The economic injustice of plastic
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0:04 - 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 - 0:12We've been talking a lot about
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0:12 - 0:14the horrific impacts of plastic
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0:14 - 0:17on the planet and on other species,
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0:17 - 0:19but plastic hurts people too,
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0:19 - 0:22especially poor people.
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0:22 - 0:24And both in the production of plastic,
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0:24 - 0:27the use of plastic and the disposal of plastic,
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0:27 - 0:29the people who have the bull's-eye on their foreheads
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0:29 - 0:32are poor people.
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0:32 - 0:35People got very upset
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0:35 - 0:37when the BP oil spill happened
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0:37 - 0:39for very good reason.
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0:39 - 0:41People thought about, "Oh, my God.
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0:41 - 0:43This is terrible, this oil -- it's in the water.
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0:43 - 0:45It's going to destroy
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0:45 - 0:47the living systems there.
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0:47 - 0:49People are going to be hurt.
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0:49 - 0:51This is a terrible thing,
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0:51 - 0:53that the oil is going to hurt the people in the Gulf."
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0:53 - 0:55What people don't think about
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0:55 - 0:58is: what if the oil had made it safely to shore?
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0:58 - 1:01What if the oil actually got where it was trying to go?
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1:01 - 1:03Not only would it have been burned in engines
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1:03 - 1:06and added to global warming,
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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 - 1:19and, 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.
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1:22 - 1:25So oil and petrochemicals are not just a problem where there's a spill;
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1:25 - 1:27they're a problem where there's not.
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1:27 - 1:29And what we don't often appreciate
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1:29 - 1:31is the price that poor people pay
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1:31 - 1:33for us to have these disposable products.
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1:33 - 1:35The other thing that we don't often appreciate
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1:35 - 1:38is it's not just at the point of production that poor people suffer.
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1:38 - 1:40Poor people also suffer
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1:40 - 1:42at the point of use.
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1:42 - 1:44Those of us who earn a certain income level,
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1:44 - 1:46we have something called choice.
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1:46 - 1:48The reason why you want to work hard and have a job
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1:48 - 1:50and not be poor and broke
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1:50 - 1:53is so you can have choices, economic choices.
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1:53 - 1:55We actually get a chance to choose
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1:55 - 1:57not to use products
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1:57 - 1:59that have dangerous, poisonous plastic in them.
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1:59 - 2:02Other people who are poor don't have those choices.
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2:02 - 2:04So low-income people often are the ones
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2:04 - 2:06who are buying the products
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2:06 - 2:09that have those dangerous chemicals in them that their children are using.
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2:09 - 2:11Those are the people who wind up
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2:11 - 2:13actually ingesting a disproportionate amount
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2:13 - 2:16of this poisonous plastic and using it.
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2:16 - 2:19And people say, "Well, they should just buy a different product."
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2:19 - 2:22Well, the problem with being poor is you don't have those choices.
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2:22 - 2:24You often have to buy the cheapest products.
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2:24 - 2:27The cheapest products are often the most dangerous.
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2:27 - 2:29And if that weren't bad enough,
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2:29 - 2:31if it wasn't just the production of plastic
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2:31 - 2:34that's giving people cancer in places like "Cancer Alley" and shortening lives
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2:34 - 2:37and hurting poor kids at the point of use,
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2:37 - 2:39at the point of disposal,
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2:39 - 2:41once again, it's poor people
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2:41 - 2:43who bear the burden.
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2:43 - 2:45Often, we think we're doing a good thing.
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2:45 - 2:47You're in your office,
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2:47 - 2:49and you're drinking your bottled water, or whatever it is,
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2:49 - 2:52and you think to yourself, "Hey, I'm going to throw this away.
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2:52 - 2:54No, I'm going to be virtuous.
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2:54 - 2:56I'm going to put it in the blue bin."
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2:56 - 2:58You think, "I put mine in the blue bin,"
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2:58 - 3:01and then you look at your colleague and say,
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3:01 - 3:03"Why, you cretin.
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3:03 - 3:05You put yours in the white bin."
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3:05 - 3:07And we use that as a moral tickle.
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3:07 - 3:09We feel so good about ourselves.
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3:10 - 3:12Maybe I'll feel good myself.
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3:12 - 3:15Not you, but I feel this way.
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3:16 - 3:19And so we kind of have this kind of moral feel-good moment.
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3:19 - 3:22But if we were to be able to follow that little bottle
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3:22 - 3:24on its journey,
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3:24 - 3:27we would be shocked to discover that, all too often,
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3:27 - 3:29that bottle is going to be put on a boat,
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3:29 - 3:32it's going to go all the way across the ocean
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3:32 - 3:34at some expense,
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3:34 - 3:37and it's going to wind up in a developing country -- often China.
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3:37 - 3:40I think in our minds we imagine somebody's going to take the little bottle,
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3:40 - 3:43say, "Oh, little bottle.
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3:43 - 3:45We're so happy to see you, little bottle."
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3:45 - 3:47(Laughter)
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3:47 - 3:50"You've served so well."
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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 say, "What would you like to do next?"
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3:56 - 3:59The little bottle says, "I just don't know."
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3:59 - 4:02But that's not actually what happens.
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4:04 - 4:06That bottle
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4:06 - 4:09winds up getting burned.
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4:09 - 4:12Recycling of plastic in many developing countries
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4:12 - 4:14means the incineration of the plastic,
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4:14 - 4:16the burning of the plastic,
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4:16 - 4:18which releases incredible toxic chemicals
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4:18 - 4:20and, once again, kills people.
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4:20 - 4:22And so poor people
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4:22 - 4:24who are making these products
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4:24 - 4:27in petrochemical centers like "Cancer Alley,"
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4:27 - 4:29poor people who are consuming these products disproportionately,
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4:29 - 4:31and then poor people,
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4:31 - 4:33who even at the tail end of the recycling
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4:33 - 4:36are having their lives shortened,
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4:36 - 4:39are all being harmed greatly
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4:39 - 4:42by this addiction that we have
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4:42 - 4:44to disposability.
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4:44 - 4:46Now you think to yourself -- because I know how you are --
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4:46 - 4:48you say, "That sure is terrible
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4:48 - 4:50for those poor people.
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4:50 - 4:52It's just awful,
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4:52 - 4:54those poor people.
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4:54 - 4:57I hope someone does something to help them."
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4:57 - 5:00But what we don't understand is --
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5:00 - 5:02is, here we are in Los Angeles.
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5:02 - 5:04We worked very hard to get the smog reduction
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5:04 - 5:06happening here in Los Angeles.
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5:06 - 5:08But guess what?
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5:08 - 5:10Because they're doing so much dirty production in Asia now,
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5:10 - 5:12because the environmental laws
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5:12 - 5:14don't protect the people in Asia now,
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5:14 - 5:16almost all of the clean air gains
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5:16 - 5:18and the toxic air gains
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5:18 - 5:20that we've achieved here in California
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5:20 - 5:23have been wiped out by dirty air coming over from Asia.
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5:24 - 5:27So, we all are being hit. We all are being impacted.
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5:27 - 5:30It's just the poor people get hit first and worst.
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5:30 - 5:33But the dirty production, the burning of toxins,
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5:33 - 5:35the lack of environmental standards in Asia
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5:35 - 5:38is actually creating so much dirty air pollution
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5:38 - 5:41it's coming across the ocean and has erased our gains here in California.
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5:41 - 5:43We're back where we were in the 1970s.
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5:43 - 5:45And so we're on one planet,
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5:45 - 5:48and we have to be able to get to the root of these problems.
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5:48 - 5:51Well the root of this problem, in my view,
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5:51 - 5:54is the idea of disposability itself.
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5:54 - 5:57You see, if you understand the link
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5:57 - 5:59between what we're doing
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5:59 - 6:01to poison and pollute the planet
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6:01 - 6:04and what we're doing to poor people,
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6:04 - 6:06you arrive at a very troubling,
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6:06 - 6:09but also very helpful, insight:
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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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6:13 - 6:16But if you create a world where you don't trash people,
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6:16 - 6:18you can't trash the planet.
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6:18 - 6:20So now we are at a moment
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6:20 - 6:23where the coming together of social justice as an idea
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6:23 - 6:25and ecology as an idea,
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6:25 - 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.
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6:30 - 6:33And it's the idea that we don't have disposable anything.
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6:33 - 6:36We don't have disposable resources.
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6:36 - 6:38We don't have disposable species.
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6:38 - 6:41And we don't have disposable people either.
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6:41 - 6:43We don't have a throwaway planet,
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6:43 - 6:46and we don't have throwaway children -- it's all precious.
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6:46 - 6:49And as we all begin to come back to that basic understanding,
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6:49 - 6:52new opportunities for action begin to emerge.
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6:52 - 6:54Biomimicry,
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6:54 - 6:56which is something
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6:56 - 6:58that is an emerging science,
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6:58 - 7:01winds up being a very important social justice idea.
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7:01 - 7:03People who are just learning about this stuff,
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7:03 - 7:05biomimicry means
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7:05 - 7:07respecting the wisdom of all species.
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7:07 - 7:09Democracy, by the way,
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7:09 - 7:11means respecting the wisdom of all people -- and we'll get to that.
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7:11 - 7:14But biomimicry means respecting the wisdom of all species.
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7:14 - 7:17It turns out we're a pretty clever species.
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7:17 - 7:20This big cortex, or whatever, we're pretty proud of ourselves.
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7:20 - 7:23But if we want to make something hard,
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7:23 - 7:26we come up, "I know, I'm going to make a hard substance.
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7:26 - 7:29I know, I'm going to get vacuums and furnaces
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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,
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7:34 - 7:37but I got this hard thing.
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7:37 - 7:39I'm so clever,"
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7:39 - 7:42and you look behind you, and there's destruction all around you.
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7:42 - 7:44But guess what? You're so clever,
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7:44 - 7:46but you're not as clever as a clam.
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7:46 - 7:48A clamshell's hard.
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7:48 - 7:51There's no vacuums. There's no big furnaces.
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7:51 - 7:53There's no poison. There's no pollution.
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7:53 - 7:55It turns out that our other species
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7:55 - 7:57has figured out a long time ago
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7:57 - 8:00how to create many of the things that we need
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8:00 - 8:03using biological processes that nature knows how to use well.
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8:03 - 8:05Well that insight of biomimicry,
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8:05 - 8:07of our scientists finally realizing
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8:07 - 8:09that we have as much to learn from other species.
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8:09 - 8:11I don't mean taking a mouse
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8:11 - 8:13and sticking it with stuff.
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8:13 - 8:16I don't mean looking at it from that way -- abusing the little species.
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8:16 - 8:19I mean actually respecting them, respecting what they've achieved.
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8:19 - 8:21That's called biomimicry,
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8:21 - 8:23and that opens the door
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8:23 - 8:25to zero waste production,
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8:25 - 8:27zero pollution production --
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8:27 - 8:29that we could actually enjoy
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8:29 - 8:31a high quality of life, a high standard of living
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8:31 - 8:33without trashing the planet.
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8:33 - 8:36Well that idea of biomimicry,
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8:36 - 8:38respecting the wisdom of all species,
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8:38 - 8:40combined with the idea
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8:40 - 8:42of democracy and social justice,
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8:42 - 8:45respecting the wisdom and the worth of all people,
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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 - 8:51We would have a green society
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8:51 - 8:53that Dr. King would be proud of.
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8:53 - 8:55That should be the goal.
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8:55 - 8:58And the way that we get there is to first of all recognize
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8:58 - 9:01that the idea of disposability
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9:01 - 9:03not only hurts
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9:03 - 9:05the species we've talked about,
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9:05 - 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 - 9:13We just had this vote, and everybody's like,
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9:13 - 9:16"Well, not in our state.
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9:16 - 9:19I don't know what those other states were doing."
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9:19 - 9:21(Laughter)
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9:21 - 9:23Just so proud.
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9:23 - 9:26And, yeah, I'm proud, too.
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9:26 - 9:29But California,
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9:29 - 9:32though we lead the world in some of the green stuff,
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9:32 - 9:34we also, unfortunately, lead the world
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9:34 - 9:37in some of the gulag stuff.
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9:37 - 9:40California has one of the highest incarceration rates
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9:40 - 9:42of all the 50 states.
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9:42 - 9:45We have a moral challenge in this moment.
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9:45 - 9:48We are passionate about rescuing
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9:48 - 9:50some dead materials from the landfill,
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9:50 - 9:52but sometimes not as passionate
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9:52 - 9:55about rescuing living beings, living people.
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9:55 - 9:58And I would say that we live in a country --
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9:58 - 10:00five percent of the world's population,
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10:00 - 10:0325 percent of the greenhouse gases,
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10:03 - 10:05but also 25 percent of the world's prisoners.
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10:05 - 10:08One out of every four people locked up anywhere in the world
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10:08 - 10:10is locked up right here in the United States.
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10:10 - 10:13So that is consistent with this idea
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10:13 - 10:16that disposability is something we believe in.
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10:16 - 10:19And yet,
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10:19 - 10:21as a movement
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10:21 - 10:23that has to broaden its constituency,
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10:23 - 10:25that has to grow,
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10:25 - 10:28that has to reach out beyond our natural comfort zone,
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10:28 - 10:31one of the challenges to the success of this movement,
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10:31 - 10:34of getting rid of things like plastic and helping the economy shift,
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10:34 - 10:37is people look at our movement with some suspicion.
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10:37 - 10:40And they ask a question, and the question is:
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10:40 - 10:43How can these people be so passionate?
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10:43 - 10:46A poor person, a low-income person, somebody in "Cancer Alley,"
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10:46 - 10:49somebody in Watts,
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10:49 - 10:51somebody in Harlem, somebody on an Indian reservation,
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10:51 - 10:53might say to themselves, and rightfully so,
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10:53 - 10:56"How can these people be so passionate
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10:56 - 10:58about making sure
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10:58 - 11:00that a plastic bottle
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11:00 - 11:02has a second chance in life,
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11:02 - 11:05or an aluminum can has a second chance,
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11:05 - 11:07and yet, when my child gets in trouble
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11:07 - 11:09and goes to prison,
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11:09 - 11:11he doesn't get a second chance?"
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11:11 - 11:13How can this movement be so passionate
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11:13 - 11:16about saying we don't have throwaway stuff, no throwaway dead materials,
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11:16 - 11:18and yet accept
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11:18 - 11:21throwaway lives and throwaway communities like "Cancer Alley?"
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11:21 - 11:24And so we now get a chance
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11:24 - 11:27to be truly proud of this movement.
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11:27 - 11:29When we take on topics like this,
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11:29 - 11:31it gives us that extra call
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11:31 - 11:33to reach out to other movements
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11:33 - 11:36and to become more inclusive and to grow,
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11:36 - 11:39and we can finally get out of this crazy dilemma that we've been in.
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11:40 - 11:42Most of you are good, softhearted people.
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11:42 - 11:45When you were younger, you cared about the whole world,
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11:45 - 11:47and at some point
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11:47 - 11:49somebody said you had to pick an issue,
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11:49 - 11:51you had to boil your love down to an issue.
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11:51 - 11:53Can't love the whole world --
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11:53 - 11:55you've got to work on trees,
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11:55 - 11:57or you've got to work on immigration.
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11:57 - 12:00You've got to shrink it down and be about one issue.
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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 - 12:07or are you going to hug a child? Pick.
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12:07 - 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 - 12:13Well, when you start working on issues like plastic,
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12:13 - 12:16you realize that the whole thing is connected,
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12:16 - 12:18and luckily most of us are blessed to have two arms.
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12:18 - 12:20We can hug both.
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12:20 - 12:22Thank you very much.
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12:22 - 12:28(Applause)
- Title:
- The economic injustice of plastic
- Speaker:
- Van Jones
- Description:
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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.