WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:07.460 Can I start by speaking, very briefly I will be speaking, as an academic, originally a teacher of philosophy and now as you see a university manager, 2 00:00:08.220 --> 00:00:15.300 and thank the organisers of the Festival Ideas for their brilliant idea, and also thank you audience for turning out and supporting the Festival. 3 00:00:16.180 --> 00:00:24.100 Adelaide, as we know, is blessed with a wonderful climate for sports and all kinds of physical activities, with wine and food of outstanding quality and a lively arts community. 4 00:00:24.100 --> 00:00:32.360 We also have an excellent schooling system and three good universities, and these provide a solid social infrastructure for the development of ideas. 5 00:00:33.100 --> 00:00:38.680 It's a very good thing that we are celebrating the intellectual dimension of life in Adelaide in this Festival. 6 00:00:39.220 --> 00:00:45.240 Certainly my university and the Bob Hawke Prime Ministerial Centre of the university is very pleased to be associated with this event, 7 00:00:45.340 --> 00:00:53.000 fostering debate as is our mission to do on the development of our democracy, and I think it's an appropriate phrase for this morning, 8 00:00:53.100 --> 00:00:54.000 so it was after. 9 00:00:54.100 --> 00:00:55.780 Good afternoon, I'm sorry, social sustainability. 10 00:00:57.540 --> 00:01:04.520 My role in today's proceedings is to introduce Ms Molly Harris Olsen, the speaker for today's thinking out loud session, 11 00:01:04.840 --> 00:01:08.480 and then to chair a question and answer session following her address. 12 00:01:10.220 --> 00:01:18.360 Ms Olsen is a leading figure in the area of international environmental policy and the development of sustainable strategies for business and government. 13 00:01:19.680 --> 00:01:23.120 As you may have read in our program, she is the director of EcoFutures, 14 00:01:23.120 --> 00:01:24.080 an Australian company that is responsible for the development of sustainable strategies for business and government. 15 00:01:27.200 --> 00:01:34.980 Ms Olsen is also the founder and CEO of the Natural Step, a US non-profit environmental education organisation, 16 00:01:35.300 --> 00:01:42.720 which seeks to create and promote a shared framework for a sustainable society, informed by scientifically based system conditions. 17 00:01:43.440 --> 00:01:51.800 Ms Olsen has also worked in the White House as the inaugural executive director of President Clinton's Council on Sustainable Development. 18 00:01:52.600 --> 00:01:54.080 The Council was a broad range of members, and Ms Olsen is a member of the Council for Sustainable Development, 19 00:01:54.080 --> 00:02:00.360 a groundbreaking partnership of industry, government, environment, labour and civil rights, 20 00:02:01.380 --> 00:02:08.140 dedicated to integrating economic and environmental policies to meet the needs of the present without compromising the future. 21 00:02:09.660 --> 00:02:16.420 Along similar lines, Ms Olsen has recently conducted the inaugural Business Leaders Forum on Sustainable Development in Australia, 22 00:02:17.360 --> 00:02:22.060 bringing together government and business leaders, including the Minister for the Environment, Senator Robert Hill, 23 00:02:22.240 --> 00:02:24.060 and the CEOs of leading corporations. 24 00:02:24.900 --> 00:02:28.580 Minister 25 00:02:39.600 --> 00:02:40.180 Thank you. 26 00:02:45.480 --> 00:02:48.420 It's a terrific pleasure and a privilege to be here in Adelaide today. 27 00:02:48.540 --> 00:02:52.580 And I have to say, I spend a little bit of time traveling 28 00:02:52.580 --> 00:02:56.120 and was just in Europe in sort of eight cities there recently. 29 00:02:56.760 --> 00:02:59.260 Adelaide is one of the most warm and welcoming cities 30 00:02:59.260 --> 00:03:01.720 that I have ever had the opportunity to come to. 31 00:03:01.800 --> 00:03:04.080 And it is always a treat and a pleasure to be here. 32 00:03:07.420 --> 00:03:09.460 What I thought I'd do very briefly today 33 00:03:09.460 --> 00:03:13.860 is envision what a sustainable society would look like. 34 00:03:14.240 --> 00:03:18.240 And I thought we'd start by maybe looking back at the past a little bit, 35 00:03:18.880 --> 00:03:22.060 at the evolution of the planet as we know it today, 36 00:03:22.740 --> 00:03:25.040 talk a little bit about what sustainability is, 37 00:03:25.120 --> 00:03:26.800 and I want to share with you some of those principles 38 00:03:26.800 --> 00:03:29.360 that the natural step in Sweden actually came up with, 39 00:03:29.460 --> 00:03:32.720 and then start to talk a little bit about some examples 40 00:03:32.720 --> 00:03:36.000 that I think will help us all envision a sustainable future. 41 00:03:36.000 --> 00:03:38.100 I want to leave lots of time for questions and answers, 42 00:03:38.240 --> 00:03:41.720 so be thinking as we're going through about your own thoughts and questions. 43 00:03:42.520 --> 00:03:45.520 I'll start with the overhead. 44 00:03:46.660 --> 00:03:48.120 You're welcome to... 45 00:03:48.120 --> 00:03:49.680 Oh, no, no, no, you're comfortable. 46 00:03:49.820 --> 00:03:51.660 I'll be fine walking back and forth. 47 00:03:52.140 --> 00:03:53.260 Un-rehearsed. 48 00:03:53.480 --> 00:03:54.840 This is unrehearsed. 49 00:03:56.560 --> 00:03:59.440 Our planet is billions and billions of years old 50 00:03:59.440 --> 00:04:01.280 and has billions of years yet to go. 51 00:04:02.360 --> 00:04:03.700 Creation goes on. 52 00:04:04.260 --> 00:04:05.820 So let's put us... 53 00:04:06.000 --> 00:04:09.560 our history as a species and our first industrial revolution 54 00:04:09.560 --> 00:04:10.900 in perspective 55 00:04:10.900 --> 00:04:14.100 by compressing all of geologic time 56 00:04:15.060 --> 00:04:16.120 into the form... 57 00:04:16.120 --> 00:04:18.640 which is about 4.5 billion years, by the way, 58 00:04:18.680 --> 00:04:21.960 into the six days of biblical creation. 59 00:04:23.060 --> 00:04:24.720 Now, since this is a little complicated, 60 00:04:24.820 --> 00:04:26.140 I'm going to repeat that for us. 61 00:04:26.340 --> 00:04:28.900 We're going to compress all of geologic time 62 00:04:28.900 --> 00:04:30.980 from the initial formation of the Earth 63 00:04:30.980 --> 00:04:33.980 some 4.5 billion years ago, right up to the present, 64 00:04:34.140 --> 00:04:35.720 into the six days, 65 00:04:36.000 --> 00:04:36.160 and then we're going to compress all of geologic time 66 00:04:36.160 --> 00:04:36.920 which is the first day of biblical creation. 67 00:04:37.660 --> 00:04:40.120 Using that compressed time scale, 68 00:04:40.360 --> 00:04:44.120 one day equals 750 million years. 69 00:04:44.860 --> 00:04:48.660 The Earth is formed out of a solar nebula on the first day. 70 00:04:49.980 --> 00:04:53.140 All day Monday is spent getting geologically organized. 71 00:04:53.680 --> 00:04:56.700 There is no life until Tuesday at noon. 72 00:04:58.480 --> 00:05:03.300 It's right about here on our geologic time scale. 73 00:05:06.000 --> 00:05:08.260 Only life, beginning with the first prokaryotic cell 74 00:05:08.260 --> 00:05:09.700 in the primordial oceans, 75 00:05:09.920 --> 00:05:12.180 lifts itself up by its bootstraps, 76 00:05:13.000 --> 00:05:15.180 survives, and it proliferates 77 00:05:16.120 --> 00:05:17.380 into mind-bending diversity. 78 00:05:18.200 --> 00:05:21.300 Millions upon millions of species come during the week, 79 00:05:21.380 --> 00:05:22.800 and a few million go. 80 00:05:23.900 --> 00:05:25.740 What began as a very hostile environment 81 00:05:26.460 --> 00:05:28.700 gradually is sweetened as each species, 82 00:05:28.840 --> 00:05:30.400 through its metabolic process, 83 00:05:30.660 --> 00:05:33.960 prepares the hostile environment for the next species. 84 00:05:36.000 --> 00:05:39.600 And all of that preceding ourselves here on planet Earth. 85 00:05:39.980 --> 00:05:41.600 About Wednesday at midnight, 86 00:05:41.940 --> 00:05:44.400 photosynthesis gets going into high gear. 87 00:05:45.040 --> 00:05:47.560 Early on Thursday morning in the wee hours, 88 00:05:47.840 --> 00:05:50.000 the first eukaryotic cells appear. 89 00:05:50.660 --> 00:05:52.860 That's the second benchmark there. 90 00:05:53.360 --> 00:05:55.240 We are eukaryotic cells. 91 00:05:55.800 --> 00:05:59.940 Life begins then to flourish and evolve into more complex forms. 92 00:06:00.380 --> 00:06:02.460 By Saturday morning, the sixth day, 93 00:06:02.600 --> 00:06:05.920 there's finally enough oxygen that amphibians, 94 00:06:06.000 --> 00:06:06.860 come onto the land, 95 00:06:07.060 --> 00:06:08.780 and there's enough chlorophyll manufactured 96 00:06:08.780 --> 00:06:11.400 for the fossil fuels to begin to form. 97 00:06:12.040 --> 00:06:13.900 Around four o'clock on Saturday, 98 00:06:14.160 --> 00:06:15.840 the giant reptiles appear. 99 00:06:16.640 --> 00:06:18.200 You can see that just here. 100 00:06:20.920 --> 00:06:23.900 They hang around for a fairly long time as species go, 101 00:06:24.020 --> 00:06:26.520 until about 9.55 p.m. that night. 102 00:06:27.000 --> 00:06:28.420 It's nearly six hours, 103 00:06:29.620 --> 00:06:31.660 and our species should be that lucky. 104 00:06:31.780 --> 00:06:33.440 About 20 minutes after, 105 00:06:34.280 --> 00:06:35.920 at 10.15 p.m., 106 00:06:36.000 --> 00:06:36.520 on Saturday night, 107 00:06:36.620 --> 00:06:37.720 the primates appear. 108 00:06:40.100 --> 00:06:40.780 Australopithecus, 109 00:06:41.020 --> 00:06:43.840 the first species of our branch of the main primate tree, 110 00:06:44.000 --> 00:06:47.140 shows up at about 11.53 p.m. 111 00:06:47.320 --> 00:06:49.180 Only seven minutes to go. 112 00:06:50.040 --> 00:06:55.740 Homo sapiens sapiens arrives at 11.59 p.m. and 54 seconds. 113 00:06:57.000 --> 00:07:00.460 This is arriving on the scene just six seconds ago. 114 00:07:01.780 --> 00:07:03.540 Then the party really begins. 115 00:07:03.740 --> 00:07:05.560 But the party becomes a binge, 116 00:07:06.000 --> 00:07:07.700 and just a little over one second ago, 117 00:07:07.920 --> 00:07:11.240 or 1.2 seconds of our geologic time scale, 118 00:07:12.000 --> 00:07:13.340 we, or at least our forebears, 119 00:07:13.440 --> 00:07:15.300 throw off the habits of hunting and gathering 120 00:07:15.300 --> 00:07:16.720 and become farmers, 121 00:07:16.880 --> 00:07:19.540 and begin to change and sacrifice the environment 122 00:07:19.540 --> 00:07:22.560 to suit and feed our own appetites. 123 00:07:23.220 --> 00:07:25.240 A third of a second to midnight, 124 00:07:25.500 --> 00:07:26.600 Buddha appears. 125 00:07:27.020 --> 00:07:28.900 A quarter of a second to midnight, 126 00:07:29.120 --> 00:07:30.360 Jesus of Nazareth. 127 00:07:30.900 --> 00:07:33.580 One fortieth of a second ago, 128 00:07:33.820 --> 00:07:35.860 the Industrial Revolution begins. 129 00:07:35.860 --> 00:07:38.300 And this ushers in the age of technology. 130 00:07:39.620 --> 00:07:41.640 One eightieth of a second ago, 131 00:07:41.760 --> 00:07:43.180 we discover oil. 132 00:07:44.040 --> 00:07:45.920 And the party really picks up steam. 133 00:07:46.880 --> 00:07:49.060 One two hundredth of a second ago, 134 00:07:49.120 --> 00:07:50.500 we learn how to split the atom. 135 00:07:50.880 --> 00:07:53.100 And the party gets very dangerous indeed. 136 00:07:53.860 --> 00:07:55.000 And now it's midnight, 137 00:07:55.280 --> 00:07:57.480 the beginning of the seventh day. 138 00:07:58.060 --> 00:07:59.760 The Union of Concerned Scientists, 139 00:07:59.880 --> 00:08:01.220 numbering some 2,000, 140 00:08:01.240 --> 00:08:03.280 including more than 100 Nobel laureates, 141 00:08:03.860 --> 00:08:05.840 tell us that we have one to a few thousand 142 00:08:05.840 --> 00:08:06.020 of the two decades 143 00:08:06.020 --> 00:08:08.260 to reverse our current course. 144 00:08:08.760 --> 00:08:09.820 In other words, 145 00:08:10.000 --> 00:08:12.800 the next two hundredth of a second 146 00:08:12.800 --> 00:08:14.000 will be decisive. 147 00:08:15.200 --> 00:08:17.880 In the time since we learned to split the atom, 148 00:08:18.100 --> 00:08:20.360 that short span of time, 149 00:08:20.500 --> 00:08:22.380 projected forward, not backward, 150 00:08:22.600 --> 00:08:24.180 will decide our fate. 151 00:08:25.080 --> 00:08:27.280 God can afford to rest on the seventh day, 152 00:08:27.400 --> 00:08:29.080 but I'm afraid that we cannot. 153 00:08:32.620 --> 00:08:33.460 Now, um, 154 00:08:35.420 --> 00:08:37.440 hopefully this is not what we're doing today, 155 00:08:37.580 --> 00:08:39.820 but I thought I'd put it up anyway. 156 00:08:40.840 --> 00:08:42.180 This is a Larson cartoon, 157 00:08:42.500 --> 00:08:43.640 and as you can see it says, 158 00:08:43.780 --> 00:08:45.800 the picture's pretty bleak, gentlemen. 159 00:08:45.880 --> 00:08:47.200 The world's climates are changing, 160 00:08:47.400 --> 00:08:48.340 mammals are taking over, 161 00:08:48.460 --> 00:08:50.440 and we all have a brain about the size of a walnut. 162 00:08:51.400 --> 00:08:53.220 Now we know what happened to the dinosaur, 163 00:08:53.420 --> 00:08:54.540 um, dinosaurs. 164 00:08:55.680 --> 00:08:57.340 I heard a joke the other day, 165 00:08:57.380 --> 00:08:59.680 which you might think is funny and you might not, 166 00:08:59.780 --> 00:09:00.920 but I thought I would share it with you. 167 00:09:00.920 --> 00:09:03.400 There were two planets talking to each other, 168 00:09:03.460 --> 00:09:04.820 and one of them said to the other, 169 00:09:05.600 --> 00:09:06.380 how are ya? 170 00:09:06.540 --> 00:09:08.420 Oh, you know, I'm not so well lately. 171 00:09:08.520 --> 00:09:09.840 I've had a terrible rash. 172 00:09:10.520 --> 00:09:12.680 The other planet said, oh, you know, what is it? 173 00:09:12.700 --> 00:09:15.460 He said, well, it's called Homo sapiens sapien. 174 00:09:15.660 --> 00:09:18.440 The other planet said, oh, it's okay, I had that. 175 00:09:18.480 --> 00:09:19.520 It doesn't last very long. 176 00:09:26.840 --> 00:09:28.200 Now, we can laugh at this, 177 00:09:28.220 --> 00:09:30.340 but of course our hope is, 178 00:09:30.340 --> 00:09:32.340 and with Adelaide's Festival of Ideas 179 00:09:32.960 --> 00:09:35.040 and many initiatives happening all around the world, 180 00:09:35.080 --> 00:09:37.060 we hope to avoid just that very fate. 181 00:09:37.900 --> 00:09:40.180 But what I think is important to note 182 00:09:40.180 --> 00:09:42.900 is that we really are at a historic juncture. 183 00:09:43.540 --> 00:09:46.160 We face today a situation where, 184 00:09:46.180 --> 00:09:48.220 for the very first time in human history, 185 00:09:49.000 --> 00:09:53.040 our systems are needing to be rethought. 186 00:09:53.240 --> 00:09:55.300 We face a situation, for instance, 187 00:09:55.420 --> 00:09:57.440 where the limits to prosperity are not 188 00:09:57.440 --> 00:10:00.220 a lack of human capital. 189 00:10:00.900 --> 00:10:03.240 But they are a lack of natural capital. 190 00:10:03.760 --> 00:10:06.040 When we started the Industrial Revolution, 191 00:10:06.220 --> 00:10:08.620 we had a situation where we had a very small population 192 00:10:08.620 --> 00:10:13.360 and we had fairly vast amounts in those terms of resources 193 00:10:13.360 --> 00:10:15.440 and very low rates of consumption. 194 00:10:16.120 --> 00:10:18.240 But today we see a reverse of that. 195 00:10:18.360 --> 00:10:20.380 We have increasingly diminished 196 00:10:20.380 --> 00:10:22.640 environment capacities and natural resources 197 00:10:22.640 --> 00:10:24.260 and we have an ever-increasing population, 198 00:10:24.400 --> 00:10:25.180 as we all know. 199 00:10:25.680 --> 00:10:28.420 So we find today that the limits, for instance, 200 00:10:28.520 --> 00:10:30.200 to fish harvests, are not the same. 201 00:10:30.220 --> 00:10:31.380 They are not boats or the capital 202 00:10:31.380 --> 00:10:32.740 to actually go out and catch fish, 203 00:10:32.900 --> 00:10:34.520 but productive fisheries. 204 00:10:34.580 --> 00:10:36.520 Almost all of the world's fisheries now 205 00:10:36.520 --> 00:10:39.500 are either in serious condition or in steady decline. 206 00:10:40.080 --> 00:10:42.900 The limits to irrigation are not pumps or electricity. 207 00:10:43.200 --> 00:10:45.520 We've got plenty of infrastructure 208 00:10:45.520 --> 00:10:46.820 to provide electricity. 209 00:10:47.120 --> 00:10:51.380 But viable aquifers are in some danger 210 00:10:51.380 --> 00:10:52.880 and in many parts. 211 00:10:53.040 --> 00:10:54.540 And in fact, South Australia knows well 212 00:10:54.540 --> 00:10:56.040 the difficulties and challenges of water. 213 00:10:56.740 --> 00:10:58.440 The limits to pulp and paper 214 00:10:58.440 --> 00:11:01.320 are not paper mills, but forests. 215 00:11:02.460 --> 00:11:04.880 And we see these signs of challenges 216 00:11:04.880 --> 00:11:06.200 also in the social arena. 217 00:11:06.440 --> 00:11:09.740 In the United States, crime is about 7% 218 00:11:09.740 --> 00:11:11.340 of the gross national product. 219 00:11:11.600 --> 00:11:14.120 And it rose between 1990 and 1994 220 00:11:14.120 --> 00:11:16.400 by some 34%. 221 00:11:18.020 --> 00:11:20.500 The cost of incarceration is about the same 222 00:11:20.500 --> 00:11:21.340 as a Harvard education, 223 00:11:21.780 --> 00:11:23.640 but as I've said to some of you before, 224 00:11:23.840 --> 00:11:25.400 the main difference is the curriculum. 225 00:11:26.060 --> 00:11:26.620 . 226 00:11:27.900 --> 00:11:29.660 Overall, in the United States, 227 00:11:29.740 --> 00:11:31.660 crime costs about $450 billion. 228 00:11:32.060 --> 00:11:34.300 I don't know the exact figures for Australia, 229 00:11:34.420 --> 00:11:36.360 but I'm sure they are quite substantial. 230 00:11:37.140 --> 00:11:39.200 Now, all of us, of course, want to live 231 00:11:39.200 --> 00:11:40.980 in an ecologically sustainable world. 232 00:11:41.180 --> 00:11:44.060 But the widening gap between the rich and the poor 233 00:11:44.060 --> 00:11:46.320 is creating a situation where today 234 00:11:46.320 --> 00:11:49.060 we find it's increasingly difficult 235 00:11:49.060 --> 00:11:51.000 for humanity to maintain 236 00:11:51.000 --> 00:11:53.160 any kind of sustainable lifestyle. 237 00:11:53.860 --> 00:11:56.600 The wealthiest of us consume about $1 billion 238 00:11:56.600 --> 00:11:56.940 of food, and the wealthiest of us, 239 00:11:56.940 --> 00:11:58.540 well, the wealthiest 20% of us, 240 00:11:58.540 --> 00:12:01.800 consume about 45% of all meat and all fish, 241 00:12:02.000 --> 00:12:04.920 about 58% of all energy in the world today, 242 00:12:05.220 --> 00:12:08.960 74% of all phones, and I think it's probably higher than that 243 00:12:08.960 --> 00:12:10.260 for mobile phones here in Australia, 244 00:12:10.480 --> 00:12:13.420 and 87% of all vehicles are consumed 245 00:12:13.420 --> 00:12:16.940 only by the top 20% of the world's population. 246 00:12:17.740 --> 00:12:19.780 Our consumption rates have increased 247 00:12:19.780 --> 00:12:22.420 six times since the 1950s. 248 00:12:22.580 --> 00:12:25.100 And at the same time, the rest of humanity's 249 00:12:25.100 --> 00:12:26.320 have declined substantially, 250 00:12:26.600 --> 00:12:29.600 to the point where subsistence is not even able 251 00:12:30.140 --> 00:12:33.060 to be achieved, much less effective livelihoods. 252 00:12:33.660 --> 00:12:38.380 It would only take today 0.1% of the world's income 253 00:12:38.380 --> 00:12:42.540 to pay for education, nutrition, health, family planning, 254 00:12:42.680 --> 00:12:46.000 water and sanitation for all of the world's population. 255 00:12:46.600 --> 00:12:49.600 And this accounts to about the budget that we use today 256 00:12:49.600 --> 00:12:52.060 in Europe and the US for pet food and perfume. 257 00:12:52.800 --> 00:12:56.100 So I think we have a situation where we obviously 258 00:12:56.100 --> 00:12:58.220 have got to rethink our priorities. 259 00:12:59.300 --> 00:13:01.300 And a lot of this is a question of perception. 260 00:13:01.600 --> 00:13:04.040 And I don't know how many of you have ever read the book 261 00:13:04.040 --> 00:13:05.280 Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, 262 00:13:05.420 --> 00:13:07.980 but whenever I think about the challenges that we have 263 00:13:07.980 --> 00:13:10.540 in really recognizing and perceiving our environment 264 00:13:10.540 --> 00:13:12.260 and our situation as it really is today, 265 00:13:13.000 --> 00:13:14.480 I think about this quote. 266 00:13:14.620 --> 00:13:17.160 And I think the fact that we're only having to give up 267 00:13:17.160 --> 00:13:20.100 a little bit of pet food and perfume to feed and provide 268 00:13:20.660 --> 00:13:22.380 health and sanitation for the rest of the world 269 00:13:22.380 --> 00:13:23.900 provides a good example of that. 270 00:13:24.240 --> 00:13:25.480 This is from Douglas Adams, 271 00:13:25.480 --> 00:13:27.440 Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and he says, 272 00:13:27.600 --> 00:13:30.780 It's an important and popular fact that things are not always 273 00:13:30.780 --> 00:13:31.580 what they seem. 274 00:13:31.980 --> 00:13:35.140 For instance, on planet Earth, man had always assumed 275 00:13:35.140 --> 00:13:36.680 that he was more intelligent than dolphins 276 00:13:36.680 --> 00:13:38.360 because he had achieved so much. 277 00:13:38.660 --> 00:13:41.160 The wheel, New York, wars, and so on. 278 00:13:41.460 --> 00:13:43.760 Whilst all the dolphins had ever done was muck about 279 00:13:43.760 --> 00:13:45.200 in the water having a good time. 280 00:13:45.900 --> 00:13:48.340 But conversely, the dolphins had always believed 281 00:13:48.340 --> 00:13:50.340 that they were far more intelligent than man 282 00:13:50.340 --> 00:13:52.080 for precisely the same reasons. 283 00:13:54.540 --> 00:13:55.460 Now, I think that's a good question. 284 00:13:55.460 --> 00:13:57.940 I think as we start to envision what a sustainable society 285 00:13:57.940 --> 00:13:59.960 would look like, it's important to think about 286 00:14:01.200 --> 00:14:04.460 what kind of principles would drive this sort of change. 287 00:14:04.720 --> 00:14:06.500 And we have to really think about this, I think, 288 00:14:06.500 --> 00:14:08.820 in the same way that we think about the transition 289 00:14:08.820 --> 00:14:10.820 from the agricultural to the industrial revolution. 290 00:14:11.180 --> 00:14:13.600 When we were in the middle of the first industrial revolution, 291 00:14:13.820 --> 00:14:15.460 nobody called it the industrial revolution. 292 00:14:15.640 --> 00:14:17.420 We just knew that we were sort of shifting away 293 00:14:17.420 --> 00:14:19.820 from the horse and buggy and from sort of 294 00:14:19.820 --> 00:14:22.040 a specifically agricultural-based economy 295 00:14:22.040 --> 00:14:23.860 to a more industrial-based economy. 296 00:14:24.380 --> 00:14:26.800 And one thing that I found extremely useful 297 00:14:27.440 --> 00:14:29.440 is a set of principles that have been developed 298 00:14:29.440 --> 00:14:31.160 by a group of Swedish scientists. 299 00:14:31.540 --> 00:14:35.120 And it's a set of principles that I think would be helpful 300 00:14:35.120 --> 00:14:36.200 to share with us today. 301 00:14:37.300 --> 00:14:42.160 Because I think they provide gist for the ideas, 302 00:14:42.280 --> 00:14:43.060 Mill, if you will. 303 00:14:45.440 --> 00:14:47.640 Now, I'll try to paint a little bit of a framework, 304 00:14:47.740 --> 00:14:49.520 if I could, before we jump into those. 305 00:14:49.580 --> 00:14:53.840 This is the way that the natural sciences 306 00:14:53.860 --> 00:14:55.960 and the first step creates a sort of picture 307 00:14:55.960 --> 00:14:57.600 of the problem that we face today. 308 00:14:57.900 --> 00:14:59.920 I mentioned the decline in living systems 309 00:14:59.920 --> 00:15:01.060 and the increase in population. 310 00:15:01.480 --> 00:15:04.800 Well, if we think about this as the way the world is today, 311 00:15:05.420 --> 00:15:08.780 we also realize that we have a small margin here of action. 312 00:15:08.920 --> 00:15:11.760 We don't know whether in this last two hundredth of a second 313 00:15:11.760 --> 00:15:13.480 we're going to be able to reverse the current course. 314 00:15:13.720 --> 00:15:16.640 But we know that there is some kind of a margin for action. 315 00:15:17.040 --> 00:15:19.580 And at the same time, we also know that there is 316 00:15:19.580 --> 00:15:23.100 an accelerating population, which is measured by not just the numbers, 317 00:15:23.100 --> 00:15:25.020 but by affluence in technology. 318 00:15:25.180 --> 00:15:28.080 For example, Australians consume about eighty times 319 00:15:28.080 --> 00:15:30.260 the amount of resources that a sub-Saharan African, 320 00:15:30.420 --> 00:15:31.380 on average, would consume. 321 00:15:32.600 --> 00:15:35.440 And the decline in living systems is quite measurable. 322 00:15:35.660 --> 00:15:38.780 And we, unfortunately, are confronted with that every day. 323 00:15:39.800 --> 00:15:43.260 But we also have to think about the fact that the nature 324 00:15:43.260 --> 00:15:46.080 of our environmental problems has changed quite dramatically 325 00:15:46.080 --> 00:15:47.460 in the last twenty-five years. 326 00:15:48.580 --> 00:15:51.020 We initially, when we looked, for instance, at the environment, 327 00:15:51.560 --> 00:15:53.060 had a situation where there were 328 00:15:53.100 --> 00:15:54.380 a few local problems. 329 00:15:56.620 --> 00:15:59.660 A chemical company would spill something into the river 330 00:15:59.660 --> 00:16:01.440 and the fish would die, and you could immediately connect 331 00:16:01.440 --> 00:16:03.960 the cause and effect of that situation. 332 00:16:04.400 --> 00:16:08.360 There were a few sources and a very short time delay 333 00:16:08.360 --> 00:16:11.840 and a relatively low level of complexity of the system. 334 00:16:12.120 --> 00:16:15.860 We now have a situation where most of our environmental problems 335 00:16:15.860 --> 00:16:16.520 are global. 336 00:16:16.760 --> 00:16:18.720 There are issues like the hole in the ozone layer, 337 00:16:18.920 --> 00:16:22.780 the climate changing, land-based sources of marine pollution, 338 00:16:22.780 --> 00:16:25.660 coral reefs dying because of coral bleaching 339 00:16:25.660 --> 00:16:27.660 that is very difficult to understand. 340 00:16:28.260 --> 00:16:31.380 And so they're global problems and they're highly diffuse. 341 00:16:31.600 --> 00:16:33.620 It's not as if you can go to one factory and say, 342 00:16:33.680 --> 00:16:35.020 well, this is what's causing the problem. 343 00:16:35.320 --> 00:16:37.760 They're very diffuse sources of the problem. 344 00:16:38.000 --> 00:16:40.880 And there are very long time delays between the cause 345 00:16:40.880 --> 00:16:44.140 and effect understanding, even if we can understand that 346 00:16:44.140 --> 00:16:44.680 in the long run. 347 00:16:44.720 --> 00:16:48.200 For example, the case I like to use is that the gentleman 348 00:16:48.200 --> 00:16:52.760 who got the Nobel Prize for developing DDT did so about 60 years ago. 349 00:16:52.780 --> 00:16:54.300 And that's about 60 years before it was banned in California. 350 00:16:54.640 --> 00:16:58.300 Now that's a very long time delay between our recognition 351 00:16:58.300 --> 00:17:00.960 of something as a great contribution to mankind 352 00:17:00.960 --> 00:17:03.440 and before we actually have to start banning it 353 00:17:03.440 --> 00:17:05.800 in our countries around the world. 354 00:17:06.020 --> 00:17:08.260 So we've gone from a situation with low complexity 355 00:17:08.260 --> 00:17:11.000 to a situation of very, very high complexity. 356 00:17:12.440 --> 00:17:15.640 Now assuming if we're to envision what a sustainable society 357 00:17:15.640 --> 00:17:19.880 would look like, if we could identify a set of principles 358 00:17:19.880 --> 00:17:22.200 that would help us to reach some kind of an equilibrium, 359 00:17:22.780 --> 00:17:24.840 it would be a very, very valuable thing. 360 00:17:25.080 --> 00:17:29.060 Because we could then open this funnel up so that we're not 361 00:17:29.060 --> 00:17:31.680 at risk of crossing, if you will. 362 00:17:32.560 --> 00:17:36.380 And if we could define those principles, we could not only reach 363 00:17:36.380 --> 00:17:39.600 a sort of equilibrium between the ability of planet Earth 364 00:17:39.600 --> 00:17:42.720 to provide for our needs and our increasing demands 365 00:17:42.720 --> 00:17:46.580 on the ability of the Earth to provide those needs, 366 00:17:46.700 --> 00:17:49.760 we could actually get to a place where we not only are in equilibrium 367 00:17:49.760 --> 00:17:52.760 but where we're creating what I like to call a restorative 368 00:17:52.780 --> 00:17:56.680 society, where our development and economic prosperity 369 00:17:56.680 --> 00:17:59.840 actually doesn't just not damage the environment, 370 00:17:59.920 --> 00:18:02.500 but it actually helps to restore the environment. 371 00:18:02.820 --> 00:18:06.260 And the example that I like to use about that is a colleague of mine 372 00:18:06.260 --> 00:18:11.600 by the name of Bill McDonough was engaged by a Swiss factory 373 00:18:11.600 --> 00:18:13.380 who was having a lot of difficulties. 374 00:18:13.480 --> 00:18:14.620 It was an upholstery factory. 375 00:18:14.860 --> 00:18:18.420 And in Switzerland, they have very strong environmental laws, 376 00:18:18.540 --> 00:18:22.160 and the offcuts from the fabrics in this upholstery factory 377 00:18:22.160 --> 00:18:25.000 could not be disposed of in the local landfill 378 00:18:25.000 --> 00:18:26.720 because they were considered hazardous waste. 379 00:18:27.420 --> 00:18:30.360 Well, it begs the question, of course, why are we sitting on those things? 380 00:18:30.620 --> 00:18:35.420 But that question aside, he helped them design a system 381 00:18:35.420 --> 00:18:39.420 whereby not only did they design the fabrics so that they were 382 00:18:39.420 --> 00:18:42.240 no longer considered hazardous waste and they could be, in fact, 383 00:18:42.280 --> 00:18:46.160 disposed of in the local landfill, but they also, in the end, 384 00:18:46.160 --> 00:18:49.040 after they'd finished this design, the water coming out of the plant 385 00:18:49.040 --> 00:18:52.000 was actually cleaner than the water going into the plant. 386 00:18:52.160 --> 00:18:54.000 So if you ask the employees, what would you rather drink, 387 00:18:54.080 --> 00:18:56.540 the water coming into this factory or the water coming out, 388 00:18:56.660 --> 00:18:59.420 for the first time, I think it must be in the history of the planet, 389 00:18:59.480 --> 00:19:02.280 they said, oh, we'd much rather drink the water coming out of our factory. 390 00:19:02.680 --> 00:19:06.740 And I think that's a good example of the ability of society 391 00:19:06.740 --> 00:19:09.800 to actually become much more restorative so that we're creating 392 00:19:09.800 --> 00:19:12.820 economic prosperity not at the expense of the environment 393 00:19:12.820 --> 00:19:15.360 but we're able to restore it at the same time. 394 00:19:16.620 --> 00:19:21.340 Now, in order to get their head around developing a set of principles, 395 00:19:22.160 --> 00:19:25.660 the Swedish scientists decided to get together and try to figure out 396 00:19:25.660 --> 00:19:26.740 what they could agree on. 397 00:19:27.000 --> 00:19:30.760 And their primary purpose was really to define what is the system 398 00:19:30.760 --> 00:19:34.880 of planet Earth and what is it that cannot be violated 399 00:19:34.880 --> 00:19:38.160 if we're going to sustain life in this system. 400 00:19:38.600 --> 00:19:42.380 And they did that by looking at some very basic scientific principles 401 00:19:42.380 --> 00:19:44.860