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And whenever you're ready, you can
say hello to Arrow, Arrow. How

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you doing? Absolutely fantastic. How
are you guys doing today? We're doing

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great, man. It's delighted to
be here with you. Delighted to be

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here as well. I'm very excited
too. And the reason why is because

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I'm a tree hugger. I believe
in the planet. I want to do

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everything humanly possible to get the word
out there that we got to protect this

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planet because something's really going wrong right
now. It certainly is. And I

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agree with you. You know,
growing up as part of a you know,

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family focused on ocean exploration, my
grandfather, Jacques Cousseau, my father

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Felipe Senior, and you know,
had a huge influence on me. And

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I've had the opportunity to travel over
the world and make documentaries and films and

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work. But fifteen years ago I
founded at Eartheco International because I was so

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inspired by my grandfather, who toured
specifically towards the end of his life.

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He was really focused on youth and
education and he recognized that if we don't

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invest in education, we can't build
a durable environmental movement, and so we

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founded Eartheca one of the world's leading
ocean education youth leadership organizations, working with

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two million young people in a one
hundred and forty six countries, and four

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years ago we launched the Raco Challenge, which is a national STEM competition to

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engage young people in solving problems in
their communities. And we've been cranking away

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ever since. So I'm really excited, Harper, how can we get more

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students involved in this, because what
I want to do is I want to

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get them away from their smartphones and
their ocular lenses and really put focus on

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it. I mean, sure,
yeah, with the VR goggles you can

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have a three D effect from Mount
Everest, but I want them in the

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real atmosphere. I would suggest that
other students lead with what they're most passionate

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about. Take something that you love
and use that to take action in your

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community. Team Aquabots of the twenty
twenty are Eco Challenge was really interested in

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robotics and created a robot to pick
up trash. Another team was interested in

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nature photography and use that as a
device to spread awareness. I was really

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excited behind science around superplants that have
larger root systems that can store more CO

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two to protect our environment. So
take what you love and use that to

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take action in your community. PHELI, how is it that we get involved,

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because I mean, it can't be
just the thing for the kids.

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The adults have got to be involved
too, because talk about family and I

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mean, it's just amazing what we
can do as a family group to help

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change what's going on. Well,
that's what's so great about this. You

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know, we recognize, you know
at Earth Eco that you know, the

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millions of young people we've worked with
over the years, that young people have

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a tremendous amount of anxiety around these
issues. They're very concerned, rightfully so,

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about the health of the environment and
what that's going to mean for them

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and all too often, you know, you mentioned getting away from their screens.

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We're such huge believers in that,
you know, all too often young

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people feel paralyzed, to feel helpless, and that's a big contributor to that

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level of anxiety. Probably saw the
news recently, you know, the United

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States didn't make the top twenty happiest
countries in the world, and a big

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part of that is driven by young
people and their dissatisfaction with the world,

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their anxiety or on climate and other
environmental issues. And so what we've recognized

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is that giving young people agency,
some tools, and some knowledge is an

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opportunity to build, to get outside, get away from those screens, get

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outside, build community with their families, with teachers, with their classmates.

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Is really really powerful and the innovative, exciting ideas they come up with to

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solve problems in their communities is inspiring. We offer grants of one thousand,

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twenty five hundred and five thousand dollars
for students to actually implement their projects,

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for their grandpa's winners to implement their
projects after you know, the competition is

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done. So we're really about facilitating
and empowering young people to get out problems

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and become you know, hopeful change
agents in their communities. It's our echo

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channel dot org, our Echo Challenge
dot org. Harper. One of the

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things that kind of scares people are
words biodiversity. To a student and even

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to some adults, they're going,
I don't get it. Okay, I'm

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gonna move on. How can we
simplify what biodiversity is? Well, biodiversity

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is really just a healthy balance of
plants and animals and an ecosystem, and

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really anyone can join the ARCO Challenge. It's a great learning opportunity even if

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you don't know much about biodiversity in
your community. What I've seen is that

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once students have access to information and
ways that they can take action, we

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don't sit on the sidelines. We
jump in and take action right away.

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I can relate with that so much
because inside this forest in South Charlotte,

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I'm in charge of the trees.
We have a bee keeper down the street

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that makes sure and he'll come up
to me and he'll go, are you

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going to thank me for these bees? Because that's why you've got you know,

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that the flowers on the trees right
now. And then we've got somebody

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that they're building above ground gardens.
Now I'm so into this biodiversity. Well,

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it's true, you know, biodiversity, as I said, you know,

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it's declined precipitously over the last forty
years or so, you know,

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fifty percent in my lifetime. And
so we're in a big problem. And

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it's not just you know, the
stuff out there. We are part of

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nature. We're part of these systems. You know, we're part of the

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bees that pollinate our crops for food. You know, all of these systems

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and we rely on and you know, as they collapse, it's a huge

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problem and really empowering and getting young
people to solve problems in their communities.

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There's about building lifelong and engage the
learners and change agents in communities and helping

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them realize that they don't have to
just take it. They can be change

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agents. They can they can make
a positive difference, and that has huge

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psychological impacts, huge impacts on the
health and cohesion of communities when we come

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together to solve problems, to get
you know, as opposed to just kind

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of being depressed about the state of
the world without feeling like we could do

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anything solving problems. Basically, it
means we've got to find some solutions,

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and solutions can't be one sided.
Harper, what would you say is a

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solution for us? Well, I
led Team Superplants in the first twenty twenty

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our Eco Challenge and our solution is
creating interactive climate modules for elementary and middle

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schoolers because we believe that all students
should have access to equal information about climate

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change. We're also growing superplants,
which have naturally larger root systems that can

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store more so to protect our environment. So that's one solution, but there

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are many others. Where can they
go again, it's our Echo Challenge dot

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org. But I mean to create
beyond today, beyond this actual challenge that's

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going on right now. There's got
to be a way that where they can

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tap into whatever they're getting their information
and to learn more. Yeah, our

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Eco Challenge dot org is the best
place to start. We've got tons of

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resources, tutorial how to join the
competition, to make it really, really

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easy. The deadline is April twenty
sixth. But as you saw with what

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Harper's done, you know, they
started with the team of three, it's

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grown to a team of thirty.
Four years later, they've reached thousands of

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young people in their communities. So
this is really about the spark that ignites

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and gives an opportunity for young people
to ignite and do incredible things. And

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that's the good news right er.
You know, there's a lot of bad

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neues in the world. But I'm
telling you what, I am so inspired

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every time I work with these kinds
of leaders like Harper, and I see

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there really is hope for the future. Building on what Philip was saying,

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the ourco Challenge for me was a
way to take concrete action to address climate

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change, which can often feel really
overwhelming and out of control. Instead of

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being paralyzed with fear, it was
a chance to feel hopeful. I love

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it. Please come back to this
show anytime in the future. You two

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Aero appreciate it. We hope so. You bet you'd be brilliant today.

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Thank you, you too, Man