WEBVTT

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It's time for humankind
to recognize a disturbing truth:

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we have colonized the future.

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In wealthy countries, especially,

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we treat it like a distant
colonial outpost

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where we can freely dump ecological damage

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and technological risk
as if there was nobody there.

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The tragedy is that tomorrow's
generations aren't here

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to challenge this pillaging
of their inheritance.

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They can't leap in front
of the king's horse like a suffragette

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or stage a sit-in
like a civil rights activist

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or go on a Salt March to defy their
colonial oppressors like Mahatma Gandhi.

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They're granted no political
rights or representation;

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they have no influence in the marketplace.

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The great silent majority
of future generations

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is rendered powerless.

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It could be hard to grasp
the scale of this injustice,

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so look at it this way:

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There are 7.7 billion people alive today.

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That's just a tiny fraction
of the estimated 100 billion people

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who have lived and died
over the past 50,000 years.

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But both of these are vastly outnumbered
by the nearly seven trillion people

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who will be born
over the next 50,000 years,

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assuming current birth rates stabilize.

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In the next two centuries alone,
tens of billions of people will be born,

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amongst them, all your grandchildren,

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and their grandchildren

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and the friends and communities
on whom they'll depend.

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How will all these future
generations look back on us

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and the legacy we're leaving for them?

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We've clearly inherited
extraordinary legacies

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from our common ancestors:

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the gift of the agricultural revolution,

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medical discoveries
and the cities we still live in.

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But we've certainly inherited
destructive legacies too.

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Legacies of slavery
and colonialism and racism

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creating deep inequities
that must now be repaired.

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Legacies of economies

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that are structurally
addicted to fossil fuels

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and endless growth
that must now be transformed.

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So how can we become the good ancestors
that future generations deserve?

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Well, over the past decade,

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a global movement has started to emerge

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of people committed
to decolonizing the future

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and extending our time horizons
towards a longer now.

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This movement is still fragmented
and as yet has no name.

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I think of its pioneers as time rebels.

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They can be found at work in Japan's
visionary Future Design movement,

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which aims to overcome the short-term
cycles that dominate politics

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by drawing on the principle
of seventh generation decision making

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practiced by many
Native Americans communities.

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Future Design gathers together residents

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to draw up and discuss plans
for the towns and cities where they live.

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Half the group are told
they're residents from the present day.

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The other half are given
ceremonial robes to wear

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and told to imagine themselves
as residents from the year 2060.

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Well, it turns out
that the residents from 2060

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systematically advocate
far more transformative city plans,

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from healthcare investments
to climate change action.

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And this innovative form
of future citizens assembly

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is now spreading throughout Japan

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from small towns like Yahaba
to major cities like Kyoto.

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What if Future Design was adopted
by towns and cities worldwide

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to revitalize democratic decision making

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and extend their vision
far beyond the now?

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Now, time rebels have also
taken to courts of law

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to secure the rights of future people.

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The organization Our Children's Trust

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has filed a landmark case
against the US Government

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on behalf of 21 young people

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campaigning for the legal right
to a safe climate and healthy atmosphere

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for both current and future generations.

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Their David versus Goliath struggle

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has already inspired
groundbreaking lawsuits worldwide

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from Colombia and Pakistan
to Uganda and the Netherlands.

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And this wave of activism
is growing alongside the movement

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to grant legal personhood to nature,

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from the Whanganui River
in Aotearoa, New Zealand

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to the Ganges and Yamuna Rivers in India.

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Time rebels are taking
action at the ballot box too.

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In 2019, teenagers across Europe

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began lobbying their parents
and grandparents

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to give them their votes in the European
parliamentary elections of that year.

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The hashtag #givethekidsyourvote
went viral on social media

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and was spread by climate
campaigners as far as Australia.

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My partner and I heard about it

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and decided to give our votes
in the last UK general election

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to our 11-year-old twins.

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So we all sat around the kitchen table
and debated the party manifestos,

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and they then each told us
where to put the X on the ballot sheet.

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And in case you're wondering,

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no, they didn't simply mirror
their parents' political opinions.

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So the time rebellion has begun.

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The rebels are rising
to decolonize the future

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founding a global movement
for long-term thinking

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and intergenerational justice

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that may turn out to be

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one of the most powerful
political movements of this century.

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They're helping us escape
the short-term cycles

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that digital distraction
and consumer culture trap us in,

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with the lure of the Buy Now button

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and 24/7 news.

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They inspire us to extend
our time horizons

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from seconds and minutes
to decades and far beyond.

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The artist Katie Paterson's
project, Future Library,

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will be a century in the making.

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Every year, a famous writer donates a book

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which will remain
completely unread until 2114

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when the whole collection
will be printed on paper

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made from a forest of trees
planted for this very purpose.

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The Svalbard Global Seed Vault
sets its vision even further,

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housing millions of seeds

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in an indestructible
rock bunker in the Arctic Circle

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that's designed to last 1,000 years.

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But how can we really think and plan
on the scale of millennia?

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Well, the answer is perhaps
the ultimate secret to being a time rebel,

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and it comes from the biomimicry
designer Janine Benyus,

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who suggests we learn from nature's
3.8 billion years of evolution.

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How is it that other species
have learned to survive and thrive

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for 10,000 generations or more?

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Well, it's by taking care of the place
that would take care of their offspring,

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by living within the ecosystem
in which they're embedded,

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by knowing not to foul the nest,

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which is what humans have been doing
with devastating effects

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at an ever-increasing pace and scale
over the past century.

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So a profound starting point
for time rebels everywhere

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is to focus not simply on lengthening time

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but on regenerating place.

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We must restore and repair
and care for the planetary home

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that will take care of our offspring.

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For our children,

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and our children's children,

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and all those yet to come,

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we must fall in love
with rivers and mountains,

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with ice sheets and savannas,

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and reconnect with the long
and life-giving cycles of nature.

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Let us all become time rebels

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and be inspired by
the beautiful Mohawk blessing

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spoken when a child is born:

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"Thank you, Earth.

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You know the way."