line:84% But on Monday night, no recycling bin 00:06:23.440 --> 00:06:27.520 align:middle line:84% graces the space where sidewalk and driveway meet. 00:06:27.520 --> 00:06:31.480 align:middle line:84% Still, if sustainability is in sustaining your DNA, 00:06:31.480 --> 00:06:36.190 align:middle line:84% these people have me beat by a multiple of 4. 00:06:36.190 --> 00:06:38.050 align:middle line:84% My DNA is going nowhere fast compared 00:06:38.050 --> 00:06:39.610 align:middle line:90% to my procreative neighbors. 00:06:39.610 --> 00:06:41.740 align:middle line:84% Diaper after diaper goes into the garbage can. 00:06:41.740 --> 00:06:44.140 align:middle line:84% There is no recycling of Pampers. 00:06:44.140 --> 00:06:46.900 align:middle line:84% But my favorite part of Jonathan Franzen's book 00:06:46.900 --> 00:06:49.870 align:middle line:84% The Corrections was the fantasy of silicone 00:06:49.870 --> 00:06:53.110 align:middle line:84% becoming a precious resource in the future. 00:06:53.110 --> 00:06:56.320 align:middle line:84% Our garbage dumps will be our gold mines. 00:06:56.320 --> 00:07:01.180 align:middle line:84% I love the idea of speculative non-fiction. 00:07:01.180 --> 00:07:04.660 align:middle line:84% Now, solar power seems highly sustainable. 00:07:04.660 --> 00:07:08.980 align:middle line:84% The sun won't burn out for another 5 billion years or so. 00:07:08.980 --> 00:07:10.570 align:middle line:90% But where's the comfort in that? 00:07:10.570 --> 00:07:12.700 align:middle line:84% The idea that my children-- insert 00:07:12.700 --> 00:07:14.440 align:middle line:84% exponential grandchildren here-- will 00:07:14.440 --> 00:07:18.280 align:middle line:84% be freaking out when the sun expires in 5 billion years? 00:07:18.280 --> 00:07:19.960 align:middle line:84% Here's something that might make you 00:07:19.960 --> 00:07:22.840 align:middle line:84% wish Earth would explode right off the bat. 00:07:22.840 --> 00:07:26.080 align:middle line:84% When you google "the sun will die when" 00:07:26.080 --> 00:07:30.580 align:middle line:84% some websites say in 200 years instead of the more plausible 00:07:30.580 --> 00:07:32.027 align:middle line:90% 5 billion. 00:07:32.027 --> 00:07:33.610 align:middle line:84% Because what's the difference, really, 00:07:33.610 --> 00:07:36.430 align:middle line:84% between 200 years and 5 billion years? 00:07:36.430 --> 00:07:38.620 align:middle line:84% Because the internet is full of accurate 00:07:38.620 --> 00:07:41.980 align:middle line:84% information only about once every 200 years. 00:07:41.980 --> 00:07:45.760 align:middle line:84% About 500 billion years old, the sun is about halfway 00:07:45.760 --> 00:07:46.840 align:middle line:90% through its lifespan. 00:07:46.840 --> 00:07:49.120 align:middle line:84% It doesn't have enough mass to go supernova. 00:07:49.120 --> 00:07:51.970 align:middle line:84% Instead, it will become a red giant, 00:07:51.970 --> 00:07:54.820 align:middle line:90% overheating like a Chevy Nova. 00:07:54.820 --> 00:07:59.440 align:middle line:84% Things don't look good for Earth 5 billion years from now. 00:07:59.440 --> 00:08:02.410 align:middle line:84% Even if Earth survives the initial explosion, 00:08:02.410 --> 00:08:04.600 align:middle line:84% all the water will be boiled off, 00:08:04.600 --> 00:08:09.010 align:middle line:84% if you don't frack it all to hell first. 00:08:09.010 --> 00:08:11.020 align:middle line:90% Fracking uses a lot of water. 00:08:11.020 --> 00:08:13.720 align:middle line:84% I just went down the Google hole and emerged with-- surprise-- 00:08:13.720 --> 00:08:16.060 align:middle line:90% conflicting information. 00:08:16.060 --> 00:08:19.330 align:middle line:84% Some say fracking uses less water than burning coal 00:08:19.330 --> 00:08:21.100 align:middle line:90% or watering golf courses. 00:08:21.100 --> 00:08:23.050 align:middle line:84% Others say that the level of contamination 00:08:23.050 --> 00:08:26.830 align:middle line:84% that fracking water is so severe we'll never repair it. 00:08:26.830 --> 00:08:28.930 align:middle line:84% Someone else went on to try to convince me 00:08:28.930 --> 00:08:32.200 align:middle line:84% that somehow the use of methane while fracking creates 00:08:32.200 --> 00:08:36.438 align:middle line:84% brand new water, which led me to think I should stop reading 00:08:36.438 --> 00:08:38.230 align:middle line:84% that thread, since last I heard, we are all 00:08:38.230 --> 00:08:41.500 align:middle line:84% drinking dinosaur pee, and that is that for water, 00:08:41.500 --> 00:08:43.120 align:middle line:90% on this planet, at least. 00:08:43.120 --> 00:08:45.610 align:middle line:84% Suffice it to say, when the sun turns from red dwarf 00:08:45.610 --> 00:08:48.970 align:middle line:84% to red giant, the water/dinosaur pee will be boiled off, 00:08:48.970 --> 00:08:51.640 align:middle line:84% the atmosphere will disappear, and all that precious water, 00:08:51.640 --> 00:08:54.100 align:middle line:84% potable or not, will disappear into space, 00:08:54.100 --> 00:08:57.400 align:middle line:84% or maybe disappear into Google, where from, as you know, 00:08:57.400 --> 00:09:00.760 align:middle line:90% nothing ever really returns. 00:09:00.760 --> 00:09:02.590 align:middle line:84% I'm still there now, trying to find out 00:09:02.590 --> 00:09:06.070 align:middle line:84% about this water vapor created by burning methane. 00:09:06.070 --> 00:09:07.930 align:middle line:84% If you ever get thirsty and you happen 00:09:07.930 --> 00:09:11.350 align:middle line:84% to have a farting cow and a match, so says the internet, 00:09:11.350 --> 00:09:13.630 align:middle line:90% you will be sustenance itself. 00:09:13.630 --> 00:09:16.870 align:middle line:90% 00:09:16.870 --> 00:09:19.510 align:middle line:84% The biggest threat to sustainability 00:09:19.510 --> 00:09:23.500 align:middle line:90% is the I/you conundrum. 00:09:23.500 --> 00:09:28.540 align:middle line:84% I love the book Italo Calvino's On A Winter's Night A Traveler. 00:09:28.540 --> 00:09:31.290 align:middle line:84% I hear his voice in my memory from my copy 00:09:31.290 --> 00:09:33.790 align:middle line:84% of the book that is still on the back of a toilet in a house 00:09:33.790 --> 00:09:35.200 align:middle line:84% I once owned in Portland, Oregon. 00:09:35.200 --> 00:09:36.970 align:middle line:84% That copy, that house, that toilet-- 00:09:36.970 --> 00:09:40.150 align:middle line:90% together they are sustainable. 00:09:40.150 --> 00:09:44.020 align:middle line:84% Calvino writes, "You walk down a cobblestone street. 00:09:44.020 --> 00:09:45.710 align:middle line:90% Your head turns to the left. 00:09:45.710 --> 00:09:47.620 align:middle line:90% You see a man with a mustache. 00:09:47.620 --> 00:09:51.430 align:middle line:84% His eyes lift and fall on your white head." 00:09:51.430 --> 00:09:53.470 align:middle line:84% Some readers don't like this "you" business. 00:09:53.470 --> 00:09:55.820 align:middle line:90% You can't tell me what to do. 00:09:55.820 --> 00:09:58.990 align:middle line:84% I'll turn my head when and in what direction I want. 00:09:58.990 --> 00:10:03.121 align:middle line:84% They tell me in writers' workshop, don't use the "you." 00:10:03.121 --> 00:10:05.155 align:middle line:90% Some readers love the "you." 00:10:05.155 --> 00:10:07.030 align:middle line:84% They love that both the author and the reader 00:10:07.030 --> 00:10:07.930 align:middle line:90% are together in this. 00:10:07.930 --> 00:10:11.625 align:middle line:84% The you point of view, though, is unsustainable. 00:10:11.625 --> 00:10:13.750 align:middle line:84% The you point of view can lead you 00:10:13.750 --> 00:10:16.450 align:middle line:84% down a path of goodness, unsustainable goodness, 00:10:16.450 --> 00:10:18.100 align:middle line:90% but goodness nonetheless. 00:10:18.100 --> 00:10:21.310 align:middle line:84% To see a mother bear cling to her baby bear 00:10:21.310 --> 00:10:24.460 align:middle line:84% on an ice floe that is melting in the middle of the Arctic sea 00:10:24.460 --> 00:10:27.620 align:middle line:84% will remind you of the daughter that is coughing in her bed. 00:10:27.620 --> 00:10:30.550 align:middle line:84% And while the polar bear's apocalypse is real 00:10:30.550 --> 00:10:34.210 align:middle line:84% and your apocalypse is, in the 21st century, 00:10:34.210 --> 00:10:39.520 align:middle line:84% full of nebulizer and inhalers and portable oxygen pretend, 00:10:39.520 --> 00:10:42.820 align:middle line:84% you can fall in love with that mama bear. 00:10:42.820 --> 00:10:46.000 align:middle line:84% You can approximate, metaphorize, resemble her, 00:10:46.000 --> 00:10:48.940 align:middle line:84% that polar bears love her baby as much as you love yours, 00:10:48.940 --> 00:10:52.350 align:middle line:84% even though mine has been coughing all night long, 00:10:52.350 --> 00:10:54.340 align:middle line:90% keeping me up with worry. 00:10:54.340 --> 00:10:58.350 align:middle line:84% The mama polar bear, does she worry like you? 00:10:58.350 --> 00:11:00.150 align:middle line:84% You will save the polar bear like you 00:11:00.150 --> 00:11:02.070 align:middle line:90% will save your daughter. 00:11:02.070 --> 00:11:05.370 align:middle line:84% You insert one more vial into the nebulizer. 00:11:05.370 --> 00:11:08.520 align:middle line:90% You donate $15 to Greenpeace. 00:11:08.520 --> 00:11:10.800 align:middle line:84% You can sustain your conscience one more day. 00:11:10.800 --> 00:11:14.400 align:middle line:90% 00:11:14.400 --> 00:11:16.770 align:middle line:84% But the metaphor falls apart, as it does 00:11:16.770 --> 00:11:19.260 align:middle line:90% in any second-person narrative. 00:11:19.260 --> 00:11:23.100 align:middle line:84% At some point, the "you" is just too insistent, too preachy, 00:11:23.100 --> 00:11:24.540 align:middle line:90% too full of itself. 00:11:24.540 --> 00:11:26.670 align:middle line:90% You want your "I" back. 00:11:26.670 --> 00:11:29.010 align:middle line:90% You are tired of polar bears. 00:11:29.010 --> 00:11:31.690 align:middle line:84% Come on down to the lower 48, you say. 00:11:31.690 --> 00:11:32.680 align:middle line:90% Adjust. 00:11:32.680 --> 00:11:34.410 align:middle line:90% Adapt, you tell the polar bears. 00:11:34.410 --> 00:11:36.730 align:middle line:90% Shift your perspective. 00:11:36.730 --> 00:11:39.840 align:middle line:84% You think Greenpeace should have enough cash by now 00:11:39.840 --> 00:11:42.990 align:middle line:84% to let the polar bears catch a ride on the big boats, 00:11:42.990 --> 00:11:46.230 align:middle line:84% giving them a free break from swimming from ice floe 00:11:46.230 --> 00:11:48.150 align:middle line:90% to ice floe. 00:11:48.150 --> 00:11:50.700 align:middle line:84% Or you imagine Greenpeace throwing seals 00:11:50.700 --> 00:11:51.720 align:middle line:90% off the bow of the boat. 00:11:51.720 --> 00:11:52.950 align:middle line:90% You can swim. 00:11:52.950 --> 00:11:54.810 align:middle line:90% You have flippers. 00:11:54.810 --> 00:11:56.670 align:middle line:90% Lazy seals. 00:11:56.670 --> 00:12:00.150 align:middle line:84% Trawling flotation devices behind for the hungry bears. 00:12:00.150 --> 00:12:02.130 align:middle line:84% Then you start to feel bad for the seals. 00:12:02.130 --> 00:12:04.530 align:middle line:90% You can't take this anymore. 00:12:04.530 --> 00:12:09.190 align:middle line:84% You jump off the boat, join the seals and the polar bears. 00:12:09.190 --> 00:12:11.020 align:middle line:90% This has gone on too long. 00:12:11.020 --> 00:12:11.520 align:middle line:90% Jump. 00:12:11.520 --> 00:12:14.670 align:middle line:90% 00:12:14.670 --> 00:12:18.930 align:middle line:84% As Jacques Derrida and Jim Morrison assure us, 00:12:18.930 --> 00:12:22.530 align:middle line:90% no one here gets out alive. 00:12:22.530 --> 00:12:24.960 align:middle line:84% There is no jumping off the boat. 00:12:24.960 --> 00:12:26.460 align:middle line:90% You are the boat. 00:12:26.460 --> 00:12:28.930 align:middle line:84% I've been stuck in my own boaty head for years now, 00:12:28.930 --> 00:12:32.130 align:middle line:84% and the only way I get anywhere near off of it or out of it 00:12:32.130 --> 00:12:33.900 align:middle line:84% is watching the ground squirrel figure out 00:12:33.900 --> 00:12:36.060 align:middle line:84% how to carry four acorns at once, 00:12:36.060 --> 00:12:40.030 align:middle line:84% or the raccoon open the latch on the garbage cans. 00:12:40.030 --> 00:12:42.180 align:middle line:84% If the only animals that are going to survive 00:12:42.180 --> 00:12:44.550 align:middle line:84% are rats, deer, squirrel, roaches, and raccoons, 00:12:44.550 --> 00:12:47.970 align:middle line:84% then I should learn the ways of the roach. 00:12:47.970 --> 00:12:49.320 align:middle line:90% Skitter. 00:12:49.320 --> 00:12:50.790 align:middle line:90% Congregate. 00:12:50.790 --> 00:12:52.080 align:middle line:90% Learn how to fly. 00:12:52.080 --> 00:12:54.850 align:middle line:84% These animals have one thing in common. 00:12:54.850 --> 00:12:59.880 align:middle line:84% They have adapted toward humans, the roaches best of all. 00:12:59.880 --> 00:13:03.630 align:middle line:84% The small adapts so much more quickly. 00:13:03.630 --> 00:13:05.970 align:middle line:84% A bug moves quickly away from a falling stick, 00:13:05.970 --> 00:13:09.120 align:middle line:84% not because he himself is small, but because he pays attention 00:13:09.120 --> 00:13:12.540 align:middle line:84% to the small vibrations in the Earth. 00:13:12.540 --> 00:13:14.820 align:middle line:84% And that by paying attention to the small, 00:13:14.820 --> 00:13:17.550 align:middle line:84% we can make our big selves adapt. 00:13:17.550 --> 00:13:19.140 align:middle line:90% I smell lilacs. 00:13:19.140 --> 00:13:20.190 align:middle line:90% It is spring. 00:13:20.190 --> 00:13:23.040 align:middle line:84% I should prepare for drought by sucking milkweed. 00:13:23.040 --> 00:13:28.440 align:middle line:84% The monarchs, they live and learn to love the sour taste. 00:13:28.440 --> 00:13:30.750 align:middle line:84% I'll fight the cockroach to quench my thirst. 00:13:30.750 --> 00:13:34.320 align:middle line:90% 00:13:34.320 --> 00:13:37.500 align:middle line:84% Maybe humans are too multi-tentacled to adapt. 00:13:37.500 --> 00:13:40.590 align:middle line:84% We make too many associations, too many mental leaps. 00:13:40.590 --> 00:13:42.240 align:middle line:90% Nothing is just one thing. 00:13:42.240 --> 00:13:44.820 align:middle line:84% Information is not cold numbers and hard facts 00:13:44.820 --> 00:13:46.680 align:middle line:90% like it is with the squirrel. 00:13:46.680 --> 00:13:48.210 align:middle line:90% We weigh facts. 00:13:48.210 --> 00:13:50.070 align:middle line:90% We caress facts. 00:13:50.070 --> 00:13:52.800 align:middle line:84% We warm ourselves by the dream of a technology that will save 00:13:52.800 --> 00:13:55.590 align:middle line:90% us-- solar power, solar power. 00:13:55.590 --> 00:13:58.080 align:middle line:84% We chant to the sometimes still-moving wind. 00:13:58.080 --> 00:14:00.300 align:middle line:84% We form emotional attachments to facts, 00:14:00.300 --> 00:14:02.880 align:middle line:84% which turn them from facts into feelings, the numbers 00:14:02.880 --> 00:14:04.440 align:middle line:90% into hope. 00:14:04.440 --> 00:14:06.510 align:middle line:90% I love the number three. 00:14:06.510 --> 00:14:08.460 align:middle line:90% I love being three. 00:14:08.460 --> 00:14:11.640 align:middle line:84% When I was 10, I pretended I had a three-year-old daughter. 00:14:11.640 --> 00:14:13.780 align:middle line:84% When my daughter was three, I loved her most. 00:14:13.780 --> 00:14:16.200 align:middle line:84% I love my son most now that he is three. 00:14:16.200 --> 00:14:19.170 align:middle line:84% So if you tell me that in order to stop global warming 00:14:19.170 --> 00:14:21.810 align:middle line:84% I'm going to have to give up the number three, 00:14:21.810 --> 00:14:28.650 align:middle line:84% well, that three is the number of carbon dioxide forcing 00:14:28.650 --> 00:14:33.180 align:middle line:84% swimming polar bears, and I will tell you 00:14:33.180 --> 00:14:36.160 align:middle line:84% that the globe will then have to be hot. 00:14:36.160 --> 00:14:37.710 align:middle line:90% I love the number three. 00:14:37.710 --> 00:14:40.380 align:middle line:84% I think we can save three polar bears. 00:14:40.380 --> 00:14:42.255 align:middle line:84% That is how much I love the number three. 00:14:42.255 --> 00:14:45.180 align:middle line:90% 00:14:45.180 --> 00:14:47.610 align:middle line:90% It may be metaphor that kills. 00:14:47.610 --> 00:14:49.050 align:middle line:90% Grazed by bullets. 00:14:49.050 --> 00:14:52.350 align:middle line:84% The bullets are not deer eating gently at our cheeks. 00:14:52.350 --> 00:14:54.630 align:middle line:84% The language itself is too soft to save us. 00:14:54.630 --> 00:14:56.670 align:middle line:84% Drowning in information makes us forget 00:14:56.670 --> 00:14:59.970 align:middle line:90% there is no water around. 00:14:59.970 --> 00:15:04.270 align:middle line:84% Angel hair pasta has neither angels nor hair in it. 00:15:04.270 --> 00:15:07.050 align:middle line:84% But these are the salad days is only a good thing when 00:15:07.050 --> 00:15:09.930 align:middle line:84% you weren't required for your heart, for your cholesterol, 00:15:09.930 --> 00:15:12.780 align:middle line:90% to eat a salad every day. 00:15:12.780 --> 00:15:15.840 align:middle line:84% We take grazing and drowning and angels too lightly. 00:15:15.840 --> 00:15:17.430 align:middle line:84% Figurative language is the reason 00:15:17.430 --> 00:15:19.260 align:middle line:84% people need pictures of four-year-olds 00:15:19.260 --> 00:15:22.410 align:middle line:90% with bullets in their heads. 00:15:22.410 --> 00:15:23.400 align:middle line:90% But that is horrible. 00:15:23.400 --> 00:15:24.990 align:middle line:90% And horrible won't save us. 00:15:24.990 --> 00:15:25.980 align:middle line:90% Maybe I'm wrong. 00:15:25.980 --> 00:15:28.440 align:middle line:90% Maybe metaphor will save us. 00:15:28.440 --> 00:15:32.910 align:middle line:84% I would die without you, as long as I and you simultaneously 00:15:32.910 --> 00:15:38.190 align:middle line:84% means caterpillar and squirrel, frog and leopard, jellyfish 00:15:38.190 --> 00:15:42.810 align:middle line:84% and termite, ahi and ostrich, panda and koala, 00:15:42.810 --> 00:15:47.280 align:middle line:84% all the yous of the non-bear family, dust mite and dust 00:15:47.280 --> 00:15:49.440 align:middle line:90% mote, hawks and ravens. 00:15:49.440 --> 00:15:52.620 align:middle line:84% Even the ravens seem to bully the hawks, goldfish 00:15:52.620 --> 00:15:56.790 align:middle line:84% and monarchs, Jim Morrison and Jacques Derrida. 00:15:56.790 --> 00:15:59.880 align:middle line:84% Lactobacillus acidophilus and yeast, 00:15:59.880 --> 00:16:04.350 align:middle line:84% elephants and elephantitis, rattlesnake and bumblebee, 00:16:04.350 --> 00:16:07.890 align:middle line:84% daughters and rock vacuumers, crawdads and otters, 00:16:07.890 --> 00:16:10.980 align:middle line:84% solar power and holes, roaches and Google, triplets 00:16:10.980 --> 00:16:13.650 align:middle line:84% and Pampers, raccoons and Michael Pollan, 00:16:13.650 --> 00:16:16.080 align:middle line:84% the bagger at Fry's and the RV dryer, 00:16:16.080 --> 00:16:18.750 align:middle line:84% Italo Calvino and the polar bear, 00:16:18.750 --> 00:16:24.245 align:middle line:84% you, and you, and maybe even me, too. 00:16:24.245 --> 00:16:27.239 align:middle line:90% [APPLAUSE] 00:16:27.239 --> 00:16:31.740 align:middle line:90% 00:16:31.740 --> 00:16:33.990 align:middle line:90% Now to read from your broadside. 00:16:33.990 --> 00:16:39.950 align:middle line:84% OK, so this is from a long essay that is-- 00:16:39.950 --> 00:16:42.960 align:middle line:84% it's, I think, a little bit different from the other essays 00:16:42.960 --> 00:16:46.823 align:middle line:84% in that it doesn't have a lot of personal story. 00:16:46.823 --> 00:16:48.240 align:middle line:84% So I'm going to read this and then 00:16:48.240 --> 00:16:49.740 align:middle line:84% I'm actually going to read something I didn't 00:16:49.740 --> 00:16:50.340 align:middle line:90% think I was going to read. 00:16:50.340 --> 00:16:52.465 align:middle line:84% I'm going to read one of the more personal stories. 00:16:52.465 --> 00:16:53.780 align:middle line:90% So.