The economic injustice of plastic
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0:05 - 0:06I am honored to be here,
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0:06 - 0:08and I'm honored to talk about this topic,
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0:08 - 0:10which I think is of grave importance.
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0:10 - 0:11We've been talking a lot
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0:11 - 0:17about the horrific impacts of plastic
on the planet and on other species, -
0:17 - 0:19but plastic hurts people, too --
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0:20 - 0:21especially poor people.
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0:22 - 0:25And both in the production of plastic,
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0:25 - 0:28the use of plastic
and the disposal of plastic, -
0:28 - 0:30the people who have
the bull's-eye on their foreheads -
0:31 - 0:32are poor people.
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0:32 - 0:35People got very upset
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0:35 - 0:38when the BP oil spill happened,
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0:38 - 0:40for very good reason.
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0:40 - 0:42People thought, "Oh, my God.
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0:42 - 0:44This is terrible, this oil --
it's in the water. -
0:44 - 0:48It's going to destroy
the living systems there. -
0:48 - 0:50People are going to be hurt.
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0:50 - 0:51This is a terrible thing,
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0:51 - 0:54this oil is going to hurt
the people in the Gulf." -
0:54 - 0:56What people don't think about is:
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0:56 - 0:58What if the oil had made it
safely to shore? -
0:58 - 1:01What if the oil actually got
where it was trying to go? -
1:02 - 1:06Not only would it have been burned
in engines and added to global warming, -
1:06 - 1:09but there's a place called "Cancer Alley,"
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1:09 - 1:11and the reason it's called "Cancer Alley"
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1:11 - 1:14is because the petrochemical industry
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1:14 - 1:16takes that oil and turns it into plastic
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1:16 - 1:18and in the process, kills people.
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1:19 - 1:22It shortens the lives of the people
who live there in the Gulf. -
1:22 - 1:26So oil and petrochemicals are not
just a problem when there's a spill; -
1:26 - 1:28they're a problem when there's not.
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1:28 - 1:30And what we don't often appreciate
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1:30 - 1:32is the price that poor people pay
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1:32 - 1:34for us to have these disposable products.
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1:34 - 1:36The other thing
we often don't appreciate is, -
1:36 - 1:39it's not just at the point of production
that poor people suffer. -
1:39 - 1:42Poor people also suffer
at the point of use. -
1:42 - 1:44Those of us who earn
a certain income level, -
1:44 - 1:46we have something called choice.
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1:47 - 1:49The reason why you want
to work hard and have a job -
1:49 - 1:51and not be poor and broke
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1:51 - 1:53is so you can have choices,
economic choices. -
1:54 - 1:58We actually get a chance
to choose not to use products -
1:58 - 2:00that have dangerous,
poisonous plastic in them. -
2:00 - 2:03Other people who are poor
don't have those choices. -
2:03 - 2:05So low-income people often are the ones
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2:05 - 2:09who are buying the products that have
those dangerous chemicals in them -
2:09 - 2:10that their children are using.
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2:10 - 2:14Those are the people who wind up
ingesting a disproportionate amount -
2:14 - 2:16of this poisonous plastic in using it.
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2:16 - 2:19And people say, "Well, they should
just buy a different product." -
2:19 - 2:23Well, the problem with being poor
is you don't have those choices. -
2:23 - 2:25You often have to buy
the cheapest products. -
2:25 - 2:28The cheapest products
are often the most dangerous. -
2:28 - 2:29And if that weren't bad enough --
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2:29 - 2:33if it wasn't just the production
of plastic that's giving people cancer -
2:33 - 2:34in places like Cancer Alley,
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2:34 - 2:38and shortening lives and hurting
poor kids at the point of use -- -
2:38 - 2:40at the point of disposal,
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2:40 - 2:43once again, it's poor people
who bear the burden. -
2:44 - 2:46Often, we think we're doing a good thing:
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2:46 - 2:50You're in your office, drinking
your bottled water or whatever it is, -
2:50 - 2:53and you think to yourself,
"I'm going to throw this away. -
2:53 - 2:56No -- I'm going to be virtuous.
I'm going to put it in the blue bin." -
2:56 - 2:58You think, "I put mine in the blue bin."
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2:58 - 3:02And then you look
at your colleague and say, -
3:02 - 3:05"Why, you cretin!
You put yours in the white bin." -
3:05 - 3:08And we use that as a moral tickle.
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3:08 - 3:09We feel so good about ourselves.
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3:09 - 3:13If we -- well, OK, I'm just ... me.
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3:13 - 3:14Not you, but I feel this way often.
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3:14 - 3:16(Laughter)
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3:16 - 3:19And so we kind of have
this moral feel-good moment. -
3:19 - 3:22But if we were to be able
to follow that little bottle -
3:23 - 3:24on its journey,
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3:24 - 3:27we would be shocked
to discover that, all too often, -
3:27 - 3:29that bottle is going to be put on a boat,
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3:30 - 3:32it's going to go all the way
across the ocean -
3:33 - 3:34at some expense,
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3:34 - 3:38and it's going to wind up
in a developing country, often China. -
3:38 - 3:39I think in our minds, we imagine
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3:39 - 3:42somebody's going to take
the little bottle and say, -
3:42 - 3:45"Oh, little bottle! We're so happy
to see you, little bottle." -
3:45 - 3:47(Laughter)
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3:47 - 3:49"You've served so well."
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3:49 - 3:50(Laughter)
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3:50 - 3:52He's given a little bottle massage,
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3:52 - 3:54a little bottle medal.
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3:54 - 3:56And they say, "What would
you like to do next?" -
3:56 - 3:59The little bottle says,
"I just don't know ..." -
3:59 - 4:00(Laughter)
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4:00 - 4:02But that's not actually what happens.
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4:03 - 4:04You know?
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4:05 - 4:08That bottle winds up getting burned.
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4:09 - 4:13The recycling of plastic
in many developing countries -
4:13 - 4:16means the incineration of the plastic,
the burning of the plastic, -
4:16 - 4:19which releases incredible toxic chemicals
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4:19 - 4:21and, once again, kills people.
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4:21 - 4:24And so, poor people
who are making these products -
4:24 - 4:27in petrochemical centers
like Cancer Alley, -
4:27 - 4:30poor people who are consuming
these products disproportionately, -
4:30 - 4:34and then poor people who,
even at the tail end of the recycling, -
4:34 - 4:35are having their lives shortened.
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4:36 - 4:39They're all being harmed -- greatly --
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4:39 - 4:44by this addiction that we have
to disposability. -
4:44 - 4:46Now, you think to yourself --
I know how you are -- -
4:46 - 4:50you say, "That sure is terrible
for those poor people. -
4:51 - 4:54It's just awful. Those poor people.
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4:55 - 4:57I hope someone does
something to help them." -
4:58 - 4:59But what we don't understand is --
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5:01 - 5:03here we are in Los Angeles.
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5:03 - 5:05We worked very hard
to get the smog reduction -
5:05 - 5:06happening here in Los Angeles.
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5:06 - 5:08But guess what?
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5:08 - 5:11Because they're doing so much
dirty production in Asia now, -
5:11 - 5:15because the environmental laws
don't protect the people in Asia now, -
5:15 - 5:19almost all of the clean air gains
and the toxic air gains -
5:19 - 5:21that we've achieved here in California
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5:21 - 5:23have been wiped out
by dirty air coming over from Asia. -
5:25 - 5:27So we all are being hit.
We all are being impacted. -
5:27 - 5:30It's just that the poor people
get it first and worst. -
5:30 - 5:33But the dirty production,
the burning of toxins, -
5:33 - 5:36the lack of environmental
standards in Asia, -
5:36 - 5:38is actually creating so much
dirty air pollution, -
5:38 - 5:40it's coming across the ocean,
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5:40 - 5:42and has erased our gains
here in California. -
5:42 - 5:44We're back where we were in the 1970s.
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5:44 - 5:46And so we're on one planet,
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5:46 - 5:49and we have to be able to get
to the root of these problems. -
5:49 - 5:52The root of this problem, in my view,
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5:52 - 5:54is the idea of disposability itself.
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5:55 - 5:58You see, if you understand the link
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5:58 - 6:02between what we're doing
to poison and pollute the planet -
6:02 - 6:04and what we're doing to poor people,
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6:04 - 6:08you arrive at a very troubling
but also very helpful insight: -
6:09 - 6:11In order to trash the planet,
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6:11 - 6:13you have to trash people.
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6:14 - 6:16But if you create a world
where you don't trash people, -
6:16 - 6:18you can't trash the planet.
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6:18 - 6:21So now we are at a moment
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6:21 - 6:24where the coming together
of social justice as an idea -
6:24 - 6:25and ecology as an idea,
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6:26 - 6:27we finally can now see
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6:27 - 6:30that they are really,
at the end of the day, one idea. -
6:30 - 6:33And it's the idea that we don't have
disposable anything. -
6:33 - 6:36We don't have disposable resources.
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6:36 - 6:39We don't have disposable species.
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6:39 - 6:42And we don't have
disposable people, either. -
6:42 - 6:44We don't have a throwaway planet,
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6:44 - 6:46and we don't have throwaway
children -- it's all precious. -
6:46 - 6:49And as we all begin to come back
to that basic understanding, -
6:49 - 6:52new opportunities for action
begin to emerge. -
6:53 - 6:55Biomimicry,
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6:55 - 6:58which is an emerging science,
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6:58 - 7:01winds up being a very important
social justice idea. -
7:02 - 7:04People who are just
learning about this stuff: -
7:04 - 7:08biomimicry means respecting
the wisdom of all species. -
7:08 - 7:09Democracy, by the way,
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7:09 - 7:12means respecting the wisdom
of all people -- we'll get to that. -
7:12 - 7:15But biomimicry means
respecting the wisdom of all species. -
7:15 - 7:17It turns out we're a pretty
clever species. -
7:18 - 7:21We have this big cortex,
we're pretty proud of ourselves. -
7:21 - 7:23But if we want to make something hard,
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7:23 - 7:26we say, "I know! I'm going
to make a hard substance. -
7:26 - 7:29I know! I'm going to get
vacuums and furnaces -
7:29 - 7:31and drag stuff out of the ground
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7:31 - 7:34and get things hot
and poison and pollute ... -
7:34 - 7:36But I got this hard thing!"
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7:37 - 7:38(Laughter)
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7:38 - 7:40"I'm so clever!"
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7:40 - 7:43And you look behind you,
and there's destruction all around you. -
7:43 - 7:44But guess what?
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7:44 - 7:46You're so clever,
but you're not as clever as a clam. -
7:47 - 7:48A clamshell is hard.
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7:48 - 7:51There's no vacuums.
There's no big furnaces. -
7:51 - 7:53There's no poison. There's no pollution.
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7:53 - 7:58It turns out that other species
figured out a long time ago -
7:58 - 8:00how to create many of the things we need
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8:00 - 8:03using biological processes
that nature knows how to use well. -
8:04 - 8:08That insight of biomimicry,
of our scientists finally realizing -
8:08 - 8:10that we have as much
to learn from other species -- -
8:10 - 8:13I don't mean taking a mouse
and sticking it with stuff. -
8:13 - 8:17I don't mean looking at it from that way,
abusing the little species. -
8:17 - 8:20I mean actually respecting them,
respecting what they've achieved. -
8:20 - 8:21That's called biomimicry,
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8:21 - 8:25and that opens the door
to zero waste production; -
8:25 - 8:27zero pollution production;
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8:27 - 8:29that we could actually enjoy
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8:29 - 8:32a high quality of life,
a high standard of living, -
8:32 - 8:34without trashing the planet.
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8:34 - 8:37Well, that idea of biomimicry,
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8:37 - 8:38respecting the wisdom of all species,
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8:39 - 8:43combined with the idea
of democracy and social justice, -
8:43 - 8:45respecting the wisdom
and the worth of all people, -
8:45 - 8:47would give us a different society.
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8:47 - 8:49We would have a different economy.
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8:49 - 8:52We would have a green society
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8:52 - 8:54that Dr. King would be proud of.
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8:54 - 8:55That should be the goal.
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8:56 - 8:59And the way that we get there
is to first of all recognize -
8:59 - 9:01that the idea of disposability
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9:02 - 9:06not only hurts the species
we've talked about, -
9:06 - 9:08but it even corrupts our own society.
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9:08 - 9:11We're so proud to live here in California.
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9:11 - 9:14We just had this vote,
and everybody's like, -
9:14 - 9:15"Well -- not in our state!"
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9:15 - 9:17(Laughter)
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9:17 - 9:20I don't know what those
other states were doing, but ..." -
9:20 - 9:21(Laughter)
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9:21 - 9:23Just so proud.
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9:24 - 9:26And, yeah, I'm proud, too.
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9:26 - 9:28But ...
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9:29 - 9:33California, though we lead the world
in some of the green stuff, -
9:33 - 9:35we also, unfortunately, lead the world
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9:35 - 9:36in some of the gulag stuff.
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9:37 - 9:41California has one of the highest
incarceration rates -
9:41 - 9:43of all the 50 states.
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9:43 - 9:45We have a moral challenge
in this movement. -
9:46 - 9:51We are passionate about rescuing
some dead materials from the landfill, -
9:51 - 9:53but sometimes not as passionate
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9:53 - 9:55about rescuing living beings,
living people. -
9:55 - 9:59And I would say
that we live in a country -- -
9:59 - 10:01five percent of the world's population,
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10:01 - 10:0225 percent of the greenhouse gases,
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10:03 - 10:05but also 25 percent
of the world's prisoners. -
10:06 - 10:09One of every four people
locked up anywhere in the world -
10:09 - 10:11is locked up right here
in the United States. -
10:11 - 10:14So that is consistent with this idea
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10:14 - 10:16that disposability
is something we believe in. -
10:17 - 10:18And yet,
-
10:19 - 10:24as a movement that has to broaden
its constituency, -
10:24 - 10:25that has to grow,
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10:25 - 10:28that has to reach out
beyond our natural comfort zone, -
10:28 - 10:31one of the challenges
to the success of this movement, -
10:31 - 10:34of getting rid of things like plastic
and helping the economy shift, -
10:34 - 10:37is people look at our movement
with some suspicion. -
10:38 - 10:40And they ask a question,
and the question is: -
10:40 - 10:42How can these people be so passionate?
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10:43 - 10:46A poor person, a low-income person,
somebody in Cancer Alley, -
10:47 - 10:49somebody in Watts,
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10:49 - 10:52somebody in Harlem,
somebody on an Indian reservation, -
10:52 - 10:54might say to themselves --
and rightfully so -- -
10:54 - 10:56"How can these people be so passionate
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10:57 - 10:59about making sure
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10:59 - 11:03that a plastic bottle
has a second chance in life, -
11:03 - 11:05or an aluminum can has a second chance,
-
11:06 - 11:09and yet, when my child gets in trouble
and goes to prison, -
11:10 - 11:11he doesn't get a second chance?"
-
11:11 - 11:14"How can this movement
be so passionate about saying -
11:14 - 11:17we don't have throwaway stuff,
no throwaway dead materials, -
11:17 - 11:19and yet accept throwaway lives
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11:20 - 11:22and throwaway communities
like Cancer Alley?" -
11:22 - 11:27And so, we now get a chance
to be truly proud of this movement. -
11:27 - 11:29When we take on topics like this,
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11:29 - 11:34it gives us that extra call
to reach out to other movements -
11:34 - 11:36and to become more inclusive and to grow,
-
11:36 - 11:39and we can finally get out of
this crazy dilemma that we've been in. -
11:40 - 11:42Most of you are good, softhearted people.
-
11:43 - 11:46When you were younger,
you cared about the whole world, -
11:46 - 11:49and at some point, somebody said
you had to pick an issue, -
11:50 - 11:52you had to boil your love
down to an issue. -
11:52 - 11:54"Can't love the whole world --
-
11:54 - 11:57you've got to work on trees
or you've got to work on immigration. -
11:57 - 12:00You've got to shrink it down
and be about one issue." -
12:00 - 12:03And really, they fundamentally told you,
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12:03 - 12:05"Are you going to hug a tree?
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12:05 - 12:08Or are you going to hug a child? Pick.
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12:08 - 12:09Are you going to hug a tree?
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12:09 - 12:11Or are you going to hug a child? Pick."
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12:11 - 12:14Well, when you start working
on issues like plastic, -
12:14 - 12:16you realize the whole thing is connected.
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12:16 - 12:19And luckily, most of us are blessed
to have two arms -- -
12:19 - 12:20we can hug both.
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12:20 - 12:22Thank you very much.
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12:22 - 12:29(Applause)
- Title:
- The economic injustice of plastic
- Speaker:
- Van Jones
- Description:
-
Van Jones lays out a case against plastic pollution from the perspective of social justice. Because plastic trash, he shows us, hits poor people and poor countries "first and worst," with consequences we all share no matter where we live and what we earn. At TEDxGPGP, he offers a few powerful ideas to help us reclaim our throwaway planet.
- Video Language:
- English
- Team:
- closed TED
- Project:
- TEDTalks
- Duration:
- 12:29
Brian Greene edited English subtitles for The economic injustice of plastic | ||
Krystian Aparta commented on English subtitles for The economic injustice of plastic | ||
Krystian Aparta edited English subtitles for The economic injustice of plastic | ||
Krystian Aparta edited English subtitles for The economic injustice of plastic | ||
TED edited English subtitles for The economic injustice of plastic | ||
TED added a translation |
Krystian Aparta
The English transcript was updated on 10/11/2016.