English subtitles for clip: File:How is our sick planet making us sick.webm

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it should come as no surprise to you

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that our planet is in a very bad

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shape and i'm going to tell you how that

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is also

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affecting our health how is our sick

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planet

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making us sick

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this is the university of the

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netherlands

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many of us take nature for granted

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we see flowers blooming and we don't

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think twice

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about it but for every flower that

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blooms

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and every fruit that we eat there are

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pollinators

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bees at work we take the rain for

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granted

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but that rain makes our garden and farms

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lush and green all these flowers

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fruits and rain allow us to live

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healthy lives contribute to our

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welfare and well-being and even inspire

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our art and sciences

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so nature is valuable

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and the question is should we put an

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economic

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price on nature so what is the value of

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nature

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scientists have seen that if you look at

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nature and value it for the year 2007

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it is worth 125 trillion

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us dollars for the year 2007

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and in that year it was worth more than

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twice

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the global gross domestic product

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so although we depend on nature

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we're also destroying nature

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and this is sad because the sick

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planet makes us sick

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let me explain how sick our planet is

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now our planet is actually an

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interlinked

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system with land and water and oceans

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all

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interconnected but it's easier to

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explain the story

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by talking about atmosphere biodiversity

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oceans land and water

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now if you look at atmosphere the

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biggest problem is climate change

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already the average global

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temperature has increased by one degree

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centigrade in relation to pre-industrial

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times

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and this means that the glaciers are

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melting

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the sea level is rising the hydrological

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patterns of rainfall are changing

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and we are exposed to extreme weather

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events in terms of

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atmosphere we also have two other

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problems

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urban air pollution and rural household

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pollution many cities across the world

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are

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choked because of the environmental

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pollution

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in those cities at the same time

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rural households in developing countries

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often use traditional stoves

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to cook their food and this basically

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means that they are exposing themselves

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to households air pollution

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if you look at biodiversity we are in

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the middle

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of the sixth worst extinction event

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all kinds of species are dying out

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we are overfishing our oceans

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our bees are affected all kinds of large

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animals are being pushed out

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and not only that because

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the oceans are also affected by

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climate change this means that the

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breeding grounds for

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fish are being affected so not only are

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we

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overfishing but climate change will have

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an impact on the fish populations

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and of course our oceans have turned

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into a plastic soup

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because all our plastic eventually ends

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up

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in these oceans and if you look at

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land land is increasingly being

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degraded we keep deforesting land

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in order to grow plants for biofuels

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or for our meat industry or for exotic

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plants

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that we want to buy from far-off places

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and this basically means that we take

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more out of the land

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than we put back into the land and that

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leads to the degradation

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of the existing land if you look at

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water well we are taking out clean water

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and throwing

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out dirty water we are taking out water

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from

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under the ground faster than it can be

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replenished by rain water

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and this often leads land to sink as a

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consequence

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the bottom line is that climate change

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and biodiversity

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are two areas in which we are crossing

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planetary boundaries and this

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makes our planet sick which affects us

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if you look at climate change and just

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take the example of extreme

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weather events between 2005 and 2015

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seven million people died as a

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consequence of extreme weather events

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and 1.7 billion people

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were affected by this if you look at air

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pollution

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well urban air pollution and household

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air pollution

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cause about 7 million people to die

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annually

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water pollution causes 1.4

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million people to die annually land

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degradation

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affects 3.2 billion people

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their lives and their livelihoods so

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how do we solve the problem of a sick

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planet to solve this problem

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we need to understand the direct and the

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indirect

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causes of a sick planet i

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identify three direct causes

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first the energy system many of us

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use fossil fuels in our houses

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and in our cars and this

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leads to the emission of greenhouse

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gases

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which is responsible for the climate

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change problem

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second the food system many of us

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like to eat meat and fish and exotic

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products from all

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parts of the world moreover

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we throw one third of our food

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away and this creates a huge

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impact on the planetary system third

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the resource use and disposal system

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most of us like to buy all kinds of new

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products

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and each product implies that you are

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taking resources from nature

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and dumping waste on nature

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these three direct causes are embedded

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within four larger indirect

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structural causes first

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population we expect that the global

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growth of population will reach around

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10 billion

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and of course each person implies an

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additional pressure on the planet a

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second

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indirect course is our focus

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on gross domestic product or national

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income

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each society wants to produce more sell

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more consume more and the more we want

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to produce

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sell and consume the more resources we

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need for

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nature and the more we dump onto nature

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third technology technology is

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absolutely essential for making life

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more

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pleasurable but at the same time

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technology

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also contributes to destroying nature

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for example technology helps us kill

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pests that is very important if we want

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to grow

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food and that food is important for food

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security

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however this use of

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pesticide also kills those bees

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not only that pesticide residues on our

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apples and fruit

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also cause harm to our own human health

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a fourth indirect

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driver or cause is urbanization

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more people are moving from rural areas

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to urban

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areas now on the one hand this is good

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because

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maybe we live in a compact area in a

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city

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and there are economies of scale in

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our use of public transport or access to

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health services

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but an urban lifestyle also

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brings aspirations and those aspirations

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may

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lead us to want to buy more products

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have greater demands for recreation

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facilities

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and we want to travel more so in many

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ways

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urbanization also has a huge impact on

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the environment

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so we have a sick planet

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with consequences for our health but if

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we look

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at the current policies these are

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nowhere in line

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with trying to achieve a healthy planet

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for healthy people

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now of course there are a whole lot of

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small

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win-win solutions available

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but in order to protect the planet

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we need structural change and is this

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possible

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i would argue that if we all put our

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minds to it

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then individually and jointly we can

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make

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the change that is necessary

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if you look at ourselves individually we

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could change

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our consumption patterns now of course

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most people worldwide do not consume

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much but those of us who are wealthy

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we could make a huge difference but is

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it enough

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to save our planet in order to save our

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planet we need to do much

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more and the problem is that there is

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some degree of political and economic

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resistance to such change and this

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is related to three big challenges

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first if rich producers

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and rich consumers produce and consume

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less

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this might have an impact on national

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income and this is something that many

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governments would be reluctant

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to encourage national governments are

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very focused on

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ensuring that national income goes up

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in the end it's all about money

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and this really requires us to rethink

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the way we calculate our cross domestic

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product

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our income and the way our societies

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are structured second

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it is not possible to recycle

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energy food recycling is very difficult

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and most other products can be partially

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recycled

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third if you look at the totality of our

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resources

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let's take land where land is limited

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you take fresh water fresh water is

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limited

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many strategic minerals like phosphorus

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are also

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limited and at this current moment we

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are using

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almost one and a half times our earth

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if we were to actually reduce our

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consumption

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of resources from our earth in line with

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what

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is possible and within the carrying

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capacity of the earth

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this would require us to share resources

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sharing becomes even more important in a

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world

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where one percent of the world owns as

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much

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as the remaining 99 percent we will need

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to make

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rules regarding how we share the earth

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these three problems require us to focus

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on structural change but clearly

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powerful actors will not be quite so

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willing to accept this message

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one of the problems here is that most

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national leaders in democratic societies

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are in power for only four to five years

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and this basically means that they do

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not

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have a long-term vision

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the chief executive officers of the

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fortune 500 companies

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are mostly ceos for only a period of

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three to four years

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so they too don't have a long-term

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vision

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now while non-governmental organizations

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may have a long-term vision

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they do not have the resources to push

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for change

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and as a consequence we are seeing the

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rise of social movements

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extinction rebellion fridays for future

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and

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thousands of other smaller social

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movements

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are moving worldwide to change policies

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in relation to the environment and they

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are demanding

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social and ecological justice

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at the start of this lecture i focused

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on the question

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how is our sick planet making

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us sick think back to the billions of

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people

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that have suffered as a consequence of

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an

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unhealthy planet think also of the

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number of small things we can all do

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eat less meat use public transport

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use the pi cycle but

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all these small things together may not

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be enough so we also have to push for

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bigger things

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we have to push for and demand a

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change in the economic system because in

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the end

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we need a healthy planet for all to live

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a healthy

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life thank you

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you