WEBVTT

00:00:02.517 --> 00:00:14.389
"We MUST want to rethink how we really live"
Sir Kristian Goldmund Aumann

00:00:16.529 --> 00:00:18.854
What world do we want to live in?

00:00:18.854 --> 00:00:19.734
That' the question.

00:00:19.734 --> 00:00:21.684
Not "Can we survive and

00:00:21.684 --> 00:00:24.460
can we continue to grow the economy?"

00:00:26.051 --> 00:00:28.139
What if we could sustain

00:00:28.139 --> 00:00:29.419
business as usual

00:00:29.419 --> 00:00:31.316
What if we could install, you know

00:00:31.316 --> 00:00:32.900
carbon sucking machines and

00:00:32.900 --> 00:00:35.289
bleach the sky with sulfur aerosols

00:00:35.289 --> 00:00:37.759
to maintain constant temperatures

00:00:37.759 --> 00:00:40.772
and continue to ruin life on earth

00:00:40.772 --> 00:00:42.525
until we have a concrete world

00:00:42.525 --> 00:00:44.319
with hydroponic factories,

00:00:44.319 --> 00:00:46.775
synthetic food and

00:00:46.775 --> 00:00:48.806
digital VR displays

00:00:48.806 --> 00:00:51.287
of all the nature that's been lost

00:00:51.287 --> 00:00:52.860
And rising GDP of the whole time

00:00:52.860 --> 00:00:54.178
what if we could do that

00:00:54.178 --> 00:00:57.378
Do we want to do that?

00:01:06.582 --> 00:01:08.646
The geomechanical view is basically

00:01:08.646 --> 00:01:11.253
understands Earth as a complicated machine

00:01:11.253 --> 00:01:13.021
So it's like a diesel engine

00:01:13.021 --> 00:01:15.012
If the air fuel mixture is wrong

00:01:15.012 --> 00:01:17.296
then the engine won't perform well

00:01:17.296 --> 00:01:19.919
So if levels of greenhouse gases are too high

00:01:19.919 --> 00:01:23.449
then the planet is not going to perform well

00:01:25.501 --> 00:01:28.700
Earth as a living being

00:01:28.700 --> 00:01:31.928
Whereas if we understand Earth is a 
living being

00:01:31.928 --> 00:01:33.807
then we might say okay

00:01:33.807 --> 00:01:36.586
what will make the planet more resilient

00:01:36.586 --> 00:01:38.820
to higher levels of greenhouse gases

00:01:38.820 --> 00:01:41.208
because I think that if we

00:01:41.208 --> 00:01:43.230
cut greenhouse gases to zero

00:01:43.230 --> 00:01:44.972
even if we did that overnight

00:01:44.972 --> 00:01:48.346
if we continue to degrade the organs

00:01:48.346 --> 00:01:50.918
and tissues of this living being

00:01:50.918 --> 00:01:54.138
then the planet will die of organ failure

00:01:54.138 --> 00:01:57.813
even if carbon dioxide emissions are

00:01:57.813 --> 00:01:59.626
reduced to zero

00:01:59.626 --> 00:02:01.891
because this is not a machine

00:02:09.130 --> 00:02:16.045
CLIMATE A NEW STORY

00:02:18.590 --> 00:02:21.211
I'm advocating that we

00:02:21.211 --> 00:02:24.873
reformulate our basic environmental narratives

00:02:24.873 --> 00:02:27.122
so and especially the climate narrative

00:02:27.122 --> 00:02:30.377
so that it comes from the understanding

00:02:30.377 --> 00:02:32.160
that Earth is a living being

00:02:32.160 --> 00:02:34.612
and not a complicated machine

00:02:34.929 --> 00:02:36.767
The living planet view is familiar

00:02:36.767 --> 00:02:37.779
to a lot of people

00:02:37.779 --> 00:02:39.741
because of Gaia theory

00:02:39.741 --> 00:02:43.615
that essentially says Earth, if not live, is

00:02:43.615 --> 00:02:45.213
like a living being

00:02:45.213 --> 00:02:48.182
it maintains homeostasis

00:02:48.182 --> 00:02:51.188
it has many qualities of life

00:02:52.161 --> 00:02:53.781
Most scientists would not say

00:02:53.781 --> 00:02:56.226
that it's actually alive

00:02:56.226 --> 00:02:57.803
but I think we need to go

00:02:57.803 --> 00:03:00.903
to the place of relating to earth

00:03:00.903 --> 00:03:02.188
as a living being

00:03:02.188 --> 00:03:04.534
and even a sacred being

00:03:09.673 --> 00:03:14.918
PLANETARY HEALTH

00:03:14.918 --> 00:03:17.955
So we have a planet that is severely degraded

00:03:17.955 --> 00:03:21.042
the rainforests, the mangrove swamps

00:03:21.042 --> 00:03:22.910
the wetlands, the kelp forests

00:03:22.910 --> 00:03:24.445
the seagrass meadows,

00:03:24.445 --> 00:03:26.145
the water, the soil

00:03:26.145 --> 00:03:28.162
all of these are at a a fraction of their

00:03:28.162 --> 00:03:31.170
former level of vitality and health

00:03:31.170 --> 00:03:32.440
which means that

00:03:32.440 --> 00:03:34.690
this earth is much less able

00:03:34.690 --> 00:03:36.498
to maintain

00:03:36.498 --> 00:03:38.131
a stable climate

00:03:38.131 --> 00:03:41.305
and to deal with whatever challenges and fluctuations

00:03:41.305 --> 00:03:43.870
happen whether it's human emissions

00:03:43.870 --> 00:03:45.584
CO2 emissions or

00:03:45.584 --> 00:03:48.051
volcanic emissions or whatever

00:03:48.240 --> 00:03:50.944
fluctuations in the Sun

00:03:50.944 --> 00:03:54.344
the planet is much less able to be resilient

00:03:54.344 --> 00:03:57.732
when its organs are so degraded

00:03:57.732 --> 00:03:59.236
so that means that

00:03:59.236 --> 00:04:01.246
if we hadn't reduced

00:04:01.246 --> 00:04:03.110
our tree count to half

00:04:03.110 --> 00:04:04.753
of what used to be

00:04:04.753 --> 00:04:06.450
if we hadn't turned

00:04:06.450 --> 00:04:10.680
vast areas of every continent into deserts

00:04:10.680 --> 00:04:14.485
I don't think that 400 ppm would be a problem

00:04:14.485 --> 00:04:16.724
but in fact

00:04:16.724 --> 00:04:18.156
we've done the opposite

00:04:18.156 --> 00:04:22.604
we've made life so so much less able

00:04:22.604 --> 00:04:25.678
to handle challenges

00:04:25.678 --> 00:04:27.741
that greenhouse gases, I think,

00:04:27.741 --> 00:04:30.686
are a serious threat they're very destabilizing

00:04:30.686 --> 00:04:32.486
and that's a different view

00:04:32.486 --> 00:04:34.678
than the standard global warming

00:04:34.678 --> 00:04:36.781
runaway global warming narrative

00:04:36.781 --> 00:04:41.105
but it's not entirely contradictory to it either

00:04:46.561 --> 00:04:48.888
the production of fossil fuels

00:04:48.888 --> 00:04:50.564
also does damage in other ways

00:04:50.564 --> 00:04:52.510
that I think ultimately from

00:04:52.510 --> 00:04:55.381
the Living Planet View might even be more damaging

00:04:55.381 --> 00:04:59.087
the way that it destroys whole ecosystems

00:04:59.087 --> 00:05:01.854
I mean you've seen probably the photographs of the

00:05:01.854 --> 00:05:03.557
Alberta tar sands

00:05:03.557 --> 00:05:06.141
and just the ruin caused

00:05:06.141 --> 00:05:07.973
by the more mountain top removal, you know

00:05:07.973 --> 00:05:10.926
or the oil spills

00:05:10.926 --> 00:05:14.187
when we understand Earth as alive

00:05:14.187 --> 00:05:16.498
I mean imagine like that's happening to the cells

00:05:16.498 --> 00:05:17.826
and tissues in your body

00:05:17.826 --> 00:05:19.599
like whole swaths of them

00:05:19.599 --> 00:05:22.604
are getting poisoned and destroyed

00:05:22.604 --> 00:05:24.166
then how are you going to maintain

00:05:24.166 --> 00:05:26.768
a healthy body temperature

00:05:26.768 --> 00:05:29.102
you know, maybe that's extending the metaphor too far

00:05:29.102 --> 00:05:32.366
but that's the situation that we'll in

00:05:34.554 --> 00:05:41.523
STEPS TO RECOVERY

00:05:41.523 --> 00:05:43.031
So from the living planet view

00:05:43.031 --> 00:05:44.742
we understand that

00:05:44.742 --> 00:05:49.216
the organs of Gaia are essential

00:05:49.216 --> 00:05:51.969
especially those that are still intact

00:05:51.969 --> 00:05:53.321
like the Amazon

00:05:53.321 --> 00:05:55.041
like to some extent the Congo

00:05:55.041 --> 00:05:56.379
like some other places on earth

00:05:56.379 --> 00:05:58.296
that are smaller but still intact

00:05:58.296 --> 00:06:01.050
these are reservoirs of health

00:06:01.050 --> 00:06:04.671
these are where Gaia's memory of health

00:06:04.671 --> 00:06:06.512
even is located

00:06:06.512 --> 00:06:09.416
we need to protect these areas

00:06:09.416 --> 00:06:12.234
the Amazon is a living being in and of itself

00:06:12.234 --> 00:06:14.844
and we just have a very superficial understanding

00:06:14.844 --> 00:06:18.289
of how that inter-relates to to the Gaian physiology

00:06:18.289 --> 00:06:21.789
so if you reduce the Amazon to how much carbon

00:06:21.789 --> 00:06:23.149
that it sequesters

00:06:23.149 --> 00:06:25.234
you're gonna miss out on all of these other

00:06:25.234 --> 00:06:27.054
physiological effects

00:06:27.054 --> 00:06:29.093
so first priority

00:06:29.093 --> 00:06:31.887
these places must be held sacred

00:06:31.887 --> 00:06:33.525
if we do not do that

00:06:33.525 --> 00:06:36.101
then even if we compensate

00:06:36.101 --> 00:06:38.926
for the lost carbon

00:06:38.926 --> 00:06:40.577
from the Amazon

00:06:40.577 --> 00:06:44.044
this planet is still going to spin out of control

00:06:44.044 --> 00:06:46.281
PRIORITY #1: SACRED

00:06:47.603 --> 00:06:49.749
second priority is

00:06:49.749 --> 00:06:52.700
to repair, regenerate and heal

00:06:52.700 --> 00:06:56.536
the organs that have been damaged

00:06:56.536 --> 00:06:59.876
particularly forests and soil

00:06:59.876 --> 00:07:01.573
soil is probably THE most important

00:07:01.573 --> 00:07:02.496
organ of the planet

00:07:02.496 --> 00:07:04.861
and of course it's related to the trees

00:07:04.861 --> 00:07:06.038
and to the prairies

00:07:06.038 --> 00:07:08.690
and to all the other ecosystems

00:07:08.690 --> 00:07:12.399
so regenerative agriculture for example

00:07:12.399 --> 00:07:14.169
from the carbon lens

00:07:14.169 --> 00:07:16.606
you can also justify this

00:07:16.606 --> 00:07:18.728
it's probably by far

00:07:18.728 --> 00:07:21.426
I would say it's by far the fastest way to

00:07:21.426 --> 00:07:23.349
take carbon out of the atmosphere

00:07:23.349 --> 00:07:24.825
there are farmers and ranchers out there

00:07:24.825 --> 00:07:26.574
who are building topsoil

00:07:26.574 --> 00:07:28.408
at just phenomenal rates

00:07:28.408 --> 00:07:30.626
in school we learned it takes 500 years

00:07:30.626 --> 00:07:32.003
to build an inch of topsoil

00:07:32.003 --> 00:07:33.635
but the farmers out there who are doing it

00:07:33.635 --> 00:07:35.239
in one year

00:07:35.239 --> 00:07:37.533
taking huge amounts of carbon out of the atmosphere

00:07:37.533 --> 00:07:39.234
PRIORITY #2: HEAL

00:07:40.254 --> 00:07:41.589
so, okay

00:07:41.589 --> 00:07:42.953
third priority is

00:07:42.953 --> 00:07:44.861
to stop poisoning all the tissues

00:07:44.861 --> 00:07:47.687
with herbicides, pesticides, insecticides

00:07:47.687 --> 00:07:52.546
toxic wastes, pharmaceutical wastes, sunscreens etc. etc.

00:07:52.546 --> 00:07:55.058
that reduces the resiliency of the planet

00:07:55.058 --> 00:07:57.592
universally on, like a tissue level

00:07:57.592 --> 00:08:00.986
as opposed to an organ level

00:08:00.986 --> 00:08:02.227
like we've got to put a halt

00:08:02.227 --> 00:08:03.500
to this 90 year experiment

00:08:03.500 --> 00:08:05.875
what will happen if we douse the whole landscape

00:08:05.875 --> 00:08:07.954
with insecticide

00:08:07.954 --> 00:08:09.776
again and again

00:08:09.776 --> 00:08:12.433
like, are we surprised now that

00:08:12.433 --> 00:08:14.921
insect populations have declined everywhere

00:08:14.921 --> 00:08:16.659
it's not just because of that rhough

00:08:16.659 --> 00:08:19.985
I think a and really important and unrecognized cause

00:08:19.985 --> 00:08:22.800
is the depletion of megafauna

00:08:22.800 --> 00:08:25.661
that reverberates down through the food chain

00:08:25.661 --> 00:08:29.689
so, like we don't even have to understand why

00:08:29.689 --> 00:08:31.502
if we're coming from a living Earth perspective

00:08:31.502 --> 00:08:33.651
we know that this is important

00:08:33.651 --> 00:08:37.459
fourth priority is to reduce fossil fuel emissions

00:08:37.919 --> 00:08:42.736
and this is controversial thus I put this as fourth priority

00:08:42.736 --> 00:08:45.854
however, if you hold the first three priorities

00:08:45.854 --> 00:08:47.290
you're necessarily going to

00:08:47.290 --> 00:08:49.081
have to reduce fossil fuel emissions

00:08:49.081 --> 00:08:52.503
because you can't hold ecosystem sacred

00:08:52.503 --> 00:08:55.502
and continue to frack and drill

00:08:55.502 --> 00:08:56.974
and strip mine

00:08:56.974 --> 00:08:58.994
and pipeline

00:08:58.994 --> 00:09:01.589
so the fourth priority is actually

00:09:01.589 --> 00:09:02.920
a product of the other three

00:09:02.920 --> 00:09:05.608
and it all comes from the same perspective

00:09:05.608 --> 00:09:08.314
of "let's do everything we know how to do

00:09:08.314 --> 00:09:11.602
to participate in the healing of the planet

00:09:11.602 --> 00:09:13.640
that's why we're here

00:09:13.640 --> 00:09:15.234
at this point in time

00:09:15.234 --> 00:09:17.007
first the healing

00:09:17.007 --> 00:09:19.715
and then to bring even more life

00:09:19.715 --> 00:09:21.875
to this world

00:09:28.145 --> 00:09:32.337
TACTICS

00:09:32.337 --> 00:09:34.750
I think that the appropriate tactics

00:09:34.750 --> 00:09:36.743
vary in every situation

00:09:36.743 --> 00:09:39.601
I don't have a formula that you should do this kind of

00:09:39.601 --> 00:09:43.043
action here and that kind of action there

00:09:43.043 --> 00:09:45.166
but the tactics need to come from

00:09:45.166 --> 00:09:48.351
an understanding of what we're serving here

00:09:48.351 --> 00:09:49.747
werel serving

00:09:49.747 --> 00:09:51.750
yeah, in one level you can say

00:09:51.750 --> 00:09:54.578
the protection of life on Earth

00:09:54.578 --> 00:09:56.355
or the healing of life on Earth

00:09:56.355 --> 00:09:57.968
on another level you might also say

00:09:57.968 --> 00:10:01.080
that we'rel serving a change in our deep narratives

00:10:01.080 --> 00:10:04.274
and our mythology that names who we are

00:10:04.274 --> 00:10:05.561
why we'll here

00:10:05.561 --> 00:10:07.413
and what's real

00:10:07.413 --> 00:10:09.326
so, I think that

00:10:09.326 --> 00:10:10.861
part of that understanding

00:10:10.861 --> 00:10:12.987
is understanding of each other

00:10:12.987 --> 00:10:15.661
and even if the people that we demonize

00:10:15.661 --> 00:10:18.608
that actually you are here to serve life, too

00:10:18.608 --> 00:10:21.603
and it might be difficult in your situation

00:10:21.603 --> 00:10:24.576
but you're the same as I am

00:10:24.576 --> 00:10:26.488
instead of demonizing you

00:10:26.488 --> 00:10:28.744
and holding you as an irredeemable

00:10:28.744 --> 00:10:32.223
polluter or greedy or an enemy

00:10:32.223 --> 00:10:34.099
and thinking that the only solution is

00:10:34.099 --> 00:10:37.197
going to be to dominate you

00:10:37.197 --> 00:10:40.441
to conquer you

00:10:40.441 --> 00:10:42.806
to win a battle

00:10:42.806 --> 00:10:44.534
by doing that we enemies of people

00:10:44.534 --> 00:10:46.699
who wouldn't necessarily have to be enemies

00:10:46.699 --> 00:10:48.397
if there were some way to invite them

00:10:48.397 --> 00:10:49.938
into alliance

00:10:49.938 --> 00:10:52.125
and to speak to that part of themselves

00:10:52.125 --> 00:10:54.944
that if they really knew what was happening

00:10:54.944 --> 00:10:58.040
they wouldn't want to do that

00:10:58.040 --> 00:10:59.671
the despair that a lot of people feel

00:10:59.671 --> 00:11:01.296
about the future of this Earth

00:11:01.296 --> 00:11:04.470
draws from the same theory of change

00:11:04.470 --> 00:11:06.450
and the same understanding of reality

00:11:06.450 --> 00:11:08.385
that the problem comes from

00:11:08.385 --> 00:11:09.614
basically the theory of changes

00:11:09.614 --> 00:11:11.385
that you exerts a force on a mass

00:11:11.385 --> 00:11:12.809
of something changes

00:11:12.809 --> 00:11:14.386
so the more force you have

00:11:14.386 --> 00:11:17.375
the greater power you have to change the world

00:11:17.375 --> 00:11:19.095
from that theory of change

00:11:19.095 --> 00:11:21.669
sorry, the powers that be in the system

00:11:21.669 --> 00:11:23.186
they have a lot more force than you do

00:11:23.186 --> 00:11:26.854
and you're never gonna have enough power to change anything

00:11:26.854 --> 00:11:28.824
but maybe the world doesn't work like that

00:11:28.824 --> 00:11:30.210
like there are other ways

00:11:30.210 --> 00:11:31.287
to change the world besides

00:11:31.287 --> 00:11:33.806
dominating others by force

00:11:33.806 --> 00:11:36.054
for me hope lies in these things

00:11:36.054 --> 00:11:38.469
hope lies in understanding that nature

00:11:38.469 --> 00:11:40.278
where let's say other beings

00:11:40.278 --> 00:11:41.588
can be our allies

00:11:41.588 --> 00:11:43.648
because we're tapping into

00:11:43.648 --> 00:11:47.868
another world of cause and effect

00:11:47.868 --> 00:11:50.475
that puts us in the right place at the right time

00:11:50.475 --> 00:11:52.702
saying the right words to the right person

00:11:52.702 --> 00:11:56.657
awakening in them what has been awoken in us

00:11:56.657 --> 00:11:58.927
bringing them into greater courage

00:11:58.927 --> 00:12:01.020
in their service as well

00:12:01.020 --> 00:12:03.052
maybe the change happens that way

00:12:03.052 --> 00:12:04.262
and when we understand that

00:12:04.262 --> 00:12:06.971
we just don't really know how this world works

00:12:06.971 --> 00:12:10.603
and if anything, the failure of our civilization

00:12:10.603 --> 00:12:11.477
should teach us

00:12:11.477 --> 00:12:14.058
that we actually don't know

00:12:14.058 --> 00:12:17.335
it should bring us to a point of humility

00:12:17.335 --> 00:12:18.810
from that point of humility

00:12:18.810 --> 00:12:21.658
anything is possible