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Advertise your product or brand here
contact www.OpenSubtitles.org today

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This is Gulf Coast 3629, radio 811.

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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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If 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, I don't only think
that the biosphere is in trouble...

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...I know it is.

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I just have to look around
in the environment in which I live.

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What I 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.

53
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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...

64
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...and it's the relationship...

65
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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...

86
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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 10 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 15 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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T o 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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I 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 150,000 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...

131
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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. In 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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I 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?

152
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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.

155
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But it's not really affecting our attitudes.

156
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I think our attitudes are
based on selfishness...

157
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... based on the economic situation
we have...

158
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... based on the politics which we have.

159
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I mean, those are the--
How many governments in the world...

160
00:12:10,520 --> 00:12:14,593
... have really taken the environmental
crisis for what it is?

161
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Very few. Certainly not the United States.

162
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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.

165
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It's the economy
that's the most important thing.

166
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And in focusing on the economy...

167
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...I think we've forgotten
these ancient truths.

168
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These ancient wisdoms that kept us
plugged into nature...

169
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...and understanding that "Gee, if we do
something to offend the natural world...

170
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...we'll pay a price for that. We have
to treat nature much more gently. "

171
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That's the lesson that we've forgotten
and that we're paying a price for today.

172
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The big rupture came in the 1800s,
in the 19th century...

173
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...with the steam engine, the fossil-fuel
age, the industrial revolution.

174
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This was a great rupture
from earlier forms and rhythms of life...

175
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...which were generally regenerative.

176
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After the industrial revolution,
nature was converted to a resource...

177
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...and that resource was seen as,
essentially, eternally abundant.

178
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This led to the idea and the conception
behind progress...

179
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...which is, limitless growth,
limitless expansion.

180
00:13:25,720 --> 00:13:27,517
For all of human history...

181
00:13:29,000 --> 00:13:31,036
...the vast majority of human history...

182
00:13:31,200 --> 00:13:32,952
...humans lived on current sunlight.

183
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Sun fell on the fields,
the fields grew plants.

184
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The plants made cellulose, plant matter.

185
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Animals ate the cellulose,
we ate the plants.

186
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We ate the animals, we wore clothing
made out of them.

187
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We were living off of current sunlight.

188
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It was our food supply, our clothing,
we heated with wood...

189
00:13:50,400 --> 00:13:53,836
...it was our heat supply, our light supply.
It was all current sunlight.

190
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The sunlight that fell on Earth in a year
was the maximum amount we could use.

191
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It was the maximum amount of energy
that we could use.

192
00:14:00,800 --> 00:14:05,078
And from the earliest evidence
of human civilization...

193
00:14:05,240 --> 00:14:07,435
... 150,000, more or less, years ago...

194
00:14:07,600 --> 00:14:12,515
...up until a few thousand years ago,
pretty much, that's how we lived.

195
00:14:12,680 --> 00:14:15,831
And our population never surpassed
a billion people.

196
00:14:16,000 --> 00:14:19,788
And then we began discovering that
there were pockets of ancient sunlight...

197
00:14:19,960 --> 00:14:22,679
...and finding coal here
and a little bit of oil there.

198
00:14:22,840 --> 00:14:26,037
And slowly between that
and the agricultural revolution...

199
00:14:26,200 --> 00:14:31,672
...slowly, our population crept up until we
hit our first one billion people. And so--

200
00:14:33,040 --> 00:14:35,634
It didn't take 100,000 years
to go from one billion to two.

201
00:14:35,800 --> 00:14:38,553
Our second billion only took us 130 years.

202
00:14:38,720 --> 00:14:40,278
We hit two billion people in 1930.

203
00:14:41,760 --> 00:14:43,591
Our third billion took only 30 years, 1960.

204
00:14:44,960 --> 00:14:48,270
Amazing. When Kennedy was inaugurated,
there were half as many people as today.

205
00:14:49,640 --> 00:14:53,713
The reason that we've been able to have
this exponential growth of population...

206
00:14:53,880 --> 00:14:56,838
...is because we' re creating food...

207
00:14:57,000 --> 00:14:59,309
...and clothing and everything else,
transportation.

208
00:14:59,480 --> 00:15:01,755
We' re doing it all
with this ancient sunlight...

209
00:15:01,920 --> 00:15:04,593
...that was stored in the Earth
3 and 400 million years ago.

210
00:15:04,760 --> 00:15:10,710
And if we had to go back to living off
current sunlight, lacking technology...

211
00:15:11,360 --> 00:15:15,148
...the planet couldn't sustain more than
a half a billion to a billion people.

212
00:15:15,480 --> 00:15:18,756
So we live in the most unusual period
in the history of the planet...

213
00:15:20,360 --> 00:15:23,875
...in terms of a species getting access
to energy-rich carbon.

214
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What we have done
is become good alchemists.

215
00:15:29,120 --> 00:15:32,430
The ability to take fossil carbon...

216
00:15:32,600 --> 00:15:35,273
...and turn it into human biomass.

217
00:15:35,440 --> 00:15:37,556
And we have used the supermarket...

218
00:15:38,200 --> 00:15:42,113
...the transportation system,
to make that happen.

219
00:15:42,280 --> 00:15:46,512
So the cornerstones of this system
that we have...

220
00:15:46,680 --> 00:15:49,433
...are all resting upon...

221
00:15:49,600 --> 00:15:53,559
... nonrenewable, energy-rich carbon
we call fossil fuels.

222
00:15:53,760 --> 00:15:57,548
The real problem is there are too many
of us using too many resources too fast.

223
00:15:59,040 --> 00:16:01,600
Now, oil has enabled us to do that.

224
00:16:01,760 --> 00:16:05,469
We use oil to increase the rate at which
we extract all other resources...

225
00:16:05,640 --> 00:16:09,599
...everything from topsoil to fresh water,
from aluminum to zinc.

226
00:16:09,760 --> 00:16:11,113
Oil is really the basis...

227
00:16:12,640 --> 00:16:17,111
...with which we sustain complexity
and with which we solve our problems.

228
00:16:17,280 --> 00:16:20,397
In a sense, all of our lives are subsidized.

229
00:16:20,560 --> 00:16:22,073
We are subsidized by oil.

230
00:16:22,240 --> 00:16:24,390
Because we're subsidized by oil...

231
00:16:24,560 --> 00:16:27,870
...when we shop for anything at a store,
we don't pay the full price.

232
00:16:28,040 --> 00:16:30,713
We don't pay the full cost
of what it took to produce that.

233
00:16:30,880 --> 00:16:34,919
We borrow about $800 billion a year
from the world...

234
00:16:35,080 --> 00:16:38,390
...to finance the excess of our
consumption over what we produce.

235
00:16:39,840 --> 00:16:44,391
And about a third of that, about
$250 billion a year, is for oil imports.

236
00:16:44,560 --> 00:16:49,588
So we borrow from the world,
we issue lOU's, treasury bills, whatever...

237
00:16:49,760 --> 00:16:53,673
...to the tune of about a billion dollars
a day, every working day, anyway...

238
00:16:53,840 --> 00:16:56,752
...to finance our oil imports.

239
00:16:56,920 --> 00:17:01,152
Oil does a lot of harm. Economists
would call them "externalities"...

240
00:17:01,320 --> 00:17:04,118
...because they're external
to the price you pay at the pump.

241
00:17:05,720 --> 00:17:07,756
For example,
the asthma rates among children...

242
00:17:07,920 --> 00:17:09,911
...which are growing
in many parts of the US.

243
00:17:10,080 --> 00:17:12,640
The acid rain problem
that's caused by burning coal.

244
00:17:12,800 --> 00:17:15,678
If you look at some of the
global warming contributions...

245
00:17:15,840 --> 00:17:17,432
...from burning fossil fuels.

246
00:17:17,600 --> 00:17:21,115
And at least part of the cost of
keeping our troops in the Middle East...

247
00:17:21,280 --> 00:17:23,191
...to safeguard oil assets.

248
00:17:23,360 --> 00:17:25,635
Maybe not all of that cost,
but at least some...

249
00:17:25,800 --> 00:17:27,950
...is clearly a subsidy that goes to oil.

250
00:17:28,160 --> 00:17:30,674
When you started feeding off of
the fossil-fuel cycle...

251
00:17:32,120 --> 00:17:34,918
...we began living with a death-based
cycle. That death cycle...

252
00:17:35,080 --> 00:17:38,550
...of dependency
on extraction of those resources...

253
00:17:38,720 --> 00:17:40,631
...set in motion a sequence of events...

254
00:17:40,800 --> 00:17:44,952
...that has led us to our modern crisis
of global disturbance...

255
00:17:45,120 --> 00:17:48,032
... known as climate change,
or global warming, if you will.

256
00:17:48,200 --> 00:17:49,315
We don't know the future.

257
00:17:50,720 --> 00:17:52,517
We know the past
through Greek mythology.

258
00:17:52,680 --> 00:17:56,639
The kind of revenge of the gods
or the revenge of nature.

259
00:17:56,800 --> 00:18:00,679
We're seeing that now already, after
200 years of the industrial revolution.

260
00:18:00,840 --> 00:18:04,150
We didn't know what we were creating,
the damage that was being created.

261
00:18:04,320 --> 00:18:05,435
We're sensing that.

262
00:18:05,600 --> 00:18:08,876
So as we go forward with technology
even more powerful than before...

263
00:18:09,040 --> 00:18:11,270
...we have magnified...

264
00:18:11,840 --> 00:18:16,960
...the presence of the human race
inside the ecology.

265
00:18:17,520 --> 00:18:19,078
Therefore we can do more damage...

266
00:18:19,240 --> 00:18:22,516
...with our technological prowess
than we could before.

267
00:18:22,680 --> 00:18:24,238
We have to be even more cautious.

268
00:18:53,520 --> 00:18:54,714
While we weren 't looking...

269
00:18:54,880 --> 00:18:57,952
... we 've created one of the biggest
problems facing all of humanity:

270
00:18:58,120 --> 00:19:00,076
Climate change.
How does it look...

271
00:19:00,240 --> 00:19:03,198
... when we don 't pay attention
to the massive amounts of CO2...

272
00:19:03,360 --> 00:19:06,875
...we dump into the air and water?
How does it look when our actions...

273
00:19:07,040 --> 00:19:09,600
...shift the natural chemical balance
of our atmosphere...

274
00:19:09,760 --> 00:19:12,274
...into a state several degrees warmer?

275
00:19:12,440 --> 00:19:14,874
A state that hasn't existed
for millennia.

276
00:19:15,040 --> 00:19:16,996
We have witnessed, in recent years...

277
00:19:17,160 --> 00:19:20,391
...the highest average temperatures
in recorded history.

278
00:19:20,560 --> 00:19:24,348
A couple of degrees difference in today's
temperatures may not sound like much...

279
00:19:24,520 --> 00:19:28,229
... but it only took a few degrees
to shift us out of the last ice age.

280
00:19:28,400 --> 00:19:33,349
And a few degrees may be all that
separates us from catastrophic change.

281
00:19:33,520 --> 00:19:35,078
Heading into another weekend...

282
00:19:35,240 --> 00:19:38,949
...the weather and the climate are
making news in more than one region.

283
00:19:39,120 --> 00:19:40,872
A terrible drought has already--

284
00:19:41,040 --> 00:19:44,510
We do not know how much our climate
could or will change in the future.

285
00:19:44,680 --> 00:19:47,114
--severe flooding has killed
at least 72 people...

286
00:19:47,280 --> 00:19:49,748
...in Central and Eastern Europe
and Western Russia.

287
00:19:49,920 --> 00:19:52,150
The heaviest recorded rainfall
in lndian history...

288
00:19:52,320 --> 00:19:54,436
... has unleashed the worst flooding
in memory.

289
00:19:54,600 --> 00:19:57,114
We do not know how fast
change will occur...

290
00:19:57,280 --> 00:19:59,510
...or even how some of our actions
could impact it.

291
00:19:59,680 --> 00:20:03,992
In Chicago, the heat is a plague. This
morning, they were collecting bodies.

292
00:20:04,160 --> 00:20:07,994
--firefighters in Southern California are
battling a newly-formed super wildfire.

293
00:20:08,160 --> 00:20:10,594
The heat is on.
Even Arizona is having a heat wave.

294
00:20:10,760 --> 00:20:13,433
T ennessee was battered
by killer tornados--

295
00:20:13,600 --> 00:20:17,673
New Orleans is no longer safe to live in.
It is that simple, and that stark.

296
00:20:17,840 --> 00:20:21,753
Hell and high water, one and the same
again today, in a city overwhelmed...

297
00:20:21,920 --> 00:20:25,595
...under siege, in the grip of unmitigated,
unprecedented catastrophe.

298
00:20:25,760 --> 00:20:28,149
Nowhere is that more apparent
than New Orleans...

299
00:20:28,320 --> 00:20:30,709
...now a city of displaced people,
refugees.

300
00:20:30,880 --> 00:20:32,950
--twenty feet of water
from Lake Pontchartrain.

301
00:20:33,120 --> 00:20:36,476
Add to that violence, deprivation,
desperation, the threat of disease--

302
00:20:36,640 --> 00:20:38,710
Could it be that man-made
global warming...

303
00:20:38,880 --> 00:20:41,758
...is the greatest hoax ever perpetrated
on the American people?

304
00:21:02,120 --> 00:21:07,319
One of the most serious consequences
of our actions is global warming...

305
00:21:07,480 --> 00:21:11,996
... brought about by rising levels of carbon
dioxide from the burning of fossil fuels.

306
00:21:14,080 --> 00:21:16,355
The danger is that
the temperature increase...

307
00:21:16,520 --> 00:21:21,116
...might become self-sustaining,
if it has not done so already.

308
00:21:21,920 --> 00:21:24,832
Drought and deforestation
are reducing the amount...

309
00:21:25,000 --> 00:21:28,151
...of carbon dioxide
recycled into the atmosphere.

310
00:21:28,320 --> 00:21:31,471
And the warming of the seas
may trigger the release...

311
00:21:31,640 --> 00:21:35,792
...of large quantities of CO2
trapped on the ocean floor.

312
00:21:36,760 --> 00:21:40,799
In addition, the melting of
the Arctic and Antarctic ice sheets...

313
00:21:41,120 --> 00:21:45,318
...will reduce the amount of solar energy
reflected back into space...

314
00:21:45,480 --> 00:21:48,358
...and so increase the temperature further.

315
00:21:48,680 --> 00:21:53,595
We don't know where the global warming
would stop, but the worst-case scenario...

316
00:21:53,760 --> 00:21:57,435
...is that Earth would become
like its sister planet, Venus...

317
00:21:57,600 --> 00:22:03,596
...with a temperature of 250 centigrade
and raining sulfuric acid.

318
00:22:03,880 --> 00:22:08,158
The human race could not survive
in those conditions.

319
00:22:13,920 --> 00:22:15,751
Earth has a natural greenhouse effect.

320
00:22:17,280 --> 00:22:18,918
We' re 60 degrees Fahrenheit warmer...

321
00:22:19,080 --> 00:22:22,197
...thanks to the good guys, water vapor,
carbon dioxide and methane...

322
00:22:22,360 --> 00:22:24,794
...what we call greenhouse gases,
trapping heat.

323
00:22:24,960 --> 00:22:26,632
That's the good part of the story.

324
00:22:26,800 --> 00:22:29,439
The problem is that humans
are competing with nature.

325
00:22:29,600 --> 00:22:34,276
When we use tail pipes and smokestacks
to put our waste into the atmosphere...

326
00:22:34,440 --> 00:22:36,431
...as if it's some kind of unpriced sewer...

327
00:22:36,600 --> 00:22:41,310
...we're adding to the greenhouse
gases that's natural, unnatural stuff.

328
00:22:41,480 --> 00:22:45,758
Mostly carbon dioxide, methane,
chemicals that nobody's seen before...

329
00:22:45,920 --> 00:22:48,480
...chlorofluorocarbons,
which also affect ozone.

330
00:22:48,640 --> 00:22:51,518
And when they build up,
they trap extra heat.

331
00:22:51,680 --> 00:22:54,274
That's not controversial,
that's well-understood.

332
00:22:54,440 --> 00:22:57,796
We know we've increased carbon dioxide
by about 30, 35 percent...

333
00:22:57,960 --> 00:22:59,632
... methane, 150 percent...

334
00:22:59,800 --> 00:23:03,031
...added gases that never existed before.
And the Earth is warmer.

335
00:23:03,200 --> 00:23:05,555
All of that goes together
and makes global warming...

336
00:23:05,720 --> 00:23:08,234
... not only a reality,
but a concern for the future...

337
00:23:08,400 --> 00:23:11,949
... because we' re continuing doing what
we' re doing at an accelerating rate.

338
00:23:12,120 --> 00:23:14,031
The record shows
that greenhouse gases...

339
00:23:15,520 --> 00:23:18,398
... mainly CO2, did not
go above 280 parts per million...

340
00:23:18,560 --> 00:23:20,835
...over the last 650,000 years.

341
00:23:21,000 --> 00:23:23,560
We' re now over 400 parts per million...

342
00:23:23,720 --> 00:23:27,679
...coming close to what many scientists
are now referring to as a tipping point.

343
00:23:27,840 --> 00:23:30,991
A tipping point where we
lose control of climate.

344
00:23:31,520 --> 00:23:33,590
And once we've lost control of climate...

345
00:23:33,760 --> 00:23:38,595
...then things like Katrina-scale events
will become simply the norm.

346
00:23:39,200 --> 00:23:41,589
Unless we're able to quickly reduce...

347
00:23:41,760 --> 00:23:44,877
...very quickly and very dramatically
reduce our use of fossil fuel...

348
00:23:46,400 --> 00:23:49,949
...the computer modeling's clear. Having
increased the temperature one degree...

349
00:23:50,120 --> 00:23:52,111
...we'll increase it
about another 5 degrees.

350
00:23:52,280 --> 00:23:56,353
That'll make the Earth warmer than
it's been for tens of millions of years.

351
00:23:56,520 --> 00:23:59,876
Some scientists are amazed that
in the media and in front of Congress...

352
00:24:00,040 --> 00:24:03,999
...we hear about people who "l believe in"
or "l don't believe in" global warming...

353
00:24:05,520 --> 00:24:09,229
...as if this were somehow some object of
religion, as opposed to based in evidence.

354
00:24:09,400 --> 00:24:11,356
And scientists look at evidence.

355
00:24:11,680 --> 00:24:14,274
The scientists have
a tremendous amount of agreement...

356
00:24:16,040 --> 00:24:18,679
...over some of the basic principals
of global warming.

357
00:24:18,840 --> 00:24:20,319
Is the Earth warming? Absolutely.

358
00:24:20,800 --> 00:24:23,837
Is some portion of the warming
due to human activity? Absolutely.

359
00:24:24,000 --> 00:24:28,118
These are things that, there's a consensus
in the international scientific community.

360
00:24:28,280 --> 00:24:31,192
There's no doubt about that.
The natural changes--

361
00:24:32,720 --> 00:24:35,837
The speed of the natural changes
is now dwarfed by human changes...

362
00:24:36,000 --> 00:24:37,911
...to the atmosphere and surface.

363
00:24:38,080 --> 00:24:41,436
Jim Hansen, who is the director of
the NASA lnstitute for Space Studies...

364
00:24:41,600 --> 00:24:45,479
...recently gave a best estimate that
was based on research done last year.

365
00:24:45,640 --> 00:24:49,189
And the current estimate
is that the Earth has warmed up...

366
00:24:49,360 --> 00:24:52,272
... by about seven-tenths
of a degree centigrade.

367
00:24:52,480 --> 00:24:55,074
And even if we were to cap CO2...

368
00:24:55,240 --> 00:24:57,913
...carbon dioxide emissions
to the level they are now...

369
00:24:58,080 --> 00:25:02,073
...the Earth should still warm by an
additional half a degree centigrade.

370
00:25:02,280 --> 00:25:06,990
That's been enough to melt
20 percent of the sea ice in the Arctic.

371
00:25:07,160 --> 00:25:12,632
It's been enough to speed up the spin and
duration of hurricanes about 50 percent.

372
00:25:13,120 --> 00:25:15,953
It's been enough to start the permafrost...

373
00:25:16,120 --> 00:25:18,714
...beneath the tundra
across the north melting.

374
00:25:18,880 --> 00:25:21,519
Even at the low range,
a couple of degrees in the average...

375
00:25:23,000 --> 00:25:27,039
... really changes things in places. There's
an amplifying effect, like in the Arctic.

376
00:25:30,240 --> 00:25:34,995
You can feel this, the chunk that we're
on, actually starting to fail a bit more.

377
00:25:35,160 --> 00:25:38,709
There's probably hairline cracks
up towards the helos there.

378
00:25:42,840 --> 00:25:43,989
The human impacts...

379
00:25:45,520 --> 00:25:48,193
...what's happening with
global warming, climate changes...

380
00:25:48,360 --> 00:25:51,830
...it is happening first and fastest
in the Arctic.

381
00:25:52,000 --> 00:25:54,992
We're starting to see that things
are happening even faster...

382
00:25:55,160 --> 00:25:56,798
...than what scientists indicated.

383
00:25:56,960 --> 00:26:00,794
By the end of the century,
perhaps even in a few decades...

384
00:26:00,960 --> 00:26:04,316
...the Arctic will be quite ice-free.

385
00:26:04,480 --> 00:26:06,038
Well, climate change...

386
00:26:07,520 --> 00:26:11,308
...is going to have a strong, fundamental
impact on the global water cycle.

387
00:26:11,480 --> 00:26:13,789
It's going to change rainfall patterns.

388
00:26:13,960 --> 00:26:19,318
It's going to very likely increase our
experience with floods and droughts.

389
00:26:19,480 --> 00:26:23,359
It's almost certainly going to change the
pattern of river flows through the year.

390
00:26:23,840 --> 00:26:29,358
These are all very fundamental aspects
of how we manage and use water.

391
00:26:29,560 --> 00:26:30,788
What global warming does...

392
00:26:32,320 --> 00:26:34,754
...or the climate changes
linked to global warming do...

393
00:26:34,920 --> 00:26:36,797
...is add another dimension
of uncertainty.

394
00:26:36,960 --> 00:26:40,669
It threatens your food security,
for example, your water security...

395
00:26:40,840 --> 00:26:44,958
...your sea-level security and your
security against storms and hurricanes.

396
00:26:45,120 --> 00:26:47,315
All these things we've seen in the news.

397
00:26:47,480 --> 00:26:49,596
It's a national security problem
in the sense...

398
00:26:51,080 --> 00:26:54,152
... Florida may be the first affected,
as well as other coastal parts.

399
00:26:54,320 --> 00:26:57,278
More importantly than that,
it's an international security problem.

400
00:27:01,600 --> 00:27:03,989
The UN estimates
by the middle of the century...

401
00:27:04,160 --> 00:27:06,993
...there may be 150 million
environmental refugees...

402
00:27:07,160 --> 00:27:09,151
...at any given time from climate change.

403
00:27:09,320 --> 00:27:11,311
What we saw with Katrina
is just prologue.

404
00:27:12,800 --> 00:27:16,873
I just think that worse is yet to come
on that front.

405
00:27:17,040 --> 00:27:19,998
Global warming's real
and it's destructive...

406
00:27:20,160 --> 00:27:24,312
...and its impacts defy the imagination.

407
00:27:24,680 --> 00:27:30,835
So we've got bad things happening
on a lot of fronts. And Earth is hurting...

408
00:27:31,000 --> 00:27:34,436
...and humans have not figured out
how to change their ways...

409
00:27:34,600 --> 00:27:36,192
...and we're the culprit.

410
00:27:55,040 --> 00:27:58,316
Global warming has taken much of
our attention, as it should.

411
00:27:58,480 --> 00:28:00,948
But as carbon has been accumulating
in the atmosphere...

412
00:28:01,120 --> 00:28:03,190
...it has also been accumulating
in the ocean.

413
00:28:03,360 --> 00:28:07,990
And as time has passed, deforestation,
soil erosion, vanishing wetlands...

414
00:28:08,160 --> 00:28:11,709
...and a whole host of other problems
have continued unabated.

415
00:28:11,880 --> 00:28:14,394
We face a convergence of crises...

416
00:28:14,560 --> 00:28:17,393
...all of which are a concern for life.

417
00:28:23,360 --> 00:28:28,195
The problem that confronts us is that
every living system in the biosphere...

418
00:28:28,360 --> 00:28:31,511
...is in decline and the rate of decline
is accelerating.

419
00:28:33,040 --> 00:28:36,237
There isn't one peer-reviewed
scientific article in the past 20 years...

420
00:28:36,400 --> 00:28:39,437
...that's been published
that contradicts that statement.

421
00:28:39,600 --> 00:28:43,912
Living systems are coral reefs,
they' re our climatic stability...

422
00:28:44,080 --> 00:28:47,516
...forest cover, the oceans themselves,
aquifers...

423
00:28:47,680 --> 00:28:51,992
...water, the conditions of the soil,
biodiversity....

424
00:28:52,160 --> 00:28:54,196
They go on and on
as they get more specific.

425
00:28:54,360 --> 00:28:58,956
But the fact is there isn't one living
system that is stable or is improving.

426
00:28:59,120 --> 00:29:04,069
And those living systems
provide the basis for all life.

427
00:29:05,960 --> 00:29:10,112
I sat on a United Nations group called
the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment...

428
00:29:10,280 --> 00:29:14,876
...a four-year study, biggest study ever
done of ecosystems around the world.

429
00:29:15,040 --> 00:29:18,715
It involved over 1300 scientists
from 71 countries in the world.

430
00:29:20,400 --> 00:29:24,871
At the end of that, in March of 2005,
the final reports came in...

431
00:29:25,040 --> 00:29:30,592
...and they documented this
staggering destruction of ecosystems...

432
00:29:30,760 --> 00:29:33,911
...and the services they perform for us
around the world.

433
00:29:34,200 --> 00:29:38,113
We better acknowledge that
the planet is seamless.

434
00:29:39,640 --> 00:29:42,200
For instance, the fertilizer
and the pesticides...

435
00:29:42,360 --> 00:29:46,239
...that are applied in the fields
of the upper Midwest...

436
00:29:46,400 --> 00:29:51,190
...go down the Mississippi,
and 1100 miles away, there's a deadzone.

437
00:29:54,040 --> 00:29:55,996
The reality with air pollution
is there's no away.

438
00:29:57,320 --> 00:30:01,598
Impacts can range from headaches,
drowsiness, lethargy...

439
00:30:01,760 --> 00:30:06,390
...to much more serious impacts, not only
aggravating asthma, but causing it.

440
00:30:06,640 --> 00:30:08,790
People didn't talk about asthma
decades ago.

441
00:30:10,280 --> 00:30:12,794
I can walk into a classroom
in an elementary school...

442
00:30:12,960 --> 00:30:15,349
...and ask the kids,
"How many of you have asthma? "

443
00:30:15,520 --> 00:30:19,957
Thirty percent of the kids in the room
will have their hands raised. At least 30.

444
00:30:20,120 --> 00:30:21,951
In some classrooms, it'll be 60 percent.

445
00:30:22,120 --> 00:30:23,394
There's an ocean crisis now.

446
00:30:24,960 --> 00:30:29,272
And the upshot is that
we've taken too much out of the ocean...

447
00:30:29,440 --> 00:30:32,477
...we've put too much into the ocean,
too much pollution...

448
00:30:32,640 --> 00:30:34,551
...and we're wrecking the edge
of the ocean.

449
00:30:34,720 --> 00:30:37,188
We've lost 90 percent
of most of the big fish...

450
00:30:38,720 --> 00:30:42,679
...in half a century, so we're turning
to deeper areas, further areas offshore.

451
00:30:42,840 --> 00:30:48,153
So between overfishing and by-catch,
we' re really removing millions...

452
00:30:48,320 --> 00:30:51,198
...if not billions, of animals
from the ocean every year.

453
00:30:51,360 --> 00:30:54,477
Many of them don't even become
food for humans.

454
00:30:54,640 --> 00:30:56,471
They just are wasted.

455
00:30:56,800 --> 00:30:58,995
What we put into the ocean...

456
00:30:59,240 --> 00:31:03,074
...millions of tons of things
that aren't natural to the sea...

457
00:31:03,240 --> 00:31:06,277
...they come back to us in perverse ways.

458
00:31:06,440 --> 00:31:08,351
Some fish concentrate these substances...

459
00:31:08,520 --> 00:31:11,193
...things like mercury,
heavy metals of various sorts...

460
00:31:11,360 --> 00:31:12,918
...the pesticides, the herbicides.

461
00:31:13,080 --> 00:31:15,799
Corporations dump on equivalent...

462
00:31:17,280 --> 00:31:22,229
...at the smallest, they do five million
gallons per day of toxins into the bay.

463
00:31:22,400 --> 00:31:27,872
It's everything from benzene to
acrylonitrile to mercury to copper to....

464
00:31:28,040 --> 00:31:29,917
You name it, they've got it.

465
00:31:30,080 --> 00:31:32,548
A lot of the chemicals
very common in today's world:

466
00:31:34,080 --> 00:31:37,197
Plastics, artificial colors, pesticides...

467
00:31:37,360 --> 00:31:39,920
...are really high on the list
of suspect agents...

468
00:31:40,080 --> 00:31:43,152
...that promote cancer,
that promote premature aging...

469
00:31:43,320 --> 00:31:45,880
...that increase risks
of chronic degenerative diseases.

470
00:31:46,040 --> 00:31:49,112
Why don't we think about
some of these disorders...

471
00:31:50,640 --> 00:31:52,995
...such as autism, ADHD...

472
00:31:53,160 --> 00:31:56,311
...childhood cancers, childhood diabetes...

473
00:31:57,200 --> 00:32:00,829
...childhood behavioral problems,
Parkinson's disorders.

474
00:32:01,000 --> 00:32:04,151
This is now even been linked with
Alzheimer's disorders.

475
00:32:04,320 --> 00:32:08,916
And then of course we've got the early
onsets of testicular cancers in males...

476
00:32:09,080 --> 00:32:14,393
...the epidemic of prostate cancer
and breast cancers.

477
00:32:14,560 --> 00:32:16,152
The list just keeps growing.

478
00:32:16,320 --> 00:32:19,835
And exposure to chemicals
while in the womb prior to birth...

479
00:32:20,000 --> 00:32:23,310
...could be contributing
to these disturbing findings.

480
00:32:23,480 --> 00:32:25,391
The communities most impacted
by pollution...

481
00:32:26,720 --> 00:32:29,439
...and in fact, have the most toxic sources
of pollution...

482
00:32:29,600 --> 00:32:32,114
...are often low-income communities
of color.

483
00:32:32,280 --> 00:32:34,555
They're the dumping grounds
for power plants...

484
00:32:34,720 --> 00:32:37,757
...for bus depots, for oil refineries...

485
00:32:37,920 --> 00:32:41,993
...for any number of waste facilities,
and everything that no one else wants.

486
00:32:42,160 --> 00:32:46,551
Whether it's the South Bronx,
whether it's Louisiana, in Cancer Alley....

487
00:32:46,720 --> 00:32:48,950
Our food is becoming poisoned...

488
00:32:50,440 --> 00:32:53,477
...to the point we should worry about it.
There's less and less.

489
00:32:53,640 --> 00:32:58,430
The water-- It's becoming more and more
unhealthy to just swim in the ocean.

490
00:32:59,000 --> 00:33:04,757
And all of these are simple
to understand...

491
00:33:05,080 --> 00:33:06,593
...canaries in the coalmine...

492
00:33:06,760 --> 00:33:11,117
...of much more subtle and scary disasters
on the horizon.

493
00:33:12,320 --> 00:33:16,791
Seventy countries in the world no longer
have any intact or original forests.

494
00:33:18,280 --> 00:33:22,193
Here in the United States, 95 percent
of our old growth forests...

495
00:33:22,360 --> 00:33:23,839
...are already gone.

496
00:33:27,160 --> 00:33:29,754
In many cases,
the forest will not grow back.

497
00:33:29,920 --> 00:33:31,592
That land is converted to grassland.

498
00:33:33,120 --> 00:33:36,476
But in the case of rain forests,
we have seen firsthand...

499
00:33:36,640 --> 00:33:39,598
...that when those trees are removed,
no, they do not come back.

500
00:33:39,760 --> 00:33:41,751
The land becomes extremely dry...

501
00:33:41,920 --> 00:33:46,391
...and the nutrient cycling that those trees
used to do is no longer functioning.

502
00:33:46,560 --> 00:33:49,199
What that leads to next? Deserts.

503
00:33:49,360 --> 00:33:52,272
We've seen them and we've watched
them grow around the world.

504
00:33:52,440 --> 00:33:57,355
As we have removed trees from
along the edges of very dry areas...

505
00:33:57,520 --> 00:34:01,718
...that desertification has spread
where there used to be forests.

506
00:34:01,880 --> 00:34:03,438
In my own part of the world...

507
00:34:04,960 --> 00:34:10,318
... I keep telling people,
" Let us not cut trees irresponsibly.

508
00:34:10,480 --> 00:34:14,109
Let us not destroy especially...

509
00:34:14,280 --> 00:34:16,271
...the forested mountains.

510
00:34:16,880 --> 00:34:21,271
Because if you destroy the forests
on these mountains...

511
00:34:21,440 --> 00:34:23,749
...the rivers will stop flowing...

512
00:34:23,920 --> 00:34:26,718
...and the rains will become irregular...

513
00:34:27,200 --> 00:34:28,952
...and the crops will fail...

514
00:34:29,120 --> 00:34:33,557
...and you will die of hunger
and starvation. "

515
00:34:33,800 --> 00:34:36,951
Now, the problem is,
people don't make those linkages.

516
00:34:37,120 --> 00:34:39,793
Well over 30 percent
of the soils of the planet...

517
00:34:41,720 --> 00:34:46,236
...have been put into the category of,
I think, serious degradation.

518
00:34:48,800 --> 00:34:53,271
And the practices of agriculture
is eroding that ecological capital...

519
00:34:53,440 --> 00:34:56,159
...that is as much,
for all practical purposes...

520
00:34:56,320 --> 00:34:58,231
...a nonrenewable resource as oil.

521
00:34:58,400 --> 00:35:01,233
What we don't see or think about
when we look at a tree is:

522
00:35:02,720 --> 00:35:05,075
What's the volume? How much water
is contained there?

523
00:35:05,440 --> 00:35:08,750
Turns out to be 57,000 gallons of water...

524
00:35:08,920 --> 00:35:11,798
...in a 10- to 12-inch flash flood.

525
00:35:11,960 --> 00:35:14,713
It can grab that much water,
prevent it from running off...

526
00:35:14,880 --> 00:35:19,032
...captures it in that sponge, cleans it,
puts it back in the aquifer.

527
00:35:19,200 --> 00:35:21,270
Take that one tree away...

528
00:35:21,920 --> 00:35:25,435
...and you got a flood,
you got soil erosion.

529
00:35:25,600 --> 00:35:29,639
You've lost those 57,000 gallons
from the local water supply.

530
00:35:29,800 --> 00:35:34,396
Then that water is rushing downstream,
hurting people, hurting communities...

531
00:35:35,160 --> 00:35:37,116
...ultimately polluting the ocean.

532
00:35:37,280 --> 00:35:42,752
We really could tip the ocean
into a different state.

533
00:35:42,920 --> 00:35:45,070
The health of the ocean as we know it...

534
00:35:45,240 --> 00:35:48,630
...depends on the water turning over...

535
00:35:48,800 --> 00:35:51,075
...of the surface water
sinking to the bottom...

536
00:35:51,240 --> 00:35:53,549
...and the bottom water
coming up to the top.

537
00:35:55,040 --> 00:35:58,350
It's conceivable that we could
turn that conveyor belt off...

538
00:35:58,520 --> 00:36:02,354
...by warming of the surface of the ocean
a little bit too much.

539
00:36:02,520 --> 00:36:03,669
And if we do that...

540
00:36:05,200 --> 00:36:09,557
...with all of our deadzones, we could
make the whole surface ocean stagnant.

541
00:36:09,720 --> 00:36:11,995
And that's a terrifying thought.

542
00:36:12,160 --> 00:36:16,551
The last time that happened was
the end-Permian mass extinction...

543
00:36:16,720 --> 00:36:21,919
...and more than 95 percent of all
the species on the Earth went extinct.

544
00:37:40,920 --> 00:37:45,277
The simple fact is, ecosystems
that sustain life are unraveling.

545
00:37:45,600 --> 00:37:48,592
Systems that have evolved
for hundreds of millions of years.

546
00:37:49,080 --> 00:37:50,832
The evidence is now clear:

547
00:37:51,000 --> 00:37:54,515
Industrial civilization
has caused irreparable damage...

548
00:37:54,680 --> 00:37:57,240
...and our impact is only accelerating.

549
00:37:57,400 --> 00:38:00,631
We have lost the last 30 years
in the war against global warming.

550
00:38:00,800 --> 00:38:04,270
The questions then arise,
why aren't we responding?

551
00:38:04,440 --> 00:38:08,433
But more important, what are the forces
that are blocking change?

552
00:38:11,560 --> 00:38:15,030
The greatest weapon of mass destruction
is corporate economic globalization.

553
00:38:16,560 --> 00:38:19,472
There's always been a greed factor
in human civilization...

554
00:38:19,640 --> 00:38:22,837
...and what has happened
with the creation of corporations...

555
00:38:23,000 --> 00:38:25,309
...which are the dominant institutions
of our age...

556
00:38:25,480 --> 00:38:27,948
...is that they have perfected that
as a system.

557
00:38:28,120 --> 00:38:30,680
And what we literally face today is that...

558
00:38:30,840 --> 00:38:33,274
...this is going to kill off our host,
the planet.

559
00:38:33,440 --> 00:38:36,000
T oday, ecosystems, forests,
streams, lakes, rivers...

560
00:38:37,480 --> 00:38:39,550
...they have no rights. They' re property.

561
00:38:39,720 --> 00:38:43,838
Which means they can be bought, sold,
destroyed, traded, carved up.

562
00:38:44,000 --> 00:38:47,549
Under this structure of law,
you' re either property or you' re a person.

563
00:38:47,720 --> 00:38:50,154
And it's very clear that nature is property.

564
00:38:50,320 --> 00:38:54,950
And so the reason why we have
these reams of documents in libraries...

565
00:38:55,120 --> 00:39:00,035
...about solutions, about solar, about how
to produce food in a sustainable way...

566
00:39:00,200 --> 00:39:04,079
...about transportation, about
changing production methods...

567
00:39:04,240 --> 00:39:08,631
...and putting in place a sustainable
economy that respects the planet is...

568
00:39:09,960 --> 00:39:12,633
...we've lacked the authority
to drive those things into law.

569
00:39:12,800 --> 00:39:17,032
Because in reality we have a Constitution
that empowers the corporate few...

570
00:39:17,200 --> 00:39:20,192
...to make decisions
that trump the majority.

571
00:39:20,480 --> 00:39:23,278
And it has been our failure
to drive real law into place...

572
00:39:23,440 --> 00:39:25,431
... because we don't have the authority.

573
00:39:25,600 --> 00:39:27,511
We have very responsive political leaders.

574
00:39:28,960 --> 00:39:31,394
They' re responsive to wealth,
money and corporate power.

575
00:39:32,360 --> 00:39:34,191
ExxonMobil, one oil company...

576
00:39:34,560 --> 00:39:38,189
...is worth more than the sum of the value
of all the auto companies...

577
00:39:38,360 --> 00:39:39,873
...in the whole wide world.

578
00:39:40,040 --> 00:39:41,792
That is a big company. People say:

579
00:39:41,960 --> 00:39:46,670
"Gee, why aren't politicians
responding to the global climate crisis? "

580
00:39:46,840 --> 00:39:49,195
Because they respond to a higher power,
unfortunately.

581
00:39:49,360 --> 00:39:51,954
Right now, that higher power
is the fossil-fuel industry.

582
00:39:52,640 --> 00:39:55,154
You' re responsible for editing
Our Changing Planet...

583
00:39:55,320 --> 00:39:58,710
...and you send a review draft to
the White House. What happens?

584
00:40:00,680 --> 00:40:02,238
It comes back...

585
00:40:02,400 --> 00:40:06,996
...with a large number of edits...

586
00:40:07,320 --> 00:40:10,710
... handwritten on the hard copy...

587
00:40:11,360 --> 00:40:15,672
... by the chief of staff of
the Council on Environmental Quality.

588
00:40:15,840 --> 00:40:17,478
And the chief of staff is whom?

589
00:40:17,640 --> 00:40:18,993
Phil Cooney.

590
00:40:19,160 --> 00:40:21,071
He is a scientist?

591
00:40:21,240 --> 00:40:22,719
No, he's a lawyer.

592
00:40:22,880 --> 00:40:25,474
He was a lobbyist for
the American Petroleum lnstitute...

593
00:40:25,640 --> 00:40:27,392
... before going into the White House.

594
00:40:27,560 --> 00:40:29,357
Our people have a growing suspicion...

595
00:40:30,920 --> 00:40:35,391
...that oil companies are taking unfair
advantage of current market conditions...

596
00:40:35,560 --> 00:40:38,393
...to line their coffers with excess profits.

597
00:40:41,360 --> 00:40:43,999
On the issues of climate change
and environment...

598
00:40:45,480 --> 00:40:49,598
...the political system failed us. It's not
first and foremost a crisis of technology...

599
00:40:49,760 --> 00:40:51,796
...it isn't even a crisis of public opinion.

600
00:40:51,960 --> 00:40:54,599
If you ask the public,
"Do you want solar energy?

601
00:40:54,760 --> 00:40:57,513
Do you want efficient appliances?
Do you want efficient cars? "

602
00:40:57,680 --> 00:40:59,636
The answer is overwhelmingly,
"Yes, we do. "

603
00:41:00,400 --> 00:41:03,039
It's the bridge across this chasm...

604
00:41:03,200 --> 00:41:07,591
...of public opinion to public policy.
It's called government.

605
00:41:07,760 --> 00:41:11,639
That's where the failure has been.
That bridge has fallen into disrepair.

606
00:41:12,080 --> 00:41:14,913
There was a time
in the 1960s and 1970s...

607
00:41:15,080 --> 00:41:18,231
...when Republicans and Democrats
in the United States...

608
00:41:18,400 --> 00:41:20,789
...joined to pass
the major environmental laws.

609
00:41:20,960 --> 00:41:24,475
The National Environmental Policy Act,
Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act...

610
00:41:24,640 --> 00:41:27,473
...the Endangered Species Act.
Those were done by Republicans...

611
00:41:27,640 --> 00:41:29,756
...and Democrats coming together.

612
00:41:29,920 --> 00:41:32,434
And that system is now broken.

613
00:41:32,600 --> 00:41:35,558
And part of the crisis is,
as everybody knows...

614
00:41:35,720 --> 00:41:39,349
...its that there is money,
too much money in the political system.

615
00:41:39,520 --> 00:41:40,635
Even Jefferson said...

616
00:41:42,160 --> 00:41:45,914
...we have to rewrite the Constitution
every generation to meet our need.

617
00:41:46,280 --> 00:41:50,671
Do we think that the Founding Fathers
understood global warming?

618
00:41:50,840 --> 00:41:53,718
Or deforestation?
Or the massive amounts...

619
00:41:53,880 --> 00:41:57,077
...of toxic chemicals that are pumped
into our atmosphere...

620
00:41:57,240 --> 00:42:00,789
...and into our air, water, land
and soil every day?

621
00:42:00,960 --> 00:42:04,794
What we need to do is find a harmony
between people and nature.

622
00:42:04,960 --> 00:42:09,112
One of the only ways to do that is
to recognize that nature has rights too.

623
00:42:16,280 --> 00:42:20,353
I think the most basic thing to understand
about our global economic system...

624
00:42:21,880 --> 00:42:26,112
...is that it's a subsystem.
And it's a subsystem of a larger system.

625
00:42:26,280 --> 00:42:30,671
The larger system is the biosphere
and the subsystem is the economy.

626
00:42:30,840 --> 00:42:35,277
The problem, of course, is that
our subsystem, the economy...

627
00:42:35,440 --> 00:42:39,877
...is geared for growth.
It's all set up to grow, to expand...

628
00:42:40,040 --> 00:42:44,909
...whereas the parent system
doesn't grow. It remains the same size.

629
00:42:45,080 --> 00:42:49,437
So as the economy grows, it displaces,
it encroaches upon...

630
00:42:49,920 --> 00:42:52,798
...the biosphere,
and this is a fundamental cost.

631
00:42:52,960 --> 00:42:56,430
This is the fundamental opportunity cost
of economic growth.

632
00:42:56,600 --> 00:43:00,070
That's what you give up when
you expand, what used to be there.

633
00:43:00,400 --> 00:43:05,155
So economists don't include all of the
things that nature does for us for nothing.

634
00:43:05,320 --> 00:43:09,199
Some technologies would never be able
to do what nature does.

635
00:43:09,360 --> 00:43:12,033
For example, pollinating all of
the flowering plants.

636
00:43:12,200 --> 00:43:14,953
What would it cost us
to take carbon dioxide out of the air...

637
00:43:15,120 --> 00:43:18,635
...and put oxygen back in it, which all
the green things do for us for nothing.

638
00:43:18,800 --> 00:43:22,873
It's possible to do a crude estimate of
what it would cost us to replace nature.

639
00:43:24,560 --> 00:43:26,869
Constanza, this is several years ago...

640
00:43:27,040 --> 00:43:31,955
...estimated it would cost us
$35 trillion a year...

641
00:43:32,120 --> 00:43:35,271
...to do what nature is doing for us
for nothing.

642
00:43:35,440 --> 00:43:36,714
T o put that in perspective...

643
00:43:36,880 --> 00:43:41,510
...if you added up all of the annual
economies in the world at that time...

644
00:43:41,680 --> 00:43:43,193
...it came to $18 trillion.

645
00:43:44,520 --> 00:43:48,149
So nature was doing
twice as much service for us...

646
00:43:48,320 --> 00:43:49,833
...as the economies of the world.

647
00:43:50,000 --> 00:43:54,869
And in the madness of conventional
economics, this isn't in the equation.

648
00:43:55,040 --> 00:43:57,759
Somehow in the last few decades
in business school...

649
00:43:57,920 --> 00:44:00,229
...and the M.B.A.s that these
CEOs have...

650
00:44:00,400 --> 00:44:03,437
...they were trained that the object
of their business is growth...

651
00:44:03,600 --> 00:44:06,114
...as if that were an end.
It's not an end, it's a means.

652
00:44:07,640 --> 00:44:11,030
We flipped the ends and means. If we
can get the end back, quality of life...

653
00:44:11,200 --> 00:44:12,838
...we look at the contradictions...

654
00:44:13,000 --> 00:44:15,992
...because the wrong kind of growth
reduces our quality of life...

655
00:44:16,160 --> 00:44:17,752
...and we have to retake that back.

656
00:44:17,920 --> 00:44:19,399
I think the industrial system...

657
00:44:20,920 --> 00:44:22,069
... has to be reinvented.

658
00:44:22,240 --> 00:44:26,995
T oday, the throughput of the
industrial system from mining wellhead...

659
00:44:27,160 --> 00:44:30,869
...through to finished product that ends
up in a landfill or an incinerator...

660
00:44:31,040 --> 00:44:33,508
...for every truckload of product
with lasting value...

661
00:44:33,680 --> 00:44:36,478
...32 truckloads of waste are produced.

662
00:44:36,640 --> 00:44:39,154
And that is mind-boggling. But it's true.

663
00:44:39,680 --> 00:44:42,672
So we have a system that
is a waste-making system.

664
00:44:44,000 --> 00:44:47,231
Clearly, we cannot continue to dig up
the earth and turn it to waste.

665
00:44:50,640 --> 00:44:52,756
In our modern globalized world...

666
00:44:52,920 --> 00:44:56,799
...growth continues to be the focus
of many corporations and governments...

667
00:44:56,960 --> 00:44:59,997
... who deplete our environment
for economic gain.

668
00:45:00,160 --> 00:45:04,312
But what about us, as individuals,
as consumers?

669
00:45:04,480 --> 00:45:08,951
To what extent are we participants
in the destruction of our biosphere?

670
00:45:11,640 --> 00:45:13,995
The problem is not a problem
of technology.

671
00:45:15,520 --> 00:45:18,717
The problem is not a problem of
too much carbon dioxide.

672
00:45:18,880 --> 00:45:21,110
The problem is not a problem
of global warming.

673
00:45:21,280 --> 00:45:23,032
The problem is not a problem of waste.

674
00:45:23,200 --> 00:45:25,350
All of those things
are symptoms of the problem.

675
00:45:25,520 --> 00:45:27,954
The problem is the way
that we are thinking.

676
00:45:28,120 --> 00:45:30,714
The problem is fundamentally
a cultural problem.

677
00:45:31,560 --> 00:45:36,156
It's at the level of our culture
that this illness is happening.

678
00:45:36,320 --> 00:45:41,110
We're now products of $500 billion
of advertising each year.

679
00:45:41,720 --> 00:45:46,032
By the time a child comes to college
or grows up through school...

680
00:45:46,400 --> 00:45:50,393
...as a first-year student in college, they'll
have seen thousands of hours of TV.

681
00:45:50,800 --> 00:45:53,678
On average, four hours
and some minutes per day.

682
00:45:53,840 --> 00:45:58,709
As a result, as one study showed, they
could identify 1000 corporate logos...

683
00:45:58,880 --> 00:46:03,158
... but fewer than 10 plants and animals
native to their own place.

684
00:46:03,320 --> 00:46:05,550
And so we've become
not only consumers...

685
00:46:05,720 --> 00:46:09,633
...but hugely ignorant of the terms
by which we live on the Earth.

686
00:46:09,800 --> 00:46:12,394
Americans are spending their time
working and spending.

687
00:46:13,920 --> 00:46:15,353
That's where our time is going.

688
00:46:15,520 --> 00:46:19,399
An average American goes shopping
in one way or another five times a week.

689
00:46:19,560 --> 00:46:23,838
During the day, we spend time working
to make the money so that we can shop.

690
00:46:24,000 --> 00:46:28,471
And there's a growing weariness of
having to hold up the global economy...

691
00:46:28,640 --> 00:46:31,234
...having to sort of
keep up with the Joneses.

692
00:46:31,400 --> 00:46:33,436
So while everything's getting bigger...

693
00:46:33,600 --> 00:46:37,752
...our bathtubs, our houses, our vehicles,
our waistlines...

694
00:46:37,920 --> 00:46:41,390
...we're running out of time. We have
less of the things we really care about.

695
00:46:41,600 --> 00:46:43,556
In America, people are so insulated...

696
00:46:45,080 --> 00:46:49,312
...by our concentration of wealth. We
spend more money maintaining lawns...

697
00:46:49,480 --> 00:46:51,789
...than lndia collects
in federal tax revenue.

698
00:46:51,960 --> 00:46:54,679
Our defense budget, which is
a trivial percentage of GDP...

699
00:46:54,840 --> 00:46:57,718
...is larger than the entire economy
of Australia.

700
00:46:57,880 --> 00:47:02,032
So anesthetized by our own wealth,
we forget how most of the world lives...

701
00:47:02,400 --> 00:47:04,470
...and how the majority
of the world looks.

702
00:47:04,640 --> 00:47:06,710
So where we are now
as a civilization is....

703
00:47:08,960 --> 00:47:13,317
I would call.... Consumerism is the leading
ideology. Even consumer democracy.

704
00:47:13,480 --> 00:47:16,790
Consumer democracy in the sense
that any regime...

705
00:47:16,960 --> 00:47:19,474
...whether it's the Chinese regime,
the U.S. regime...

706
00:47:19,680 --> 00:47:23,832
...has to give people what they want
and when they want it, which is now.

707
00:47:24,000 --> 00:47:25,718
And people want consumer goods.

708
00:47:25,880 --> 00:47:29,759
Once commodities
become cultural symbols...

709
00:47:29,920 --> 00:47:34,550
...whether it's a cell phone in rural China,
or a Lamborghini in Malibu...

710
00:47:34,960 --> 00:47:36,188
...there's no stopping that.

711
00:47:36,360 --> 00:47:41,229
You have to change the object of desire
in order to get the root of the problem.

712
00:47:41,400 --> 00:47:45,473
People believe in choice, and choice
means consumerism for most people.

713
00:47:45,640 --> 00:47:48,552
There is no mileage
in trying to save the planet...

714
00:47:48,720 --> 00:47:52,030
... by telling people they' re making
the wrong choice. It won't work.

715
00:47:52,200 --> 00:47:54,953
Four, three, two, one!

716
00:48:02,680 --> 00:48:07,151
You have to change the idea behind
limitless expansion.

717
00:48:07,320 --> 00:48:10,073
In a phrase, from well-having
to well-being.

718
00:48:10,520 --> 00:48:12,192
It's a cultural transformation.

719
00:48:12,360 --> 00:48:16,114
We've always, as humans,
had material desires.

720
00:48:16,280 --> 00:48:18,999
Material things are part of
how we do define who we are.

721
00:48:20,560 --> 00:48:24,712
So it's not that consumption is bad,
it's that it's gotten totally out of balance.

722
00:48:26,640 --> 00:48:29,108
Media really is the instrument by which...

723
00:48:30,600 --> 00:48:33,273
...knowledge is passed in our society.

724
00:48:33,440 --> 00:48:35,670
We no longer get knowledge
directly from the Earth.

725
00:48:35,840 --> 00:48:39,549
We're no longer in touch with
the sources of our survival.

726
00:48:39,720 --> 00:48:43,349
We no longer, for the most part,
in Western industrial society....

727
00:48:43,560 --> 00:48:46,996
We're no longer growing our food
or taking care of our own sustenance...

728
00:48:47,160 --> 00:48:49,958
...or learning directly
from our own experience...

729
00:48:50,240 --> 00:48:55,109
...or having our family
be the root of our choices.

730
00:48:55,280 --> 00:48:57,430
Basically, we're like the astronaut
in space.

731
00:48:57,600 --> 00:49:00,956
You know, we're floating around
in a metallic re-created universe...

732
00:49:01,120 --> 00:49:03,918
...disconnected, really,
from sources on the Earth.

733
00:49:04,080 --> 00:49:06,674
And we're dependent completely
upon the information...

734
00:49:06,840 --> 00:49:09,274
...that is sent to us
from very, very far away.

735
00:49:09,440 --> 00:49:10,589
We' re psychically numbed.

736
00:49:12,040 --> 00:49:14,031
We numb our senses
from morning till night...

737
00:49:14,200 --> 00:49:18,512
...whether it's with noise or loud music
or light at night.

738
00:49:18,720 --> 00:49:21,280
So nobody sees the beauty.

739
00:49:21,440 --> 00:49:25,592
And if we've lost the feeling
of the beauty of the world...

740
00:49:25,760 --> 00:49:28,558
...then we are looking for substitutes.

741
00:49:28,720 --> 00:49:33,157
Eric Hoffer said, "You can never get
enough of what you don't really want. "

742
00:49:33,320 --> 00:49:36,790
Meaning we rush around
permanently needy...

743
00:49:36,960 --> 00:49:41,829
...but the loss, the feeling of loss, is that
we don't know what it is we've lost.

744
00:49:42,000 --> 00:49:44,753
What we've lost is
the beauty of the world...

745
00:49:45,640 --> 00:49:49,235
...and we make up for it
with attempting to conquer the world...

746
00:49:49,400 --> 00:49:52,995
...or own the world, possess the world.

747
00:50:08,720 --> 00:50:13,840
One can see from space how the
human race has changed the Earth.

748
00:50:14,000 --> 00:50:18,073
Nearly all of the available land
has been cleared of forest...

749
00:50:18,240 --> 00:50:22,995
...and is now used for agriculture
or urban development.

750
00:50:23,520 --> 00:50:28,514
The polar icecaps are shrinking
and the desert areas are increasing.

751
00:50:29,360 --> 00:50:35,276
At night, the Earth is no longer dark,
but large areas are lit up.

752
00:50:35,440 --> 00:50:39,433
All of this is evidence that
human exploitation of the planet...

753
00:50:39,600 --> 00:50:41,750
...is reaching a critical limit.

754
00:50:41,920 --> 00:50:46,232
But human demands and expectations
are ever-increasing.

755
00:50:47,760 --> 00:50:50,399
We cannot continue to pollute
the atmosphere...

756
00:50:50,560 --> 00:50:54,394
...poison the ocean and exhaust the land.

757
00:50:54,560 --> 00:50:57,597
There isn't any more available.

758
00:51:07,560 --> 00:51:09,073
We are living...

759
00:51:09,560 --> 00:51:12,393
...in an enormously challenging time.

760
00:51:14,040 --> 00:51:16,838
If we don't change what we're doing...

761
00:51:17,000 --> 00:51:20,959
...we are facing losing...

762
00:51:21,120 --> 00:51:27,673
...perhaps a third, maybe a half,
of all the variety of life on Earth.

763
00:51:27,840 --> 00:51:30,912
We don't know at what point
when we lose biodiversity...

764
00:51:32,440 --> 00:51:36,149
...that the system will start to fall apart.
I believe in the resilience of nature.

765
00:51:36,320 --> 00:51:39,517
So I think that once the human species
becomes extinct--

766
00:51:39,680 --> 00:51:44,276
And many species have became extinct
before us, many species will after us.

767
00:51:44,440 --> 00:51:48,558
--that the Earth may well spin on its axis
happily without humans...

768
00:51:48,720 --> 00:51:51,154
...and the microbes and insects
will inherit the world.

769
00:51:51,320 --> 00:51:54,039
Unless we cause
such a dramatic climate shift...

770
00:51:54,200 --> 00:51:57,431
...that we become an arid, cold planet
like Mars.

771
00:51:57,600 --> 00:52:01,115
I don't believe for a minute
that life will be extinguished.

772
00:52:01,280 --> 00:52:05,432
Even though we've radically altered the
air, the water, and the soil of Earth...

773
00:52:05,600 --> 00:52:09,275
...Iife has been incredibly tenacious
and adaptable.

774
00:52:09,440 --> 00:52:13,353
But as a species at the very top
of the food chain...

775
00:52:13,520 --> 00:52:15,556
... I know that we' re the most vulnerable.

776
00:52:16,160 --> 00:52:20,153
Life has existed on Earth
for 3.8 to 4 billion years.

777
00:52:20,320 --> 00:52:22,515
Over that time,
there have been a lot of species.

778
00:52:22,680 --> 00:52:26,992
But you know what? 99. 9999...

779
00:52:27,160 --> 00:52:29,833
...four decimal points,
percent of all species...

780
00:52:30,000 --> 00:52:33,231
...that have ever existed are extinct.

781
00:52:33,400 --> 00:52:36,039
So extinction is a natural part of life.

782
00:52:36,200 --> 00:52:40,955
Extinction is what has enabled life
to flourish and evolve and change...

783
00:52:41,120 --> 00:52:43,156
...with the conditions
of the changing planet.

784
00:52:43,320 --> 00:52:46,869
The planet hasn't been stuck in
one condition over 4 billion years.

785
00:52:47,040 --> 00:52:52,160
The tragedy of our existence
is that we're an infant species.

786
00:52:52,560 --> 00:52:57,156
Not only are we hastening the conditions
for our own demise...

787
00:52:57,320 --> 00:53:00,835
...we're taking down-- According to the
United Nations Environment Programme...

788
00:53:01,000 --> 00:53:07,155
...50 to 55,000 species a year
are going extinct because of us.

789
00:53:07,320 --> 00:53:11,677
The tragedy is not the imminent
or potential extinction of humankind...

790
00:53:11,840 --> 00:53:16,277
...but the enormous extinction crisis
that we're causing right now.

791
00:53:21,360 --> 00:53:23,669
And I think there is potential
for a Dark Age.

792
00:53:24,000 --> 00:53:25,592
One of the problems that I see...

793
00:53:27,080 --> 00:53:30,436
...is that so many people
who have to individually accept...

794
00:53:30,600 --> 00:53:33,558
...the cost of the transition,
are unaware that it's coming.

795
00:53:34,400 --> 00:53:37,278
Most of our citizens
wake up in the morning...

796
00:53:37,440 --> 00:53:39,237
...and worry about
the morning commute...

797
00:53:39,400 --> 00:53:42,517
...and getting the kids to school,
and paying the mortgage...

798
00:53:42,680 --> 00:53:46,275
...and thinking about a new car
or a vacation or whatever.

799
00:53:46,480 --> 00:53:50,598
This is too narrow a scale of thinking
to address the problems that we have.

800
00:53:50,760 --> 00:53:55,197
We need people to be aware of
the global forces that affect their lives...

801
00:53:55,360 --> 00:53:58,591
...and that will increasingly affect
their lives in the future.

802
00:53:58,760 --> 00:54:03,311
If this awareness doesn't develop, I'm
afraid the transition will be wrenching.

803
00:54:03,480 --> 00:54:04,515
What we risk is...

804
00:54:06,040 --> 00:54:10,158
...the destruction of civilization. All that
we fought for. This fragile little craft...

805
00:54:10,320 --> 00:54:12,675
...that's navigated the centuries
and the millennia...

806
00:54:12,840 --> 00:54:14,831
...to come to this particular point.

807
00:54:15,000 --> 00:54:19,073
It will have been undone
in a flash of consumption...

808
00:54:19,240 --> 00:54:22,676
...and bad judgment, and violence,
and injustice.

809
00:54:22,840 --> 00:54:26,037
Is the caring capacity for a happy
and healthy human population...

810
00:54:27,520 --> 00:54:29,875
...in a future going away? Absolutely.

811
00:54:30,040 --> 00:54:32,508
And it's not about saving the planet.

812
00:54:32,680 --> 00:54:35,319
It's about saving a caring capacity...

813
00:54:35,480 --> 00:54:40,554
...a system upon which humans can live
in the pursuit of happiness.

814
00:54:40,720 --> 00:54:42,233
That's what's at stake.

815
00:54:42,400 --> 00:54:46,473
So if you step back and you take an Earth
perspective rather than human...

816
00:54:48,080 --> 00:54:50,753
...it can't be an 11 th hour for the Earth.

817
00:54:50,920 --> 00:54:55,038
It can be an extinction crisis for the Earth.

818
00:54:55,200 --> 00:54:58,636
And it can be a harmony crisis
for the Earth.

819
00:54:58,800 --> 00:55:01,917
Because we now see that one species...

820
00:55:02,080 --> 00:55:05,152
...is taking over so much of
the resources of the Earth...

821
00:55:05,320 --> 00:55:09,108
...that it's leaving very little
for other creatures to live with it.

822
00:56:32,440 --> 00:56:35,955
So we find ourselves on the brink.

823
00:56:36,120 --> 00:56:38,395
It is clear humans have had
a devastating impact...

824
00:56:38,560 --> 00:56:41,438
...on our planet's ecological web of life.

825
00:56:41,600 --> 00:56:42,953
Because we have waited...

826
00:56:43,120 --> 00:56:45,873
...because we've turned our backs
on nature's warning signs...

827
00:56:46,040 --> 00:56:48,429
...and because our political
and corporate leaders...

828
00:56:48,600 --> 00:56:52,195
...have consistently ignored the
overwhelming scientific evidence...

829
00:56:52,360 --> 00:56:55,989
...the challenges we face
are that much more difficult.

830
00:56:56,160 --> 00:56:59,038
We are in the environmental age
whether we like it or not.

831
00:56:59,840 --> 00:57:01,910
So what does the future look like?

832
00:57:02,360 --> 00:57:05,989
We know the United States, the world's
greatest consumer and source of waste...

833
00:57:06,160 --> 00:57:08,958
...needs to make a transition
to a greener future.

834
00:57:09,240 --> 00:57:13,472
But will our pivotal generation
create a sustainable world in time?

835
00:57:13,640 --> 00:57:15,835
What will guide this massive change?

836
00:57:16,000 --> 00:57:20,949
Does nature hold the answers we need
to help restore our planet's resources...

837
00:57:21,120 --> 00:57:25,557
... protect our atmosphere and,
therefore, help all life survive?

838
00:57:28,240 --> 00:57:32,313
All these forces sweeping over the planet
are the forces created by human beings.

839
00:57:32,480 --> 00:57:34,869
If human beings are the source
of the problem...

840
00:57:35,040 --> 00:57:37,110
...we can be the foundation
of the solution.

841
00:57:37,280 --> 00:57:39,350
Some people suggest
that to live sustainably...

842
00:57:40,840 --> 00:57:43,559
...we have to go out in the woods
and put on animal skins...

843
00:57:43,720 --> 00:57:45,711
...and live on roots and berries.

844
00:57:46,320 --> 00:57:50,279
And the simple reality
is that we do have technology.

845
00:57:50,720 --> 00:57:51,755
The question is:

846
00:57:51,920 --> 00:57:55,993
How can we use our understanding
of science and technology...

847
00:57:56,160 --> 00:58:00,790
...along with our understanding of culture
and how culture changes...

848
00:58:00,960 --> 00:58:05,556
...to create a culture
that will interact with science...

849
00:58:05,720 --> 00:58:10,840
...and with the world around us
in a sustainable fashion?

850
00:58:11,000 --> 00:58:13,036
The great thing about the dilemma
we're in...

851
00:58:14,560 --> 00:58:19,475
...is that we get to reimagine
every single thing we do.

852
00:58:19,640 --> 00:58:24,316
In other words, there isn't
one single thing that we make...

853
00:58:24,480 --> 00:58:29,156
...or systems that we have that
doesn't require a complete remake.

854
00:58:29,320 --> 00:58:31,390
And so there's two ways
of looking at that.

855
00:58:31,560 --> 00:58:34,233
One is, like, "Oh, my gosh.
What a big burden. "

856
00:58:34,400 --> 00:58:37,198
The other way to look at it,
which is the way I prefer, is:

857
00:58:37,360 --> 00:58:40,238
"What a great time to be born.
What a great time to be alive. "

858
00:58:40,400 --> 00:58:45,633
Because this generation gets to essentially
completely change this world.

859
00:58:52,160 --> 00:58:54,071
We' re at a point, with 6.4 billion of us...

860
00:58:55,600 --> 00:58:58,956
...that we have to imagine what it'd
be like to redesign design itself...

861
00:58:59,480 --> 00:59:02,040
...and see design as
the first signal of human intention...

862
00:59:03,360 --> 00:59:08,150
...and see we need new intentions, where
materials are seen as highly valuable...

863
00:59:08,320 --> 00:59:12,791
...and need to go in closed cycles, "cradle
to cradle" instead of "cradle to grave. "

864
00:59:13,280 --> 00:59:17,432
And that energy needs to come from
renewable sources, principally the sun...

865
00:59:18,080 --> 00:59:21,959
...and water needs to be clean and
healthy as it goes through a system...

866
00:59:22,240 --> 00:59:24,913
...and we have to treat each other
with justice and fairness.

867
00:59:25,080 --> 00:59:28,516
So the design itself changes...

868
00:59:28,680 --> 00:59:31,956
...from mass production of things
that are essentially destructive...

869
00:59:32,120 --> 00:59:37,114
...to mass utilization of things that are
inherently assets instead of liabilities.

870
00:59:41,120 --> 00:59:43,680
Our project today,
for a new generation of designers...

871
00:59:45,160 --> 00:59:47,799
...is the welfare of all of life
as a practical objective.

872
00:59:48,080 --> 00:59:51,516
It goes beyond ourselves to include
the entire ecological realm.

873
00:59:53,000 --> 00:59:55,753
That all of life is actually
a design project today.

874
00:59:55,920 --> 01:00:01,597
That we have to design the capacity
to sustain it in the long run.

875
01:00:01,760 --> 01:00:05,036
Whether we' re talking about
the design of a factory or a building...

876
01:00:06,560 --> 01:00:09,870
...or a road or even a town...

877
01:00:10,360 --> 01:00:13,272
...it's much easier to design in isolation...

878
01:00:13,440 --> 01:00:17,399
...than superimpose a design
on what exists.

879
01:00:17,560 --> 01:00:20,552
But if we were to follow
nature's operating instructions...

880
01:00:20,720 --> 01:00:23,188
...it designs in exactly the opposite way.

881
01:00:23,600 --> 01:00:28,310
It brings onto the palette, so to speak,
all of the kingdoms of life...

882
01:00:29,120 --> 01:00:33,033
...and then works symphonically
to create an end result...

883
01:00:33,200 --> 01:00:35,714
...which might be a coral reef
or might be a forest.

884
01:00:35,880 --> 01:00:39,589
Well, you know, the interesting thing
about sustainable design...

885
01:00:39,760 --> 01:00:42,593
...is that I don't think it has to look
in any particular way.

886
01:00:42,760 --> 01:00:46,036
One of the things that we discovered
in the last few years...

887
01:00:47,360 --> 01:00:52,639
...is the new design is actually invisible.
It's not about a visual boundary.

888
01:00:52,800 --> 01:00:55,360
The form, in fact, could be anything.

889
01:00:57,400 --> 01:01:00,676
It's the structure and internal logic
and intelligence...

890
01:01:00,840 --> 01:01:03,070
...and the performance
that has to be designed.

891
01:01:03,400 --> 01:01:05,118
How we make things...

892
01:01:06,600 --> 01:01:10,070
...in, you know, our industrial processes...

893
01:01:10,240 --> 01:01:14,392
...it's 180 degrees different
from how life makes things.

894
01:01:14,720 --> 01:01:17,518
Look at the way we make,
for instance, Kevlar...

895
01:01:18,880 --> 01:01:20,632
...which is our toughest material.

896
01:01:20,800 --> 01:01:24,475
We take petroleum, we heat it up
to about 1400 degrees Fahrenheit...

897
01:01:24,960 --> 01:01:27,520
...and we bubble it in sulfuric acid...

898
01:01:27,680 --> 01:01:30,911
...and then we pull it out
under enormous pressures.

899
01:01:31,080 --> 01:01:36,871
Now imagine an organism, us,
making our bones or our teeth.

900
01:01:37,400 --> 01:01:40,676
Imagine an abalone making a shell.

901
01:01:40,840 --> 01:01:45,072
They can't afford to heat it up
to really high temperatures...

902
01:01:45,240 --> 01:01:49,358
...or do pressures or chemical baths,
so they found a different way.

903
01:01:49,520 --> 01:01:51,158
Now take the spider.

904
01:01:51,680 --> 01:01:56,151
This beautiful orb-weaver spider is
taking flies and crickets into the web...

905
01:01:56,320 --> 01:01:59,596
...and transforming them with chemistry
in water in the abdomen...

906
01:01:59,760 --> 01:02:01,352
...and out comes this material...

907
01:02:01,520 --> 01:02:05,115
...that's five times stronger
ounce for ounce than steel.

908
01:02:05,880 --> 01:02:10,158
Silently, in water, at room temp.
You know?

909
01:02:10,320 --> 01:02:13,471
I mean, this is master chemistry.

910
01:02:13,640 --> 01:02:16,279
This is the manufacturing of the future,
hopefully.

911
01:02:16,440 --> 01:02:17,589
There's actually people...

912
01:02:17,760 --> 01:02:22,595
...who are now trying to mimic
the recipes of these organisms.

913
01:02:26,080 --> 01:02:29,914
Fungi are the molecular disassemblers,
the organisms between life and death.

914
01:02:31,520 --> 01:02:35,991
They generate soil. The entire food web of
nature is based on these fungal filaments.

915
01:02:36,160 --> 01:02:40,278
The mycelial network that infuses
all land masses in the world...

916
01:02:40,440 --> 01:02:43,989
...is a supportive membrane
upon which life proliferates...

917
01:02:44,160 --> 01:02:48,472
...and further diversifies. Mushrooms
also have a very bizarre property...

918
01:02:48,640 --> 01:02:50,756
...of hyper-accumulating
heavy metals.

919
01:02:51,200 --> 01:02:52,792
Forests are thousands of acres...

920
01:02:52,960 --> 01:02:56,077
...so fungi that produce mushrooms
grow to thousands of acres in size.

921
01:02:56,240 --> 01:02:57,912
This gives us a ready ability...

922
01:02:58,080 --> 01:03:01,709
...to tap into this powerful inherent
resource that mushroom mycelium has...

923
01:03:01,880 --> 01:03:04,553
...to remediate environments,
prevent downstream pollution...

924
01:03:06,320 --> 01:03:09,471
...from microbes, from viruses,
including bacteria and protozoa...

925
01:03:09,640 --> 01:03:12,950
...and also for breaking down
a wide assortment of pollutants.

926
01:03:13,120 --> 01:03:16,192
And this is one of the pedestals
of mycorestoration.

927
01:03:16,360 --> 01:03:19,193
Using mushroom mycelium
in order to heal environments...

928
01:03:19,360 --> 01:03:21,590
... because these are truly
healing membranes.

929
01:03:21,760 --> 01:03:22,749
There's the model.

930
01:03:22,920 --> 01:03:26,117
In nature, there is no waste.
One organism's waste is another's food.

931
01:03:27,640 --> 01:03:31,030
That's the model for the industrial system
that must eventually evolve.

932
01:03:31,200 --> 01:03:33,430
A waste-free industrial system.

933
01:03:37,080 --> 01:03:38,832
If we think about a tree as a design...

934
01:03:39,040 --> 01:03:43,238
...it makes oxygen, sequesters carbon,
fixes nitrogen, distills water...

935
01:03:44,720 --> 01:03:47,712
...provides habitat for hundreds
of species, accrues solar energy...

936
01:03:47,880 --> 01:03:52,158
...makes complex sugars and food,
creates microclimates and self-replicates.

937
01:03:52,320 --> 01:03:55,915
So what would it be like
to design a building like a tree?

938
01:03:56,080 --> 01:03:59,152
What would it be like
to design a city like a forest?

939
01:03:59,320 --> 01:04:02,517
So what would a building be like
if it were photosynthetic?

940
01:04:02,680 --> 01:04:04,875
What if it took solar energy
and converted it...

941
01:04:07,280 --> 01:04:08,872
...to productive and delightful use?

942
01:04:09,040 --> 01:04:13,431
For example, if we combine
our housing and our waste treatment...

943
01:04:15,360 --> 01:04:17,590
...and our food production
and energy generation...

944
01:04:19,320 --> 01:04:21,470
...all integrated, single whole systems...

945
01:04:23,160 --> 01:04:25,276
...we can live beautifully on the planet...

946
01:04:27,320 --> 01:04:29,595
...with one tenth or less
the resources...

947
01:04:30,920 --> 01:04:32,638
...that our current civilization uses.

948
01:04:32,800 --> 01:04:34,791
Green building is essentially...

949
01:04:36,320 --> 01:04:39,995
...the design and construction of buildings
that are energy- and resource-efficient.

950
01:04:40,160 --> 01:04:43,755
They produce healthy places
to live and work.

951
01:04:43,920 --> 01:04:49,074
If you take the fact that buildings
account for a third of all energy use...

952
01:04:50,600 --> 01:04:54,832
...it's the single largest segment of energy
use and greenhouse gas production.

953
01:04:55,000 --> 01:04:56,592
What we can do with buildings...

954
01:04:57,920 --> 01:05:01,230
...in just the simplest off-the-shelf
technologies, is really stunning.

955
01:05:04,920 --> 01:05:08,151
With existing technologies that
we basically already have on the shelf...

956
01:05:08,320 --> 01:05:11,118
...or things we know we can develop
in a rapid period of time...

957
01:05:12,560 --> 01:05:15,677
...we could reduce the human footprint
on planet Earth by 90 percent...

958
01:05:15,840 --> 01:05:18,274
...which would be a huge shift
in what we're doing now.

959
01:05:20,200 --> 01:05:23,192
The direction to go is to
decouple from our dependence on oil...

960
01:05:23,360 --> 01:05:27,194
...through efficient transportation,
better-insulated houses...

961
01:05:27,360 --> 01:05:32,150
...and the development of renewable
alternatives like solar, wind and biomass...

962
01:05:32,320 --> 01:05:35,039
...and getting those to become
the major part of the market...

963
01:05:35,200 --> 01:05:37,077
... using efficiency as the transition.

964
01:05:38,960 --> 01:05:41,872
It won't happen overnight,
but it should've started 30 years ago.

965
01:05:42,040 --> 01:05:45,271
We have right now,
in the White House and in Congress...

966
01:05:46,760 --> 01:05:49,558
...people trying to delay it further,
which is irrational...

967
01:05:49,720 --> 01:05:52,678
...both for our national security
and environmental protection.

968
01:05:53,000 --> 01:05:54,115
This country...

969
01:05:55,640 --> 01:05:58,552
...can move awfully fast if it wants to.

970
01:05:58,720 --> 01:06:02,633
Keep in mind that
just after December 7th, 1941...

971
01:06:02,800 --> 01:06:05,439
... Roosevelt went to Jimmy Byrnes
and said:

972
01:06:05,600 --> 01:06:08,433
"You're my deputy president
for mobilizing the economy.

973
01:06:08,600 --> 01:06:11,034
If anybody crosses you, they cross me.
Get to it. "

974
01:06:11,200 --> 01:06:16,638
Within six months, Detroit was completely
retooled, not making cars anymore...

975
01:06:16,800 --> 01:06:20,918
... making military trucks, tanks,
fighter aircraft.

976
01:06:21,080 --> 01:06:23,196
And in three years and eight months...

977
01:06:23,360 --> 01:06:26,033
...from the beginning of that war,
we had mobilized...

978
01:06:26,200 --> 01:06:30,193
...we had defeated imperial Japan,
Fascist ltaly, Nazi Germany...

979
01:06:30,360 --> 01:06:33,750
...together with the British and our
other allies, and begun demobilization.

980
01:06:33,920 --> 01:06:37,879
-Three years and eight months.
-These are not technical issues...

981
01:06:38,040 --> 01:06:40,918
...nearly as much
as they are leadership issues.

982
01:06:41,080 --> 01:06:43,640
How much time do we have?
Well, not much.

983
01:06:43,880 --> 01:06:48,112
By my reckoning, we ought to be
about the business as rapidly as possible.

984
01:06:48,280 --> 01:06:49,269
This means everybody.

985
01:06:49,440 --> 01:06:53,752
Every citizen, every government level,
every organization, every corporation.

986
01:06:53,920 --> 01:06:57,913
This is "all hands on deck" time.

987
01:06:58,080 --> 01:06:59,991
So that in the future, 500 years out...

988
01:07:01,480 --> 01:07:04,950
...that people look back at this time,
that this was our finest hour.

989
01:07:05,120 --> 01:07:09,113
That humans at that time in that
generation all across the planet...

990
01:07:09,280 --> 01:07:11,669
...came together in a very different vision.

991
01:07:11,840 --> 01:07:13,592
There are, on Earth today...

992
01:07:15,080 --> 01:07:16,911
...over one million environmental...

993
01:07:17,080 --> 01:07:20,356
...social justice and indigenous
organizations present.

994
01:07:20,520 --> 01:07:22,556
It is the fastest growing movement
on Earth.

995
01:07:22,760 --> 01:07:26,150
And you're starting to see them
pull together...

996
01:07:26,320 --> 01:07:29,073
...and close the loops
and plug the leaks...

997
01:07:29,240 --> 01:07:32,949
...of energy and water and food
and finance and those things...

998
01:07:33,280 --> 01:07:35,919
...to reimagine what it means to be...

999
01:07:36,080 --> 01:07:38,799
...as I say, a human being
in the 21 st century...

1000
01:07:38,960 --> 01:07:43,795
...when every living system is in decline,
and learning how to reverse that.

1001
01:07:43,960 --> 01:07:45,154
It's almost as if we had...

1002
01:07:46,680 --> 01:07:50,229
...distributed an ambition
without ever having written it down.

1003
01:07:50,400 --> 01:07:54,552
So that people all over the world knew
what they ought to be working on...

1004
01:07:54,720 --> 01:07:56,676
...and were working on it
in their own way...

1005
01:07:56,840 --> 01:08:00,628
...knowing they only had
one sort of pixel...

1006
01:08:00,800 --> 01:08:06,238
...in this incredible mosaic
of an image of the future.

1007
01:08:06,440 --> 01:08:09,034
And that they could contribute that pixel
to that mosaic...

1008
01:08:09,200 --> 01:08:10,758
...knowing that in the end...

1009
01:08:10,920 --> 01:08:15,357
...that incredibly beautiful image
was a sustainable future.

1010
01:08:20,480 --> 01:08:24,075
The exciting thing is that we can see now
what the new economy would look like.

1011
01:08:25,840 --> 01:08:29,276
Instead of being powered by fossil fuels,
it's powered by renewable energy.

1012
01:08:29,440 --> 01:08:32,398
Instead of having an automobile-centered
transportation system...

1013
01:08:32,560 --> 01:08:35,632
...it will have a much more diversified
transport system.

1014
01:08:36,160 --> 01:08:37,673
Instead of a throwaway economy...

1015
01:08:37,840 --> 01:08:40,673
...it will be a reused economy,
where everything is reused.

1016
01:08:42,760 --> 01:08:45,911
Indeed, we see glimpses of it emerging
here and there around the world.

1017
01:08:46,080 --> 01:08:49,914
So we have technologies to build a new
economy to sustain economic progress.

1018
01:08:51,840 --> 01:08:53,637
We can see that new economy emerging.

1019
01:08:55,160 --> 01:08:59,358
The challenge for our generation is to
build that economy in the available time.

1020
01:08:59,520 --> 01:09:01,909
And I don't think we have
a lot of time left.

1021
01:09:02,080 --> 01:09:04,958
Virtually all of
our major infrastructure changes...

1022
01:09:06,440 --> 01:09:08,908
...have been encouraged in some way
by the government.

1023
01:09:09,320 --> 01:09:11,151
So I would think the way to deal...

1024
01:09:11,320 --> 01:09:14,915
...with this transition away from oil is...

1025
01:09:16,920 --> 01:09:20,230
...not to pretend energy operates
in an unregulated free enterprise market.

1026
01:09:20,400 --> 01:09:25,428
It does not. But to go ahead and,
as affordably as possible...

1027
01:09:25,600 --> 01:09:29,513
...give incentives to move toward
these other fuels...

1028
01:09:29,680 --> 01:09:34,390
...and these minimal changes in
infrastructure that make them possible.

1029
01:09:34,560 --> 01:09:36,551
Energy is the key to everything else
we do.

1030
01:09:38,080 --> 01:09:41,755
With abundant, affordable and clean
energy, we can solve a lot of problems.

1031
01:09:41,920 --> 01:09:44,957
Without it, we won't be able to solve
very many problems at all.

1032
01:09:45,120 --> 01:09:48,192
The sun is the most plentiful, bountiful
substitute there is.

1033
01:09:49,720 --> 01:09:52,712
There's more than enough energy
coming from the sun every day...

1034
01:09:54,920 --> 01:09:59,516
...to run every factory, every home, every
automobile on Earth 13,000 times, I think.

1035
01:09:59,680 --> 01:10:01,989
We're also finding
that on the larger scale...

1036
01:10:03,520 --> 01:10:07,513
...what we'd call the utility scale,
wind energy has evolved to the point...

1037
01:10:07,680 --> 01:10:12,151
...where it can compete price-wise
with our traditional fossil fuels...

1038
01:10:12,320 --> 01:10:15,357
...that is, coal and oil and natural gas...

1039
01:10:15,520 --> 01:10:20,116
...and produce large amounts of energy
that can be distributed through the grid...

1040
01:10:20,280 --> 01:10:23,238
...which is the conventional way
that we receive energy.

1041
01:10:23,400 --> 01:10:26,517
It's important to see,
as we make progress in the world...

1042
01:10:28,000 --> 01:10:31,197
...to have an economy that's flexible,
fluid and ready to make changes.

1043
01:10:31,360 --> 01:10:33,828
How do we protect the atmosphere
that belongs to us all?

1044
01:10:34,000 --> 01:10:36,514
One of the ways
is we make people who are polluting...

1045
01:10:36,680 --> 01:10:40,673
...start paying for that pollution through
a polluter pay system on climate change.

1046
01:10:40,840 --> 01:10:42,637
So we lower income taxes...

1047
01:10:44,160 --> 01:10:47,994
...and raise taxes on gasoline,
for example, taxes on burning coal.

1048
01:10:48,160 --> 01:10:50,469
We could probably do it all
with a carbon tax.

1049
01:10:50,640 --> 01:10:53,791
We're not changing the level of taxes.
We're reducing income taxes...

1050
01:10:53,960 --> 01:10:58,431
...and offsetting it with an increase
in energy taxes, in effect.

1051
01:10:58,600 --> 01:11:00,477
A tax on fossil fuels.

1052
01:11:00,640 --> 01:11:02,631
When we break our addiction
to fossil fuels...

1053
01:11:02,800 --> 01:11:07,191
...you see money flowing to industries
that represent the vitality of the economy:

1054
01:11:07,360 --> 01:11:09,112
Media, high-tech, services.

1055
01:11:09,280 --> 01:11:12,716
T aking action on climate change
is good for jobs and the economy.

1056
01:11:15,680 --> 01:11:16,874
If we retrofitted...

1057
01:11:18,400 --> 01:11:20,868
...all government buildings
built pre-1950...

1058
01:11:21,040 --> 01:11:25,113
...and we created tax environments
to help cities and municipalities...

1059
01:11:25,280 --> 01:11:29,239
...and states and the federal government
to retrofit those buildings...

1060
01:11:29,400 --> 01:11:31,516
...we could create 3 million industrial jobs.

1061
01:11:32,120 --> 01:11:35,635
Plus we could import much less oil
from the Middle East.

1062
01:11:35,800 --> 01:11:39,031
But more importantly, we'd be having
a much cleaner environment.

1063
01:11:39,200 --> 01:11:41,668
If we move from the rigged game
we have now in energy...

1064
01:11:43,200 --> 01:11:47,352
...to a level playing field, competition
between dirty and clean fuels...

1065
01:11:47,520 --> 01:11:49,556
...I have no doubt the clean fuels will win.

1066
01:11:51,160 --> 01:11:53,469
Once we send the right signal
to the marketplace...

1067
01:11:53,640 --> 01:11:56,677
...that the two guys in the garage
who created Hewlett-Packard....

1068
01:11:58,040 --> 01:12:00,634
Those two guys today,
I want them working on clean energy.

1069
01:12:00,800 --> 01:12:03,030
I want them to know
we fixed our public policies...

1070
01:12:03,200 --> 01:12:07,159
...so they'll be rewarded when they come
up with a killer app to defeat Big Oil.

1071
01:12:07,320 --> 01:12:08,469
That's what we need to do.

1072
01:12:08,640 --> 01:12:12,315
Once we do, we'll see a relatively quick
transition to cleaner energy.

1073
01:12:27,840 --> 01:12:30,877
People need to realize they can do things
in their everyday lives.

1074
01:12:32,400 --> 01:12:34,311
Keeping tire pressure at the right level...

1075
01:12:34,480 --> 01:12:38,109
... putting in compact fluorescent light
bulbs. Personal action is important.

1076
01:12:38,280 --> 01:12:40,748
This problem of global warming
is huge and tremendous...

1077
01:12:40,920 --> 01:12:44,310
...and it may seem inconsequential
to take your personal action...

1078
01:12:44,480 --> 01:12:48,268
...but it is important for many reasons.
Because everybody making a change...

1079
01:12:48,440 --> 01:12:49,998
...adds up to something meaningful.

1080
01:12:50,160 --> 01:12:54,392
Because shifting the way we act and live
is part of the solution, long-term.

1081
01:12:54,560 --> 01:12:58,473
Because if we act in that way, we will
demonstrate to leaders that we do care.

1082
01:12:58,640 --> 01:13:00,471
That's what we need from individuals...

1083
01:13:00,640 --> 01:13:04,952
...as the next step beyond that, is to
build a political will for taking action.

1084
01:13:05,120 --> 01:13:07,190
You can also vote.

1085
01:13:08,680 --> 01:13:11,274
And I don't mean voting
at a voting booth.

1086
01:13:11,440 --> 01:13:13,032
Anybody of any age can vote.

1087
01:13:13,200 --> 01:13:16,317
Because you vote every day
that you pay for something.

1088
01:13:16,480 --> 01:13:19,995
Every time you lay money down
on a counter to buy something...

1089
01:13:20,160 --> 01:13:24,039
...you are saying that,
" I approve of this object.

1090
01:13:24,200 --> 01:13:27,670
I approve of how it was made,
the materials that are in it...

1091
01:13:27,840 --> 01:13:31,674
...and what's going to happen to it when
I no longer need it and throw it away. "

1092
01:13:31,840 --> 01:13:35,037
Life creates the conditions
that are conducive to life.

1093
01:13:35,760 --> 01:13:39,673
So our technology, our cities,
our schools...

1094
01:13:39,840 --> 01:13:44,994
...what we make, what we wear,
what we eat, all of that...

1095
01:13:45,160 --> 01:13:49,119
...if it is oriented
around that one principle...

1096
01:13:49,280 --> 01:13:51,191
...that one life principle...

1097
01:13:51,360 --> 01:13:55,717
...then we will be here for a long,
long time in an extraordinary world.

1098
01:14:16,120 --> 01:14:21,274
The question is, what does it take
for humankind to change its ways?

1099
01:14:21,520 --> 01:14:27,152
And I am really encouraged
by Deepak Chopra's statement...

1100
01:14:27,320 --> 01:14:32,633
...that people are really doing the best
they can given their level of awareness.

1101
01:14:33,040 --> 01:14:36,316
So to me, winning this battle
that we're in...

1102
01:14:36,480 --> 01:14:38,675
...to change people's minds and hearts...

1103
01:14:38,840 --> 01:14:42,833
...is a matter of lifting levels
of awareness. Always raising.

1104
01:14:43,000 --> 01:14:46,072
And there's always a higher level
of awareness for any of us.

1105
01:14:46,240 --> 01:14:48,800
We need to be slower,
and we need to be smarter.

1106
01:14:48,960 --> 01:14:52,953
Slow movement means
disengaging from consumerism...

1107
01:14:53,120 --> 01:14:55,429
...as the main avenue of experience.

1108
01:14:55,600 --> 01:14:58,717
It doesn't reject any consumption,
but it says:

1109
01:14:59,080 --> 01:15:03,995
"We're not gonna live our lives mediated
by the marketplace or what's being sold.

1110
01:15:04,160 --> 01:15:06,720
We won't make our identities
and meaning based on that.

1111
01:15:06,880 --> 01:15:09,758
Instead of the long commute,
the bigger car, the bigger house...

1112
01:15:09,920 --> 01:15:14,516
...Iet's enjoy the local produce,
have time to ourselves...

1113
01:15:14,680 --> 01:15:17,399
...understand that
things are thieves of time. "

1114
01:15:17,560 --> 01:15:21,075
Because the more things you have, the
more time you have to spend working...

1115
01:15:21,240 --> 01:15:25,597
...the more your life is chained
to a rhythm to get those things.

1116
01:15:25,760 --> 01:15:28,069
The other element is the smart element.

1117
01:15:30,400 --> 01:15:33,437
And there I think
we have to reintroduce a term...

1118
01:15:33,600 --> 01:15:37,115
...an old term before the industrial
revolution, frugality.

1119
01:15:37,680 --> 01:15:40,592
Frugality does not mean poverty.

1120
01:15:40,760 --> 01:15:43,593
Frugality means the wise use
of resources.

1121
01:15:43,760 --> 01:15:46,877
As I said earlier on, the meaning
of the industrial revolution was...

1122
01:15:47,040 --> 01:15:50,828
...that nature was turned into a resource
that was considered endlessly abundant.

1123
01:15:51,000 --> 01:15:51,989
It's not true.

1124
01:15:59,560 --> 01:16:04,475
Not only is it the 11 th hour,
it's 11:59 and 59 seconds.

1125
01:16:04,640 --> 01:16:06,676
And although prior people's movements...

1126
01:16:08,160 --> 01:16:12,472
...have taken 30 to 40 years to build
to a point where they had the power...

1127
01:16:12,640 --> 01:16:16,633
...to drive changes into the
fundamental structure of governance...

1128
01:16:16,800 --> 01:16:19,519
...we don't have 30 to 40 years.

1129
01:16:19,680 --> 01:16:23,355
It's not just gonna be a matter
of tweaking a policy here and there.

1130
01:16:24,880 --> 01:16:26,711
It'll take a broad societal mobilization.

1131
01:16:27,120 --> 01:16:29,111
It's gonna take involvement at all levels...

1132
01:16:29,280 --> 01:16:33,432
...from the government through industry
and on down to our communities...

1133
01:16:33,600 --> 01:16:35,830
...and a welling up
of involvement of citizens.

1134
01:16:36,000 --> 01:16:37,956
Winston Churchill had it right about us:

1135
01:16:39,480 --> 01:16:41,550
"The Americans always do
the right thing...

1136
01:16:41,720 --> 01:16:45,349
...but unfortunately, it's only after
they've exhausted all other possibilities. "

1137
01:16:45,520 --> 01:16:48,956
And we've been exhausting some
fairly bad possibilities for a long time.

1138
01:16:49,120 --> 01:16:51,634
I think maybe we're finally
ready to get it right.

1139
01:16:51,800 --> 01:16:52,789
People often ask:

1140
01:16:52,960 --> 01:16:54,791
"What can I do? I wanna do something. "

1141
01:16:56,320 --> 01:16:59,995
You made the first choice because
you know you have to do something.

1142
01:17:00,160 --> 01:17:04,392
For the rest, it's a matter of looking
deep into your own heart and your soul...

1143
01:17:04,560 --> 01:17:07,358
...to understand what your gifts are,
where your passions lie...

1144
01:17:07,520 --> 01:17:09,590
...to do some research,
educate yourself...

1145
01:17:09,760 --> 01:17:13,116
...to find the people you're comfortable
with, and then get involved.

1146
01:17:13,280 --> 01:17:16,238
There are two things that can
perhaps save the world.

1147
01:17:17,760 --> 01:17:21,070
One would be the mastery of
one's kindness to oneself and a big heart.

1148
01:17:21,240 --> 01:17:25,438
And the other would be
understanding your passion for place...

1149
01:17:25,600 --> 01:17:30,355
...for where you live, and really
loving the place that you live in.

1150
01:17:38,240 --> 01:17:42,074
Environmentalism was once the project
of a passionate few.

1151
01:17:42,240 --> 01:17:45,949
Now, millions of people have responded
to ecological destruction...

1152
01:17:46,120 --> 01:17:50,079
...and have created the groundwork
for a sustainable and just world.

1153
01:17:50,240 --> 01:17:53,789
With the onset of global warming
and other catastrophic events...

1154
01:17:53,960 --> 01:17:59,193
...environmentalism has become today
a broader unifying human issue.

1155
01:17:59,360 --> 01:18:02,830
We as citizens, leaders, consumers
and voters...

1156
01:18:03,000 --> 01:18:05,309
... have the opportunity
to help integrate ecology...

1157
01:18:05,480 --> 01:18:09,439
...into governmental policy
and everyday living standards.

1158
01:18:09,600 --> 01:18:12,068
During this critical period
of human history...

1159
01:18:12,240 --> 01:18:16,711
... healing the damage of industrial
civilization is the task of our generation.

1160
01:18:16,880 --> 01:18:21,112
Our response depends on
the conscious evolution of our species...

1161
01:18:21,280 --> 01:18:25,796
...and this response could very well
save this unique blue planet...

1162
01:18:25,960 --> 01:18:27,552
...for future generations.

1163
01:18:30,920 --> 01:18:33,275
So I see a world in the future...

1164
01:18:33,440 --> 01:18:36,750
...in which we understand
that all life is related to us...

1165
01:18:36,920 --> 01:18:41,152
...and we treat that life
with great humility and respect.

1166
01:18:41,320 --> 01:18:43,754
I see us, as well, as social creatures.

1167
01:18:43,920 --> 01:18:45,751
And when I began to look back and say:

1168
01:18:45,920 --> 01:18:49,595
"What is the fundamental bottom line
for us as social creatures? "

1169
01:18:49,760 --> 01:18:54,231
I couldn't believe it because it seemed
so hippie-dippie, but it was love.

1170
01:18:54,400 --> 01:18:58,393
Love is the force
that makes us fully human.

1171
01:18:58,560 --> 01:19:00,198
Now, to me, the value...

1172
01:19:02,600 --> 01:19:07,435
...is the healing power
that comes from getting...

1173
01:19:07,600 --> 01:19:10,672
...that it's not just global warming.

1174
01:19:10,840 --> 01:19:14,310
It's not just fossil-fuel dependency.

1175
01:19:14,480 --> 01:19:17,313
It's not just soil erosion.

1176
01:19:17,480 --> 01:19:22,076
It's not just chemical contamination
of our land and water.

1177
01:19:22,240 --> 01:19:26,028
It's not just the population problem.

1178
01:19:26,200 --> 01:19:29,909
And it's not just all of those.

1179
01:19:30,160 --> 01:19:34,790
The deterioration of the environment
of our planet...

1180
01:19:34,960 --> 01:19:38,509
...is an outward mirror
of an inner condition.

1181
01:19:38,680 --> 01:19:41,433
Like inside, like outside.

1182
01:19:41,600 --> 01:19:45,115
And that's a part of the great work.

1183
01:19:45,560 --> 01:19:51,271
What if we choose to eradicate ourselves
from this Earth, by whatever means?

1184
01:19:51,440 --> 01:19:53,476
The Earth goes nowhere.

1185
01:19:53,640 --> 01:19:56,473
And in time, it will regenerate...

1186
01:19:56,640 --> 01:19:59,677
...and all the lakes will be pristine.

1187
01:19:59,840 --> 01:20:03,992
The rivers, the waters, the mountains...

1188
01:20:04,160 --> 01:20:06,720
...everything will be green again.

1189
01:20:06,880 --> 01:20:08,871
It'll be peaceful.

1190
01:20:09,040 --> 01:20:13,158
There may not be people,
but the Earth will regenerate.

1191
01:20:13,320 --> 01:20:14,639
And you know why?

1192
01:20:14,800 --> 01:20:19,191
Because the Earth has
all the time in the world...

1193
01:20:19,480 --> 01:20:21,232
...and we don't.

1194
01:20:21,400 --> 01:20:24,517
So I think that's where we're at,
right now.

1195
01:28:41,360 --> 01:28:43,351
Subtitles by
SDl Media Group

1196
01:28:43,560 --> 01:28:45,551
Subtitles extracted by LeapinLar

1197
01:28:46,305 --> 01:28:52,887
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