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