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This is Gulf Coast 3629, radio 8 1 1.
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We gotta mobilize that area.
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--responding to incident.
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When you look at
the history of humanity. . .
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. . .it's basically a relationship between the
two most complicated systems on Earth:
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Human society and nature.
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And whether people have, in fact,
lived in a good balance in that regard.
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When they don't, they're gone.
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At the end of the day, when we all
talk about saving the environment. . .
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. . .in a way it's misstated because
the environment is going to survive.
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We're the ones who may not survive.
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Or we may survive in a world
we don't particularly wanna live in.
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Our biosphere is sick.
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We have a planet that's behaving
like an infected organism.
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lf you look at it from space,
you see all these lights. . .
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. . .and it's the lights of planet Earth,
it's the lights of the people. . .
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. . .but it's also almost like looking at
an organism that has an infection on it. . .
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. . .that is forming a crust of some kind.
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Well, l don't only think
that the biosphere is in trouble. . .
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. . .l know it is.
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l just have to look around
in the environment in which l live.
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What l hear in my dreams. . .
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. . .is generations in the future
screaming back to us in time. . .
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. . .saying, ""What are you doing?
Don't you see?""
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We are at this critical point in time.
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We've evolved to be the leaders of our
biological community. We are misleading.
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We are causing the devastation. . .
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. . .to our very foundation of our life
system that has given us birth.
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And we are ultimately
committing suicide.
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So as we destroy nature,
we will be destroyed in the process.
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There's no escaping that conclusion.
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Earth 's life-support system 's damaged.
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The human species at risk.
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Could this be true?
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In this film, we've reached out to
independent experts on the frontlines...
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...of what could be the greatest challenge
of our time:
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The collapse of our planet's ecosystems...
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...and our search for solutions
to create a sustainable future.
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So if we look for the cause
of this planetary destruction...
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... what would we find?
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We would find a global civilization
created by the human mind.
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A mind that has evolved to have
the ability to reflect back on ourselves. . .
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. . .to take stock of our own existence.
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A mind able to discover quantum physics,
explore outer space. . .
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. . .and peer into our own DNA.
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But beyond our stunning intellectual
and technological advances. . .
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. . .we would also see our large-scale
impact on our home, planet Earth.
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Ecological disasters are rarely covered.
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But when they are, they're depicted
as isolated incidents by the media.
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But if we connect these events...
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. . .will we find a larger story
that needs to be told? A human story.
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And more so than that. . .
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. . .a global understanding
that takes into account who we are. . .
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. . .and the state of our relationship
to this planet, our only home.
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Life on Earth is possible. . .
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. . .only because a number of parameters
lie in certain very narrow ranges.
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Some of these are clearly environmental.
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Like the Earth has the right temperature
and pressure to have lived with water.
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Creation is the universe.
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Creation is everything that we can see
and probably a whole lot that we can't.
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Probably more that we can't see.
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But it's what's about us. . .
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. . .and it's the relationship. . .
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. . .this amazing web of life
that we have here.
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Well, Earth is a planet that's
just far enough from the sun. . .
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. . .and has just enough of that atmosphere
of a certain composition. . .
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. . .that more heat stays here
than radiates out to space.
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And the sun warms the planet
and that heat radiates out.
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There's gases in the atmosphere that
have always trapped some of that heat.
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So we're not an ice ball. Scientists
have compared the different planets. . .
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. . .going away from the sun
as being like the Goldilocks effect.
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There's one that's too cold,
too warm and just right. . .
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. . .and we just happen to be there.
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Forty million centuries ago,
that a cell formed. . .
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. . .and that cell had a gene,
and that gene is the password. . .
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. . .to every single other form of life
there is.
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And the amazing thing
about the human body. . .
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. . .is it has one hundred trillion cells and
90 percent of them are not human cells.
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They're fungi and bacteria,
microorganisms.
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And the thing that makes us human
is not human.
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So within us is basically
the back-story of life on Earth. . .
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. . .right to that first original cell
40 million centuries ago.
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And if you could, for a moment. . .
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. . .stop and feel what is happening
in your body. . .
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. . .there are six septillion things
going on at the same time.
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That's a six with 24 zeros after it,
okay, going on right now.
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Right this instant, as you sit in your chair
and then in the next instance. . .
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. . .within 1 0 seconds, a hundred
more things have happened. . .
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. . .than in all the stars and planets
and asteroids. . .
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. . .in the known universe in your body,
and that is called life.
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Homo sapiens sapiens
is an incredibly young species.
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We don't think of that. But we are.
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We came very late in the
calendar year of the Earth.
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You know, if the Earth calendar. . .
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. . .you know, where it started in January 1
and now we're December 31 st.
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We got here 1 5 minutes before midnight
on December 31 st. . .
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. . .and all of recorded history
has blinked by in the last 60 seconds.
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Perhaps the best description of what
we are is, as Jared Diamond puts it:
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The third chimpanzee.
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There are two kinds of chimpanzees
and there's us.
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But in some ways,
we are extraordinarily special.
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And the most obvious one is our
extraordinary ability to make tools. . .
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. . .our extraordinary ability
to communicate.
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To have very detailed discussions
with each other.
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So we are fundamentally
groups of animals. . .
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. . .randomly scattered
throughout the planet. . .
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. . .slowly coalescing in groups. . .
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. . .that are more powerful, larger.
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And very much conditioned
by two essential characters:
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One is opportunism
and the other one is greed.
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All the animals and vegetables
are opportunistic creatures.
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They do what's necessary for them to do
in order to survive.
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l think it was the human mind basically. . .
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. . .that threw us out of balance
with the rest of nature.
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The tragedy is that
it was the human mind. . .
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. . .that was the key to our very survival.
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Now, when you think that we evolved
in Africa about 1 50,000 years ago. . .
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. . .and compared to other animals on the
plains then, we weren't very impressive.
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We weren't very many or very big,
we weren't gifted with special senses.
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The one thing, the key to our survival. . .
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. . .and our taking over the planet
was the human brain.
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But because the human mind invented
the concept of a future. . .
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. . .we're the only animal on the planet. . .
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. . .that actually was able to recognize. . .
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. . .we could affect the future
by what we do today.
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We look ahead, recognize
where the opportunities are. . .
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. . .where the dangers lay,
and choose accordingly to survive.
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That was a great survival strategy
of our species.
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If the human mind threw us out of
balance thousands of years ago...
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... what changed in recent history?
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In the last century, we've dramatically
increased our impact on planet Earth.
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One element has emerged
that has made us even more destructive...
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...accelerating our disconnection...
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...and causing extensive damage to our
climate and all other natural systems.
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A fundamental illusion in the world is
that people are separate from nature.
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When the reality is that we are part of
nature. ln fact, we are nature.
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That's probably the most fundamental
misunderstanding in the world. . .
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. . .that's causing all this havoc.
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l think one of the reasons why
it's so difficult for people to get it. . .
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. . .that we're connected with nature
and to even understand. . .
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. . .the fundamentals of ecoliteracy. . .
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. . .is because it flies in the face of
the assumptions of our culture.
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Our culture is built on the assumption that
we are the superior life form on Earth.
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That we are separate
from all other life forms.
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That we have been given dominion
over all other life forms.
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But even to think that
we're separated from nature. . .
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. . .is somehow a thinking disorder.
You can't be separated from nature.
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Why we think that way
is the interesting thing.
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What happens in the mind that likes
to think that it's separated from nature?
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Does that mean that the mind, or the
human being, thinks he's now more free?
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We're totally living in disharmony
with the planet. Not just the planet.
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Beyond the planet.
We're far beyond the planet now.
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We're zooming around Mars and all
of that exploration, which is marvelous.
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But it's not really affecting our attitudes.
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l think our attitudes are
based on selfishness. . .
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. . .based on the economic situation
we have. . .
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. . .based on the politics which we have.
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l mean, those are the--
How many governments in the world. . .
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. . .have really taken the environmental
crisis for what it is?
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Very few. Certainly not the United States.
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We live in a human-created environment. . .
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. . .where it's very easy to think
we're different from other creatures.
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We're smart, we create our own habitat,
we don't need nature.
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lt's the economy
that's the most important thing.
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And in focusing on the economy. . .
166
00:12:32,584 --> 00:12:35,735
. . .l think we've forgotten
these ancient truths.
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These ancient wisdoms that kept us
plugged into nature. . .
168
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. . .and understanding that ""Gee, if we do
something to offend the natural world. . .
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. . .we'll pay a price for that. We have
to treat nature much more gently. ""
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That's the lesson that we've forgotten
and that we're paying a price for today.
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The big rupture came in the 1 800s,
in the 1 9th century. . .
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. . .with the steam engine, the fossil-fuel
age, the industrial revolution.
173
00:13:03,584 --> 00:13:06,576
This was a great rupture
from earlier forms and rhythms of life. . .
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. . .which were generally regenerative.
175
00:13:08,544 --> 00:13:12,332
After the industrial revolution,
nature was converted to a resource. . .
176
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. . .and that resource was seen as,
essentially, eternally abundant.
177
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This led to the idea and the conception
behind progress. . .
178
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. . .which is, limitless growth,
limitless expansion.
179
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For all of human history. . .
180
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. . .the vast majority of human history. . .
181
00:13:31,584 --> 00:13:33,336
. . .humans lived on current sunlight.
182
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Sun fell on the fields,
the fields grew plants.
183
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The plants made cellulose, plant matter.
184
00:13:38,144 --> 00:13:40,453
Animals ate the cellulose,
we ate the plants.
185
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We ate the animals, we wore clothing
made out of them.
186
00:13:43,424 --> 00:13:46,461
We were living off of current sunlight.
187
00:13:47,984 --> 00:13:50,623
lt was our food supply, our clothing,
we heated with wood. . .
188
00:13:50,784 --> 00:13:54,220
. . .it was our heat supply, our light supply.
lt was all current sunlight.
189
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The sunlight that fell on Earth in a year
was the maximum amount we could use.
190
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lt was the maximum amount of energy
that we could use.
191
00:14:01,184 --> 00:14:05,462
And from the earliest evidence
of human civilization. . .
192
00:14:05,624 --> 00:14:07,819
. . . 1 50,000, more or less, years ago. . .
193
00:14:07,984 --> 00:14:12,899
. . .up until a few thousand years ago,
pretty much, that's how we lived.
194
00:14:13,064 --> 00:14:16,215
And our population never surpassed
a billion people.
195
00:14:16,384 --> 00:14:20,172
And then we began discovering that
there were pockets of ancient sunlight. . .
196
00:14:20,344 --> 00:14:23,063
. . .and finding coal here
and a little bit of oil there.
197
00:14:23,224 --> 00:14:26,421
And slowly between that
and the agricultural revolution. . .
198
00:14:26,584 --> 00:14:32,056
. . .slowly, our population crept up until we
hit our first one billion people. And so--
199
00:14:33,424 --> 00:14:36,018
lt didn't take 1 00,000 years
to go from one billion to two.
200
00:14:36,184 --> 00:14:38,937
Our second billion only took us 1 30 years.
201
00:14:39,104 --> 00:14:40,662
We hit two billion people in 1 930.
202
00:14:42,144 --> 00:14:43,975
Our third billion took only 30 years, 1 960.
203
00:14:45,344 --> 00:14:48,654
Amazing. When Kennedy was inaugurated,
there were half as many people as today.
204
00:14:50,024 --> 00:14:54,097
The reason that we've been able to have
this exponential growth of population. . .
205
00:14:54,264 --> 00:14:57,222
. . .is because we're creating food. . .
206
00:14:57,384 --> 00:14:59,693
. . .and clothing and everything else,
transportation.
207
00:14:59,864 --> 00:15:02,139
We're doing it all
with this ancient sunlight. . .
208
00:15:02,304 --> 00:15:04,977
. . .that was stored in the Earth
3 and 400 million years ago.
209
00:15:05,144 --> 00:15:11,094
And if we had to go back to living off
current sunlight, lacking technology. . .
210
00:15:11,744 --> 00:15:15,532
. . .the planet couldn't sustain more than
a half a billion to a billion people.
211
00:15:15,864 --> 00:15:19,140
So we live in the most unusual period
in the history of the planet. . .
212
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. . .in terms of a species getting access
to energy-rich carbon.
213
00:15:24,424 --> 00:15:29,339
What we have done
is become good alchemists.
214
00:15:29,504 --> 00:15:32,814
The ability to take fossil carbon. . .
215
00:15:32,984 --> 00:15:35,657
. . .and turn it into human biomass.
216
00:15:35,824 --> 00:15:37,940
And we have used the supermarket. . .
217
00:15:38,584 --> 00:15:42,497
. . .the transportation system,
to make that happen.
218
00:15:42,664 --> 00:15:46,896
So the cornerstones of this system
that we have. . .
219
00:15:47,064 --> 00:15:49,817
. . .are all resting upon. . .
220
00:15:49,984 --> 00:15:53,943
. . .nonrenewable, energy-rich carbon
we call fossil fuels.
221
00:15:54,144 --> 00:15:57,932
The real problem is there are too many
of us using too many resources too fast.
222
00:15:59,424 --> 00:16:01,984
Now, oil has enabled us to do that.
223
00:16:02,144 --> 00:16:05,853
We use oil to increase the rate at which
we extract all other resources. . .
224
00:16:06,024 --> 00:16:09,983
. . .everything from topsoil to fresh water,
from aluminum to zinc.
225
00:16:10,144 --> 00:16:11,497
Oil is really the basis. . .
226
00:16:13,024 --> 00:16:17,495
. . .with which we sustain complexity
and with which we solve our problems.
227
00:16:17,664 --> 00:16:20,781
ln a sense, all of our lives are subsidized.
228
00:16:20,944 --> 00:16:22,457
We are subsidized by oil.
229
00:16:22,624 --> 00:16:24,774
Because we're subsidized by oil. . .
230
00:16:24,944 --> 00:16:28,254
. . .when we shop for anything at a store,
we don't pay the full price.
231
00:16:28,424 --> 00:16:31,097
We don't pay the full cost
of what it took to produce that.
232
00:16:31,264 --> 00:16:35,303
We borrow about $800 billion a year
from the world. . .
233
00:16:35,464 --> 00:16:38,774
. . .to finance the excess of our
consumption over what we produce.
234
00:16:40,224 --> 00:16:44,775
And about a third of that, about
$250 billion a year, is for oil imports.
235
00:16:44,944 --> 00:16:49,972
So we borrow from the world,
we issue lOU's, treasury bills, whatever. . .
236
00:16:50,144 --> 00:16:54,057
. . .to the tune of about a billion dollars
a day, every working day, anyway. . .
237
00:16:54,224 --> 00:16:57,136
. . .to finance our oil imports.
238
00:16:57,304 --> 00:17:01,536
Oil does a lot of harm. Economists
would call them ""externalities"" . . .
239
00:17:01,704 --> 00:17:04,502
. . .because they're external
to the price you pay at the pump.
240
00:17:06,104 --> 00:17:08,140
For example,
the asthma rates among children. . .
241
00:17:08,304 --> 00:17:10,295
. . .which are growing
in many parts of the US.
242
00:17:10,464 --> 00:17:13,024
The acid rain problem
that's caused by burning coal.
243
00:17:13,184 --> 00:17:16,062
lf you look at some of the
global warming contributions. . .
244
00:17:16,224 --> 00:17:17,816
. . .from burning fossil fuels.
245
00:17:17,984 --> 00:17:21,499
And at least part of the cost of
keeping our troops in the Middle East. . .
246
00:17:21,664 --> 00:17:23,575
. . .to safeguard oil assets.
247
00:17:23,744 --> 00:17:26,019
Maybe not all of that cost,
but at least some. . .
248
00:17:26,184 --> 00:17:28,334
. . .is clearly a subsidy that goes to oil.
249
00:17:28,544 --> 00:17:31,058
When you started feeding off of
the fossil-fuel cycle. . .
250
00:17:32,504 --> 00:17:35,302
. . .we began living with a death-based
cycle. That death cycle. . .
251
00:17:35,464 --> 00:17:38,934
. . .of dependency
on extraction of those resources. . .
252
00:17:39,104 --> 00:17:41,015
. . .set in motion a sequence of events. . .
253
00:17:41,184 --> 00:17:45,336
. . .that has led us to our modern crisis
of global disturbance. . .
254
00:17:45,504 --> 00:17:48,416
. . .known as climate change,
or global warming, if you will.
255
00:17:48,584 --> 00:17:49,699
We don't know the future.
256
00:17:51,104 --> 00:17:52,901
We know the past
through Greek mythology.
257
00:17:53,064 --> 00:17:57,023
The kind of revenge of the gods
or the revenge of nature.
258
00:17:57,184 --> 00:18:01,063
We're seeing that now already, after
200 years of the industrial revolution.
259
00:18:01,224 --> 00:18:04,534
We didn't know what we were creating,
the damage that was being created.
260
00:18:04,704 --> 00:18:05,819
We're sensing that.
261
00:18:05,984 --> 00:18:09,260
So as we go forward with technology
even more powerful than before. . .
262
00:18:09,424 --> 00:18:11,654
. . .we have magnified. . .
263
00:18:12,224 --> 00:18:17,344
. . .the presence of the human race
inside the ecology.
264
00:18:17,904 --> 00:18:19,462
Therefore we can do more damage. . .
265
00:18:19,624 --> 00:18:22,900
. . .with our technological prowess
than we could before.
266
00:18:23,064 --> 00:18:24,622
We have to be even more cautious.
267
00:18:53,904 --> 00:18:55,098
While we weren 't looking...
268
00:18:55,264 --> 00:18:58,336
... we've created one of the biggest
problems facing all of humanity:
269
00:18:58,504 --> 00:19:00,460
Climate change.
How does it look...
270
00:19:00,624 --> 00:19:03,582
... when we don 't pay attention
to the massive amounts of CO 2...
271
00:19:03,744 --> 00:19:07,259
. . .we dump into the air and water?
How does it look when our actions. . .
272
00:19:07,424 --> 00:19:09,984
. . .shift the natural chemical balance
of our atmosphere. . .
273
00:19:10,144 --> 00:19:12,658
. . .into a state several degrees warmer?
274
00:19:12,824 --> 00:19:15,258
A state that hasn't existed
for millennia.
275
00:19:15,424 --> 00:19:17,380
We have witnessed, in recent years. . .
276
00:19:17,544 --> 00:19:20,775
. . .the highest average temperatures
in recorded history.
277
00:19:20,944 --> 00:19:24,732
A couple of degrees difference in today's
temperatures may not sound like much. . .
278
00:19:24,904 --> 00:19:28,613
. . .but it only took a few degrees
to shift us out of the last ice age.
279
00:19:28,784 --> 00:19:33,733
And a few degrees may be all that
separates us from catastrophic change.
280
00:19:33,904 --> 00:19:35,462
Heading into another weekend. . .
281
00:19:35,624 --> 00:19:39,333
. . .the weather and the climate are
making news in more than one region.
282
00:19:39,504 --> 00:19:41,256
A terrible drought has already--
283
00:19:41,424 --> 00:19:44,894
We do not know how much our climate
could or will change in the future.
284
00:19:45,064 --> 00:19:47,498
--severe flooding has killed
at least 72 people. . .
285
00:19:47,664 --> 00:19:50,132
. . .in Central and Eastern Europe
and Western Russia.
286
00:19:50,304 --> 00:19:52,534
The heaviest recorded rainfall
in lndian history. . .
287
00:19:52,704 --> 00:19:54,820
. . .has unleashed the worst flooding
in memory.
288
00:19:54,984 --> 00:19:57,498
We do not know how fast
change will occur. . .
289
00:19:57,664 --> 00:19:59,894
. . .or even how some of our actions
could impact it.
290
00:20:00,064 --> 00:20:04,376
ln Chicago, the heat is a plague. This
morning, they were collecting bodies.
291
00:20:04,544 --> 00:20:08,378
--firefighters in Southern California are
battling a newly-formed super wildfire.
292
00:20:08,544 --> 00:20:10,978
The heat is on.
Even Arizona is having a heat wave.
293
00:20:11,144 --> 00:20:13,817
Tennessee was battered
by killer tornados--
294
00:20:13,984 --> 00:20:18,057
New Orleans is no longer safe to live in.
lt is that simple, and that stark.
295
00:20:18,224 --> 00:20:22,137
Hell and high water, one and the same
again today, in a city overwhelmed. . .
296
00:20:22,304 --> 00:20:25,979
. . .under siege, in the grip of unmitigated,
unprecedented catastrophe.
297
00:20:26,144 --> 00:20:28,533
Nowhere is that more apparent
than New Orleans. . .
298
00:20:28,704 --> 00:20:31,093
. . .now a city of displaced people,
refugees.
299
00:20:31,264 --> 00:20:33,334
--twenty feet of water
from Lake Pontchartrain.
300
00:20:33,504 --> 00:20:36,860
Add to that violence, deprivation,
desperation, the threat of disease--
301
00:20:37,024 --> 00:20:39,094
Could it be that man-made
global warming. . .
302
00:20:39,264 --> 00:20:42,142
. . .is the greatest hoax ever perpetrated
on the American people?
303
00:21:02,504 --> 00:21:07,703
One of the most serious consequences
of our actions is global warming. . .
304
00:21:07,864 --> 00:21:12,380
. . .brought about by rising levels of carbon
dioxide from the burning of fossil fuels.
305
00:21:14,464 --> 00:21:16,739
The danger is that
the temperature increase. . .
306
00:21:16,904 --> 00:21:21,500
. . .might become self-sustaining,
if it has not done so already.
307
00:21:22,304 --> 00:21:25,216
Drought and deforestation
are reducing the amount. . .
308
00:21:25,384 --> 00:21:28,535
. . .of carbon dioxide
recycled into the atmosphere.
309
00:21:28,704 --> 00:21:31,855
And the warming of the seas
may trigger the release. . .
310
00:21:32,024 --> 00:21:36,176
. . .of large quantities of CO2
trapped on the ocean floor.
311
00:21:37,144 --> 00:21:41,183
ln addition, the melting of
the Arctic and Antarctic ice sheets. . .
312
00:21:41,504 --> 00:21:45,702
. . .will reduce the amount of solar energy
reflected back into space. . .
313
00:21:45,864 --> 00:21:48,742
. . .and so increase the temperature further.
314
00:21:49,064 --> 00:21:53,979
We don't know where the global warming
would stop, but the worst-case scenario. . .
315
00:21:54,144 --> 00:21:57,819
. . .is that Earth would become
like its sister planet, Venus. . .
316
00:21:57,984 --> 00:22:03,980
. . .with a temperature of 250 centigrade
and raining sulfuric acid.
317
00:22:04,264 --> 00:22:08,542
The human race could not survive
in those conditions.
318
00:22:14,304 --> 00:22:16,135
Earth has a natural greenhouse effect.
319
00:22:17,664 --> 00:22:19,302
We're 60 degrees Fahrenheit warmer. . .
320
00:22:19,464 --> 00:22:22,581
. . .thanks to the good guys, water vapor,
carbon dioxide and methane. . .
321
00:22:22,744 --> 00:22:25,178
. . .what we call greenhouse gases,
trapping heat.
322
00:22:25,344 --> 00:22:27,016
That's the good part of the story.
323
00:22:27,184 --> 00:22:29,823
The problem is that humans
are competing with nature.
324
00:22:29,984 --> 00:22:34,660
When we use tail pipes and smokestacks
to put our waste into the atmosphere. . .
325
00:22:34,824 --> 00:22:36,815
. . .as if it's some kind of unpriced sewer. . .
326
00:22:36,984 --> 00:22:41,694
. . .we're adding to the greenhouse
gases that's natural, unnatural stuff.
327
00:22:41,864 --> 00:22:46,142
Mostly carbon dioxide, methane,
chemicals that nobody's seen before. . .
328
00:22:46,304 --> 00:22:48,864
. . .chlorofluorocarbons,
which also affect ozone.
329
00:22:49,024 --> 00:22:51,902
And when they build up,
they trap extra heat.
330
00:22:52,064 --> 00:22:54,658
That's not controversial,
that's well-understood.
331
00:22:54,824 --> 00:22:58,180
We know we've increased carbon dioxide
by about 30, 35 percent. . .
332
00:22:58,344 --> 00:23:00,016
. . .methane, 1 50 percent. . .
333
00:23:00,184 --> 00:23:03,415
. . .added gases that never existed before.
And the Earth is warmer.
334
00:23:03,584 --> 00:23:05,939
All of that goes together
and makes global warming. . .
335
00:23:06,104 --> 00:23:08,618
. . .not only a reality,
but a concern for the future. . .
336
00:23:08,784 --> 00:23:12,333
. . .because we're continuing doing what
we're doing at an accelerating rate.
337
00:23:12,504 --> 00:23:14,415
The record shows
that greenhouse gases. . .
338
00:23:15,904 --> 00:23:18,782
. . .mainly CO2, did not
go above 280 parts per million. . .
339
00:23:18,944 --> 00:23:21,219
. . .over the last 650,000 years.
340
00:23:21,384 --> 00:23:23,944
We're now over 400 parts per million. . .
341
00:23:24,104 --> 00:23:28,063
. . .coming close to what many scientists
are now referring to as a tipping point.
342
00:23:28,224 --> 00:23:31,375
A tipping point where we
lose control of climate.
343
00:23:31,904 --> 00:23:33,974
And once we've lost control of climate. . .
344
00:23:34,144 --> 00:23:38,979
. . .then things like Katrina-scale events
will become simply the norm.
345
00:23:39,584 --> 00:23:41,973
Unless we're able to quickly reduce. . .
346
00:23:42,144 --> 00:23:45,261
. . .very quickly and very dramatically
reduce our use of fossil fuel. . .
347
00:23:46,784 --> 00:23:50,333
. . .the computer modeling's clear. Having
increased the temperature one degree. . .
348
00:23:50,504 --> 00:23:52,495
. . .we'll increase it
about another 5 degrees.
349
00:23:52,664 --> 00:23:56,737
That'll make the Earth warmer than
it's been for tens of millions of years.
350
00:23:56,904 --> 00:24:00,260
Some scientists are amazed that
in the media and in front of Congress. . .
351
00:24:00,424 --> 00:24:04,383
. . .we hear about people who ""l believe in""
or ""l don't believe in"" global warming. . .
352
00:24:05,904 --> 00:24:09,613
. . .as if this were somehow some object of
religion, as opposed to based in evidence.
353
00:24:09,784 --> 00:24:11,740
And scientists look at evidence.
354
00:24:12,064 --> 00:24:14,658
The scientists have
a tremendous amount of agreement. . .
355
00:24:16,424 --> 00:24:19,063
. . .over some of the basic principals
of global warming.
356
00:24:19,224 --> 00:24:20,703
ls the Earth warming? Absolutely.
357
00:24:21,184 --> 00:24:24,221
ls some portion of the warming
due to human activity? Absolutely.
358
00:24:24,384 --> 00:24:28,502
These are things that, there's a consensus
in the international scientific community.
359
00:24:28,664 --> 00:24:31,576
There's no doubt about that.
The natural changes--
360
00:24:33,104 --> 00:24:36,221
The speed of the natural changes
is now dwarfed by human changes. . .
361
00:24:36,384 --> 00:24:38,295
. . .to the atmosphere and surface.
362
00:24:38,464 --> 00:24:41,820
Jim Hansen, who is the director of
the NASA lnstitute for Space Studies. . .
363
00:24:41,984 --> 00:24:45,863
. . .recently gave a best estimate that
was based on research done last year.
364
00:24:46,024 --> 00:24:49,573
And the current estimate
is that the Earth has warmed up. . .
365
00:24:49,744 --> 00:24:52,656
. . .by about seven-tenths
of a degree centigrade.
366
00:24:52,864 --> 00:24:55,458
And even if we were to cap CO2. . .
367
00:24:55,624 --> 00:24:58,297
. . .carbon dioxide emissions
to the level they are now. . .
368
00:24:58,464 --> 00:25:02,457
. . .the Earth should still warm by an
additional half a degree centigrade.
369
00:25:02,664 --> 00:25:07,374
That's been enough to melt
20 percent of the sea ice in the Arctic.
370
00:25:07,544 --> 00:25:13,016
lt's been enough to speed up the spin and
duration of hurricanes about 50 percent.
371
00:25:13,504 --> 00:25:16,337
lt's been enough to start the permafrost. . .
372
00:25:16,504 --> 00:25:19,098
. . .beneath the tundra
across the north melting.
373
00:25:19,264 --> 00:25:21,903
Even at the low range,
a couple of degrees in the average. . .
374
00:25:23,384 --> 00:25:27,423
. . .really changes things in places. There's
an amplifying effect, like in the Arctic.
375
00:25:30,624 --> 00:25:35,379
You can feel this, the chunk that we're
on, actually starting to fail a bit more.
376
00:25:35,544 --> 00:25:39,093
There's probably hairline cracks
up towards the helos there.
377
00:25:43,224 --> 00:25:44,373
The human impacts. . .
378
00:25:45,904 --> 00:25:48,577
. . .what's happening with
global warming, climate changes. . .
379
00:25:48,744 --> 00:25:52,214
. . .it is happening first and fastest
in the Arctic.
380
00:25:52,384 --> 00:25:55,376
We're starting to see that things
are happening even faster. . .
381
00:25:55,544 --> 00:25:57,182
. . .than what scientists indicated.
382
00:25:57,344 --> 00:26:01,178
By the end of the century,
perhaps even in a few decades. . .
383
00:26:01,344 --> 00:26:04,700
. . .the Arctic will be quite ice-free.
384
00:26:04,864 --> 00:26:06,422
Well, climate change. . .
385
00:26:07,904 --> 00:26:11,692
. . .is going to have a strong, fundamental
impact on the global water cycle.
386
00:26:11,864 --> 00:26:14,173
lt's going to change rainfall patterns.
387
00:26:14,344 --> 00:26:19,702
lt's going to very likely increase our
experience with floods and droughts.
388
00:26:19,864 --> 00:26:23,743
lt's almost certainly going to change the
pattern of river flows through the year.
389
00:26:24,224 --> 00:26:29,742
These are all very fundamental aspects
of how we manage and use water.
390
00:26:29,944 --> 00:26:31,172
What global warming does. . .
391
00:26:32,704 --> 00:26:35,138
. . .or the climate changes
linked to global warming do. . .
392
00:26:35,304 --> 00:26:37,181
. . .is add another dimension
of uncertainty.
393
00:26:37,344 --> 00:26:41,053
lt threatens your food security,
for example, your water security. . .
394
00:26:41,224 --> 00:26:45,342
. . .your sea-level security and your
security against storms and hurricanes.
395
00:26:45,504 --> 00:26:47,699
All these things we've seen in the news.
396
00:26:47,864 --> 00:26:49,980
lt's a national security problem
in the sense. . .
397
00:26:51,464 --> 00:26:54,536
. . .Florida may be the first affected,
as well as other coastal parts.
398
00:26:54,704 --> 00:26:57,662
More importantly than that,
it's an international security problem.
399
00:27:01,984 --> 00:27:04,373
The UN estimates
by the middle of the century. . .
400
00:27:04,544 --> 00:27:07,377
. . .there may be 1 50 million
environmental refugees. . .
401
00:27:07,544 --> 00:27:09,535
. . .at any given time from climate change.
402
00:27:09,704 --> 00:27:11,695
What we saw with Katrina
is just prologue.
403
00:27:13,184 --> 00:27:17,257
l just think that worse is yet to come
on that front.
404
00:27:17,424 --> 00:27:20,382
Global warming's real
and it's destructive. . .
405
00:27:20,544 --> 00:27:24,696
. . .and its impacts defy the imagination.
406
00:27:25,064 --> 00:27:31,219
So we've got bad things happening
on a lot of fronts. And Earth is hurting. . .
407
00:27:31,384 --> 00:27:34,820
. . .and humans have not figured out
how to change their ways. . .
408
00:27:34,984 --> 00:27:36,576
. . .and we're the culprit.
409
00:27:55,424 --> 00:27:58,700
Global warming has taken much of
our attention, as it should.
410
00:27:58,864 --> 00:28:01,332
But as carbon has been accumulating
in the atmosphere. . .
411
00:28:01,504 --> 00:28:03,574
. . .it has also been accumulating
in the ocean.
412
00:28:03,744 --> 00:28:08,374
And as time has passed, deforestation,
soil erosion, vanishing wetlands. . .
413
00:28:08,544 --> 00:28:12,093
. . .and a whole host of other problems
have continued unabated.
414
00:28:12,264 --> 00:28:14,778
We face a convergence of crises. . .
415
00:28:14,944 --> 00:28:17,777
. . .all of which are a concern for life.
416
00:28:23,744 --> 00:28:28,579
The problem that confronts us is that
every living system in the biosphere. . .
417
00:28:28,744 --> 00:28:31,895
. . .is in decline and the rate of decline
is accelerating.
418
00:28:33,424 --> 00:28:36,621
There isn't one peer-reviewed
scientific article in the past 20 years. . .
419
00:28:36,784 --> 00:28:39,821
. . .that's been published
that contradicts that statement.
420
00:28:39,984 --> 00:28:44,296
Living systems are coral reefs,
they're our climatic stability. . .
421
00:28:44,464 --> 00:28:47,900
. . .forest cover, the oceans themselves,
aquifers. . .
422
00:28:48,064 --> 00:28:52,376
. . .water, the conditions of the soil,
biodiversity. . . .
423
00:28:52,544 --> 00:28:54,580
They go on and on
as they get more specific.
424
00:28:54,744 --> 00:28:59,340
But the fact is there isn't one living
system that is stable or is improving.
425
00:28:59,504 --> 00:29:04,453
And those living systems
provide the basis for all life.
426
00:29:06,344 --> 00:29:10,496
l sat on a United Nations group called
the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment. . .
427
00:29:10,664 --> 00:29:15,260
. . .a four-year study, biggest study ever
done of ecosystems around the world.
428
00:29:15,424 --> 00:29:19,099
lt involved over 1 300 scientists
from 71 countries in the world.
429
00:29:20,784 --> 00:29:25,255
At the end of that, in March of 2005,
the final reports came in. . .
430
00:29:25,424 --> 00:29:30,976
. . .and they documented this
staggering destruction of ecosystems. . .
431
00:29:31,144 --> 00:29:34,295
. . .and the services they perform for us
around the world.
432
00:29:34,584 --> 00:29:38,497
We better acknowledge that
the planet is seamless.
433
00:29:40,024 --> 00:29:42,584
For instance, the fertilizer
and the pesticides. . .
434
00:29:42,744 --> 00:29:46,623
. . .that are applied in the fields
of the upper Midwest. . .
435
00:29:46,784 --> 00:29:51,574
. . .go down the Mississippi,
and 1 1 00 miles away, there's a deadzone.
436
00:29:54,424 --> 00:29:56,380
The reality with air pollution
is there's no away.
437
00:29:57,704 --> 00:30:01,982
lmpacts can range from headaches,
drowsiness, lethargy. . .
438
00:30:02,144 --> 00:30:06,774
. . .to much more serious impacts, not only
aggravating asthma, but causing it.
439
00:30:07,024 --> 00:30:09,174
People didn't talk about asthma
decades ago.
440
00:30:10,664 --> 00:30:13,178
l can walk into a classroom
in an elementary school. . .
441
00:30:13,344 --> 00:30:15,733
. . .and ask the kids,
""How many of you have asthma?""
442
00:30:15,904 --> 00:30:20,341
Thirty percent of the kids in the room
will have their hands raised. At least 30.
443
00:30:20,504 --> 00:30:22,335
ln some classrooms, it'll be 60 percent.
444
00:30:22,504 --> 00:30:23,778
There's an ocean crisis now.
445
00:30:25,344 --> 00:30:29,656
And the upshot is that
we've taken too much out of the ocean. . .
446
00:30:29,824 --> 00:30:32,861
. . .we've put too much into the ocean,
too much pollution. . .
447
00:30:33,024 --> 00:30:34,935
. . .and we're wrecking the edge
of the ocean.
448
00:30:35,104 --> 00:30:37,572
We've lost 90 percent
of most of the big fish. . .
449
00:30:39,104 --> 00:30:43,063
. . .in half a century, so we're turning
to deeper areas, further areas offshore.
450
00:30:43,224 --> 00:30:48,537
So between overfishing and by-catch,
we're really removing millions. . .
451
00:30:48,704 --> 00:30:51,582
. . .if not billions, of animals
from the ocean every year.
452
00:30:51,744 --> 00:30:54,861
Many of them don't even become
food for humans.
453
00:30:55,024 --> 00:30:56,855
They just are wasted.
454
00:30:57,184 --> 00:30:59,379
What we put into the ocean. . .
455
00:30:59,624 --> 00:31:03,458
. . .millions of tons of things
that aren't natural to the sea. . .
456
00:31:03,624 --> 00:31:06,661
. . .they come back to us in perverse ways.
457
00:31:06,824 --> 00:31:08,735
Some fish concentrate these substances. . .
458
00:31:08,904 --> 00:31:11,577
. . .things like mercury,
heavy metals of various sorts. . .
459
00:31:11,744 --> 00:31:13,302
. . .the pesticides, the herbicides.
460
00:31:13,464 --> 00:31:16,183
Corporations dump on equivalent. . .
461
00:31:17,664 --> 00:31:22,613
. . .at the smallest, they do five million
gallons per day of toxins into the bay.
462
00:31:22,784 --> 00:31:28,256
lt's everything from benzene to
acrylonitrile to mercury to copper to. . . .
463
00:31:28,424 --> 00:31:30,301
You name it, they've got it.
464
00:31:30,464 --> 00:31:32,932
A lot of the chemicals
very common in today's world:
465
00:31:34,464 --> 00:31:37,581
Plastics, artificial colors, pesticides. . .
466
00:31:37,744 --> 00:31:40,304
. . .are really high on the list
of suspect agents. . .
467
00:31:40,464 --> 00:31:43,536
. . .that promote cancer,
that promote premature aging. . .
468
00:31:43,704 --> 00:31:46,264
. . .that increase risks
of chronic degenerative diseases.
469
00:31:46,424 --> 00:31:49,496
Why don't we think about
some of these disorders. . .
470
00:31:51,024 --> 00:31:53,379
. . .such as autism, ADHD. . .
471
00:31:53,544 --> 00:31:56,695
. . .childhood cancers, childhood diabetes. . .
472
00:31:57,584 --> 00:32:01,213
. . .childhood behavioral problems,
Parkinson's disorders.
473
00:32:01,384 --> 00:32:04,535
This is now even been linked with
Alzheimer's disorders.
474
00:32:04,704 --> 00:32:09,300
And then of course we've got the early
onsets of testicular cancers in males. . .
475
00:32:09,464 --> 00:32:14,777
. . .the epidemic of prostate cancer
and breast cancers.
476
00:32:14,944 --> 00:32:16,536
The list just keeps growing.
477
00:32:16,704 --> 00:32:20,219
And exposure to chemicals
while in the womb prior to birth. . .
478
00:32:20,384 --> 00:32:23,694
. . .could be contributing
to these disturbing findings.
479
00:32:23,864 --> 00:32:25,775
The communities most impacted
by pollution. . .
480
00:32:27,104 --> 00:32:29,823
. . .and in fact, have the most toxic sources
of pollution. . .
481
00:32:29,984 --> 00:32:32,498
. . .are often low-income communities
of color.
482
00:32:32,664 --> 00:32:34,939
They're the dumping grounds
for power plants. . .
483
00:32:35,104 --> 00:32:38,141
. . .for bus depots, for oil refineries. . .
484
00:32:38,304 --> 00:32:42,377
. . .for any number of waste facilities,
and everything that no one else wants.
485
00:32:42,544 --> 00:32:46,935
Whether it's the South Bronx,
whether it's Louisiana, in Cancer Alley. . . .
486
00:32:47,104 --> 00:32:49,334
Our food is becoming poisoned. . .
487
00:32:50,824 --> 00:32:53,861
. . .to the point we should worry about it.
There's less and less.
488
00:32:54,024 --> 00:32:58,814
The water-- lt's becoming more and more
unhealthy to just swim in the ocean.
489
00:32:59,384 --> 00:33:05,141
And all of these are simple
to understand. . .
490
00:33:05,464 --> 00:33:06,977
. . .canaries in the coalmine. . .
491
00:33:07,144 --> 00:33:11,501
. . .of much more subtle and scary disasters
on the horizon.
492
00:33:12,704 --> 00:33:17,175
Seventy countries in the world no longer
have any intact or original forests.
493
00:33:18,664 --> 00:33:22,577
Here in the United States, 95 percent
of our old growth forests. . .
494
00:33:22,744 --> 00:33:24,223
. . .are already gone.
495
00:33:27,544 --> 00:33:30,138
ln many cases,
the forest will not grow back.
496
00:33:30,304 --> 00:33:31,976
That land is converted to grassland.
497
00:33:33,504 --> 00:33:36,860
But in the case of rain forests,
we have seen firsthand. . .
498
00:33:37,024 --> 00:33:39,982
. . .that when those trees are removed,
no, they do not come back.
499
00:33:40,144 --> 00:33:42,135
The land becomes extremely dry. . .
500
00:33:42,304 --> 00:33:46,775
. . .and the nutrient cycling that those trees
used to do is no longer functioning.
501
00:33:46,944 --> 00:33:49,583
What that leads to next? Deserts.
502
00:33:49,744 --> 00:33:52,656
We've seen them and we've watched
them grow around the world.
503
00:33:52,824 --> 00:33:57,739
As we have removed trees from
along the edges of very dry areas. . .
504
00:33:57,904 --> 00:34:02,102
. . .that desertification has spread
where there used to be forests.
505
00:34:02,264 --> 00:34:03,822
ln my own part of the world. . .
506
00:34:05,344 --> 00:34:10,702
. . .l keep telling people,
""Let us not cut trees irresponsibly.
507
00:34:10,864 --> 00:34:14,493
Let us not destroy especially. . .
508
00:34:14,664 --> 00:34:16,655
. . .the forested mountains.
509
00:34:17,264 --> 00:34:21,655
Because if you destroy the forests
on these mountains. . .
510
00:34:21,824 --> 00:34:24,133
. . .the rivers will stop flowing. . .
511
00:34:24,304 --> 00:34:27,102
. . .and the rains will become irregular. . .
512
00:34:27,584 --> 00:34:29,336
. . .and the crops will fail. . .
513
00:34:29,504 --> 00:34:33,941
. . .and you will die of hunger
and starvation. ""
514
00:34:34,184 --> 00:34:37,335
Now, the problem is,
people don't make those linkages.
515
00:34:37,504 --> 00:34:40,177
Well over 30 percent
of the soils of the planet. . .
516
00:34:42,104 --> 00:34:46,620
. . .have been put into the category of,
l think, serious degradation.
517
00:34:49,184 --> 00:34:53,655
And the practices of agriculture
is eroding that ecological capital. . .
518
00:34:53,824 --> 00:34:56,543
. . .that is as much,
for all practical purposes. . .
519
00:34:56,704 --> 00:34:58,615
. . .a nonrenewable resource as oil.
520
00:34:58,784 --> 00:35:01,617
What we don't see or think about
when we look at a tree is:
521
00:35:03,104 --> 00:35:05,459
What's the volume? How much water
is contained there?
522
00:35:05,824 --> 00:35:09,134
Turns out to be 57,000 gallons of water. . .
523
00:35:09,304 --> 00:35:12,182
. . .in a 1 0- to 1 2-inch flash flood.
524
00:35:12,344 --> 00:35:15,097
lt can grab that much water,
prevent it from running off. . .
525
00:35:15,264 --> 00:35:19,416
. . .captures it in that sponge, cleans it,
puts it back in the aquifer.
526
00:35:19,584 --> 00:35:21,654
Take that one tree away. . .
527
00:35:22,304 --> 00:35:25,819
. . .and you got a flood,
you got soil erosion.
528
00:35:25,984 --> 00:35:30,023
You've lost those 57,000 gallons
from the local water supply.
529
00:35:30,184 --> 00:35:34,780
Then that water is rushing downstream,
hurting people, hurting communities. . .
530
00:35:35,544 --> 00:35:37,500
. . .ultimately polluting the ocean.
531
00:35:37,664 --> 00:35:43,136
We really could tip the ocean
into a different state.
532
00:35:43,304 --> 00:35:45,454
The health of the ocean as we know it. . .
533
00:35:45,624 --> 00:35:49,014
. . .depends on the water turning over. . .
534
00:35:49,184 --> 00:35:51,459
. . .of the surface water
sinking to the bottom. . .
535
00:35:51,624 --> 00:35:53,933
. . .and the bottom water
coming up to the top.
536
00:35:55,424 --> 00:35:58,734
lt's conceivable that we could
turn that conveyor belt off. . .
537
00:35:58,904 --> 00:36:02,738
. . .by warming of the surface of the ocean
a little bit too much.
538
00:36:02,904 --> 00:36:04,053
And if we do that. . .
539
00:36:05,584 --> 00:36:09,941
. . .with all of our deadzones, we could
make the whole surface ocean stagnant.
540
00:36:10,104 --> 00:36:12,379
And that's a terrifying thought.
541
00:36:12,544 --> 00:36:16,935
The last time that happened was
the end-Permian mass extinction. . .
542
00:36:17,104 --> 00:36:22,303
. . .and more than 95 percent of all
the species on the Earth went extinct.
543
00:37:41,304 --> 00:37:45,661
The simple fact is, ecosystems
that sustain life are unraveling.
544
00:37:45,984 --> 00:37:48,976
Systems that have evolved
for hundreds of millions of years.
545
00:37:49,464 --> 00:37:51,216
The evidence is now clear:
546
00:37:51,384 --> 00:37:54,899
Industrial civilization
has caused irreparable damage...
547
00:37:55,064 --> 00:37:57,624
...and our impact is only accelerating.
548
00:37:57,784 --> 00:38:01,015
We have lost the last 30 years
in the war against global warming.
549
00:38:01,184 --> 00:38:04,654
The questions then arise,
why aren't we responding?
550
00:38:04,824 --> 00:38:08,817
But more important, what are the forces
that are blocking change?
551
00:38:11,944 --> 00:38:15,414
The greatest weapon of mass destruction
is corporate economic globalization.
552
00:38:16,944 --> 00:38:19,856
There's always been a greed factor
in human civilization. . .
553
00:38:20,024 --> 00:38:23,221
. . .and what has happened
with the creation of corporations. . .
554
00:38:23,384 --> 00:38:25,693
. . .which are the dominant institutions
of our age. . .
555
00:38:25,864 --> 00:38:28,332
. . .is that they have perfected that
as a system.
556
00:38:28,504 --> 00:38:31,064
And what we literally face today is that. . .
557
00:38:31,224 --> 00:38:33,658
. . .this is going to kill off our host,
the planet.
558
00:38:33,824 --> 00:38:36,384
Today, ecosystems, forests,
streams, lakes, rivers. . .
559
00:38:37,864 --> 00:38:39,934
. . .they have no rights. They're property.
560
00:38:40,104 --> 00:38:44,222
Which means they can be bought, sold,
destroyed, traded, carved up.
561
00:38:44,384 --> 00:38:47,933
Under this structure of law,
you're either property or you're a person.
562
00:38:48,104 --> 00:38:50,538
And it's very clear that nature is property.
563
00:38:50,704 --> 00:38:55,334
And so the reason why we have
these reams of documents in libraries. . .
564
00:38:55,504 --> 00:39:00,419
. . .about solutions, about solar, about how
to produce food in a sustainable way. . .
565
00:39:00,584 --> 00:39:04,463
. . .about transportation, about
changing production methods. . .
566
00:39:04,624 --> 00:39:09,015
. . .and putting in place a sustainable
economy that respects the planet is. . .
567
00:39:10,344 --> 00:39:13,017
. . .we've lacked the authority
to drive those things into law.
568
00:39:13,184 --> 00:39:17,416
Because in reality we have a Constitution
that empowers the corporate few. . .
569
00:39:17,584 --> 00:39:20,576
. . .to make decisions
that trump the majority.
570
00:39:20,864 --> 00:39:23,662
And it has been our failure
to drive real law into place. . .
571
00:39:23,824 --> 00:39:25,815
. . .because we don't have the authority.
572
00:39:25,984 --> 00:39:27,895
We have very responsive political leaders.
573
00:39:29,344 --> 00:39:31,778
They're responsive to wealth,
money and corporate power.
574
00:39:32,744 --> 00:39:34,575
ExxonMobil, one oil company. . .
575
00:39:34,944 --> 00:39:38,573
. . .is worth more than the sum of the value
of all the auto companies. . .
576
00:39:38,744 --> 00:39:40,257
. . .in the whole wide world.
577
00:39:40,424 --> 00:39:42,176
That is a big company. People say:
578
00:39:42,344 --> 00:39:47,054
""Gee, why aren't politicians
responding to the global climate crisis?""
579
00:39:47,224 --> 00:39:49,579
Because they respond to a higher power,
unfortunately.
580
00:39:49,744 --> 00:39:52,338
Right now, that higher power
is the fossil-fuel industry.
581
00:39:53,024 --> 00:39:55,538
You're responsible for editing
Our Changing Planet. . .
582
00:39:55,704 --> 00:39:59,094
. . .and you send a review draft to
the White House. What happens?
583
00:40:01,064 --> 00:40:02,622
lt comes back. . .
584
00:40:02,784 --> 00:40:07,380
. . .with a large number of edits. . .
585
00:40:07,704 --> 00:40:11,094
. . .handwritten on the hard copy. . .
586
00:40:11,744 --> 00:40:16,056
. . .by the chief of staff of
the Council on Environmental Quality.
587
00:40:16,224 --> 00:40:17,862
And the chief of staff is whom?
588
00:40:18,024 --> 00:40:19,377
Phil Cooney.
589
00:40:19,544 --> 00:40:21,455
He is a scientist?
590
00:40:21,624 --> 00:40:23,103
No, he's a lawyer.
591
00:40:23,264 --> 00:40:25,858
He was a lobbyist for
the American Petroleum lnstitute. . .
592
00:40:26,024 --> 00:40:27,776
. . .before going into the White House.
593
00:40:27,944 --> 00:40:29,741
Our people have a growing suspicion. . .
594
00:40:31,304 --> 00:40:35,775
. . .that oil companies are taking unfair
advantage of current market conditions. . .
595
00:40:35,944 --> 00:40:38,777
. . .to line their coffers with excess profits.
596
00:40:41,744 --> 00:40:44,383
On the issues of climate change
and environment. . .
597
00:40:45,864 --> 00:40:49,982
. . .the political system failed us. lt's not
first and foremost a crisis of technology. . .
598
00:40:50,144 --> 00:40:52,180
. . .it isn't even a crisis of public opinion.
599
00:40:52,344 --> 00:40:54,983
lf you ask the public,
""Do you want solar energy?
600
00:40:55,144 --> 00:40:57,897
Do you want efficient appliances?
Do you want efficient cars?""
601
00:40:58,064 --> 00:41:00,020
The answer is overwhelmingly,
""Yes, we do. ""
602
00:41:00,784 --> 00:41:03,423
lt's the bridge across this chasm. . .
603
00:41:03,584 --> 00:41:07,975
. . .of public opinion to public policy.
lt's called government.
604
00:41:08,144 --> 00:41:12,023
That's where the failure has been.
That bridge has fallen into disrepair.
605
00:41:12,464 --> 00:41:15,297
There was a time
in the 1 960s and 1 970s. . .
606
00:41:15,464 --> 00:41:18,615
. . .when Republicans and Democrats
in the United States. . .
607
00:41:18,784 --> 00:41:21,173
. . .joined to pass
the major environmental laws.
608
00:41:21,344 --> 00:41:24,859
The National Environmental Policy Act,
Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act. . .
609
00:41:25,024 --> 00:41:27,857
. . .the Endangered Species Act.
Those were done by Republicans. . .
610
00:41:28,024 --> 00:41:30,140
. . .and Democrats coming together.
611
00:41:30,304 --> 00:41:32,818
And that system is now broken.
612
00:41:32,984 --> 00:41:35,942
And part of the crisis is,
as everybody knows. . .
613
00:41:36,104 --> 00:41:39,733
. . .its that there is money,
too much money in the political system.
614
00:41:39,904 --> 00:41:41,019
Even Jefferson said. . .
615
00:41:42,544 --> 00:41:46,298
. . .we have to rewrite the Constitution
every generation to meet our need.
616
00:41:46,664 --> 00:41:51,055
Do we think that the Founding Fathers
understood global warming?
617
00:41:51,224 --> 00:41:54,102
Or deforestation?
Or the massive amounts. . .
618
00:41:54,264 --> 00:41:57,461
. . .of toxic chemicals that are pumped
into our atmosphere. . .
619
00:41:57,624 --> 00:42:01,173
. . .and into our air, water, land
and soil every day?
620
00:42:01,344 --> 00:42:05,178
What we need to do is find a harmony
between people and nature.
621
00:42:05,344 --> 00:42:09,496
One of the only ways to do that is
to recognize that nature has rights too.
622
00:42:16,664 --> 00:42:20,737
l think the most basic thing to understand
about our global economic system. . .
623
00:42:22,264 --> 00:42:26,496
. . .is that it's a subsystem.
And it's a subsystem of a larger system.
624
00:42:26,664 --> 00:42:31,055
The larger system is the biosphere
and the subsystem is the economy.
625
00:42:31,224 --> 00:42:35,661
The problem, of course, is that
our subsystem, the economy. . .
626
00:42:35,824 --> 00:42:40,261
. . .is geared for growth.
lt's all set up to grow, to expand. . .
627
00:42:40,424 --> 00:42:45,293
. . .whereas the parent system
doesn't grow. lt remains the same size.
628
00:42:45,464 --> 00:42:49,821
So as the economy grows, it displaces,
it encroaches upon. . .
629
00:42:50,304 --> 00:42:53,182
. . .the biosphere,
and this is a fundamental cost.
630
00:42:53,344 --> 00:42:56,814
This is the fundamental opportunity cost
of economic growth.
631
00:42:56,984 --> 00:43:00,454
That's what you give up when
you expand, what used to be there.
632
00:43:00,784 --> 00:43:05,539
So economists don't include all of the
things that nature does for us for nothing.
633
00:43:05,704 --> 00:43:09,583
Some technologies would never be able
to do what nature does.
634
00:43:09,744 --> 00:43:12,417
For example, pollinating all of
the flowering plants.
635
00:43:12,584 --> 00:43:15,337
What would it cost us
to take carbon dioxide out of the air. . .
636
00:43:15,504 --> 00:43:19,019
. . .and put oxygen back in it, which all
the green things do for us for nothing.
637
00:43:19,184 --> 00:43:23,257
lt's possible to do a crude estimate of
what it would cost us to replace nature.
638
00:43:24,944 --> 00:43:27,253
Constanza, this is several years ago. . .
639
00:43:27,424 --> 00:43:32,339
. . .estimated it would cost us
$35 trillion a year. . .
640
00:43:32,504 --> 00:43:35,655
. . .to do what nature is doing for us
for nothing.
641
00:43:35,824 --> 00:43:37,098
To put that in perspective. . .
642
00:43:37,264 --> 00:43:41,894
. . .if you added up all of the annual
economies in the world at that time. . .
643
00:43:42,064 --> 00:43:43,577
. . .it came to $ 1 8 trillion.
644
00:43:44,904 --> 00:43:48,533
So nature was doing
twice as much service for us. . .
645
00:43:48,704 --> 00:43:50,217
. . .as the economies of the world.
646
00:43:50,384 --> 00:43:55,253
And in the madness of conventional
economics, this isn't in the equation.
647
00:43:55,424 --> 00:43:58,143
Somehow in the last few decades
in business school. . .
648
00:43:58,304 --> 00:44:00,613
. . .and the M.B.A.s that these
CEOs have. . .
649
00:44:00,784 --> 00:44:03,821
. . .they were trained that the object
of their business is growth. . .
650
00:44:03,984 --> 00:44:06,498
. . .as if that were an end.
lt's not an end, it's a means.
651
00:44:08,024 --> 00:44:11,414
We flipped the ends and means. lf we
can get the end back, quality of life. . .
652
00:44:11,584 --> 00:44:13,222
. . .we look at the contradictions. . .
653
00:44:13,384 --> 00:44:16,376
. . .because the wrong kind of growth
reduces our quality of life. . .
654
00:44:16,544 --> 00:44:18,136
. . .and we have to retake that back.
655
00:44:18,304 --> 00:44:19,783
l think the industrial system. . .
656
00:44:21,304 --> 00:44:22,453
. . .has to be reinvented.
657
00:44:22,624 --> 00:44:27,379
Today, the throughput of the
industrial system from mining wellhead. . .
658
00:44:27,544 --> 00:44:31,253
. . .through to finished product that ends
up in a landfill or an incinerator. . .
659
00:44:31,424 --> 00:44:33,892
. . .for every truckload of product
with lasting value. . .
660
00:44:34,064 --> 00:44:36,862
. . .32 truckloads of waste are produced.
661
00:44:37,024 --> 00:44:39,538
And that is mind-boggling. But it's true.
662
00:44:40,064 --> 00:44:43,056
So we have a system that
is a waste-making system.
663
00:44:44,384 --> 00:44:47,615
Clearly, we cannot continue to dig up
the earth and turn it to waste.
664
00:44:51,024 --> 00:44:53,140
In our modern globalized world...
665
00:44:53,304 --> 00:44:57,183
...growth continues to be the focus
of many corporations and governments...
666
00:44:57,344 --> 00:45:00,381
... who deplete our environment
for economic gain.
667
00:45:00,544 --> 00:45:04,696
But what about us, as individuals,
as consumers?
668
00:45:04,864 --> 00:45:09,335
To what extent are we participants
in the destruction of our biosphere?
669
00:45:12,024 --> 00:45:14,379
The problem is not a problem
of technology.
670
00:45:15,904 --> 00:45:19,101
The problem is not a problem of
too much carbon dioxide.
671
00:45:19,264 --> 00:45:21,494
The problem is not a problem
of global warming.
672
00:45:21,664 --> 00:45:23,416
The problem is not a problem of waste.
673
00:45:23,584 --> 00:45:25,734
All of those things
are symptoms of the problem.
674
00:45:25,904 --> 00:45:28,338
The problem is the way
that we are thinking.
675
00:45:28,504 --> 00:45:31,098
The problem is fundamentally
a cultural problem.
676
00:45:31,944 --> 00:45:36,540
lt's at the level of our culture
that this illness is happening.
677
00:45:36,704 --> 00:45:41,494
We're now products of $500 billion
of advertising each year.
678
00:45:42,104 --> 00:45:46,416
By the time a child comes to college
or grows up through school. . .
679
00:45:46,784 --> 00:45:50,777
. . .as a first-year student in college, they'll
have seen thousands of hours of TV.
680
00:45:51,184 --> 00:45:54,062
On average, four hours
and some minutes per day.
681
00:45:54,224 --> 00:45:59,093
As a result, as one study showed, they
could identify 1 000 corporate logos. . .
682
00:45:59,264 --> 00:46:03,542
. . .but fewer than 1 0 plants and animals
native to their own place.
683
00:46:03,704 --> 00:46:05,934
And so we've become
not only consumers. . .
684
00:46:06,104 --> 00:46:10,017
. . .but hugely ignorant of the terms
by which we live on the Earth.
685
00:46:10,184 --> 00:46:12,778
Americans are spending their time
working and spending.
686
00:46:14,304 --> 00:46:15,737
That's where our time is going.
687
00:46:15,904 --> 00:46:19,783
An average American goes shopping
in one way or another five times a week.
688
00:46:19,944 --> 00:46:24,222
During the day, we spend time working
to make the money so that we can shop.
689
00:46:24,384 --> 00:46:28,855
And there's a growing weariness of
having to hold up the global economy. . .
690
00:46:29,024 --> 00:46:31,618
. . .having to sort of
keep up with the Joneses.
691
00:46:31,784 --> 00:46:33,820
So while everything's getting bigger. . .
692
00:46:33,984 --> 00:46:38,136
. . .our bathtubs, our houses, our vehicles,
our waistlines. . .
693
00:46:38,304 --> 00:46:41,774
. . .we're running out of time. We have
less of the things we really care about.
694
00:46:41,984 --> 00:46:43,940
ln America, people are so insulated. . .
695
00:46:45,464 --> 00:46:49,696
. . .by our concentration of wealth. We
spend more money maintaining lawns. . .
696
00:46:49,864 --> 00:46:52,173
. . .than lndia collects
in federal tax revenue.
697
00:46:52,344 --> 00:46:55,063
Our defense budget, which is
a trivial percentage of GDP. . .
698
00:46:55,224 --> 00:46:58,102
. . .is larger than the entire economy
of Australia.
699
00:46:58,264 --> 00:47:02,416
So anesthetized by our own wealth,
we forget how most of the world lives. . .
700
00:47:02,784 --> 00:47:04,854
. . .and how the majority
of the world looks.
701
00:47:05,024 --> 00:47:07,094
So where we are now
as a civilization is. . . .
702
00:47:09,344 --> 00:47:13,701
l would call. . . . Consumerism is the leading
ideology. Even consumer democracy.
703
00:47:13,864 --> 00:47:17,174
Consumer democracy in the sense
that any regime. . .
704
00:47:17,344 --> 00:47:19,858
. . .whether it's the Chinese regime,
the U.S. regime. . .
705
00:47:20,064 --> 00:47:24,216
. . .has to give people what they want
and when they want it, which is now.
706
00:47:24,384 --> 00:47:26,102
And people want consumer goods.
707
00:47:26,264 --> 00:47:30,143
Once commodities
become cultural symbols. . .
708
00:47:30,304 --> 00:47:34,934
. . .whether it's a cell phone in rural China,
or a Lamborghini in Malibu. . .
709
00:47:35,344 --> 00:47:36,572
. . .there's no stopping that.
710
00:47:36,744 --> 00:47:41,613
You have to change the object of desire
in order to get the root of the problem.
711
00:47:41,784 --> 00:47:45,857
People believe in choice, and choice
means consumerism for most people.
712
00:47:46,024 --> 00:47:48,936
There is no mileage
in trying to save the planet. . .
713
00:47:49,104 --> 00:47:52,414
. . .by telling people they're making
the wrong choice. lt won't work.
714
00:47:52,584 --> 00:47:55,337
Four, three, two, one!
715
00:48:03,064 --> 00:48:07,535
You have to change the idea behind
limitless expansion.
716
00:48:07,704 --> 00:48:10,457
ln a phrase, from well-having
to well-being.
717
00:48:10,904 --> 00:48:12,576
lt's a cultural transformation.
718
00:48:12,744 --> 00:48:16,498
We've always, as humans,
had material desires.
719
00:48:16,664 --> 00:48:19,383
Material things are part of
how we do define who we are.
720
00:48:20,944 --> 00:48:25,096
So it's not that consumption is bad,
it's that it's gotten totally out of balance.
721
00:48:27,024 --> 00:48:29,492
Media really is the instrument by which. . .
722
00:48:30,984 --> 00:48:33,657
. . .knowledge is passed in our society.
723
00:48:33,824 --> 00:48:36,054
We no longer get knowledge
directly from the Earth.
724
00:48:36,224 --> 00:48:39,933
We're no longer in touch with
the sources of our survival.
725
00:48:40,104 --> 00:48:43,733
We no longer, for the most part,
in Western industrial society. . . .
726
00:48:43,944 --> 00:48:47,380
We're no longer growing our food
or taking care of our own sustenance. . .
727
00:48:47,544 --> 00:48:50,342
. . .or learning directly
from our own experience. . .
728
00:48:50,624 --> 00:48:55,493
. . .or having our family
be the root of our choices.
729
00:48:55,664 --> 00:48:57,814
Basically, we're like the astronaut
in space.
730
00:48:57,984 --> 00:49:01,340
You know, we're floating around
in a metallic re-created universe. . .
731
00:49:01,504 --> 00:49:04,302
. . .disconnected, really,
from sources on the Earth.
732
00:49:04,464 --> 00:49:07,058
And we're dependent completely
upon the information. . .
733
00:49:07,224 --> 00:49:09,658
. . .that is sent to us
from very, very far away.
734
00:49:09,824 --> 00:49:10,973
We're psychically numbed.
735
00:49:12,424 --> 00:49:14,415
We numb our senses
from morning till night. . .
736
00:49:14,584 --> 00:49:18,896
. . .whether it's with noise or loud music
or light at night.
737
00:49:19,104 --> 00:49:21,664
So nobody sees the beauty.
738
00:49:21,824 --> 00:49:25,976
And if we've lost the feeling
of the beauty of the world. . .
739
00:49:26,144 --> 00:49:28,942
. . .then we are looking for substitutes.
740
00:49:29,104 --> 00:49:33,541
Eric Hoffer said, ""You can never get
enough of what you don't really want. ""
741
00:49:33,704 --> 00:49:37,174
Meaning we rush around
permanently needy. . .
742
00:49:37,344 --> 00:49:42,213
. . .but the loss, the feeling of loss, is that
we don't know what it is we've lost.
743
00:49:42,384 --> 00:49:45,137
What we've lost is
the beauty of the world. . .
744
00:49:46,024 --> 00:49:49,619
. . .and we make up for it
with attempting to conquer the world. . .
745
00:49:49,784 --> 00:49:53,379
. . .or own the world, possess the world.
746
00:50:09,104 --> 00:50:14,224
One can see from space how the
human race has changed the Earth.
747
00:50:14,384 --> 00:50:18,457
Nearly all of the available land
has been cleared of forest. . .
748
00:50:18,624 --> 00:50:23,379
. . .and is now used for agriculture
or urban development.
749
00:50:23,904 --> 00:50:28,898
The polar icecaps are shrinking
and the desert areas are increasing.
750
00:50:29,744 --> 00:50:35,660
At night, the Earth is no longer dark,
but large areas are lit up.
751
00:50:35,824 --> 00:50:39,817
All of this is evidence that
human exploitation of the planet. . .
752
00:50:39,984 --> 00:50:42,134
. . .is reaching a critical limit.
753
00:50:42,304 --> 00:50:46,616
But human demands and expectations
are ever-increasing.
754
00:50:48,144 --> 00:50:50,783
We cannot continue to pollute
the atmosphere. . .
755
00:50:50,944 --> 00:50:54,778
. . .poison the ocean and exhaust the land.
756
00:50:54,944 --> 00:50:57,981
There isn't any more available.
757
00:51:07,944 --> 00:51:09,457
We are living. . .
758
00:51:09,944 --> 00:51:12,777
. . .in an enormously challenging time.
759
00:51:14,424 --> 00:51:17,222
lf we don't change what we're doing. . .
760
00:51:17,384 --> 00:51:21,343
. . .we are facing losing. . .
761
00:51:21,504 --> 00:51:28,057
. . .perhaps a third, maybe a half,
of all the variety of life on Earth.
762
00:51:28,224 --> 00:51:31,296
We don't know at what point
when we lose biodiversity. . .
763
00:51:32,824 --> 00:51:36,533
. . .that the system will start to fall apart.
l believe in the resilience of nature.
764
00:51:36,704 --> 00:51:39,901
So l think that once the human species
becomes extinct--
765
00:51:40,064 --> 00:51:44,660
And many species have became extinct
before us, many species will after us.
766
00:51:44,824 --> 00:51:48,942
--that the Earth may well spin on its axis
happily without humans. . .
767
00:51:49,104 --> 00:51:51,538
. . .and the microbes and insects
will inherit the world.
768
00:51:51,704 --> 00:51:54,423
Unless we cause
such a dramatic climate shift. . .
769
00:51:54,584 --> 00:51:57,815
. . .that we become an arid, cold planet
like Mars.
770
00:51:57,984 --> 00:52:01,499
l don't believe for a minute
that life will be extinguished.
771
00:52:01,664 --> 00:52:05,816
Even though we've radically altered the
air, the water, and the soil of Earth. . .
772
00:52:05,984 --> 00:52:09,659
. . .life has been incredibly tenacious
and adaptable.
773
00:52:09,824 --> 00:52:13,737
But as a species at the very top
of the food chain. . .
774
00:52:13,904 --> 00:52:15,940
. . .l know that we're the most vulnerable.
775
00:52:16,544 --> 00:52:20,537
Life has existed on Earth
for 3.8 to 4 billion years.
776
00:52:20,704 --> 00:52:22,899
Over that time,
there have been a lot of species.
777
00:52:23,064 --> 00:52:27,376
But you know what? 99.9999. . .
778
00:52:27,544 --> 00:52:30,217
. . .four decimal points,
percent of all species. . .
779
00:52:30,384 --> 00:52:33,615
. . .that have ever existed are extinct.
780
00:52:33,784 --> 00:52:36,423
So extinction is a natural part of life.
781
00:52:36,584 --> 00:52:41,339
Extinction is what has enabled life
to flourish and evolve and change. . .
782
00:52:41,504 --> 00:52:43,540
. . .with the conditions
of the changing planet.
783
00:52:43,704 --> 00:52:47,253
The planet hasn't been stuck in
one condition over 4 billion years.
784
00:52:47,424 --> 00:52:52,544
The tragedy of our existence
is that we're an infant species.
785
00:52:52,944 --> 00:52:57,540
Not only are we hastening the conditions
for our own demise. . .
786
00:52:57,704 --> 00:53:01,219
. . .we're taking down-- According to the
United Nations Environment Programme. . .
787
00:53:01,384 --> 00:53:07,539
. . .50 to 55,000 species a year
are going extinct because of us.
788
00:53:07,704 --> 00:53:12,061
The tragedy is not the imminent
or potential extinction of humankind. . .
789
00:53:12,224 --> 00:53:16,661
. . .but the enormous extinction crisis
that we're causing right now.
790
00:53:21,744 --> 00:53:24,053
And l think there is potential
for a Dark Age.
791
00:53:24,384 --> 00:53:25,976
One of the problems that l see. . .
792
00:53:27,464 --> 00:53:30,820
. . .is that so many people
who have to individually accept. . .
793
00:53:30,984 --> 00:53:33,942
. . .the cost of the transition,
are unaware that it's coming.
794
00:53:34,784 --> 00:53:37,662
Most of our citizens
wake up in the morning. . .
795
00:53:37,824 --> 00:53:39,621
. . .and worry about
the morning commute. . .
796
00:53:39,784 --> 00:53:42,901
. . .and getting the kids to school,
and paying the mortgage. . .
797
00:53:43,064 --> 00:53:46,659
. . .and thinking about a new car
or a vacation or whatever.
798
00:53:46,864 --> 00:53:50,982
This is too narrow a scale of thinking
to address the problems that we have.
799
00:53:51,144 --> 00:53:55,581
We need people to be aware of
the global forces that affect their lives. . .
800
00:53:55,744 --> 00:53:58,975
. . .and that will increasingly affect
their lives in the future.
801
00:53:59,144 --> 00:54:03,695
lf this awareness doesn't develop, l'm
afraid the transition will be wrenching.
802
00:54:03,864 --> 00:54:04,899
What we risk is. . .
803
00:54:06,424 --> 00:54:10,542
. . .the destruction of civilization. All that
we fought for. This fragile little craft. . .
804
00:54:10,704 --> 00:54:13,059
. . .that's navigated the centuries
and the millennia. . .
805
00:54:13,224 --> 00:54:15,215
. . .to come to this particular point.
806
00:54:15,384 --> 00:54:19,457
lt will have been undone
in a flash of consumption. . .
807
00:54:19,624 --> 00:54:23,060
. . .and bad judgment, and violence,
and injustice.
808
00:54:23,224 --> 00:54:26,421
ls the caring capacity for a happy
and healthy human population. . .
809
00:54:27,904 --> 00:54:30,259
. . .in a future going away? Absolutely.
810
00:54:30,424 --> 00:54:32,892
And it's not about saving the planet.
811
00:54:33,064 --> 00:54:35,703
lt's about saving a caring capacity. . .
812
00:54:35,864 --> 00:54:40,938
. . .a system upon which humans can live
in the pursuit of happiness.
813
00:54:41,104 --> 00:54:42,617
That's what's at stake.
814
00:54:42,784 --> 00:54:46,857
So if you step back and you take an Earth
perspective rather than human. . .
815
00:54:48,464 --> 00:54:51,137
. . .it can't be an 1 1 th hour for the Earth.
816
00:54:51,304 --> 00:54:55,422
lt can be an extinction crisis for the Earth.
817
00:54:55,584 --> 00:54:59,020
And it can be a harmony crisis
for the Earth.
818
00:54:59,184 --> 00:55:02,301
Because we now see that one species. . .
819
00:55:02,464 --> 00:55:05,536
. . .is taking over so much of
the resources of the Earth. . .
820
00:55:05,704 --> 00:55:09,492
. . .that it's leaving very little
for other creatures to live with it.
821
00:56:32,824 --> 00:56:36,339
So we find ourselves on the brink.
822
00:56:36,504 --> 00:56:38,779
lt is clear humans have had
a devastating impact. . .
823
00:56:38,944 --> 00:56:41,822
. . .on our planet's ecological web of life.
824
00:56:41,984 --> 00:56:43,337
Because we have waited. . .
825
00:56:43,504 --> 00:56:46,257
. . .because we've turned our backs
on nature's warning signs. . .
826
00:56:46,424 --> 00:56:48,813
. . .and because our political
and corporate leaders. . .
827
00:56:48,984 --> 00:56:52,579
. . .have consistently ignored the
overwhelming scientific evidence. . .
828
00:56:52,744 --> 00:56:56,373
. . .the challenges we face
are that much more difficult.
829
00:56:56,544 --> 00:56:59,422
We are in the environmental age
whether we like it or not.
830
00:57:00,224 --> 00:57:02,294
So what does the future look like?
831
00:57:02,744 --> 00:57:06,373
We know the United States, the world's
greatest consumer and source of waste...
832
00:57:06,544 --> 00:57:09,342
...needs to make a transition
to a greener future.
833
00:57:09,624 --> 00:57:13,856
But will our pivotal generation
create a sustainable world in time?
834
00:57:14,024 --> 00:57:16,219
What will guide this massive change?
835
00:57:16,384 --> 00:57:21,333
Does nature hold the answers we need
to help restore our planet's resources. . .
836
00:57:21,504 --> 00:57:25,941
. . .protect our atmosphere and,
therefore, help all life survive?
837
00:57:28,624 --> 00:57:32,697
All these forces sweeping over the planet
are the forces created by human beings.
838
00:57:32,864 --> 00:57:35,253
lf human beings are the source
of the problem. . .
839
00:57:35,424 --> 00:57:37,494
. . .we can be the foundation
of the solution.
840
00:57:37,664 --> 00:57:39,734
Some people suggest
that to live sustainably. . .
841
00:57:41,224 --> 00:57:43,943
. . .we have to go out in the woods
and put on animal skins. . .
842
00:57:44,104 --> 00:57:46,095
. . .and live on roots and berries.
843
00:57:46,704 --> 00:57:50,663
And the simple reality
is that we do have technology.
844
00:57:51,104 --> 00:57:52,139
The question is:
845
00:57:52,304 --> 00:57:56,377
How can we use our understanding
of science and technology. . .
846
00:57:56,544 --> 00:58:01,174
. . .along with our understanding of culture
and how culture changes. . .
847
00:58:01,344 --> 00:58:05,940
. . .to create a culture
that will interact with science. . .
848
00:58:06,104 --> 00:58:11,224
. . .and with the world around us
in a sustainable fashion?
849
00:58:11,384 --> 00:58:13,420
The great thing about the dilemma
we're in. . .
850
00:58:14,944 --> 00:58:19,859
. . .is that we get to reimagine
every single thing we do.
851
00:58:20,024 --> 00:58:24,700
ln other words, there isn't
one single thing that we make. . .
852
00:58:24,864 --> 00:58:29,540
. . .or systems that we have that
doesn't require a complete remake.
853
00:58:29,704 --> 00:58:31,774
And so there's two ways
of looking at that.
854
00:58:31,944 --> 00:58:34,617
One is, like, ""Oh, my gosh.
What a big burden. ""
855
00:58:34,784 --> 00:58:37,582
The other way to look at it,
which is the way l prefer, is:
856
00:58:37,744 --> 00:58:40,622
""What a great time to be born.
What a great time to be alive. ""
857
00:58:40,784 --> 00:58:46,017
Because this generation gets to essentially
completely change this world.
858
00:58:52,544 --> 00:58:54,455
We're at a point, with 6.4 billion of us. . .
859
00:58:55,984 --> 00:58:59,340
. . .that we have to imagine what it'd
be like to redesign design itself. . .
860
00:58:59,864 --> 00:59:02,424
. . .and see design as
the first signal of human intention. . .
861
00:59:03,744 --> 00:59:08,534
. . .and see we need new intentions, where
materials are seen as highly valuable. . .
862
00:59:08,704 --> 00:59:13,175
. . .and need to go in closed cycles, ""cradle
to cradle"" instead of ""cradle to grave. ""
863
00:59:13,664 --> 00:59:17,816
And that energy needs to come from
renewable sources, principally the sun. . .
864
00:59:18,464 --> 00:59:22,343
. . .and water needs to be clean and
healthy as it goes through a system. . .
865
00:59:22,624 --> 00:59:25,297
. . .and we have to treat each other
with justice and fairness.
866
00:59:25,464 --> 00:59:28,900
So the design itself changes. . .
867
00:59:29,064 --> 00:59:32,340
. . .from mass production of things
that are essentially destructive. . .
868
00:59:32,504 --> 00:59:37,498
. . .to mass utilization of things that are
inherently assets instead of liabilities.
869
00:59:41,504 --> 00:59:44,064
Our project today,
for a new generation of designers. . .
870
00:59:45,544 --> 00:59:48,183
. . .is the welfare of all of life
as a practical objective.
871
00:59:48,464 --> 00:59:51,900
lt goes beyond ourselves to include
the entire ecological realm.
872
00:59:53,384 --> 00:59:56,137
That all of life is actually
a design project today.
873
00:59:56,304 --> 01:00:01,981
That we have to design the capacity
to sustain it in the long run.
874
01:00:02,144 --> 01:00:05,420
Whether we're talking about
the design of a factory or a building. . .
875
01:00:06,944 --> 01:00:10,254
. . .or a road or even a town. . .
876
01:00:10,744 --> 01:00:13,656
. . .it's much easier to design in isolation. . .
877
01:00:13,824 --> 01:00:17,783
. . .than superimpose a design
on what exists.
878
01:00:17,944 --> 01:00:20,936
But if we were to follow
nature's operating instructions. . .
879
01:00:21,104 --> 01:00:23,572
. . .it designs in exactly the opposite way.
880
01:00:23,984 --> 01:00:28,694
lt brings onto the palette, so to speak,
all of the kingdoms of life. . .
881
01:00:29,504 --> 01:00:33,417
. . .and then works symphonically
to create an end result. . .
882
01:00:33,584 --> 01:00:36,098
. . .which might be a coral reef
or might be a forest.
883
01:00:36,264 --> 01:00:39,973
Well, you know, the interesting thing
about sustainable design. . .
884
01:00:40,144 --> 01:00:42,977
. . .is that l don't think it has to look
in any particular way.
885
01:00:43,144 --> 01:00:46,420
One of the things that we discovered
in the last few years. . .
886
01:00:47,744 --> 01:00:53,023
. . .is the new design is actually invisible.
lt's not about a visual boundary.
887
01:00:53,184 --> 01:00:55,744
The form, in fact, could be anything.
888
01:00:57,784 --> 01:01:01,060
lt's the structure and internal logic
and intelligence. . .
889
01:01:01,224 --> 01:01:03,454
. . .and the performance
that has to be designed.
890
01:01:03,784 --> 01:01:05,502
How we make things. . .
891
01:01:06,984 --> 01:01:10,454
. . .in, you know, our industrial processes. . .
892
01:01:10,624 --> 01:01:14,776
. . .it's 1 80 degrees different
from how life makes things.
893
01:01:15,104 --> 01:01:17,902
Look at the way we make,
for instance, Kevlar. . .
894
01:01:19,264 --> 01:01:21,016
. . .which is our toughest material.
895
01:01:21,184 --> 01:01:24,859
We take petroleum, we heat it up
to about 1 400 degrees Fahrenheit. . .
896
01:01:25,344 --> 01:01:27,904
. . .and we bubble it in sulfuric acid. . .
897
01:01:28,064 --> 01:01:31,295
. . .and then we pull it out
under enormous pressures.
898
01:01:31,464 --> 01:01:37,255
Now imagine an organism, us,
making our bones or our teeth.
899
01:01:37,784 --> 01:01:41,060
lmagine an abalone making a shell.
900
01:01:41,224 --> 01:01:45,456
They can't afford to heat it up
to really high temperatures. . .
901
01:01:45,624 --> 01:01:49,742
. . .or do pressures or chemical baths,
so they found a different way.
902
01:01:49,904 --> 01:01:51,542
Now take the spider.
903
01:01:52,064 --> 01:01:56,535
This beautiful orb-weaver spider is
taking flies and crickets into the web. . .
904
01:01:56,704 --> 01:01:59,980
. . .and transforming them with chemistry
in water in the abdomen. . .
905
01:02:00,144 --> 01:02:01,736
. . .and out comes this material. . .
906
01:02:01,904 --> 01:02:05,499
. . .that's five times stronger
ounce for ounce than steel.
907
01:02:06,264 --> 01:02:10,542
Silently, in water, at room temp.
You know?
908
01:02:10,704 --> 01:02:13,855
l mean, this is master chemistry.
909
01:02:14,024 --> 01:02:16,663
This is the manufacturing of the future,
hopefully.
910
01:02:16,824 --> 01:02:17,973
There's actually people. . .
911
01:02:18,144 --> 01:02:22,979
. . .who are now trying to mimic
the recipes of these organisms.
912
01:02:26,464 --> 01:02:30,298
Fungi are the molecular disassemblers,
the organisms between life and death.
913
01:02:31,904 --> 01:02:36,375
They generate soil. The entire food web of
nature is based on these fungal filaments.
914
01:02:36,544 --> 01:02:40,662
The mycelial network that infuses
all land masses in the world. . .
915
01:02:40,824 --> 01:02:44,373
. . .is a supportive membrane
upon which life proliferates. . .
916
01:02:44,544 --> 01:02:48,856
. . .and further diversifies. Mushrooms
also have a very bizarre property. . .
917
01:02:49,024 --> 01:02:51,140
. . .of hyper-accumulating
heavy metals.
918
01:02:51,584 --> 01:02:53,176
Forests are thousands of acres. . .
919
01:02:53,344 --> 01:02:56,461
. . .so fungi that produce mushrooms
grow to thousands of acres in size.
920
01:02:56,624 --> 01:02:58,296
This gives us a ready ability. . .
921
01:02:58,464 --> 01:03:02,093
. . .to tap into this powerful inherent
resource that mushroom mycelium has. . .
922
01:03:02,264 --> 01:03:04,937
. . .to remediate environments,
prevent downstream pollution. . .
923
01:03:06,704 --> 01:03:09,855
. . .from microbes, from viruses,
including bacteria and protozoa. . .
924
01:03:10,024 --> 01:03:13,334
. . .and also for breaking down
a wide assortment of pollutants.
925
01:03:13,504 --> 01:03:16,576
And this is one of the pedestals
of mycorestoration.
926
01:03:16,744 --> 01:03:19,577
Using mushroom mycelium
in order to heal environments. . .
927
01:03:19,744 --> 01:03:21,974
. . .because these are truly
healing membranes.
928
01:03:22,144 --> 01:03:23,133
There's the model.
929
01:03:23,304 --> 01:03:26,501
ln nature, there is no waste.
One organism's waste is another's food.
930
01:03:28,024 --> 01:03:31,414
That's the model for the industrial system
that must eventually evolve.
931
01:03:31,584 --> 01:03:33,814
A waste-free industrial system.
932
01:03:37,464 --> 01:03:39,216
lf we think about a tree as a design. . .
933
01:03:39,424 --> 01:03:43,622
. . .it makes oxygen, sequesters carbon,
fixes nitrogen, distills water. . .
934
01:03:45,104 --> 01:03:48,096
. . .provides habitat for hundreds
of species, accrues solar energy. . .
935
01:03:48,264 --> 01:03:52,542
. . .makes complex sugars and food,
creates microclimates and self-replicates.
936
01:03:52,704 --> 01:03:56,299
So what would it be like
to design a building like a tree?
937
01:03:56,464 --> 01:03:59,536
What would it be like
to design a city like a forest?
938
01:03:59,704 --> 01:04:02,901
So what would a building be like
if it were photosynthetic?
939
01:04:03,064 --> 01:04:05,259
What if it took solar energy
and converted it. . .
940
01:04:07,664 --> 01:04:09,256
. . .to productive and delightful use?
941
01:04:09,424 --> 01:04:13,815
For example, if we combine
our housing and our waste treatment. . .
942
01:04:15,744 --> 01:04:17,974
. . .and our food production
and energy generation. . .
943
01:04:19,704 --> 01:04:21,854
. . .all integrated, single whole systems. . .
944
01:04:23,544 --> 01:04:25,660
. . .we can live beautifully on the planet. . .
945
01:04:27,704 --> 01:04:29,979
. . .with one tenth or less
the resources. . .
946
01:04:31,304 --> 01:04:33,022
. . .that our current civilization uses.
947
01:04:33,184 --> 01:04:35,175
Green building is essentially. . .
948
01:04:36,704 --> 01:04:40,379
. . .the design and construction of buildings
that are energy- and resource-efficient.
949
01:04:40,544 --> 01:04:44,139
They produce healthy places
to live and work.
950
01:04:44,304 --> 01:04:49,458
lf you take the fact that buildings
account for a third of all energy use. . .
951
01:04:50,984 --> 01:04:55,216
. . .it's the single largest segment of energy
use and greenhouse gas production.
952
01:04:55,384 --> 01:04:56,976
What we can do with buildings. . .
953
01:04:58,304 --> 01:05:01,614
. . .in just the simplest off-the-shelf
technologies, is really stunning.
954
01:05:05,304 --> 01:05:08,535
With existing technologies that
we basically already have on the shelf. . .
955
01:05:08,704 --> 01:05:11,502
. . .or things we know we can develop
in a rapid period of time. . .
956
01:05:12,944 --> 01:05:16,061
. . .we could reduce the human footprint
on planet Earth by 90 percent. . .
957
01:05:16,224 --> 01:05:18,658
. . .which would be a huge shift
in what we're doing now.
958
01:05:20,584 --> 01:05:23,576
The direction to go is to
decouple from our dependence on oil. . .
959
01:05:23,744 --> 01:05:27,578
. . .through efficient transportation,
better-insulated houses. . .
960
01:05:27,744 --> 01:05:32,534
. . .and the development of renewable
alternatives like solar, wind and biomass. . .
961
01:05:32,704 --> 01:05:35,423
. . .and getting those to become
the major part of the market. . .
962
01:05:35,584 --> 01:05:37,461
. . .using efficiency as the transition.
963
01:05:39,344 --> 01:05:42,256
lt won't happen overnight,
but it should've started 30 years ago.
964
01:05:42,424 --> 01:05:45,655
We have right now,
in the White House and in Congress. . .
965
01:05:47,144 --> 01:05:49,942
. . .people trying to delay it further,
which is irrational. . .
966
01:05:50,104 --> 01:05:53,062
. . .both for our national security
and environmental protection.
967
01:05:53,384 --> 01:05:54,499
This country. . .
968
01:05:56,024 --> 01:05:58,936
. . .can move awfully fast if it wants to.
969
01:05:59,104 --> 01:06:03,017
Keep in mind that
just after December 7th, 1 941 . . .
970
01:06:03,184 --> 01:06:05,823
. . .Roosevelt went to Jimmy Byrnes
and said:
971
01:06:05,984 --> 01:06:08,817
""You're my deputy president
for mobilizing the economy.
972
01:06:08,984 --> 01:06:11,418
lf anybody crosses you, they cross me.
Get to it. ""
973
01:06:11,584 --> 01:06:17,022
Within six months, Detroit was completely
retooled, not making cars anymore. . .
974
01:06:17,184 --> 01:06:21,302
. . .making military trucks, tanks,
fighter aircraft.
975
01:06:21,464 --> 01:06:23,580
And in three years and eight months. . .
976
01:06:23,744 --> 01:06:26,417
. . .from the beginning of that war,
we had mobilized. . .
977
01:06:26,584 --> 01:06:30,577
. . .we had defeated imperial Japan,
Fascist ltaly, Nazi Germany. . .
978
01:06:30,744 --> 01:06:34,134
. . .together with the British and our
other allies, and begun demobilization.
979
01:06:34,304 --> 01:06:38,263
-Three years and eight months.
-These are not technical issues. . .
980
01:06:38,424 --> 01:06:41,302
. . .nearly as much
as they are leadership issues.
981
01:06:41,464 --> 01:06:44,024
How much time do we have?
Well, not much.
982
01:06:44,264 --> 01:06:48,496
By my reckoning, we ought to be
about the business as rapidly as possible.
983
01:06:48,664 --> 01:06:49,653
This means everybody.
984
01:06:49,824 --> 01:06:54,136
Every citizen, every government level,
every organization, every corporation.
985
01:06:54,304 --> 01:06:58,297
This is ""all hands on deck"" time.
986
01:06:58,464 --> 01:07:00,375
So that in the future, 500 years out. . .
987
01:07:01,864 --> 01:07:05,334
. . .that people look back at this time,
that this was our finest hour.
988
01:07:05,504 --> 01:07:09,497
That humans at that time in that
generation all across the planet. . .
989
01:07:09,664 --> 01:07:12,053
. . .came together in a very different vision.
990
01:07:12,224 --> 01:07:13,976
There are, on Earth today. . .
991
01:07:15,464 --> 01:07:17,295
. . .over one million environmental. . .
992
01:07:17,464 --> 01:07:20,740
. . .social justice and indigenous
organizations present.
993
01:07:20,904 --> 01:07:22,940
lt is the fastest growing movement
on Earth.
994
01:07:23,144 --> 01:07:26,534
And you're starting to see them
pull together. . .
995
01:07:26,704 --> 01:07:29,457
. . .and close the loops
and plug the leaks. . .
996
01:07:29,624 --> 01:07:33,333
. . .of energy and water and food
and finance and those things. . .
997
01:07:33,664 --> 01:07:36,303
. . .to reimagine what it means to be. . .
998
01:07:36,464 --> 01:07:39,183
. . .as l say, a human being
in the 21 st century. . .
999
01:07:39,344 --> 01:07:44,179
. . .when every living system is in decline,
and learning how to reverse that.
1000
01:07:44,344 --> 01:07:45,538
lt's almost as if we had. . .
1001
01:07:47,064 --> 01:07:50,613
. . .distributed an ambition
without ever having written it down.
1002
01:07:50,784 --> 01:07:54,936
So that people all over the world knew
what they ought to be working on. . .
1003
01:07:55,104 --> 01:07:57,060
. . .and were working on it
in their own way. . .
1004
01:07:57,224 --> 01:08:01,012
. . .knowing they only had
one sort of pixel. . .
1005
01:08:01,184 --> 01:08:06,622
. . .in this incredible mosaic
of an image of the future.
1006
01:08:06,824 --> 01:08:09,418
And that they could contribute that pixel
to that mosaic. . .
1007
01:08:09,584 --> 01:08:11,142
. . .knowing that in the end. . .
1008
01:08:11,304 --> 01:08:15,741
. . .that incredibly beautiful image
was a sustainable future.
1009
01:08:20,864 --> 01:08:24,459
The exciting thing is that we can see now
what the new economy would look like.
1010
01:08:26,224 --> 01:08:29,660
lnstead of being powered by fossil fuels,
it's powered by renewable energy.
1011
01:08:29,824 --> 01:08:32,782
lnstead of having an automobile-centered
transportation system. . .
1012
01:08:32,944 --> 01:08:36,016
. . .it will have a much more diversified
transport system.
1013
01:08:36,544 --> 01:08:38,057
lnstead of a throwaway economy. . .
1014
01:08:38,224 --> 01:08:41,057
. . .it will be a reused economy,
where everything is reused.
1015
01:08:43,144 --> 01:08:46,295
lndeed, we see glimpses of it emerging
here and there around the world.
1016
01:08:46,464 --> 01:08:50,298
So we have technologies to build a new
economy to sustain economic progress.
1017
01:08:52,224 --> 01:08:54,021
We can see that new economy emerging.
1018
01:08:55,544 --> 01:08:59,742
The challenge for our generation is to
build that economy in the available time.
1019
01:08:59,904 --> 01:09:02,293
And l don't think we have
a lot of time left.
1020
01:09:02,464 --> 01:09:05,342
Virtually all of
our major infrastructure changes. . .
1021
01:09:06,824 --> 01:09:09,292
. . .have been encouraged in some way
by the government.
1022
01:09:09,704 --> 01:09:11,535
So l would think the way to deal. . .
1023
01:09:11,704 --> 01:09:15,299
. . .with this transition away from oil is. . .
1024
01:09:17,304 --> 01:09:20,614
. . .not to pretend energy operates
in an unregulated free enterprise market.
1025
01:09:20,784 --> 01:09:25,812
lt does not. But to go ahead and,
as affordably as possible. . .
1026
01:09:25,984 --> 01:09:29,897
. . .give incentives to move toward
these other fuels. . .
1027
01:09:30,064 --> 01:09:34,774
. . .and these minimal changes in
infrastructure that make them possible.
1028
01:09:34,944 --> 01:09:36,935
Energy is the key to everything else
we do.
1029
01:09:38,464 --> 01:09:42,139
With abundant, affordable and clean
energy, we can solve a lot of problems.
1030
01:09:42,304 --> 01:09:45,341
Without it, we won't be able to solve
very many problems at all.
1031
01:09:45,504 --> 01:09:48,576
The sun is the most plentiful, bountiful
substitute there is.
1032
01:09:50,104 --> 01:09:53,096
There's more than enough energy
coming from the sun every day. . .
1033
01:09:55,304 --> 01:09:59,900
. . .to run every factory, every home, every
automobile on Earth 1 3,000 times, l think.
1034
01:10:00,064 --> 01:10:02,373
We're also finding
that on the larger scale. . .
1035
01:10:03,904 --> 01:10:07,897
. . .what we'd call the utility scale,
wind energy has evolved to the point. . .
1036
01:10:08,064 --> 01:10:12,535
. . .where it can compete price-wise
with our traditional fossil fuels. . .
1037
01:10:12,704 --> 01:10:15,741
. . .that is, coal and oil and natural gas. . .
1038
01:10:15,904 --> 01:10:20,500
. . .and produce large amounts of energy
that can be distributed through the grid. . .
1039
01:10:20,664 --> 01:10:23,622
. . .which is the conventional way
that we receive energy.
1040
01:10:23,784 --> 01:10:26,901
lt's important to see,
as we make progress in the world. . .
1041
01:10:28,384 --> 01:10:31,581
. . .to have an economy that's flexible,
fluid and ready to make changes.
1042
01:10:31,744 --> 01:10:34,212
How do we protect the atmosphere
that belongs to us all?
1043
01:10:34,384 --> 01:10:36,898
One of the ways
is we make people who are polluting. . .
1044
01:10:37,064 --> 01:10:41,057
. . .start paying for that pollution through
a polluter pay system on climate change.
1045
01:10:41,224 --> 01:10:43,021
So we lower income taxes. . .
1046
01:10:44,544 --> 01:10:48,378
. . .and raise taxes on gasoline,
for example, taxes on burning coal.
1047
01:10:48,544 --> 01:10:50,853
We could probably do it all
with a carbon tax.
1048
01:10:51,024 --> 01:10:54,175
We're not changing the level of taxes.
We're reducing income taxes. . .
1049
01:10:54,344 --> 01:10:58,815
. . .and offsetting it with an increase
in energy taxes, in effect.
1050
01:10:58,984 --> 01:11:00,861
A tax on fossil fuels.
1051
01:11:01,024 --> 01:11:03,015
When we break our addiction
to fossil fuels. . .
1052
01:11:03,184 --> 01:11:07,575
. . .you see money flowing to industries
that represent the vitality of the economy:
1053
01:11:07,744 --> 01:11:09,496
Media, high-tech, services.
1054
01:11:09,664 --> 01:11:13,100
Taking action on climate change
is good for jobs and the economy.
1055
01:11:16,064 --> 01:11:17,258
lf we retrofitted. . .
1056
01:11:18,784 --> 01:11:21,252
. . .all government buildings
built pre-1 950. . .
1057
01:11:21,424 --> 01:11:25,497
. . .and we created tax environments
to help cities and municipalities. . .
1058
01:11:25,664 --> 01:11:29,623
. . .and states and the federal government
to retrofit those buildings. . .
1059
01:11:29,784 --> 01:11:31,900
. . .we could create 3 million industrial jobs.
1060
01:11:32,504 --> 01:11:36,019
Plus we could import much less oil
from the Middle East.
1061
01:11:36,184 --> 01:11:39,415
But more importantly, we'd be having
a much cleaner environment.
1062
01:11:39,584 --> 01:11:42,052
lf we move from the rigged game
we have now in energy. . .
1063
01:11:43,584 --> 01:11:47,736
. . .to a level playing field, competition
between dirty and clean fuels. . .
1064
01:11:47,904 --> 01:11:49,940
. . .l have no doubt the clean fuels will win.
1065
01:11:51,544 --> 01:11:53,853
Once we send the right signal
to the marketplace. . .
1066
01:11:54,024 --> 01:11:57,061
. . .that the two guys in the garage
who created Hewlett-Packard. . . .
1067
01:11:58,424 --> 01:12:01,018
Those two guys today,
l want them working on clean energy.
1068
01:12:01,184 --> 01:12:03,414
l want them to know
we fixed our public policies. . .
1069
01:12:03,584 --> 01:12:07,543
. . .so they'll be rewarded when they come
up with a killer app to defeat Big Oil.
1070
01:12:07,704 --> 01:12:08,853
That's what we need to do.
1071
01:12:09,024 --> 01:12:12,699
Once we do, we'll see a relatively quick
transition to cleaner energy.
1072
01:12:28,224 --> 01:12:31,261
People need to realize they can do things
in their everyday lives.
1073
01:12:32,784 --> 01:12:34,695
Keeping tire pressure at the right level. . .
1074
01:12:34,864 --> 01:12:38,493
. . .putting in compact fluorescent light
bulbs. Personal action is important.
1075
01:12:38,664 --> 01:12:41,132
This problem of global warming
is huge and tremendous. . .
1076
01:12:41,304 --> 01:12:44,694
. . .and it may seem inconsequential
to take your personal action. . .
1077
01:12:44,864 --> 01:12:48,652
. . .but it is important for many reasons.
Because everybody making a change. . .
1078
01:12:48,824 --> 01:12:50,382
. . .adds up to something meaningful.
1079
01:12:50,544 --> 01:12:54,776
Because shifting the way we act and live
is part of the solution, long-term.
1080
01:12:54,944 --> 01:12:58,857
Because if we act in that way, we will
demonstrate to leaders that we do care.
1081
01:12:59,024 --> 01:13:00,855
That's what we need from individuals. . .
1082
01:13:01,024 --> 01:13:05,336
. . .as the next step beyond that, is to
build a political will for taking action.
1083
01:13:05,504 --> 01:13:07,574
You can also vote.
1084
01:13:09,064 --> 01:13:11,658
And l don't mean voting
at a voting booth.
1085
01:13:11,824 --> 01:13:13,416
Anybody of any age can vote.
1086
01:13:13,584 --> 01:13:16,701
Because you vote every day
that you pay for something.
1087
01:13:16,864 --> 01:13:20,379
Every time you lay money down
on a counter to buy something. . .
1088
01:13:20,544 --> 01:13:24,423
. . .you are saying that,
""l approve of this object.
1089
01:13:24,584 --> 01:13:28,054
l approve of how it was made,
the materials that are in it. . .
1090
01:13:28,224 --> 01:13:32,058
. . .and what's going to happen to it when
l no longer need it and throw it away. ""
1091
01:13:32,224 --> 01:13:35,421
Life creates the conditions
that are conducive to life.
1092
01:13:36,144 --> 01:13:40,057
So our technology, our cities,
our schools. . .
1093
01:13:40,224 --> 01:13:45,378
. . .what we make, what we wear,
what we eat, all of that. . .
1094
01:13:45,544 --> 01:13:49,503
. . .if it is oriented
around that one principle. . .
1095
01:13:49,664 --> 01:13:51,575
. . .that one life principle. . .
1096
01:13:51,744 --> 01:13:56,101
. . .then we will be here for a long,
long time in an extraordinary world.
1097
01:14:16,504 --> 01:14:21,658
The question is, what does it take
for humankind to change its ways?
1098
01:14:21,904 --> 01:14:27,536
And l am really encouraged
by Deepak Chopra's statement. . .
1099
01:14:27,704 --> 01:14:33,017
. . .that people are really doing the best
they can given their level of awareness.
1100
01:14:33,424 --> 01:14:36,700
So to me, winning this battle
that we're in. . .
1101
01:14:36,864 --> 01:14:39,059
. . .to change people's minds and hearts. . .
1102
01:14:39,224 --> 01:14:43,217
. . .is a matter of lifting levels
of awareness. Always raising.
1103
01:14:43,384 --> 01:14:46,456
And there's always a higher level
of awareness for any of us.
1104
01:14:46,624 --> 01:14:49,184
We need to be slower,
and we need to be smarter.
1105
01:14:49,344 --> 01:14:53,337
Slow movement means
disengaging from consumerism. . .
1106
01:14:53,504 --> 01:14:55,813
. . .as the main avenue of experience.
1107
01:14:55,984 --> 01:14:59,101
lt doesn't reject any consumption,
but it says:
1108
01:14:59,464 --> 01:15:04,379
""We're not gonna live our lives mediated
by the marketplace or what's being sold.
1109
01:15:04,544 --> 01:15:07,104
We won't make our identities
and meaning based on that.
1110
01:15:07,264 --> 01:15:10,142
lnstead of the long commute,
the bigger car, the bigger house. . .
1111
01:15:10,304 --> 01:15:14,900
. . .let's enjoy the local produce,
have time to ourselves. . .
1112
01:15:15,064 --> 01:15:17,783
. . .understand that
things are thieves of time. ""
1113
01:15:17,944 --> 01:15:21,459
Because the more things you have, the
more time you have to spend working. . .
1114
01:15:21,624 --> 01:15:25,981
. . .the more your life is chained
to a rhythm to get those things.
1115
01:15:26,144 --> 01:15:28,453
The other element is the smart element.
1116
01:15:30,784 --> 01:15:33,821
And there l think
we have to reintroduce a term. . .
1117
01:15:33,984 --> 01:15:37,499
. . .an old term before the industrial
revolution, frugality.
1118
01:15:38,064 --> 01:15:40,976
Frugality does not mean poverty.
1119
01:15:41,144 --> 01:15:43,977
Frugality means the wise use
of resources.
1120
01:15:44,144 --> 01:15:47,261
As l said earlier on, the meaning
of the industrial revolution was. . .
1121
01:15:47,424 --> 01:15:51,212
. . .that nature was turned into a resource
that was considered endlessly abundant.
1122
01:15:51,384 --> 01:15:52,373
lt's not true.
1123
01:15:59,944 --> 01:16:04,859
Not only is it the 1 1 th hour,
it's 1 1 :59 and 59 seconds.
1124
01:16:05,024 --> 01:16:07,060
And although prior people's movements. . .
1125
01:16:08,544 --> 01:16:12,856
. . .have taken 30 to 40 years to build
to a point where they had the power. . .
1126
01:16:13,024 --> 01:16:17,017
. . .to drive changes into the
fundamental structure of governance. . .
1127
01:16:17,184 --> 01:16:19,903
. . .we don't have 30 to 40 years.
1128
01:16:20,064 --> 01:16:23,739
lt's not just gonna be a matter
of tweaking a policy here and there.
1129
01:16:25,264 --> 01:16:27,095
lt'll take a broad societal mobilization.
1130
01:16:27,504 --> 01:16:29,495
lt's gonna take involvement at all levels. . .
1131
01:16:29,664 --> 01:16:33,816
. . .from the government through industry
and on down to our communities. . .
1132
01:16:33,984 --> 01:16:36,214
. . .and a welling up
of involvement of citizens.
1133
01:16:36,384 --> 01:16:38,340
Winston Churchill had it right about us:
1134
01:16:39,864 --> 01:16:41,934
""The Americans always do
the right thing. . .
1135
01:16:42,104 --> 01:16:45,733
. . .but unfortunately, it's only after
they've exhausted all other possibilities. ""
1136
01:16:45,904 --> 01:16:49,340
And we've been exhausting some
fairly bad possibilities for a long time.
1137
01:16:49,504 --> 01:16:52,018
l think maybe we're finally
ready to get it right.
1138
01:16:52,184 --> 01:16:53,173
People often ask:
1139
01:16:53,344 --> 01:16:55,175
""What can l do? l wanna do something. ""
1140
01:16:56,704 --> 01:17:00,379
You made the first choice because
you know you have to do something.
1141
01:17:00,544 --> 01:17:04,776
For the rest, it's a matter of looking
deep into your own heart and your soul. . .
1142
01:17:04,944 --> 01:17:07,742
. . .to understand what your gifts are,
where your passions lie. . .
1143
01:17:07,904 --> 01:17:09,974
. . .to do some research,
educate yourself. . .
1144
01:17:10,144 --> 01:17:13,500
. . .to find the people you're comfortable
with, and then get involved.
1145
01:17:13,664 --> 01:17:16,622
There are two things that can
perhaps save the world.
1146
01:17:18,144 --> 01:17:21,454
One would be the mastery of
one's kindness to oneself and a big heart.
1147
01:17:21,624 --> 01:17:25,822
And the other would be
understanding your passion for place. . .
1148
01:17:25,984 --> 01:17:30,739
. . .for where you live, and really
loving the place that you live in.
1149
01:17:38,624 --> 01:17:42,458
Environmentalism was once the project
of a passionate few.
1150
01:17:42,624 --> 01:17:46,333
Now, millions of people have responded
to ecological destruction. . .
1151
01:17:46,504 --> 01:17:50,463
. . .and have created the groundwork
for a sustainable and just world.
1152
01:17:50,624 --> 01:17:54,173
With the onset of global warming
and other catastrophic events. . .
1153
01:17:54,344 --> 01:17:59,577
. . .environmentalism has become today
a broader unifying human issue.
1154
01:17:59,744 --> 01:18:03,214
We as citizens, leaders, consumers
and voters. . .
1155
01:18:03,384 --> 01:18:05,693
. . .have the opportunity
to help integrate ecology. . .
1156
01:18:05,864 --> 01:18:09,823
. . .into governmental policy
and everyday living standards.
1157
01:18:09,984 --> 01:18:12,452
During this critical period
of human history. . .
1158
01:18:12,624 --> 01:18:17,095
. . .healing the damage of industrial
civilization is the task of our generation.
1159
01:18:17,264 --> 01:18:21,496
Our response depends on
the conscious evolution of our species. . .
1160
01:18:21,664 --> 01:18:26,180
. . .and this response could very well
save this unique blue planet. . .
1161
01:18:26,344 --> 01:18:27,936
. . .for future generations.
1162
01:18:31,304 --> 01:18:33,659
So l see a world in the future. . .
1163
01:18:33,824 --> 01:18:37,134
. . .in which we understand
that all life is related to us. . .
1164
01:18:37,304 --> 01:18:41,536
. . .and we treat that life
with great humility and respect.
1165
01:18:41,704 --> 01:18:44,138
l see us, as well, as social creatures.
1166
01:18:44,304 --> 01:18:46,135
And when l began to look back and say:
1167
01:18:46,304 --> 01:18:49,979
""What is the fundamental bottom line
for us as social creatures?""
1168
01:18:50,144 --> 01:18:54,615
l couldn't believe it because it seemed
so hippie-dippie, but it was love.
1169
01:18:54,784 --> 01:18:58,777
Love is the force
that makes us fully human.
1170
01:18:58,944 --> 01:19:00,582
Now, to me, the value. . .
1171
01:19:02,984 --> 01:19:07,819
. . .is the healing power
that comes from getting. . .
1172
01:19:07,984 --> 01:19:11,056
. . .that it's not just global warming.
1173
01:19:11,224 --> 01:19:14,694
lt's not just fossil-fuel dependency.
1174
01:19:14,864 --> 01:19:17,697
lt's not just soil erosion.
1175
01:19:17,864 --> 01:19:22,460
lt's not just chemical contamination
of our land and water.
1176
01:19:22,624 --> 01:19:26,412
lt's not just the population problem.
1177
01:19:26,584 --> 01:19:30,293
And it's not just all of those.
1178
01:19:30,544 --> 01:19:35,174
The deterioration of the environment
of our planet. . .
1179
01:19:35,344 --> 01:19:38,893
. . .is an outward mirror
of an inner condition.
1180
01:19:39,064 --> 01:19:41,817
Like inside, like outside.
1181
01:19:41,984 --> 01:19:45,499
And that's a part of the great work.
1182
01:19:45,944 --> 01:19:51,655
What if we choose to eradicate ourselves
from this Earth, by whatever means?
1183
01:19:51,824 --> 01:19:53,860
The Earth goes nowhere.
1184
01:19:54,024 --> 01:19:56,857
And in time, it will regenerate. . .
1185
01:19:57,024 --> 01:20:00,061
. . .and all the lakes will be pristine.
1186
01:20:00,224 --> 01:20:04,376
The rivers, the waters, the mountains. . .
1187
01:20:04,544 --> 01:20:07,104
. . .everything will be green again.
1188
01:20:07,264 --> 01:20:09,255
lt'll be peaceful.
1189
01:20:09,424 --> 01:20:13,542
There may not be people,
but the Earth will regenerate.
1190
01:20:13,704 --> 01:20:15,023
And you know why?
1191
01:20:15,184 --> 01:20:19,575
Because the Earth has
all the time in the world. . .
1192
01:20:19,864 --> 01:20:21,616
. . .and we don't.
1193
01:20:21,784 --> 01:20:24,901
So l think that's where we're at,
right now.
1194
01:28:41,744 --> 01:28:43,735
Subtitles by
SDl Media Group
1195
01:28:43,944 --> 01:28:45,935
[ENGLlSH]
1196
01:29:00,199 --> 01:29:02,349
The tree for us in the
Green Belt Movement is a symbol.
1197
01:29:05,439 --> 01:29:08,272
A symbol of hope.
1198
01:29:08,599 --> 01:29:12,308
A symbol of what
people can do for themselves.
1199
01:29:12,479 --> 01:29:15,755
A symbol of self-empowerment.
1200
01:29:16,639 --> 01:29:18,994
A symbol of peace.
1201
01:29:19,559 --> 01:29:21,595
Many people, when they look
at our work--
1202
01:29:21,759 --> 01:29:27,231
lf you go to our website
Greenbeltmovement.org, you'll see. . .
1203
01:29:27,599 --> 01:29:32,070
. . .that there are very many
other activities we are carrying out.
1204
01:29:32,439 --> 01:29:36,068
But the tree remains our focal point.
1205
01:29:36,799 --> 01:29:41,714
And we do that
because a tree is visible.
1206
01:29:42,159 --> 01:29:46,118
A tree is-- Has multipurpose.
1207
01:29:46,279 --> 01:29:51,751
lf you plant a tree as a farmer,
you know that it will give you firewood.
1208
01:29:51,919 --> 01:29:54,433
You know it will give you
building materials.
1209
01:29:54,599 --> 01:29:57,352
You know it will give you shade.
1210
01:29:57,519 --> 01:30:00,192
You know it will clean your air.
1211
01:30:00,879 --> 01:30:03,837
You know that it will send roots
deep into the ground.
1212
01:30:03,999 --> 01:30:05,910
lt will hold your soil.
1213
01:30:06,079 --> 01:30:10,038
You know it will drop leaves
and it will replenish the soil.
1214
01:30:10,199 --> 01:30:14,351
lf it's a fruit tree,
you know it's going to give you fruits.
1215
01:30:14,759 --> 01:30:20,550
And if it is a tree that animals love,
it's going to give you fodder.
1216
01:30:20,719 --> 01:30:25,110
l mean,
what a friend we have in a tree.
1217
01:30:30,599 --> 01:30:32,430
Water is not just water.
1218
01:30:34,319 --> 01:30:35,877
Although we treat it that way
when we. . .
1219
01:30:36,039 --> 01:30:38,269
. . .think of water as something
we drink or whatever.
1220
01:30:38,439 --> 01:30:41,556
But basically, water is filled with life.
1221
01:30:41,719 --> 01:30:47,476
The ocean is a living soup,
every spoonful of water has life in it.
1222
01:30:47,639 --> 01:30:51,837
So when we think about
what shapes the character of Earth. . .
1223
01:30:51,999 --> 01:30:54,513
. . .and we think about the ocean and say,
""lt's water. ""
1224
01:30:54,679 --> 01:30:59,594
lt is, but it's really the life in the sea
that shapes the character of the ocean.
1225
01:30:59,759 --> 01:31:01,909
And thus, the way the world works.
1226
01:31:02,079 --> 01:31:06,072
lt's life in the sea, not just water
that's generating the oxygen. . .
1227
01:31:06,239 --> 01:31:08,992
. . .that is absorbing the carbon dioxide.
1228
01:31:09,159 --> 01:31:11,229
One of the most abundant creatures
on the planet. . .
1229
01:31:11,399 --> 01:31:16,553
. . .is in a category of small critters
that are known as coccolithophorids.
1230
01:31:16,719 --> 01:31:18,835
They photosynthesize.
1231
01:31:18,999 --> 01:31:24,437
They take the sunlight's energy,
turn it into food and generate oxygen.
1232
01:31:24,599 --> 01:31:26,874
They're very important little creatures.
1233
01:31:27,039 --> 01:31:28,154
Not just that one group. . .
1234
01:31:28,319 --> 01:31:32,835
. . .but there are thousands of kinds of
organisms out there in the ocean.
1235
01:31:32,999 --> 01:31:38,073
Planktonic organisms that live largely
in that upper 1 00 meters of the ocean. . .
1236
01:31:38,239 --> 01:31:42,437
. . .where sunlight penetrates
and drives photosynthesis. . .
1237
01:31:42,599 --> 01:31:45,432
. . .that drives
the production of oxygen.
1238
01:31:45,599 --> 01:31:50,275
And the production of food
that makes the food chains possible.
1239
01:31:55,399 --> 01:31:57,549
Nomadic people are so profoundly
different, you know. . .
1240
01:31:59,759 --> 01:32:02,796
. . .that in a nomadic society, there's no
incentive to accumulate possessions.
1241
01:32:02,959 --> 01:32:04,915
Because everything has to be carried
on your back.
1242
01:32:05,079 --> 01:32:08,435
So you ask yourself, what is the measure
of wealth in that kind of culture?
1243
01:32:08,599 --> 01:32:10,590
You actually discover
that the measure of wealth. . .
1244
01:32:10,759 --> 01:32:12,317
. . .is perceived explicitly to be. . .
1245
01:32:12,479 --> 01:32:15,437
. . .the strength of the social relationships
between people.
1246
01:32:15,599 --> 01:32:17,396
That is the currency of the society.
1247
01:32:17,559 --> 01:32:19,868
Because without that bond. . .
1248
01:32:20,039 --> 01:32:23,748
. . .and without that collective
commitment to the well-being of all. . .
1249
01:32:23,919 --> 01:32:25,352
. . .everybody can die.
1250
01:32:25,519 --> 01:32:29,148
ln a nomadic society,
sharing becomes an involuntary reflex. . .
1251
01:32:29,319 --> 01:32:31,787
. . .because you don't know
who will be the next to bring food.
1252
01:32:31,959 --> 01:32:35,634
l once watched a little Penan woman
tear apart a cigarette. . .
1253
01:32:35,799 --> 01:32:39,269
. . .and individually distribute
the strands of tobacco equitably. . .
1254
01:32:39,439 --> 01:32:41,191
. . .to every hut in the encampment.
1255
01:32:41,359 --> 01:32:44,715
Rendering the product useless
but honoring her obligation to share.
1256
01:32:44,879 --> 01:32:46,915
Now,
that entire world of the Penan. . .
1257
01:32:47,079 --> 01:32:49,388
. . .morally inspired, inherently right. . .
1258
01:32:49,559 --> 01:32:54,075
. . .fully deserving of being,
fully replete with lessons for all of us. . .
1259
01:32:54,239 --> 01:32:56,673
. . .has been swept away
in a single generation. . .
1260
01:32:56,839 --> 01:33:00,912
. . .by the most egregious,
outrageous deforestation. . .
1261
01:33:01,079 --> 01:33:03,274
. . .ever to be seen
on the face of the Earth.
1262
01:33:08,519 --> 01:33:11,113
l've spent a lot of time. . .
1263
01:33:11,279 --> 01:33:12,553
. . .seeking out the astronauts. . .
1264
01:33:12,719 --> 01:33:16,837
. . .because every one of them seems to
have come back from space transformed.
1265
01:33:16,999 --> 01:33:19,832
And one of my favorite
is a man called Story Musgrave. . .
1266
01:33:19,999 --> 01:33:21,955
. . .the first physician to walk in space.
1267
01:33:22,119 --> 01:33:24,917
And he described
what it had been to be in space.
1268
01:33:25,079 --> 01:33:29,550
l mean, there he was
traveling 26,000 miles an hour.
1269
01:33:29,719 --> 01:33:33,029
ln perpetual free fall, 250 miles
above the surface of the planet.
1270
01:33:34,359 --> 01:33:37,476
The golden visor of his helmet
illuminated by a single sight. . .
1271
01:33:37,639 --> 01:33:41,598
. . .a blue planet, as he recalled,
floating in the velvet void of space.
1272
01:33:41,759 --> 01:33:44,831
And Story later told me
that to have experienced that sight. . .
1273
01:33:44,999 --> 01:33:49,789
. . .a sight that was only made possible by
the brilliance of the human ingenuity. . .
1274
01:33:49,959 --> 01:33:51,392
. . .and the human imagination.
1275
01:33:51,559 --> 01:33:55,268
And then to recall the callous way
in which we treat our only home. . .
1276
01:33:55,439 --> 01:33:57,907
. . .was to know
the purest sensation of horror.
1277
01:33:58,079 --> 01:34:00,832
And that vision of the Earth
from space. . .
1278
01:34:00,999 --> 01:34:05,356
. . .only brought to us when l myself
was 1 2 or 1 3 years old.
1279
01:34:05,519 --> 01:34:09,114
ls gonna have a more
incredible impact on the human destiny. . .
1280
01:34:09,279 --> 01:34:11,918
. . .than even the Copernican Revolution
of the 1 6th Century. . .
1281
01:34:12,079 --> 01:34:14,468
. . .that showed the Earth
was not the center of the universe.
1282
01:34:14,639 --> 01:34:17,233
Because what we see at last
from space. . .
1283
01:34:17,399 --> 01:34:19,549
. . .is not a limitless horizon.
1284
01:34:19,719 --> 01:34:21,471
Or the stunning products
of human beings.
1285
01:34:21,639 --> 01:34:23,675
We see a very finite orb.
1286
01:34:23,839 --> 01:34:27,115
The fifth rock from the sun
floating in space.
1287
01:34:27,279 --> 01:34:32,478
A little vale of life
circling in a big, dark universe.