Welcome to Sentivia

Alright, let me tell you a bit about myself, and what brings me here to this amazing TED stage. It's truly an honor, though I have to admit, some of the talks here might be a bit too cerebral for me. I tend to focus on the things that are right under our noses, those often-overlooked wonders of the natural world. And honestly, for me, there's nothing more captivating than the intricate dance of life playing out in the smallest details.

You see, I'm captivated by the little things, the things we often take for granted. Take pollination, for example. We think about food, but not about the process itself! And you just can't talk about that incredible process without delving into the story of flowers. It's a 50-million-year love story of co-evolution between plants and their pollinators. These little creatures – the bees, bats, hummingbirds, and butterflies – they're all part of this ancient relationship that has shaped our world as we know it.

For the past 35 years, I've dedicated myself to capturing this dance on film. I've set up cameras, capturing time-lapse footage of flowers blooming, moving, and living their lives 24/7. It's a spectacle I could never tire of witnessing. The way they move, the way they reveal themselves – it just fills me with a sense of wonder, and frankly, it just opens my heart wide open. I've come to believe that beauty and seduction, those are nature's powerful tools for survival. Because deep down, we humans will always want to protect what we fall in love with. This whole pollinator-flower relationship is a beautiful love story, and it's one that sustains all life on Earth. It's a potent reminder that we're not separate from nature; we're an essential part of it.

It's this very connection that really drove me to action when I first learned about the vanishing bees and the Colony Collapse Disorder. It hit me like a punch in the gut. We rely on these pollinators for over a third of the fruits and vegetables we eat. Many scientists even believe this is the single most serious challenge facing mankind today, that's how important this is. It's a true canary in the coalmine. If they disappear, we are not too far behind. This really drove home, that we are part of nature and we need to actively participate in taking care of it.

So, I really wanted to understand what motivated these pollinators. I started asking my scientific advisors this very simple question: "Why do they do it?" And they'd say, "Well, it's all about risk and reward." I asked like a curious child, "Why is that?" And the answer always came back, "Well, because they want to survive." "Okay, why?" I would ask, and the answer, "To reproduce." Then, I would go, "Okay, but why reproduce?" I thought for sure the answer would be "Well it's all about sex." It's about reproduction, right? I couldn't have been more wrong.

Instead, our monarch butterfly expert, Chip Taylor, blew my mind when he said, "Nothing lasts forever. Everything in the universe wears out." That, that right there was like a lightning bolt. I realized then that nature invented reproduction not just for sex, or just for the simple act of propagating. It's far deeper than that. It's a mechanism, a powerful life force that flows through us all. It's about the movement of life, linking us to the past and future through the chain of evolution. We are just links in this chain.

It’s a rare and incredible moment when you can witness the intersection between the animal and plant world. It's a magic moment, a mystical moment where life regenerates itself, over and over and over again. It's a beautiful circle, isn't it?

So, that's a bit about me and why I do what I do. I’ve brought some nectar from my work, some visuals for you, so to speak. I really hope you'll dive in, enjoy it, and most importantly, be inspired to take action. Tweet about it, talk about it, but even better, get out there and plant some seeds. Pollinate a friendly garden in any way you can. Most of all though, never forget to stop and take a breath to smell the flowers. Let the beauty of the world around you fill you with wonder. Rediscover that sense of awe that we have as children, because it is truly still out there.