The magic washing machine
-
0:00 - 0:02I was only four years old
-
0:02 - 0:05when I saw my mother load a washing machine
-
0:05 - 0:08for the very first time in her life.
-
0:08 - 0:10That was a great day for my mother.
-
0:10 - 0:13My mother and father had been saving money for years
-
0:13 - 0:15to be able to buy that machine,
-
0:15 - 0:17and the first day it was going to be used,
-
0:17 - 0:19even Grandma was invited
-
0:19 - 0:21to see the machine.
-
0:21 - 0:24And Grandma was even more excited.
-
0:24 - 0:26Throughout her life
-
0:26 - 0:28she had been heating water with firewood,
-
0:28 - 0:30and she had hand washed laundry
-
0:30 - 0:32for seven children.
-
0:32 - 0:35And now she was going to watch
-
0:35 - 0:38electricity do that work.
-
0:38 - 0:42My mother carefully opened the door,
-
0:42 - 0:44and she loaded the laundry
-
0:44 - 0:46into the machine,
-
0:46 - 0:48like this.
-
0:48 - 0:50And then, when she closed the door,
-
0:50 - 0:52Grandma said, "No, no, no, no.
-
0:52 - 0:55Let me, let me push the button."
-
0:56 - 0:58And Grandma pushed the button,
-
0:58 - 1:01and she said, "Oh, fantastic!
-
1:01 - 1:03I want to see this! Give me a chair!
-
1:03 - 1:05Give me a chair! I want to see it,"
-
1:05 - 1:08and she sat down in front of the machine,
-
1:08 - 1:12and she watched the entire washing program.
-
1:12 - 1:14She was mesmerized.
-
1:14 - 1:17To my grandmother,
-
1:17 - 1:20the washing machine was a miracle.
-
1:20 - 1:23Today, in Sweden and other rich countries,
-
1:23 - 1:25people are using
-
1:25 - 1:27so many different machines.
-
1:27 - 1:29Look, the homes are full of machines.
-
1:29 - 1:31I can't even name them all.
-
1:31 - 1:34And they also, when they want to travel,
-
1:34 - 1:37they use flying machines
-
1:37 - 1:39that can take them to remote destinations.
-
1:39 - 1:41And yet, in the world, there are so many people
-
1:41 - 1:44who still heat the water on fire,
-
1:44 - 1:47and they cook their food on fire.
-
1:47 - 1:49Sometimes they don't even have enough food,
-
1:49 - 1:52and they live below the poverty line.
-
1:52 - 1:55There are two billion fellow human beings
-
1:55 - 1:57who live on less than two dollars a day.
-
1:57 - 1:59And the richest people over there --
-
1:59 - 2:01there's one billion people --
-
2:01 - 2:05and they live above what I call the "air line,"
-
2:05 - 2:08because they spend more than $80 a day
-
2:08 - 2:10on their consumption.
-
2:10 - 2:13But this is just one, two, three billion people,
-
2:13 - 2:16and obviously there are seven billion people in the world,
-
2:16 - 2:19so there must be one, two, three, four billion people more
-
2:19 - 2:22who live in between the poverty and the air line.
-
2:22 - 2:25They have electricity,
-
2:25 - 2:28but the question is, how many have washing machines?
-
2:28 - 2:31I've done the scrutiny of market data,
-
2:31 - 2:33and I've found that, indeed,
-
2:33 - 2:36the washing machine has penetrated below the air line,
-
2:36 - 2:39and today there's an additional one billion people out there
-
2:39 - 2:42who live above the "wash line."
-
2:42 - 2:44(Laughter)
-
2:44 - 2:48And they consume more than $40 per day.
-
2:48 - 2:51So two billion have access to washing machines.
-
2:51 - 2:53And the remaining five billion,
-
2:53 - 2:55how do they wash?
-
2:55 - 2:57Or, to be more precise,
-
2:57 - 3:00how do most of the women in the world wash?
-
3:00 - 3:04Because it remains hard work for women to wash.
-
3:04 - 3:07They wash like this: by hand.
-
3:07 - 3:11It's a hard, time-consuming labor,
-
3:11 - 3:14which they have to do for hours every week.
-
3:14 - 3:17And sometimes they also have to bring water from far away
-
3:17 - 3:19to do the laundry at home,
-
3:19 - 3:23or they have to bring the laundry away to a stream far off.
-
3:23 - 3:26And they want the washing machine.
-
3:26 - 3:29They don't want to spend such a large part of their life
-
3:29 - 3:31doing this hard work
-
3:31 - 3:33with so relatively low productivity.
-
3:33 - 3:35And there's nothing different in their wish
-
3:35 - 3:37than it was for my grandma.
-
3:37 - 3:40Look here, two generations ago in Sweden --
-
3:40 - 3:42picking water from the stream,
-
3:42 - 3:45heating with firewood and washing like that.
-
3:45 - 3:48They want the washing machine in exactly the same way.
-
3:48 - 3:51But when I lecture to environmentally-concerned students,
-
3:51 - 3:55they tell me, "No, everybody in the world cannot have cars and washing machines."
-
3:56 - 3:58How can we tell this woman
-
3:58 - 4:00that she ain't going to have a washing machine?
-
4:00 - 4:02And then I ask my students,
-
4:02 - 4:04I've asked them -- over the last two years I've asked,
-
4:04 - 4:06"How many of you doesn't use a car?"
-
4:06 - 4:08And some of them proudly raise their hand
-
4:08 - 4:10and say, "I don't use a car."
-
4:10 - 4:12And then I put the really tough question:
-
4:12 - 4:14"How many of you
-
4:14 - 4:16hand-wash your jeans and your bed sheets?"
-
4:16 - 4:19And no one raised their hand.
-
4:19 - 4:22Even the hardcore in the green movement
-
4:22 - 4:24use washing machines.
-
4:24 - 4:28(Laughter)
-
4:28 - 4:30So how come [this is] something that everyone uses
-
4:30 - 4:33and they think others will not stop it? What is special with this?
-
4:33 - 4:36I had to do an analysis about the energy used in the world.
-
4:36 - 4:38Here we are.
-
4:38 - 4:40Look here, you see the seven billion people up there:
-
4:40 - 4:42the air people, the wash people,
-
4:42 - 4:45the bulb people and the fire people.
-
4:45 - 4:47One unit like this
-
4:47 - 4:50is an energy unit of fossil fuel --
-
4:50 - 4:52oil, coal or gas.
-
4:52 - 4:55That's what most of electricity and the energy in the world is.
-
4:56 - 4:59And it's 12 units used in the entire world,
-
4:59 - 5:02and the richest one billion, they use six of them.
-
5:02 - 5:05Half of the energy is used by one seventh of the world's population.
-
5:05 - 5:07And these ones who have washing machines,
-
5:07 - 5:09but not a house full of other machines,
-
5:09 - 5:11they use two.
-
5:11 - 5:13This group uses three, one each.
-
5:13 - 5:15And they also have electricity.
-
5:15 - 5:18And over there they don't even use one each.
-
5:18 - 5:20That makes 12 of them.
-
5:20 - 5:22But the main concern
-
5:22 - 5:25for the environmentally-interested students -- and they are right --
-
5:25 - 5:27is about the future.
-
5:27 - 5:30What are the trends? If we just prolong the trends,
-
5:30 - 5:33without any real advanced analysis, to 2050,
-
5:33 - 5:36there are two things that can increase the energy use.
-
5:36 - 5:38First, population growth.
-
5:38 - 5:40Second, economic growth.
-
5:40 - 5:43Population growth will mainly occur among the poorest people here
-
5:43 - 5:45because they have high child mortality
-
5:45 - 5:47and they have many children per woman.
-
5:47 - 5:49And [with] that you will get two extra,
-
5:49 - 5:51but that won't change the energy use very much.
-
5:51 - 5:54What will happen is economic growth.
-
5:54 - 5:56The best of here in the emerging economies --
-
5:56 - 5:58I call them the New East --
-
5:58 - 6:00they will jump the air line.
-
6:00 - 6:02"Wopp!" they will say.
-
6:02 - 6:05And they will start to use as much as the Old West are doing already.
-
6:05 - 6:08And these people, they want the washing machine.
-
6:08 - 6:10I told you. They'll go there.
-
6:10 - 6:12And they will double their energy use.
-
6:12 - 6:15And we hope that the poor people will get into the electric light.
-
6:15 - 6:17And they'll get a two-child family without a stop in population growth.
-
6:17 - 6:19But the total energy consumption
-
6:19 - 6:21will increase to 22 units.
-
6:21 - 6:24And these 22 units --
-
6:24 - 6:27still the richest people use most of it.
-
6:28 - 6:30So what needs to be done?
-
6:30 - 6:32Because the risk,
-
6:32 - 6:35the high probability of climate change is real.
-
6:35 - 6:37It's real.
-
6:37 - 6:40Of course they must be more energy-efficient.
-
6:40 - 6:42They must change behavior in some way.
-
6:42 - 6:44They must also start to produce green energy,
-
6:44 - 6:46much more green energy.
-
6:46 - 6:49But until they have the same energy consumption per person,
-
6:49 - 6:51they shouldn't give advice to others --
-
6:51 - 6:53what to do and what not to do.
-
6:53 - 6:55(Applause)
-
6:55 - 6:59Here we can get more green energy all over.
-
6:59 - 7:01This is what we hope may happen.
-
7:01 - 7:04It's a real challenge in the future.
-
7:04 - 7:07But I can assure you that this woman in the favela in Rio,
-
7:07 - 7:09she wants a washing machine.
-
7:09 - 7:12She's very happy about her minister of energy
-
7:12 - 7:14that provided electricity to everyone --
-
7:14 - 7:17so happy that she even voted for her.
-
7:17 - 7:19And she became Dilma Rousseff,
-
7:19 - 7:21the president-elect
-
7:21 - 7:23of one of the biggest democracies in the world --
-
7:23 - 7:26moving from minister of energy to president.
-
7:26 - 7:28If you have democracy,
-
7:28 - 7:30people will vote for washing machines.
-
7:30 - 7:32They love them.
-
7:34 - 7:36And what's the magic with them?
-
7:36 - 7:39My mother explained the magic with this machine
-
7:39 - 7:41the very, very first day.
-
7:41 - 7:43She said, "Now Hans,
-
7:43 - 7:45we have loaded the laundry.
-
7:45 - 7:47The machine will make the work.
-
7:47 - 7:49And now we can go to the library."
-
7:49 - 7:51Because this is the magic:
-
7:51 - 7:53you load the laundry,
-
7:53 - 7:55and what do you get out of the machine?
-
7:55 - 7:58You get books out of the machines,
-
7:58 - 8:00children's books.
-
8:00 - 8:02And mother got time to read for me.
-
8:02 - 8:04She loved this. I got the "ABC's" --
-
8:04 - 8:07this is where I started my career as a professor,
-
8:07 - 8:09when my mother had time to read for me.
-
8:09 - 8:11And she also got books for herself.
-
8:11 - 8:13She managed to study English
-
8:13 - 8:15and learn that as a foreign language.
-
8:15 - 8:17And she read so many novels,
-
8:17 - 8:20so many different novels here.
-
8:20 - 8:23And we really, we really loved this machine.
-
8:24 - 8:27And what we said, my mother and me,
-
8:27 - 8:30"Thank you industrialization.
-
8:30 - 8:32Thank you steel mill.
-
8:32 - 8:34Thank you power station.
-
8:34 - 8:37And thank you chemical processing industry
-
8:37 - 8:39that gave us time to read books."
-
8:39 - 8:41Thank you very much.
-
8:41 - 8:54(Applause)
- Title:
- The magic washing machine
- Speaker:
- Hans Rosling
- Description:
-
What was the greatest invention of the industrial revolution? Hans Rosling makes the case for the washing machine. With newly designed graphics from Gapminder, Rosling shows us the magic that pops up when economic growth and electricity turn a boring wash day into an intellectual day of reading.
- Video Language:
- English
- Team:
- closed TED
- Project:
- TEDTalks
- Duration:
- 08:55
Camille Martínez edited English subtitles for The magic washing machine | ||
Camille Martínez edited English subtitles for The magic washing machine | ||
Camille Martínez edited English subtitles for The magic washing machine | ||
TED edited English subtitles for The magic washing machine | ||
TED added a translation |