TEDxSJU - Olivia Bouler - Saving the Gulf
and I'm the author and illustrator of Olivia's Birds saving the golf well my passion for the environment and all animals really comes from everywhere my grandparents really have contributed and showed me how to love birds and my parents are really compassionate about the environment we have always kind of been connected to Nature well it's kind of hard not to get interested in Birds when you're exposed to them nearly every day and they're just engineered so perfectly and designed so specifically light it's amazing I mean they have hollow bones no teeth for the fact that they have to be lighter um tightened up tailbones they really are really interesting and they really really have always ever since I was little I've always been kind of captivated how can a bird fly if it doesn't have two turbojet engines tap to its sides I was inspired to write my book by the awful oils fill this past April it was so devastating to me and so heart-wrenching that I had to help I wanted to donate some time and anything I could offer to the Autobon Society after I contact acted the Aon Society we discussed how people would donate to to them for the golf recovery efforts and I would send them a drawing of a bird ultimately after all is said and done and still going on I raised over $150,000 and done over 500 illustrations which has made my book possible I've have been painting ever since I was very little so little that I can't even really remember nobody has really taught me to paint but my mom has been a real inspiration for me I try to follow her in her footsteps and the fact that she is really someone I looked up to in the artist sense one of the things that really excites me is all the fan mail that I get on my Facebook page and in the mail Bill Clinton sent me a letter and it's definitely the coolest and one of my faves what I do when I'm not painting is I I love jamming on my outs of saxophone and just playing around with my brother he's really awesome well what I want to be when I grow up is an ornithologist which is um scientist of birds and a falconer which means I get to handle Birds of Prey or crippled birds and train them so maybe they can be rehabilitated and released into the wild I have really dedicated my life to Birds because they are so unique and wonderful and I feel very strongly about pursuing this in the [Music] [Applause] future hi peoples and students but that's the same isn't it um uh come on as you could see this is my favorite little brother and my only one so technically he has to be my favorite so uh he he grew out his hair a little different but anyway the environment is still an issue I know it's been an issue ever since I don't know when because I'm only 12 but it's really still an issue that's continuing to grow and it's not going to go away unless we the people who are you know in the world right now unless we step up to the platform and change it I know it's like you know let the people the EPA handle it but you know they can't do it without our support because every little thing matters you know putting out some bird seed recycling everything counts Kurt vagu said we we live as if there's no no tomorrow so there will be none sorry Daisy there won't be a prom next year you know it's really important to think about that because Rachel Carson said that how many years ago and that was like 50 and the problem is still here my mom always said when she was 10 she had an energy crisis at her age and now she's looking at her 10-year-old which is me I'm actually 12 now though and uh she's saying we haven't made much progress so there's nothing to be said about that but while I've been here since I live on Long Island you know a little bit of a trek but still awesome because I'm hanging out with you guys so you know it's really I had the pleasure to go to the Academy of Sciences that a museum that's pretty awesome I got to go behind the scenes and learn about biodiversity in our environment because biodiversity is a key to a lot of things you know it's like the building blocks of our entire world is like a big Lego I know everybody knows Legos I love Legos all right so it's like a big Lego building and we're taking out little pieces every hour because 24 species are lost every hour of you know worldly species so we're taking out lots of pieces here and there and soon it's going to be so unstable and it's going to topple so you know it's important for people even as short as me or as young as me in this case or even Jackson you know he raised $800 for project puffing good brother but the point is whether it's 800 like $800 to $200,000 which is what they have raised as an ultimate total which I think it's pretty awesome because I wasn't expecting that at all but anyway you know it's important that everybody from this height to this height can make do the little things because the little flutters of a wing can lead up to a whole worldwide flight of economical and ecological movement because the eco-economy is growing and renewable energy as my dad has you know demonstrated because he designs Zero Energy houses which is pretty cool um you know it's still growing and it's still important because we're not going to have oil forever and you know even if you're not not advocating for clean energy or doing things little things can make a huge difference and doing your part is pretty fantastic so what the video my brother Jackson and I recently visited Four Seasons Resort in Costa Rica Costa Rican orthologist Pablo Alando joined us on our trip good morning good morning everybody we're going to one of the nicest places to see a bird hopefully we get to see a lot Costa Rica chose to invest in preserving the environment they even PID land owners to maintain natural habitat instead of cutting their treat ex amaz there are over 850 species of birds in Costa Rica and many migrate to from the United [Music] States some of the birds we saw on our trip were the white throated mag Kai the orange frch of par ring King Fishers and many species of herl [Music] [Music] we also saw a lot of monkey [Music] over there over there a baby monkey so [Music] cute of three of them [Music] [Music] who would not love a monkey like that the rainforest is important for his biodiversity from bats to iguanas even a treacherous crocodile each animal has n in [Music] After experiencing the rainforest I was excited to meet with other kids to talk about birds we are now at the school of Co school children I am very excited [Music] [Music] PA was on hand to talk about bird migration and thanks to a grant from the YSA e change you were able to give the students copies of my book Olivia's [Music] [Music] B I just children and I swear that was the best that was really pure Bliss there isn't any to give them those smiles and to be able to draw those birds and give them something and see their faces and kisses and hugs and then pushing inside the book that was just that was just miraculous I think for me as an experience that they really wanted to help they thanked me so many times and came up to me twice afterwards it was am [Music] amazing on this trip I learned that kids all around the world love birds and want to make a difference [Music] you know it really is up to you you know cancer are caterpillars we can all show our presence that we have been gifted because we are on this Earth and we are house guests you know there's other people and birds and animals on this Earth and you know we've been very messy there's no other way around that you know oil here and trash over there you know ultimately I think it's time for us to clean up because we are the ones with the hands and the heads and bunch of other cool stuff and you know everybody probably has an iPhone or something like that you know helpful but you know it's we are the change makers we make the change that we want to see in the world so go Birds Go Birds