climate change may leave colonies the
most bio diverse habitats in the ocean
struggling to survive but that is
touching in person by the end of the
century and verification could even some
types of painters unable to form their
shell and plankton in the profound ation
of nearly all marine ecosystems it keeps
people at this tiny organ in my lab
everything else that the people who
preferred could also started to
interview go about their motion
threatened to change my entire ocean and
all recognition within the span of a
single human wire
[Music]
environmental officials in California
say there's been another highly
troubling report about what's going on
in the Pacific the scientists call it
the sea star wasting syndrome that's the
technical name but something is killing
the starfish and they don't know why
they've been dying in record numbers on
the west coast including parts of
Washington State all along Coast down to
California our report tonight from NBC's
Miguel Almaguer in the waters off
Monterey Bay an urgent expedition is
underway this is the hunt for a killer
it happened so rapidly that some these
are judgmental marine biologist Pete
Ramon is searching for clues to an
epidemic named starfish wasting disease
infecting waters from Alaska to Southern
California causing millions of starfish
like this one to fall apart and melt
away our group is looking to try to map
the kindness of the onset of the disease
and locations of the disease up and down
the coast it will help us point to
causing the die-off has decimated a
starfish population in this Cove so
later he asked him you know is this the
canary in the coalmine he said it very
well could be
I want to we'll get back to the
jellyfish which are very interesting but
here's just some numbers people don't
know but a bluefish tuna when it's fully
formed is worth literally tens of
thousands of dollars on the sushi market
and so these fishermen go out looking
for they don't find them anymore these
giant ones because the overfishing is so
immense that they're not allowing the
fish to actually reach their full
maturity so what's happening what's
interesting is that it's creating an
ideal environment for jellyfish they're
the only ones that are thriving right
now in the ocean the fish the big fish
stocks fall ninety percent since 1950
according to the National
graphic so you know the jellyfish are
thriving which is really fascinating I
just I read this book stung and it was
just it was a really devastating book
written by she's the foremost expert on
jellyfish and jellyfish are fascinating
that they're toxic what I find
interesting is the ocean in traditional
cosmology is is consciousness which is
why we the Robert Frost has a wonderful
poem about why we look out at the ocean
the land varies more but we still want
to look out at the ocean and we can't we
can't look out far and we can't look
indeed but that doesn't prevent us from
looking at the ocean the ocean is in
cosmology it's consciousness and and the
fact that all these great fish are dying
off the whales and and the dolphins and
but the jellyfish this spineless
brainless predator all it does is
consume it's just a spineless brainless
consumer and and that to me is just such
an amazing statement about human
consciousness and are the jellyfish
taking over our minds our consciousness
are we becoming human jellyfish and and
believe it or not all over there having
jellyfish warnings because they're
really thriving and the woman who wrote
that book stung says it's way past this
was a wake-up call a longtime gun and
it's they look she have shut down
aircraft carriers because there's so
many jellyfish pods out there so now
what are the roots of this crises at the
heart of it is the modern doctrine of
the consumer now what's interesting to
me is that the consumer in Old English
meant the devil he was called the
consumer because he consumed the souls
of people and and and consumption was a
name for the wasting disease in the
nineteenth century it's what killed
people slowly and so this whole idea of
I
therefore I am shop until you drop the
one with the most toys at the end wins
this idea of just shopping this comes
this was actually done to us and I would
recommend people reading William leach
the land of desire because he takes a
period about from the 1890s till the
1930s and shows how our society was
turned into a consumer society it was
conscious it was done because they could
produce a large number of goods and they
wanted people to buy those goods so we
have to understand that this was
something that was done to us that
people were not always consumers that
I've lived in cultures where they
recycle everything because it's just
simply there that's what they do when I
lived with the Bedouin they use
everything literally they don't throw
away anything and now they're starting
to get the these these throwaway items
and so you're seeing garbage everywhere
now in the Sahara just plastics in fact
Mauritania and and I'm proud to say this
because I'm an honorary consul of
Mauritania but Mauritania outlawed
plastic bags it's a one-year prison
sentence
to use plastic bags and the reason that
they did that is because so many of the
goats the livestock that they depend on
we're dying and they didn't know why
until they found out they were eating
the plastic bags out in the desert and
they were they were getting these
intestinal diseases and dying from
intestinal obstruction and so that the
government outlawed the use of plastics
and and again this is this is where a
government makes a choice and does
something so you know in the 1530s
consumer was one who squanders or wastes
so it had a negative connotation the
Quran says that people boast I have
squandered great wealth and this is the
kick this is conspicuous consumption
I'll get back to this but another major
problem is the war economy and this is
where
especially the United States where we
have you know we talk about budgets and
making cuts and welfare mothers and
nobody wants to talk seriously about
this obscene armaments we were warned by
Eisenhower as he was departing after
spending his life serving the military
and working with the military industry
he warned us about this new phenomenon
the military-industrial complex and we
have to recognize that the type of
budgets that this country has for
military spending are are obscene they
are obscene and it's money that could be
going to much much better things this is
the result of the aerial bombing that
happened in Germany and this is why we
have to end war as a species we have to
recognize it is an obsolete way
Klaus Fitz the great war strategist from
Europe said that war was just the
extension of politics by other means so
war is is is is a political act because
in politics you try to get things done
when things aren't getting done through
the traditional means of politics then
you use violence to get them done it
doesn't work anymore if it ever worked
it's arguable but it does not work this
is a scene from Syria so it's going on
now it's still happening and these are
the budgets if you look at education
compared to military spending it's
insane I mean Pakistan spend so much on
the military some of the Gulf states
have budgets Saudi Arabia has a budget
that it's the seventh largest military
budget after India a country of 19
million people why because they're
subsidizing Western industry as simple
as that
they don't use it when the Gulf War came
they didn't they didn't they the
Americans came and and other people so
why are these these obscene budgets
being used
and then we also we don't want to deal
with this but this can't go on either
our profit actually predicted that the
time would come he said when the liver
of the earth would vomit forth and and
he said that it would be like pillars of
gold and silver and the one who kills on
the day of judgment he will come and say
this is the reason I killed four and
then the one being killed will say this
is the reason I was killed and the wars
if you read Daniel Yergin book the prize
the 20th century was wars over oil and
and oil is the blood of our
technological society it is the blood
and it's more precious than human blood
for a lot of people we cannot if we now
if the average earthling lives like the
average American we will need three
earths to supply the consumption it's
impossible it's untenable it can't go on
now just moving to the self what are
some of the signs autism in 1970 and
people can argue that this is from
Diagnostics and things like that but but
we know from 2012 to 2013 know if
something's happening here we had one in
10,000 diagnosed I mean the first
diagnosis of autism was in the 1950s but
now it's 1 in 50 in the United States I
mean we have to really think seriously
about what's happening now if you look
at the definition of autism a pervasive
developmental disorder characterized by
severe deficits in social interaction
and communication by an extremely
limited range of activities and interest
and often by the presence of repetitive
stereotyped behavior this about defines
everybody under 30
I mean we have to really think about
what's happening to our young people are
growing up with this technology
repetitive stereotypical practices
losing the ability to interact socially
another major problem that we have is
obesity the pull on and this is in all
our traditions because gluttony is one
of the deadly sins but it reminds people
eat and drink but not to excess god
loves not the extravagant wasters and
one of the signs of the latter days
according to our tradition is yellow
huddle FEMA simin that obesity would
become manifest these are the average
BMI is around the globe you can see
Africa and a lot of Asia the Asians
don't eat a lot of food wheat they're
still on traditional diets so China's is
behind other places even though they're
becoming rapidly a serious industrial
nation but they still eat cosmologically
if you look at Chinese food one things
about Chinese medicine which I studied
and and I and my sisters and
acupuncturist and one of the things I
always thought that they lacked diet
they never talk about diet if you go to
a Chinese doctor they don't focus on
diet at a certain point I realize it's
because they in their culture they
didn't need to people just simply ate
well by the very nature of the food they
consumed these are the world's fattest
countries we're number two so Americans
are proud of being number one but Kuwait
takes that so there's McDonald's in
Arabic the golden arches as you come
into Mecca the first thing you see is
the golden arches it was very troubling
sight for me but this is that this is
the civilization that we're living in
where on the one hand we've got this
incredible scarcity and on the other
hand we have this overconsumption it's
it's it's so it's just so imbalanced
and there's a there's a tradition that
we have from our prophet that a believer
will not go to bed satiated knowing his
neighbor is hungry and and that's any
neighbor of any faith diabetes is a
really important problem now that's
globally these these are this
extraordinary what's happening but I
want to point out in traditional
cosmology what happens inside of us
happens outside of us if you want to
know why the oceans are acidic it's
because we're becoming acidic literally
we are becoming acidic the world
manifests our States and that's why
knowing our States is so important
because how we are how we behave what we
do all of this is going to be reflected
in in the world the macrocosm can only
reflect the microcosm and so the
acidosis of the oceans is related to the
acidic levels that are happening people
are moving away from the natural state
which is an alkaline state and moving
towards an acidic State and this this is
what happens when by 2050 1/3 of
Americans will have diabetes at current
rates and and if you look there's a
relationship between carbohydrates and
hydrocarbons there's a relationship
chemically so you're dealing what we're
using oil is like sugar we're giving the
earth diabetes it's becoming acidic our
soil is becoming acidic and our oceans
are becoming acidic because we're using
cheap energy sugar is a very quick
energy for our bodies oil is a very
quick easily digested energy for our
machines and for heating our homes and
so this results in this acidic state and
this is what diabetic acidosis is
related as far right this is my belief
that it's related to the the acidic
state of the planet another major
problem we the UN estimates they're more
slaves today than any other time in
human history and most of it 80%
sexual slavery and this is another
really serious problem the problem of
lusts that we're really not dealing with
in our society I really think we're in a
deep denial about the serious problem of
lust in this culture and and one of the
most important thermometers for it is
pornography the size of the industry now
is fifty seven billion worldwide it's a
massive industry these are these are
sound numbers people these are not
exaggerated numbers these are there's
taken from at one of our top
universities twelve billion in the US
porn revenue is larger than all combined
revenues of all professional football
baseball and basketball franchises US
porn revenue exceeds the combined
revenues of ABC CBS and NBC if you look
at the the websites 4.2 million 12% of
total websites now daily internet
searches 68 million 25% of total
searches monthly porn down those 1.5
billion websites offering illegal child
pornography over a hundred thousand
websites and for those of you don't know
there's a deep web where there's just
the darkness that goes on on the Deep
Web and then 8 to 16 year olds who have
viewed porn online in our country ninety
percent gluttony over consumption those
who squander are like siblings of or the
Brethren of the demons one of the things
that we don't think about is the
relationship to what we do and and and
this darkness people that are watching
pornography are supporting human
trafficking because many of the women in
these films that are done here in the
United States and outside the United
States are women in sexual bondage
they're not you know you have these
girls that appear on CNN getting their
degree at Duke and saying how much they
love being a porn star those represent a
very very very tiny percentage of the
actual women engaged in the porn
industry which degrades both men and
women another thing is planned
obsolescence
I'm I I would recommend I'm not going to
go through this I it's a very
interesting thing but there's the story
of stuff with auntie Leonard many of you
price came to get us
jump on board this program so a
discovery worth watching well two of
their most effective strategies are
planned obsolescence and perceived
obsolescence planned obsolescence is
another word for designed for the dump
it means they actually make stuff to be
useless as quickly as possible to will
chuck it and by the way it's obviously
things like plastic bags and coffee cups
but now it's even big stuff mom
DVDs cameras barbecues even everything
even computers have you noticed that
when you buy a computer now that
technology is changing so fast that in
just a couple of years it's actually
impediment to communication I was
curious about this so I opened up a big
desktop computer to see what was inside
and I found that it's a piece that
changes each year it's just a tiny
little piece in the corner but you can't
just change that one piece because each
a new version is a different shape so
you could have chucked the whole thing
and by anyone so I was reading
industrial design journals from the
1950s when planned obsolescence was
really catching on so this is the point
but you know it would have done concept
would discuss how fast can they make a
steps break that still leaves the
consumer having enough space in the
product to go out and buy another one
it was so intentional but stuff cannot
break fast enough to keep this arrow of
flow so there's also perceived
obsolescence now perceived obsolescence
convinces us to throw away stuff that is
still perfectly useful how do they do
that well they change the way that stuff
looks so if you bought your stuff a
couple of years ago everyone can tell
that you haven't contributed to this
arrow recently and since the way we
demonstrate our value is contributing to
this arrow it can be embarrassing like
I've had the same fat white computer
monitor on my desk for five years my
coworker just got a new computer she has
a flat shiny sleek monitor it matches
her computer matches her phone even a
pen stand she looks like she's driving a
spaceship central and I I was like I got
a washing machine on my desk
fashion is another prime example of this
have you ever wondered why women's shoe
heels go from fat one year to skinny the
next to practice skinny it's not because
there's some debate about which heel
structure is the most healthy for
Lauren's feet it's because wearing fat
heels in a skinny heel year shows
everybody that you haven't contributed
to that arrow as recently so you're not
as valuable as that person in skinny
heels next few or more likely in some ad
it's to keep us buying new shoes
advertisements and media in general
plays a big role in this each of us in
the u.s. is targeted with over 3,000
advertisements a day we see more
advertisements in one year than people
50 years ago saw on a lifetime and if
you think about it what's the point of
an ad except to make us unhappy with
what we have
so 3,000 times a day we're told our hair
is wrong our skin is wrong our clothes
around our furniture is wrong your car's
wrong as we are wrong but it can all be
made right if we just go shopping media
also helps providing all of this and all
of this so the only part of the
materials economy we see is the shopping
the extraction production and disposal
all happens outside of our field of
vision it's important to bring
backgrounds into the foreground so
people understand because when we look
there's one of the things that painters
do so effectively van Gogh when when you
look at the shoes you know if you keep
painted several different but if you
look at the famous boots that he painted
with the straight you'll never look at a
pair of shoes the same way if you really
contemplate what he did because he was
taking something that's in the
background and bringing it to the
foreground and it's very important for
religious leaders for artists for others
to do that to let people know what's in
the background those things that were
not seeing the things that are hidden
one of the things that our prophet told
us is that there would be people towards
the end of time like locusts in their in
their consumption
you
every year we have martyrs to
consumption there are people that die on
these these buying sprees every year
this happens in this country people
literally died because they're you know
they're trampled to death in because of
these things but another aspect that we
don't think about is is just garbage
production and and the fact one of one
of the professor's that was at my
university
he taught environmental studies he had
zero garbage production in his home and
he used to take his students to his home
to show what he did in other words
people can actually live reducing their
garbage to a great extent but everything
is packaged totally unnecessary
packaging and this leads to these
landfills it's beyond belief what's
happening and again who suffers the
animals they're you know they eat this
stuff when you you know everything
that's off those helium balloons those
helium balloons go to the ocean they
eventually go down and turtles swallow
them they get the the obstruction so
these simple things that people are
doing without thinking and now we have
the Great Pacific Garbage Patch which is
bigger than the size of Texas it's a
huge massive swell of garbage in the
middle of the Pacific Ocean
that because of the kaiser tides and
currents it all tends to go to this one
area now there's a verse in the Piranha
Angel to ask God and obviously this is
shouldn't be taken like a literal type
conversation but the Angels asked God
when when God created man in our church
and the human being how can you put
someone there and who will cause damage
and bloodshed when we celebrate your
praise and proclaim your holiness so the
angels were asking this question the end
and there's a reason why the
commentaries given I'm not going to go
into that and and you can certainly see
that the incredible amount we over
almost two hundred million people were
killed at the hands of other people in
the last century the 20th century and we
came into the 21st century a lot of hope
but it begins with 9/11 and and then
these terrible wars that have affected
us but
the response that God made was in the
animal not animal I know what you don't
know about the human being and and this
is what we have to keep in mind I put
these pictures up because these are my
personal teachers these are people that
I studied with and there's there's a
verse in the Quran that says that we
elevate those who do not want to sow
corruption in the earth or to be
elevated and and and this is what we
have to remember as a species that we
have people in this world that remind us
of who we really are
we're not jellyfish we're not mindless
spineless consumers we have human hearts
we have the ability to know infinity we
can conceptualize it no other species
can do that we are something amazing and
we have to remind our young people of
that lost in this world of false idols
of images of women that are so degrading
they are so degrading and I don't need
to name names because you know them you
see them on the television you see them
on the covers of magazines this is not
who we want our young girls to grow up
emulating we don't want our young men to
grow up emulating the lowest forms of
life on this earth the cockroaches the
rats the jellyfish we want them to soar
with the Eagles and that's what we're
here to do and to remind people and
that's why as far as I'm concerned
religious people the religious
leadership we have failed so
dramatically we have failed our young
people we have the halo effect and then
we have the clay feet syndrome they they
don't see people walking their talk they
don't see people living it they don't
see the gift of sanctity in their beings
in their presence and that's what we
need to remind ourselves that we have to
become these people we have to be these
people that have graced this earth
reminding us this is not what it's about
we're here for a short temporal time and
we have work to do and our work is in
discovering ourselves and in serving
others this is the work we're not here
to consume we're not here to indulge
ourselves we're here for something much
greater and we constantly need to be
reminded because we're a forgetful
species when the elephants came to honor
the man who had looked after them and
some of you may have seen this but they
walked for over a day even before he
died and then held vigil in front of his
house these are signs for people that
reflect the animals pray for us
according to our tradition that the fish
in the ocean pray for the righteous our
prophet said that mr. Darwin was steady
at home in evil the one who has repose
and the one others have reposed from
them they said who are they or Messenger
of God and he said those who live
righteously when they die they have
repose and those who live corrupting
when they die people trees rivers and
animals have reposed from them that's
the choice and I I really want to drive
this point home because I think this is
one of the most important verses for me
in the New Testament I'm in a great
Christian city of Louisville
traditionally it's it's it's you see
churches everywhere
you know there was a love of
Christianity which is a great faith and
there's incredible amount of beauty and
truth despite the history we tend to
forget that the history of religions is
the history of their ego not of their
soul but for we wrestle not against
flesh and blood but against
principalities against powers against
the rulers of the darkness of this world
against spiritual wickedness in high
places people that that created planned
obsolescence this is from spiritual
wickedness in high places and and we
have to recognize that we cannot support
these people that there are people out
there that are actively engaged in
harming this world they're doing it
because they're complete slaves of their
own desires and you cannot be a steward
if you're filled with your own egoistic
desires you can't and that's why one of
the things that we have to remember the
the catholics divided the sins into the
hot sins and the cold sins and we tend
to forget you know the hot sins are easy
to recognize gluttony wrath and and lust
and and Dorothy Sayers reminded us that
when a when a society loses its
spiritual center sex is always the
spiritual outlet so this obsession with
sex which is also related to the rape of
the earth to the way we treat Mother
Earth because of our degradation of our
objectification of women and this is
much more male problem than a female
problem pornography is largely a male
problem and not entirely but we we have
to remember there are hot scenes and
Colton's but the cold sins are often
praised in our society the sins of
avarice right the sins of nd the sin of
pride the great sin which is a sin
against one's excellence and then the
sin of sloth which sloth is not laziness
acedia in the traditional understanding
sloth with spiritual laziness a CEO
could be out there working a 120 hour
workweek and he's still slothful because
he's forgotten his soul or she's
forgotten her
and this is what we have to remember
Robert Frost said some say the world
will end in fire some say in ice from
what I've tasted of desire I hold with
those who favor fire but if it had to
perish twice I think I know enough of
hate to say that for Destruction ice is
also great and would suffice it's the
hot sins of the cold sins that are going
to kill us and we have to really take
this seriously and it's our spiritual
traditions that address this root
problem it's not complicated the problem
is not complicated thank you very much
[Applause]
ah that was really remarkable thank you
you know it opened a lot of eyes both
educationally and particular your ending
in wrecked and our recognition it but
the spiritual desert lies beneath that
and just to remind everyone as we come
out of the sort of the Highness of that
encounter now the plan from here is that
we have about an hour to spend together
and I was asked to just a very brief
kind of response myself which is
basically really just lending some time
for you to be thinking about questions
that you'd like to ask because what we'd
like to do most of this time is just
have a an open dialogue Council on some
of the things that he's presented today
and maybe some questions that you had in
your hearts and things that you wanted
to or think that you wanted to share so
I'll to about three or four minutes here
my own kind of response to these
challenges from a specific review
perspective I have questions I could ask
that was quickly noticed but we really
rather listen to yours so I'll be
thinking about the questions you might
post okay all right there's an illusion
it's a grand illusion it's been
perpetrated upon us that we have
perpetrated upon ourselves
it's an illusion that we are somehow
separate from the earth that we are
somehow separate from ourselves we are
all a domme one human family and we are
all part of Adama we're all part of the
earth what makes us think that there's a
barrier somewhere between my feet and
the wooden floor upon which they sit
between the floor and the foundation
upon which it sits between the earth and
the stone which holds it all and us
firmly here in place where does a tree
end and the roots begin
where do the roots nearly become
tendrils and the tendrils become one
with the earth which nourishes and
sustains the tree which nourishes and
sustains us what makes us think that
there's a difference between the air we
breathe and the one who breathes it
breathing breathe out the air enters us
it fills our lungs it enriches our blood
and it gives us life we breathe it forth
and we return it to its source as trees
and plants breathe in our breath
enriched and sustained by our souls
which have been added to this breath of
life what makes us think that there's a
difference between Chicago Yusef and
myself and yourself a difference between
all the children of adam' all the
children of God
all those precious parts of this earth
adamah which we must all share we are
one you and I we are one all of us here
in this room we are all the children of
one creator who has placed us here to
help build a world that is one as
goddess one and there's an illusion that
stands side by side with the first that
in order to be one we must all be the
same that to be different from one
another makes us somehow other we've
been taught this truth as if it were
true for so long we've come to accept it
and to feel that those who are likely
our selves are like and we come to fear
those who upon the surface of their
likeness seem unlike us it's as if we
see in the mirror only a reflection of
ourselves in order to be comfortable and
that is an illusion but we must seek
instead is a thing that's not in
reflection but in the soul this is an
illusion which we have get we who we
love gathered here today can often fall
prey to our selves
we gather as a people of faith in common
cause and common action with common
hopes and dreams through which we seek
to find common elements and come and
pass this is a well-meaning illusion
that we are all the same beneath the
surface that we strip away the
differences of language and culture and
we find that we are all the same beneath
the skin and we worship the same God
essentially the same ways and since
there is much that we share in common
this is a particularly useful illusion
and one which we've become very adept at
maintaining in Hebrew were commanded to
seek Shalom in Arabic it's called Salam
in English we strive for peace as Jews
we seek to heal the brokenness of our
world through acts of sadaqa in Arabic
it's called Sokka in English we call it
charity from the Latin word Caritas
which we carry in our prayers as Jews we
seek our community in Arabic Rahim in
English and strive for compassion and
because we share many of these potential
traits which make us human it's easy for
us to imagine that we are all the same
and to dream of a world of peace and
charity and compassion when we will all
sing with one voice in a single chorus
instead of inspiring the harmony of our
many voices or a symphony of the many
instruments creating together a