WEBVTT 00:00:06.414 --> 00:00:09.478 Who has been to a rural area recently? 00:00:09.478 --> 00:00:12.368 Really outside and being there? 00:00:12.368 --> 00:00:14.140 Just hands up, please. 00:00:14.610 --> 00:00:16.215 So, very, very few. 00:00:16.215 --> 00:00:19.246 So, this talk is about rural areas, 00:00:19.246 --> 00:00:24.333 but to talk about rural areas, we need to look at the urban first. 00:00:27.658 --> 00:00:32.322 Obviously, today, everybody thinks the future is urban, 00:00:32.322 --> 00:00:35.028 so people move to urban areas. 00:00:35.028 --> 00:00:40.268 This year we exceeded 50% of the total world population living in cities. 00:00:40.518 --> 00:00:41.983 Isn't that incredible? 00:00:41.983 --> 00:00:44.032 And now, instead of thinking, 00:00:44.032 --> 00:00:47.676 "This should end. This is terrible," NOTE Paragraph 00:00:47.676 --> 00:00:51.596 we think, "Well, 2030, we have 70%." 00:00:51.596 --> 00:00:53.796 And I consider this nuts. 00:00:53.807 --> 00:00:55.753 So, what do we do with that? 00:00:55.753 --> 00:00:59.233 We have areas where, on one hand, 00:01:00.073 --> 00:01:04.072 the urban - what happens there? 00:01:04.072 --> 00:01:05.583 Of course, there are upsides, 00:01:05.583 --> 00:01:09.528 so people go there to find a job, to have a social environment, 00:01:09.533 --> 00:01:14.231 to find friends, get married, whatever, go to the discotheque. 00:01:14.915 --> 00:01:16.746 But on the other hand, 00:01:17.276 --> 00:01:18.891 there's a lot of noise. 00:01:18.891 --> 00:01:23.430 You pay a fortune for a little flat that is just facing another flat 00:01:23.430 --> 00:01:25.345 across a noisy road. 00:01:25.715 --> 00:01:27.180 Where's your garden? 00:01:28.100 --> 00:01:30.821 So obviously, some things are wrong there. 00:01:31.321 --> 00:01:35.500 And so, is that the lifestyle that we want for the future? 00:01:35.500 --> 00:01:36.560 Everybody? 00:01:36.560 --> 00:01:37.966 The only choice? 00:01:39.256 --> 00:01:40.345 I would say no. 00:01:40.345 --> 00:01:43.365 We need more choice, and that's what I want to talk about 00:01:43.365 --> 00:01:47.792 because there's one thing that worries me as a city dweller. 00:01:48.601 --> 00:01:50.549 If supplies would end - 00:01:50.549 --> 00:01:53.508 so, big power cut, 00:01:53.508 --> 00:01:57.618 natural catastrophe, no supplies - 00:01:57.618 --> 00:02:01.181 I guess in around two-three hours, all shops would be sold out 00:02:01.186 --> 00:02:05.131 because everybody wants to get as much as possible to be prepared. 00:02:05.131 --> 00:02:08.912 And then the shops are empty, and we don't know what to do. 00:02:08.912 --> 00:02:11.842 We don't know how we can survive. 00:02:11.842 --> 00:02:13.453 So, in a city environment, 00:02:13.453 --> 00:02:17.891 we are mostly 100% dependent on outside supplies. 00:02:18.681 --> 00:02:20.291 Like a baby, eh? 00:02:20.735 --> 00:02:23.809 And now, the flip side of the urban life 00:02:24.619 --> 00:02:29.870 is that we have rural areas that are deserted more and more. 00:02:29.870 --> 00:02:33.196 People constantly move to the cities. 00:02:34.606 --> 00:02:36.769 People in the rural, they are old. 00:02:37.179 --> 00:02:38.899 No schools anymore. 00:02:39.229 --> 00:02:41.876 And at the same time, 00:02:41.876 --> 00:02:43.337 the rural areas, 00:02:44.167 --> 00:02:49.778 they have a type of farming that is using lots of chemicals, 00:02:49.788 --> 00:02:51.995 pesticides, toxic stuff, 00:02:52.405 --> 00:02:56.605 and this is something what will not have a future. 00:02:56.605 --> 00:03:00.878 We cannot pollute our groundwater further and further and further. 00:03:01.178 --> 00:03:05.724 We cannot destroy our soils because then we won't have water anymore. 00:03:05.969 --> 00:03:08.718 We need good soil to have water. 00:03:08.718 --> 00:03:10.289 It's as simple as that. 00:03:11.319 --> 00:03:14.139 But hardly anybody is looking at that. 00:03:14.919 --> 00:03:16.929 Do you hear a lot about soil? 00:03:17.449 --> 00:03:18.711 I guess not. 00:03:18.711 --> 00:03:22.565 It's our main, crucial asset for the future. 00:03:22.905 --> 00:03:24.517 So now, what happens? 00:03:24.517 --> 00:03:29.799 There are some good developments going on, and you all know about that, 00:03:30.244 --> 00:03:31.644 and that would be ... 00:03:35.466 --> 00:03:36.866 green development. 00:03:37.019 --> 00:03:40.755 So, we have cities where people start to do urban gardening, 00:03:41.040 --> 00:03:43.605 rooftop garden, balcony garden. 00:03:43.605 --> 00:03:47.823 Who is lucky has a little piece of land behind the house. 00:03:48.875 --> 00:03:51.829 So, that is something I really like, 00:03:52.209 --> 00:03:55.105 and what I see is that many people who are doing that - 00:03:55.108 --> 00:03:57.947 so, Transition Town Movement, for example - 00:03:57.947 --> 00:03:59.451 they want more. 00:03:59.451 --> 00:04:02.872 But that's impossible in the context of cities. 00:04:03.437 --> 00:04:09.765 So, the urban can supply maybe 20% of the food 00:04:09.765 --> 00:04:12.704 with maximum urban gardening. 00:04:13.744 --> 00:04:15.977 It's good, but is it good enough? 00:04:17.157 --> 00:04:21.040 So, what happens in the rural area on the positive side? 00:04:21.850 --> 00:04:24.352 There are some developments going on 00:04:24.352 --> 00:04:29.458 into ecological, sound agriculture, organic agriculture. 00:04:29.458 --> 00:04:33.093 It's rising strongly on a worldwide scale, luckily. 00:04:33.093 --> 00:04:35.796 But at the same time, it turns industrial, 00:04:36.706 --> 00:04:39.827 and in order to have real organic farms 00:04:39.827 --> 00:04:43.595 that are keeping soil intact, building humus, 00:04:43.595 --> 00:04:50.013 we will need many, many people that live with farming. 00:04:51.325 --> 00:04:56.539 So, is the type of farming that is done - is this ecological? 00:04:57.245 --> 00:04:58.256 It's not. 00:04:58.256 --> 00:05:01.155 Even the big organic farms are not really ecological, 00:05:01.155 --> 00:05:02.730 if you look at it. 00:05:02.730 --> 00:05:07.689 And so, what we need is attractive lifestyles in the rural 00:05:07.689 --> 00:05:10.004 that also do some farming, 00:05:11.184 --> 00:05:16.126 but not from morning to night, 00:05:16.126 --> 00:05:17.708 seven days a week. 00:05:18.628 --> 00:05:19.948 I wouldn't like that. 00:05:19.948 --> 00:05:23.138 Many people on farms don't like that. 00:05:23.588 --> 00:05:26.986 The young guys leave the farm - as we see it everywhere - 00:05:26.986 --> 00:05:28.258 and another small farm, 00:05:28.258 --> 00:05:33.171 going to the big one where one person works 3,000 hectares 00:05:33.171 --> 00:05:37.048 probably with a robot machine in the future. 00:05:37.048 --> 00:05:40.218 Nobody's working there anymore. 00:05:41.390 --> 00:05:43.423 That has no future. 00:05:43.423 --> 00:05:45.194 And now, what can we do? 00:05:45.454 --> 00:05:48.486 We must turn around the situation. 00:05:48.806 --> 00:05:55.150 So, we need to put the urban into its place. 00:05:55.152 --> 00:05:58.166 Of course, we will have urban areas in the future, 00:05:58.166 --> 00:06:00.472 but not for all of the world population. 00:06:00.772 --> 00:06:05.061 So, we need more attractive rural lifestyles, 00:06:05.441 --> 00:06:09.095 and that is what I think we should create now. 00:06:09.101 --> 00:06:13.073 And there is something where we could create something 00:06:13.073 --> 00:06:17.707 that we could call maybe "New Towns." 00:06:20.253 --> 00:06:24.715 The New Town should have the positive sides of city life 00:06:24.715 --> 00:06:28.212 combined with the positive sides of rural life: 00:06:28.212 --> 00:06:31.858 having space, quiet areas, forest nearby, 00:06:31.858 --> 00:06:35.214 a lake where you can go swimming in the morning, or a river. 00:06:35.851 --> 00:06:38.604 But combining that with job opportunities, 00:06:38.608 --> 00:06:40.701 having interesting people around, 00:06:40.701 --> 00:06:44.182 with the possibility to create your own things, 00:06:44.182 --> 00:06:49.165 not being like in city life 100% dependent on somebody giving you a job, 00:06:49.165 --> 00:06:50.872 giving you a flat, 00:06:50.872 --> 00:06:53.012 providing a car and so on. 00:06:53.250 --> 00:06:55.800 So, how can that work? 00:06:55.800 --> 00:06:56.824 What would you think? 00:06:56.824 --> 00:07:01.104 How could, well, the dream town in the rural, 00:07:01.104 --> 00:07:04.149 not near the city where you go to the discotheque every day 00:07:04.149 --> 00:07:06.259 or commute to work - 00:07:07.095 --> 00:07:08.673 how could that village look like? 00:07:08.673 --> 00:07:10.505 How could that town look like? 00:07:12.971 --> 00:07:17.753 I don't know, but I have some ideas, and that's what I want to share with you. 00:07:17.753 --> 00:07:21.011 So, one thing is that we have the social level, 00:07:21.013 --> 00:07:22.554 and that would be - 00:07:24.643 --> 00:07:28.177 we should have sufficient numbers of people to make it attractive. 00:07:28.185 --> 00:07:32.974 Nobody wants to live alone in some remote rural area. 00:07:33.500 --> 00:07:37.940 Few people might like that, but that's pretty much the exception. 00:07:37.940 --> 00:07:43.044 So, we should have New Towns that have maybe 100 to 500 people. 00:07:43.787 --> 00:07:46.176 And one thing that is crucial now 00:07:46.176 --> 00:07:51.823 is we should have productive towns 00:07:51.823 --> 00:07:56.199 that are producing high-quality food 00:07:56.619 --> 00:07:57.872 not only for themselves, 00:07:57.872 --> 00:08:01.962 but also for sale, for supplying the cities 00:08:02.362 --> 00:08:05.982 in a way that is fun, leisure 00:08:05.982 --> 00:08:10.409 and a good work-life balance or work-work-work balance. 00:08:10.409 --> 00:08:13.701 And I'll explain you what I understand from that. 00:08:13.705 --> 00:08:16.620 So, when we do a normal job, 00:08:16.620 --> 00:08:20.807 we normally work from morning to evening at the desk, 00:08:20.807 --> 00:08:23.678 or we do something, sort of the same thing 00:08:23.678 --> 00:08:27.008 five days a week. 00:08:27.008 --> 00:08:28.894 And now we could balance, 00:08:28.894 --> 00:08:35.261 and in the morning, we could go and work with this thing. 00:08:35.261 --> 00:08:36.290 It's really fun. 00:08:36.290 --> 00:08:39.108 It's very efficient when you learn how to do it. 00:08:39.108 --> 00:08:42.858 And then we could go to the computer or something else: 00:08:42.858 --> 00:08:44.029 go to the workshop, 00:08:44.029 --> 00:08:47.845 make, create something, build this, for example, build a scythe. 00:08:47.845 --> 00:08:49.619 And actually, 00:08:50.564 --> 00:08:54.148 I worked 30 years with computers, 00:08:54.148 --> 00:08:55.440 and I'm fed up! 00:08:55.440 --> 00:08:56.800 (Loud bang) 00:08:57.113 --> 00:08:59.040 And so, the life can be different, 00:08:59.040 --> 00:09:02.227 so we can do different things: balancing. 00:09:02.227 --> 00:09:05.912 And I don't mind working a third of my time on a computer, 00:09:05.912 --> 00:09:07.986 but not full-time. 00:09:07.986 --> 00:09:11.476 Economy - so, how can economy look like? 00:09:12.074 --> 00:09:17.641 We need something where we need to reduce the costs of living. 00:09:21.890 --> 00:09:25.619 It's really difficult to survive in a rural area, 00:09:25.619 --> 00:09:28.355 far away from a city, far away from supplies, 00:09:28.355 --> 00:09:30.999 from some government and so on. 00:09:30.999 --> 00:09:32.726 So, reduce costs. 00:09:32.726 --> 00:09:35.694 The idea is to have a starter house, 00:09:35.694 --> 00:09:38.848 modular house that is small, but very efficient - 00:09:38.848 --> 00:09:43.586 solar, passive solar, very well insulated, but small for the beginning - 00:09:43.586 --> 00:09:47.924 so that young people moving out, they don't have a big debt in the bank. 00:09:47.924 --> 00:09:52.254 But with around, well, maybe 25,000 euros, 00:09:52.258 --> 00:09:56.541 they could own their own house and pay off the house 00:09:56.541 --> 00:10:01.130 plus maybe 3,000 square meters of land 00:10:01.430 --> 00:10:03.153 within a 10 years' time - 00:10:03.863 --> 00:10:05.443 own it completely. 00:10:06.046 --> 00:10:11.897 And that means that, well, the retirement security is there 00:10:11.905 --> 00:10:14.483 because the land will stay and is productive. 00:10:14.483 --> 00:10:19.109 You can produce not only your own food, but you can supply 50 more people, 00:10:19.609 --> 00:10:22.722 with one third of a working day. 00:10:22.722 --> 00:10:23.820 That's the main thing - 00:10:23.820 --> 00:10:29.172 we don't want to get into this type of agriculture that we have today. 00:10:29.606 --> 00:10:30.643 So, 00:10:32.063 --> 00:10:34.818 people who move out should be entrepreneurs, 00:10:34.818 --> 00:10:36.538 should be producers. 00:10:36.538 --> 00:10:41.052 They can produce, well, agricultural products, 00:10:41.052 --> 00:10:43.857 but with that, we should have more jobs. 00:10:43.857 --> 00:10:49.452 And of course, there are jobs for child care, teachers. 00:10:49.452 --> 00:10:51.121 There would be demand for tools, 00:10:51.121 --> 00:10:57.000 so somebody can build tools and run a company for producing that. 00:10:57.223 --> 00:11:00.421 Transportation: transporting the vegetables into the city 00:11:00.421 --> 00:11:03.790 with a bus, maybe, that people can also join. 00:11:04.949 --> 00:11:08.963 There's many, many, many options for that. 00:11:09.298 --> 00:11:12.609 So, that is something that is well possible. 00:11:13.942 --> 00:11:16.335 Now, we have the social, economic, 00:11:16.335 --> 00:11:20.290 and now the ecological level for the New Town. 00:11:20.643 --> 00:11:26.167 And it would be a prerequisite that people do organic gardening 00:11:26.755 --> 00:11:31.560 because only organic gardening can assure building up soil. 00:11:31.561 --> 00:11:36.025 The soil should become richer and richer or more productive every year. 00:11:36.843 --> 00:11:39.387 And that's a good, good asset for the future, 00:11:39.387 --> 00:11:43.337 for a good future for many, many people on the planet. 00:11:44.436 --> 00:11:48.880 We can have 100% of regenerative energy, 00:11:48.880 --> 00:11:54.384 and in fact, I could cook my meal on this wood gas stove. 00:11:54.978 --> 00:11:56.816 With local resources, 00:11:56.816 --> 00:12:03.669 this stove was produced in a town in Burkina Faso for 15 euros, 00:12:03.669 --> 00:12:07.138 all with waste materials from old fridges and so on. 00:12:07.138 --> 00:12:08.978 So, also that is possible. 00:12:09.308 --> 00:12:11.944 And what is even better, 00:12:11.944 --> 00:12:15.244 the fuel comes from the waste from the agriculture. 00:12:15.244 --> 00:12:18.324 This is made from reed and stuff and woody waste. 00:12:18.324 --> 00:12:22.331 And with that we can cook, and we could also produce electricity 00:12:22.331 --> 00:12:23.363 and so on. 00:12:23.363 --> 00:12:25.121 I don't want to go into details here. 00:12:25.121 --> 00:12:26.528 There's a lot available. 00:12:27.430 --> 00:12:32.650 Then, we have one key issue that is often overlooked, 00:12:33.215 --> 00:12:36.864 and that is that we need a social environment 00:12:36.864 --> 00:12:38.895 where personal growth 00:12:38.895 --> 00:12:43.795 is, well, sort of promoted or possible. 00:12:43.795 --> 00:12:46.130 And there are wonderful tools for that. 00:12:46.411 --> 00:12:47.418 Without that, 00:12:47.418 --> 00:12:50.198 we have the same problems that we have today. 00:12:50.198 --> 00:12:53.824 So, our society reflects lack of personal growth, 00:12:53.824 --> 00:12:56.849 and that's why we go into this dead-end road 00:12:56.849 --> 00:12:58.224 in many aspects. 00:12:59.191 --> 00:13:03.193 Now, this is something where we could come to something 00:13:03.193 --> 00:13:08.161 when we have, I said, 20% with green development, 00:13:08.161 --> 00:13:09.638 production of food. 00:13:10.663 --> 00:13:15.501 The New Town could make 500%. 00:13:15.501 --> 00:13:18.923 So, that would be exporters also having income from that. 00:13:19.274 --> 00:13:21.605 And then, this whole context, 00:13:21.605 --> 00:13:28.372 this whole idea is sort of the post-industrialization development. 00:13:30.332 --> 00:13:32.946 The idea for people to move into cities 00:13:32.946 --> 00:13:36.275 came from, "There's a factory, there's a job." 00:13:36.275 --> 00:13:42.089 And only then people started to gather in bigger and bigger numbers. 00:13:42.419 --> 00:13:44.945 And now this is not the case anymore: 00:13:44.945 --> 00:13:48.145 a lot of the production processes can be decentralized. 00:13:48.865 --> 00:13:49.893 Even in the New Town, 00:13:49.893 --> 00:13:53.900 we can have somebody doing high-tech production 00:13:53.900 --> 00:13:56.637 with 3D printers and things like that. 00:13:56.637 --> 00:13:58.738 If somebody wants to do that, it's an option. 00:13:58.738 --> 00:14:00.108 So we get freedom. 00:14:00.108 --> 00:14:02.135 And with that, 00:14:02.135 --> 00:14:03.885 we have something 00:14:03.895 --> 00:14:09.895 where we have a definition of wealth 00:14:10.435 --> 00:14:14.013 that is from Amartya Sen, 00:14:14.013 --> 00:14:19.221 Nobel Prize winner of the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences. 00:14:19.223 --> 00:14:22.888 And he has defined wealth 00:14:24.938 --> 00:14:28.138 as the degree of freedom that we obtain. 00:14:29.258 --> 00:14:32.186 So, having a job 12 hours a day, 00:14:32.186 --> 00:14:35.379 being burned-out every weekend 00:14:35.709 --> 00:14:38.455 is not very much wealth, with this definition. 00:14:38.455 --> 00:14:42.590 So, let's go for a future with lots of wealth 00:14:42.590 --> 00:14:45.440 where we have the freedom to choose what we want to do, 00:14:45.558 --> 00:14:49.134 where we have diversity of things that can be done. 00:14:49.134 --> 00:14:52.043 We should move into a region 00:14:52.043 --> 00:14:56.431 that is attractive, has forests, mountains or a lake, a river 00:14:56.431 --> 00:14:59.062 so that it's really a place to be, 00:14:59.062 --> 00:15:01.924 where people love to be 00:15:02.144 --> 00:15:05.658 and at the same time, being productive. 00:15:05.658 --> 00:15:11.765 And that is something what I think is part of the model for our future. 00:15:12.195 --> 00:15:14.349 And now my final question to you: 00:15:14.764 --> 00:15:18.224 who can imagine to live in a New Town like that? 00:15:18.230 --> 00:15:19.650 Please hands up. 00:15:21.344 --> 00:15:22.955 Okay, that convinces me, 00:15:22.955 --> 00:15:25.199 and I hope you will join this development. 00:15:25.199 --> 00:15:26.908 Thank you very much. 00:15:26.908 --> 00:15:29.078 (Applause)