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Recorded at	November 11, 2020
Event	TEDxUSN
Duration (min:sec)	12:35
Video Type	TEDx Talk
Words per minute	147.08 very slow
Readability (FK)	48.14 difficult
Speaker	Knut Ivar Bjørlykhaug


1	00:13	Picture one of your favorite spots in nature, a place you love.
2	00:17	Maybe you're heading for this spot after a stressful day at work,
3	00:21	maybe you're worrying about your economy,
4	00:23	maybe you had an argument or fight with your friend or worse --
5	00:27	you lost somebody you loved.
6	00:29	You are heading to this specific space, maybe close to home,
7	00:33	to find some comfort.
8	00:35	Whatever and wherever it is, most of us tend to search nature
9	00:40	to play or to get some relief, purpose and perspective.
10	00:45	These spaces for potential peace are now proving to be more important than ever
11	00:50	during the pandemic.
12	00:53	Often we are surprised by some kind of natural phenomenon and magic
13	00:58	when we're in nature.
14	01:00	Maybe an eagle suddenly flies over your head,
15	01:03	a fish nips at your toes,
16	01:06	or a sparrow approaches your bench with a tilted head
17	01:10	and a look that says, "Please share some of your bread with us."
18	01:14	This is me, my dad and grandmother, Signe.
19	01:17	And this is where I come from, the west coast of Norway.
20	01:21	Most of the time in my childhood,
21	01:23	I spent in this yellow boat, with my dad.
22	01:28	He was a wildling in many ways, my dad,
23	01:31	and he gave me the possibility to learn from nature
24	01:33	and connect with it,
25	01:35	especially the ocean and the seabirds.
26	01:38	So when I'm close to these elements, I really feel like home-home;
27	01:42	I feel connected.
28	01:44	Now, picture that the place you love,
29	01:47	that sacred place where you can feel more at ease
30	01:51	and sometimes maybe find peace
31	01:53	is in some way broken
32	01:55	or even worse -- gone.
33	01:58	What if this place -- for example, your favorite bay to swim in --
34	02:02	which has always been there for you
35	02:05	now is polluted,
36	02:06	full of oil,
37	02:07	dead birds everywhere.
38	02:10	Or the steady mountain, now hijacked by big machines and greedy industry.
39	02:16	Well, it is not about imagination anymore.
40	02:21	The destruction of nature and wildlife is real.
41	02:24	It's been real for a good while.
42	02:26	And our homes that we share with other life forms
43	02:29	are getting destroyed in the name of progress.
44	02:32	A couple of years ago, I met a Norwegian philosopher, Arne Johan Vetlesen,
45	02:37	after reading one of his books, called "The Denial of Nature."
46	02:41	We quickly found that we share this common love and fascination for nature,
47	02:45	a love that we can call "ecological love."
48	02:49	We talked about our connection to our homes
49	02:51	and the love for our surrounding environments:
50	02:54	for him, the forests in the southeastern parts of Norway,
51	02:58	with the beautiful and mysterious owls;
52	03:01	and for me, the bird island and mountain Runde
53	03:04	on the west coast of Norway.
54	03:08	I said to him that in some strange way,
55	03:10	I sometimes feel like and identify with the puffin bird,
56	03:14	maybe because I kind of always have been dreaming about having the ability to fly.
57	03:20	So it must be love,
58	03:21	most likely not mutual.
59	03:24	In the forest close to Arne Johan's house, the owls are now gone
60	03:28	because of deforestation.
61	03:30	The bird island that I love, the island of Runde,
62	03:33	now has bird nests full of plastic,
63	03:36	and climate change is confusing the wildlife.
64	03:40	This has a devastating impact on the nearly 500,000 bird inhabitants --
65	03:46	500,000.
66	03:48	Their numbers are now decreasing.
67	03:53	Most of the birds there are listed as endangered.
68	03:57	So we explored our own sorrow and pain, Arne Johan and me,
69	04:03	and discovered that many people in various cultural contexts
70	04:07	and in different ways
71	04:09	feel a complicated form of loss and mourning,
72	04:13	ecological sorrow, love sorrow.
73	04:17	We mourn and suffer with nature.
74	04:21	Life forms that we in many ways have taken for granted and, as we know, exploited,
75	04:26	are now facing extinction at a rate that is insane.
76	04:32	Since the early 1970s until today, 2020,
77	04:36	the world’s wildlife has been reduced by 68 percent.
78	04:41	And the latest UN nature panel report warns
79	04:44	that we human beings are continuing to kill all nonhuman living beings
80	04:50	systematically.
81	04:52	We really need to start listening to what nature is trying to tell us
82	04:56	and what we are doing to ourselves as well.
83	04:59	We need to make a shift from natural-born killers
84	05:02	to natural-born lovers,
85	05:05	and we need to critically challenge what future Green Deals should consist of.
86	05:12	Because unfortunately,
87	05:13	some of the prospective solutions to the climate crisis
88	05:16	also can destroy nature.
89	05:20	Protecting and respecting nature
90	05:22	is one of the most radical and important climate actions we do.
91	05:28	Most of us have felt that love is both amazing
92	05:32	and sometimes a bit complicated.
93	05:36	We also know that sorrow is deeply connected to our ability to love
94	05:40	and to care for other beings.
95	05:44	So I argue, alongside others,
96	05:46	that we should feel more actively in our relationship with other life forms.
97	05:53	When nature is being destroyed --
98	05:56	the steady mountain, your favorite swimming spot,
99	05:59	the forest and all its inhabitants --
100	06:01	it seems quite natural that we feel emotional pain.
101	06:05	Doesn't it?
102	06:07	How does the destruction affect our mental health?
103	06:14	Ecological sorrow is indeed a complicated form of mourning.
104	06:20	Maybe it gets more complicated because we need to acknowledge
105	06:23	that we, as we live today, are the problem -- human beings,
106	06:29	our constant craving for more, stimulated by a political system
107	06:33	that does not act to protect our fundamental home,
108	06:37	a system that disconnects us from nature, the soil, the forest,
109	06:42	the ocean, the air.
110	06:45	We fail to protect all other forms of wildlife
111	06:49	that we share this magnificent and sometimes awful planet with.
112	06:55	So our lack of respect for the other-than-human
113	06:58	is also a lack of respect for humankind.
114	07:05	Look at this.
115	07:09	It's just ...
116	07:12	heartbreaking.
117	07:14	It really breaks my heart that we cannot stop our destruction.
118	07:21	So what's the point, talking about this?
119	07:25	Why should we try even harder to explore and understand
120	07:28	this complicated love story and relationship with nature?
121	07:33	Why is this at least equally important as big tech solutions?
122	07:39	Well, it does not help anybody to get stuck in the sorrow and sadness.
123	07:44	But I believe we need to make room for this sorrow, this pain
124	07:50	to make room for our vulnerability
125	07:54	to make room for all the complicated feelings
126	07:57	related to the ongoing nature and climate crisis,
127	08:00	because this room potentially also creates an opportunity to act.
128	08:07	Because we can't ignore it.
129	08:09	We need to talk about it and share our stories.
130	08:15	Accepting and understanding my feelings
131	08:18	helps me to overcome some of the pain and to not get stuck in depression.
132	08:24	And it helps me to connect with others that feel sad and angry
133	08:28	because what they love is being destroyed.
134	08:32	Understanding our emotional and physical reactions better
135	08:37	can create the opportunity to reclaim the fact that we are a part of nature,
136	08:43	not apart from nature, to quote the famous Sir David Attenborough.
137	08:49	And just look at what Greta Thunberg is doing.
138	08:52	She took her sorrow and depression and transformed it to powerful action,
139	08:57	actions that engage and resonate in people in an exceptional way.
140	09:05	However, it is likely that we will experience more loss.
141	09:10	I sometimes get this question:
142	09:13	What can we do with our ecological love and sorrow?
143	09:17	And why should we do anything?
144	09:18	Why should we care to continue at all if our land is lost and gone?
145	09:25	This is a hard reality.
146	09:27	Some people commit suicide because of climate change
147	09:31	and destruction of their homes.
148	09:33	Some get killed protecting their home and forests.
149	09:38	Once again, the most vulnerable are being affected the most,
150	09:42	for example, First Nation people and climate refugees.
151	09:49	I believe there is still some hope that we can come together,
152	09:53	that we preserve nature so that future generations can coexist with and enjoy
153	09:59	what this planet has to offer.
154	10:02	We can use our feelings towards the natural world
155	10:05	in a more constructive way,
156	10:07	alongside the knowledge and technology that helps us rewild nature.
157	10:14	We can have a positive function in the ecosystem.
158	10:20	I can only speak for myself,
159	10:22	even though I know I share this perspective and these feelings with many.
160	10:26	But the deepest meaning for me in this weird life
161	10:29	is to feel connected with all human and nonhuman life
162	10:32	and to try to be supportive on behalf of life.
163	10:37	Although it's difficult to see and feel any hope,
164	10:41	I believe that it will be in our actions that we will find hope and meaning.
165	10:48	We have possibilities to plant seeds and start a garden
166	10:53	to create a small impact where we are in our local communities;
167	10:57	possibilities to reclaim the soil
168	10:59	that our bodies someday, like it or not, are heading for;
169	11:03	possibilities to protest;
170	11:05	possibilities to take our love, rage and sorrow on behalf of our homes
171	11:12	and the planet
172	11:13	to local.
173	11:15	And although we feel the sadness and the sorrow in our bones,
174	11:20	we should remember that this feeling is in many ways collective,
175	11:24	that this sorrow takes deep roots in our collective unconscious.
176	11:30	To prevent a public health disaster,
177	11:33	a continuing wave of collective loss and sorrow,
178	11:37	we need to acknowledge our feelings to understand where they come from
179	11:42	and start protecting our ecological home.
180	11:46	I argue that it's OK to be sad, angry, depressed.
181	11:52	Believe me, you're not alone.
182	11:55	Ecological love, sorrow and rage can work as resistance.
183	12:01	Our stories can work as resistance.
184	12:05	And together, we can transform our love and sorrow to powerful actions
185	12:09	in the name of protecting nature and each other,
186	12:13	in the name of changing a destructive system.
187	12:18	My fellow political animals: engage and organize
188	12:23	and plant those seeds.
189	12:25	I mean, it's amazing to follow the will of life.
190	12:30	So let's go out there and try to create communities of hope despite all odds,
191	12:36	like tender dandelions breaking through asphalt.
192	12:40	Let's be vulnerable and strong
193	12:43	and rebel for life.
194	12:46	That's all I have.

Knut Ivar Bjørlykhaug: Love, sorrow and the emotions that power climate action