Translator: Zsuzsa Viola Reviewer: Peter van de Ven
If I were to tell you
that we already have all the resources we need
to fix all of our global issues,
Would it come as a surprise?
Would you question why we're still in this crisis?
Or would you tell me that we've already done everything we can?
Well, we do have all the resources we need to fix a lot of our global issues,
but we seem to spend our time and our money
doing the total opposite.
Is it "out of sight, out of mind"?
Because we don't have glaciers melting on our own front doorsteps?
Or that the Midwest is so cold that global warming doesn't exist?
Or is it that we corral refugees into camps, tucked out of the way?
Or are we just so busy
when we're walking down the street looking at our phones
that we don't notice the fact we're tripping over the homeless?
Wherever you are in the world,
there is a problem staring right at your face,
but there is also a solution right behind you.
One in every nine people on Earth face hunger.
In fact, one in every six Americans face hunger,
yet Americans waste 150 thousand tons of food every day.
That's actually enough food
to feed nearly 84% of the planet with a 2,000 calorie diet.
So even though we know we have enough food to feed the Earth,
we have created a system that leaves nearly one billion people hungry.
Not only that,
the food that we eat - or that we don't eat and throw away -
we've packaged in plastic.
You're probably familiar with the statistic
that there's likely going to be more plastic in the ocean than fish
by 2050.
And if that isn't enough,
the way we've processed the food that we eat -
or that we don't eat and we throw away and wrap in plastic -
we've destroyed vast amounts of natural habitats to use as farmland
and contributed to even more air and water pollution,
not to mention the billions of animals we're destroying annually.
So at this stage, I can't help but feel like we've rushed things.
I don't come from a qualified background to talk about any of this.
I come from the film world.
I used to work as a stunt double in films for actresses,
which is essentially, me pretending to be someone
who is pretending to be someone else;
it's about as fake as you can get.
And I got a bit tired of taking a punch in the face for someone else
or jumping off a building for your entertainment.
And I didn't find any purpose in the film industry.
And so I couldn't just sit back
and watch the world dissolve under my feet.
So I started working in documentary film,
thinking, I know the film industry, I care about the planet,
I'll put two and two together,
hoping that by exposing some hidden truths,
it might just change the system.
But it didn't.
It just made people sad and angry for an hour,
and they'd think about it,
but we're past the age of being able to think about it now.
We should have been thinking a long, long time ago.
And so I pushed media to one side, and I started working in charity,
originally in animal rights and then in environmental projects.
And now I've created a charity for refugees and the homeless.
When I first started working in humanitarian projects,
it seemed like I was doing so at the expense of the planet,
like every solution had an underlying environmental problem growing slowly.
So I didn't want to start my own charity,
but after working for other charities and organizations,
it didn't seem sustainable
to fly around the world with large groups of Westerners
providing handouts upon handouts and never giving anyone a hand up.
So I wanted to try a new approach.
I guess I based it off the good old proverb
"Give a man a fish, he'll eat for a day;
Teach him how to fish, he'll eat for a lifetime."
By the way, nowhere in that proverb did it ever say "overfish,"
and nowhere did it ever say "replace all the fish with plastic."
We kind of improvised there.
But I feel like a lot of charities still get fish.
And I feel like governments are still spending their money
on closing borders and building walls -
both metaphorically and physically -
and that money could possibly be spent better
by helping others to help themselves.
So, when refugees are forced to leave their countries,
they're often having to leave all of their belongings behind.
But they still bring with them their skills and their knowledge.
And above and beyond anyone else I've ever worked with,
they want to work the absolute hardest
to rebuild their lives and help and support their families.
They don't necessarily want to be given a fish.
One of my most recent projects is working with Syrian refugees in Istanbul
building a community garden.
Istanbul currently hosts
nearly 600 thousand of the 4.5 million refugees
living in Turkey.
And to provide housing and schools
and medical facilities and food for 4.5 million people
isn't sustainable for the Turkish economy.
And so I wanted to focus on a longer term solution.
I wanted to create a safe, positive environment
where refugees could grow their own food so it's not affecting the local economy,
and could even provide a better sense of community and even education.
A 16-year-old, Greta Thunberg, said it best most recently.
She said,
"What is the point in an education for the future
if there is no future?"
I couldn't agree more.
And so all of my education projects revolve around a more sustainable future,
whether that's through developing school curriculums
that teach more about climate change,
or through building schools and refugee camps
out of recycled material found at the camp,
or through sustainable farming programs
and building community gardens with the homeless and with refugees.
If we can help someone
whilst making a minimal or even a positive impact on the planet
and provide a better education along the way,
there is a future.
Now, food, as you've probably gathered by now,
is a big passion of mine.
Historically, it's something that's brought us together,
and since the beginning of time, it's been a part of our culture.
But within that time, we've managed to create a war over it.
We've invented diets that give us heart disease and diabetes.
And it's now one of the biggest problems for our planet environmentally.
But if we do it right,
it can be one of the best things.
If the food crisis could be drastically improved through lowering our food waste
and providing a more sustainable farming practice
and eating more plant-based foods,
imagine how much we would be impacting our carbon emissions
and how much healthier we would be.
And if this still all seems out of reach to make any impact at all,
then why are we still contributing so much on a personal level?
Why are we throwing away half of our food?
Why are we using plastic bottles and straws and bags?
Why are we buying reusable bottles,
and then leaving them in the cupboard at home?
This is a tiny example of the point I guess I'm trying to make,
is that we have a simple solution, and we're just not using it.
A study has recently shown
that the average person wastes 30% less food
by using a smaller plate.
I don't know if that makes us really clever or really stupid.
There are, however, some communities
that have lived a more sustainable life for a while.
You may have heard of a blue zone before.
Now, blue zones are regions of the world where, Dan Buettner claims,
people live longer due to their lifestyle and their diet choices.
They are located in Japan, Italy, Costa Rica, Greece
and in Northern California.
This is a Venn Diagram of longevity clues
from Okinawa, Sardinia and Loma Linda.
If you look closely,
especially towards the middle of the diagram,
there are some commonly shared characteristics
among the locations of social engagement and family
and no smoking, a more plant-based diet,
more eating actual whole foods
and constant physical activity.
And that's the point I'm trying to make,
is that we know what we're meant to be doing -
we have the resources - and we're just not doing it.
I don't want you to overthink anything I've said -
I've not said anything particularly new or groundbreaking.
It's quite simple, really.
So I want you guys to stop thinking,
I'm going to stop talking,
and we should all just start doing.
Thank you.
(Applause)