0:00:01.120,0:00:04.160 I'd like you to imagine the world anew. 0:00:05.840,0:00:08.016 I'd like to show you some maps, 0:00:08.039,0:00:10.776 which have been drawn by Ben Hennig, 0:00:10.800,0:00:12.496 of the planet in a way 0:00:12.520,0:00:17.600 that most of you will never[br]have seen the planet depicted before. 0:00:18.480,0:00:21.560 Here's an image[br]that you're very familiar with. 0:00:22.480,0:00:26.536 I'm old enough that I was actually born[br]before we saw this image. 0:00:26.560,0:00:29.136 Apparently some of my first words[br]were "moona, moona," 0:00:29.160,0:00:32.256 but I think that's my mom[br]having a particular fantasy 0:00:32.280,0:00:34.536 about what her baby boy could see 0:00:34.560,0:00:37.840 on the flickering[br]black and white TV screen. 0:00:39.680,0:00:41.296 It's only been a few centuries 0:00:41.320,0:00:44.560 since we've actually, most of us,[br]thought of our planet as spherical. 0:00:46.160,0:00:49.216 When we first saw[br]these images in the 1960s, 0:00:49.240,0:00:52.520 the world was changing[br]at an incredible rate. 0:00:54.320,0:00:57.640 In my own little discipline[br]of human geography, 0:00:58.600,0:01:01.336 a cartographer called Waldo Tobler 0:01:01.360,0:01:03.896 was drawing new maps of the planet, 0:01:03.920,0:01:05.416 and these maps have now spread, 0:01:05.440,0:01:07.447 and I'm going to show you one of them now. 0:01:08.200,0:01:10.680 This map is a map of the world, 0:01:11.720,0:01:14.136 but it's a map which looks to you 0:01:14.160,0:01:15.600 a little bit strange. 0:01:16.200,0:01:20.016 It's a map in which we stretched places, 0:01:20.040,0:01:24.736 so that those areas which contain[br]many people are drawn larger, 0:01:24.760,0:01:27.696 and those areas,[br]like the Sahara and the Himalayas, 0:01:27.720,0:01:30.200 in which there are few people,[br]have been shrunk away. 0:01:30.760,0:01:34.400 Everybody on the planet[br]is given an equal amount of space. 0:01:35.120,0:01:37.960 The cities are shown shining bright. 0:01:38.680,0:01:42.256 The lines are showing you[br]submarine cables and trade routes. 0:01:42.280,0:01:45.936 And there's one particular line[br]that goes from the Chinese port of Dalian 0:01:45.960,0:01:47.656 through past Singapore, 0:01:47.680,0:01:49.416 through the Suez Canal, 0:01:49.440,0:01:51.776 through the Mediterranean[br]and round to Rotterdam. 0:01:51.800,0:01:53.296 And it's showing you the route 0:01:53.320,0:01:57.256 of what was the world's[br]largest ship just a year ago, 0:01:57.280,0:02:03.296 a ship which was taking[br]so many containers of goods 0:02:03.320,0:02:05.176 that when they were unloaded, 0:02:05.200,0:02:09.440 if the lorries had all gone in convoy,[br]they would have been 100 kilometers long. 0:02:10.680,0:02:13.416 This is how our world is now connected. 0:02:13.440,0:02:19.416 This is the quantity of stuff[br]we are now moving around the world, 0:02:19.440,0:02:22.176 just on one ship, on one voyage, 0:02:22.200,0:02:23.400 in five weeks. 0:02:26.320,0:02:28.840 We've lived in cities[br]for a very long time, 0:02:29.640,0:02:31.856 but most of us didn't live in cities. 0:02:31.880,0:02:35.016 This is Çatalhöyük,[br]one of the world's first cities. 0:02:35.040,0:02:38.280 At its peak 9,000 years ago, 0:02:39.160,0:02:45.360 people had to walk over the roofs[br]of others' houses to get to their home. 0:02:46.080,0:02:49.376 If you look carefully[br]at the map of the city, 0:02:49.400,0:02:51.320 you'll see it has no streets, 0:02:52.280,0:02:54.960 because streets are something we invented. 0:02:55.760,0:02:57.976 The world changes. 0:02:58.000,0:02:59.880 It changes by trial and error. 0:03:01.400,0:03:04.296 We work out slowly and gradually 0:03:04.320,0:03:06.120 how to live in better ways. 0:03:07.480,0:03:12.480 And the world has changed[br]incredibly quickly most recently. 0:03:13.600,0:03:17.536 It's only within the last six,[br]seven, or eight generations 0:03:17.560,0:03:20.640 that we have actually realized[br]that we are a species. 0:03:21.840,0:03:24.400 It's only within the last few decades 0:03:25.240,0:03:28.000 that a map like this could be drawn. 0:03:30.240,0:03:34.440 Again, the underlying map[br]is the map of world population, 0:03:35.560,0:03:41.216 but over it, you're seeing arrows[br]showing how we spread out of Africa 0:03:41.240,0:03:45.016 with dates showing you[br]where we think we arrived 0:03:45.040,0:03:46.800 at particular times. 0:03:47.680,0:03:51.536 I have to redraw this map[br]every few months, 0:03:51.560,0:03:56.536 because somebody makes a discovery[br]that a particular date was wrong. 0:03:56.560,0:04:01.080 We are learning about ourselves[br]at an incredible speed. 0:04:03.600,0:04:04.800 And we're changing. 0:04:06.640,0:04:08.896 A lot of change is gradual. 0:04:08.920,0:04:10.416 It's accretion. 0:04:10.440,0:04:13.296 We don't notice the change 0:04:13.320,0:04:15.136 because we only have short lives, 0:04:15.160,0:04:17.760 70, 80, if you're lucky 90 years. 0:04:18.560,0:04:20.576 This graph is showing you 0:04:20.600,0:04:23.320 the annual rate of population[br]growth in the world. 0:04:24.120,0:04:28.056 It was very low until around about 1850, 0:04:28.080,0:04:30.696 and then the rate of population growth 0:04:30.720,0:04:31.960 began to rise 0:04:32.840,0:04:34.856 so that around the time I was born, 0:04:34.880,0:04:39.600 when we first saw those images[br]from the moon of our planet, 0:04:40.640,0:04:44.000 our global population[br]was growing at two percent a year. 0:04:45.440,0:04:49.400 If it had carried on growing[br]at two percent a year 0:04:50.600,0:04:53.440 for just another couple of centuries, 0:04:54.560,0:04:56.816 the entire planet would be covered 0:04:56.840,0:04:59.896 with a seething mass of human bodies 0:04:59.920,0:05:01.960 all touching each other. 0:05:03.000,0:05:04.816 And people were scared. 0:05:04.840,0:05:06.656 They were scared of population growth 0:05:06.680,0:05:10.016 and what they called[br]"the population bomb" in 1968. 0:05:10.040,0:05:12.240 But then, if you look[br]at the end of the graph, 0:05:13.240,0:05:15.840 the growth began to slow. 0:05:16.720,0:05:18.096 The decade -- 0:05:18.120,0:05:21.576 the '70s, the '80s,[br]the '90s, the noughties, 0:05:21.600,0:05:23.840 and in this decade, even faster -- 0:05:24.600,0:05:26.216 our population growth is slowing. 0:05:26.240,0:05:27.496 Our planet is stabilizing. 0:05:27.520,0:05:30.536 We are heading towards nine,[br]10, or 11 billion people 0:05:30.560,0:05:31.800 by the end of the century. 0:05:32.400,0:05:35.736 Within that change, you can see tumult. 0:05:35.760,0:05:37.576 You can see the Second World War. 0:05:37.600,0:05:41.776 You can see the pandemic[br]in 1918 from influenza. 0:05:41.800,0:05:43.680 You can see the great Chinese famine. 0:05:44.400,0:05:46.696 These are the events[br]we tend to concentrate on. 0:05:46.720,0:05:50.656 We tend to concentrate[br]on the terrible events in the news. 0:05:50.680,0:05:54.336 We don't tend to concentrate[br]on the gradual change 0:05:54.360,0:05:56.000 and the good news stories. 0:05:57.480,0:05:59.176 We worry about people. 0:05:59.200,0:06:01.456 We worry about how many people there are. 0:06:01.480,0:06:04.640 We worry about how you can[br]get away from people. 0:06:05.200,0:06:08.600 But this is the map of the world[br]changed again to make area large, 0:06:09.760,0:06:14.136 the further away[br]people are from each area. 0:06:14.160,0:06:18.096 So if you want to know[br]where to go to get away from everybody, 0:06:18.120,0:06:20.696 here's the best places to go. 0:06:20.720,0:06:23.536 And every year, these areas get bigger, 0:06:23.560,0:06:26.816 because every year,[br]we are coming off the land globally. 0:06:26.840,0:06:28.296 We are moving into the cities. 0:06:28.320,0:06:30.496 We are packing in more densely. 0:06:30.520,0:06:32.136 There are wolves again in Europe, 0:06:32.160,0:06:36.080 and the wolves are moving west[br]across the continent. 0:06:37.200,0:06:38.600 Our world is changing. 0:06:40.920,0:06:42.240 You have worries. 0:06:43.680,0:06:48.576 This is a map showing[br]where the water falls on our planet. 0:06:48.600,0:06:50.296 We now know that. 0:06:50.320,0:06:54.096 And you can look at where Çatalhöyük was, 0:06:54.120,0:06:56.696 where three continents meet,[br]Africa, Asia, and Europe, 0:06:56.720,0:06:59.696 and you can see there are[br]a large number of people living there 0:06:59.720,0:07:01.296 in areas with very little water. 0:07:01.320,0:07:05.016 And you can see areas in which[br]there is a great deal of rainfall as well. 0:07:05.040,0:07:07.200 And we can get a bit more sophisticated. 0:07:08.440,0:07:11.816 Instead of making[br]the map be shaped by people, 0:07:11.840,0:07:14.056 we can shape the map by water, 0:07:14.080,0:07:15.936 and then we can change it every month 0:07:15.960,0:07:17.616 to show the amount of water 0:07:17.640,0:07:20.840 falling on every small part of the globe. 0:07:21.920,0:07:25.216 And you see the monsoons[br]moving around the planet, 0:07:25.240,0:07:28.840 and the planet almost appears[br]to have a heartbeat. 0:07:29.720,0:07:34.240 And all of this only became possible 0:07:34.920,0:07:36.696 within my lifetime 0:07:36.720,0:07:39.880 to see this is where we are living. 0:07:40.640,0:07:41.840 We have enough water. 0:07:43.760,0:07:48.120 This is a map of where[br]we grow our food in the world. 0:07:49.280,0:07:53.720 This is the areas that we will rely on[br]most for rice and maize and corn. 0:07:55.760,0:07:58.616 People worry that there won't[br]be enough food, but we know, 0:07:58.640,0:08:03.416 if we just ate less meat[br]and fed less of the crops to animals, 0:08:03.440,0:08:05.856 there is enough food for everybody 0:08:05.880,0:08:10.200 as long as we think of ourselves[br]as one group of people. 0:08:12.120,0:08:13.400 And we also know 0:08:15.280,0:08:17.336 about what we do 0:08:17.360,0:08:19.920 so terribly badly nowadays. 0:08:21.480,0:08:26.320 You will have seen this map[br]of the world before. 0:08:27.480,0:08:29.416 This is the map 0:08:29.440,0:08:32.816 produced by taking satellite images, 0:08:32.840,0:08:35.616 if you remember those satellites[br]around the planet 0:08:35.640,0:08:37.400 in the very first slide I showed, 0:08:39.240,0:08:42.240 and producing an image[br]of what the Earth looks like at night. 0:08:43.720,0:08:45.616 When you normally see that map, 0:08:45.640,0:08:49.160 on a normal map, the kind of map[br]that most of you will be used to, 0:08:50.160,0:08:53.440 you think you are seeing[br]a map of where people live. 0:08:54.120,0:08:56.600 Where the lights are shining up[br]is where people live. 0:08:57.320,0:09:01.696 But here, on this image of the world, 0:09:01.720,0:09:03.600 remember we've stretched the map again. 0:09:05.320,0:09:09.680 Everywhere has the same density[br]of people on this map. 0:09:10.480,0:09:12.656 If an area doesn't have people, 0:09:12.680,0:09:14.576 we've shrunk it away 0:09:14.600,0:09:16.136 to make it disappear. 0:09:16.160,0:09:18.296 So we're showing everybody 0:09:18.320,0:09:19.760 with equal prominence. 0:09:21.320,0:09:24.616 Now, the lights no longer show you[br]where people are, 0:09:24.640,0:09:26.080 because people are everywhere. 0:09:27.120,0:09:29.056 Now the lights on the map, 0:09:29.080,0:09:32.056 the lights in London,[br]the lights in Cairo, the lights in Tokyo, 0:09:32.080,0:09:35.016 the lights on the Eastern Seaboard[br]of the United States, 0:09:35.040,0:09:37.976 the lights show you where people live 0:09:38.000,0:09:40.200 who are so profligate with energy 0:09:41.160,0:09:42.680 that they can afford 0:09:43.680,0:09:45.216 to spend money 0:09:45.240,0:09:48.696 powering lights to shine up into the sky, 0:09:48.720,0:09:51.800 so satellites can draw an image like this. 0:09:52.840,0:09:54.960 And the areas that are dark on the map 0:09:55.720,0:09:59.440 are either areas where people[br]do not have access to that much energy, 0:10:00.400,0:10:02.496 or areas where people do, 0:10:02.520,0:10:07.360 but they have learned to stop[br]shining the light up into the sky. 0:10:07.960,0:10:11.496 And if I could show you this map[br]animated over time, 0:10:11.520,0:10:15.096 you would see that Tokyo[br]has actually become darker, 0:10:15.120,0:10:17.920 because ever since the tsunami in Japan, 0:10:18.880,0:10:21.296 Japan has had to rely[br]on a quarter less electricity 0:10:21.320,0:10:24.320 because it turned[br]the nuclear power stations off. 0:10:25.240,0:10:26.640 And the world didn't end. 0:10:27.400,0:10:29.576 You just shone less light 0:10:29.600,0:10:31.520 up into the sky. 0:10:33.320,0:10:36.296 There are a huge number 0:10:36.320,0:10:38.760 of good news stories in the world. 0:10:39.880,0:10:43.296 Infant mortality is falling 0:10:43.320,0:10:47.200 and has been falling[br]at an incredible rate. 0:10:47.920,0:10:49.360 A few years ago, 0:10:50.240,0:10:54.176 the number of babies dying[br]in their first year of life in the world 0:10:54.200,0:10:57.280 fell by five percent in just one year. 0:10:59.600,0:11:02.096 More children are going to school 0:11:02.120,0:11:04.736 and learning to read and write 0:11:04.760,0:11:07.576 and getting connected to the Internet 0:11:07.600,0:11:10.616 and going on to go to university 0:11:10.640,0:11:14.536 than ever before at an incredible rate, 0:11:14.560,0:11:20.016 and the highest number of young people[br]going to university in the world 0:11:20.040,0:11:21.920 are women, not men. 0:11:23.160,0:11:27.056 I can give you good news story[br]after good news story 0:11:27.080,0:11:29.696 about what is getting[br]better in the planet, 0:11:29.720,0:11:32.280 but we tend to concentrate 0:11:33.880,0:11:36.616 on the bad news that is immediate. 0:11:36.640,0:11:39.840 Rebecca Solnit, I think,[br]put it brilliantly, 0:11:41.160,0:11:45.600 when she explained: "The accretion[br]of incremental, imperceptible changes 0:11:46.520,0:11:49.336 which can constitute progress[br]and which render our era 0:11:49.360,0:11:52.176 dramatically different from the past" -- 0:11:52.200,0:11:54.240 the past was much more stable -- 0:11:55.640,0:12:00.616 "a contrast obscured by the undramatic[br]nature of gradual transformation, 0:12:00.640,0:12:03.600 punctuated by occasional tumult." 0:12:04.320,0:12:06.680 Occasionally, terrible things happen. 0:12:07.440,0:12:10.176 You are shown those terrible things 0:12:10.200,0:12:13.856 on the news every night of the week. 0:12:13.880,0:12:17.856 You are not told about[br]the population slowing down. 0:12:17.880,0:12:20.896 You are not told about the world[br]becoming more connected. 0:12:20.920,0:12:24.576 You are not told about the incredible[br]improvements in understanding. 0:12:24.600,0:12:27.736 You are not told about[br]how we are learning to begin 0:12:27.760,0:12:30.216 to waste less and consume less. 0:12:30.240,0:12:31.440 This is my last map. 0:12:32.360,0:12:34.736 On this map, we have taken the seas 0:12:34.760,0:12:36.560 and the oceans out. 0:12:37.480,0:12:39.496 Now you are just looking 0:12:39.520,0:12:43.376 at about 7.4 billion people 0:12:43.400,0:12:46.320 with the map drawn[br]in proportion to those people. 0:12:47.240,0:12:49.296 You're looking at over a billion in China, 0:12:49.320,0:12:52.136 and you can see the largest[br]city in the world in China, 0:12:52.160,0:12:53.640 but you do not know its name. 0:12:55.080,0:12:56.936 You can see that India 0:12:56.960,0:12:59.040 is in the center of this world. 0:12:59.640,0:13:02.936 You can see that Europe is on the edge. 0:13:02.960,0:13:06.016 And we in Exeter today 0:13:06.040,0:13:08.976 are on the far edge of the planet. 0:13:09.000,0:13:11.976 We are on a tiny scrap of rock 0:13:12.000,0:13:13.696 off Europe 0:13:13.720,0:13:16.336 which contains less than one percent 0:13:16.360,0:13:18.376 of the world's adults, 0:13:18.400,0:13:20.936 and less than half a percent 0:13:20.960,0:13:22.800 of the world's children. 0:13:23.640,0:13:28.256 We are living in a stabilizing world,[br]an urbanizing world, 0:13:28.280,0:13:30.256 an aging world, 0:13:30.280,0:13:32.416 a connecting world. 0:13:32.440,0:13:35.880 There are many, many things[br]to be frightened about, 0:13:36.720,0:13:41.936 but there is no need for us[br]to fear each other as much as we do, 0:13:41.960,0:13:46.200 and we need to see[br]that we are now living in a new world. 0:13:46.960,0:13:48.176 Thank you very much. 0:13:48.200,0:13:50.840 (Applause)