Transcriber: Denise RQ Reviewer: Thierry de Carvalho Banhete
We all know that the world
is in a very serious environmental crisis today.
We also know that we are in a great hurry.
We do not have too much time to think and change the strategies.
We have, probably, decades of time,
we do not have centuries of time.
So I begin with that.
The first thing we should do is to change the attitude
towards the planet and towards the world.
We should think that the planet is sick, that it is a patient,
and human beings, mankind is the disease.
We should no longer be the disease. We should be the doctor.
And this is why I will present three different strategies
which can be realized simultaneously.
And I will take healthcare as a comparison.
The first strategy should begin very quickly
and it cannot last for a long time.
I would call that the 'first aid' for this sickness.
We have immense resources on Earth.
We have a lot of armies
and they cost about 1,500 billion dollars per year.
1,500 billion dollars.
The goal of all that money is to destroy and to kill.
Destroy other armies. Destroy and kill other people,
other cities and so on.
So, my first proposal, my first suggestion here is,
we should join the armies.
We should declare a new war,
but not between the armies, not one army against another,
but we should declare a defensive war
on how we should take care of the dangers of the future.
In this way, we could give the armies tasks.
The armies are good because they obey tasks.
The armies are also good because they don't protest,
they are not democratic; they do what they are told to do.
And if we give the armies the task, for example,
to reforest Sahara.
What would seem to be impossible becomes possible,
because the reforestation of Sahara would cost about one sixth
of the resources used today in these armies.
So my first suggestion is to join the armies.
Declare a new kind of war.
Then comes the next step:
"Use your healthcare."
We have a wrong kind of production.
We produce things, but we do not plan
or make the design work properly,
as mentioned in the earlier speech.
So we need a new kind of industrial revolution.
That revolution must change all the different parts
of production and consumption at the same time.
It has to change traffic.
We cannot use cars anymore.
It has to change the production of energy.
It can no longer emit CO2 to the atmosphere.
The used land must be renewed,
so that we have food produced close to where people live.
And the whole production must be based on recycling.
So all these different sectors of production
must change.
And how can they change?
They can actually change, in the best way, by building the so-called 'eco-cities'.
In an Eco-city, all these different changes
are taken into consideration simultaneously.
For example, while producing an electric car, we have no idea
if the electricity is produced in another place by burning coal,
having the emission of CO2 like before.
So there has to be a comprehensive change in everything.
If we design
and plan new kinds of cities,
all these should be taken into consideration simultaneously.
Another thing is, when we plan the new cities,
we must also take into consideration the cities that already exist.
Cities like London, Paris, Beijing, Lagos in Africa,
Mexico City in Mexico, all those cities must also be changed.
That is a much greater job than building a new city in a virgin environment.
And we must develop a strategy to build new cities
while taking into consideration all these different things,
energy, traffic, land use, and production.
We have think about what we should do to the cities we are living in today.
For example, if we say Paris must change,
it doesn't mean that we would tear off the buildings of Paris,
or the streets,
but the whole infrastructure must be completely changed.
The traffic system must change so that there are no more cars.
This change is similar to when cars started replacing horses.
[A change] to traffic systems that do not pollute the atmosphere.
Energy production in Paris must also change completely, and so on.
So it is enough that the infrastructure of the old cities changes.
Now, to the last point.
Preventive cure.
The preventive cure is the slowest of these three.
Preventive cure means
completely changing today's values for the next generation.
Our values are too materialistic.
We must renew the values.
We must have more spiritual values.
We must appreciate different things than those we appreciate today.
A big car is ridiculous, for example.
You should not waste.
You should use your objects until the end.
in the way... I don't remember your name.
As was presented earlier.
That is the main question, actually.
I don't believe that can be changed in the next few years
or even in the next 20 years.
But it can absolutely be changed by the future generation.
The future generation will change their values.
And then we will have a good foundation
for the other strategies that I proposed here.
I think there are two ways to change the world.
The first is from grassroots upwards.
That is what everyone can do individually.
Everyone can do this
by considering their consumption habits.
And that would already be something.
I must confess that I am a criminal.
Ah, yes. Criminal.
A criminal speaking to you.
I drive a car daily, you know?
I eat meat. You know, from an animal.
I have more than two children. That is the worst thing.
I have more than two pairs of shoes. Can you imagine?
More than two pairs of shoes.
So from grassroots upwards,
I am not in the position to give you any advice.
The other one is that we try to influence powerful people
to change their minds by discussing with them,
by teaching them
because they are not the most intelligent people,
those powerful people.
Teaching them how they should actually change the world.
And because... I cannot boast.
I was told how to speak, how not to speak,
what to say and what not to say.
I got very strict instructions.
So I am not telling anything about myself.
I will tell you about Mr. Somebody who has done something.
Mr. Somebody.
The first story was in 1980,
when Mr. Somebody and his friend decided at a pub in Helsinki
that the Islamic architecture must somehow remain in the world.
Because the Arabic countries back then had oil and money,
they wanted to employ Western planners and constructors
to change their cities.
And that seems to be the destruction of Islamic architecture.
After 6 months, we were, no, sorry,
when Mr. Somebody and his friends
were sitting at the pub in Helsinki and talking about that,
there was arranged in Baghdad,
a big conference with very high officials from all Arab countries
talking about how to preserve the Islamic architecture.
There was a guy whose name was Saddam Hussein.
He was the President of Iraq at the time. A young handsome guy.
He showed up to the conference every day,
opened the whole conference and spoke very wisely.
Because he had received good instructions from Mr. Somebody.
The conference was over and two days later,
Mr. Saddam Hussein began a war against Iran.
What happened afterwards you learned in History class.
But a seed was cultivated anyhow.
All those high officials in the different Arab countries
went home and began to think this over.
Next case.
The Finnish Parliamentarians are similar to those in other countries.
They think four years ahead, to the next election.
That is a pity because they should think more ahead.
Decades ahead.
For this reason,
a new committee was created in the Finnish Parliament,
which was the first in the world,
and it is now an official part of the Finnish Parliament.
That committee is tasked only with thinking about the long-term future.
But again, there is a problem.
The problem is that the everyday legislation does not follow
those long term visions that the Future Committee has.
But that probably will also change.
Number three.
Development aid in Africa has been criticized for a long time.
That's why Mr. Somebody made about 20 trips to Sub-Saharan Africa,
wrote a book about those trips and came to a conclusion.
"What should be done with Africa?"
Now I ask you, what are the four most important issues?
Environment? No?
Education? Hands up if you think so.
Uh-huh.
Family planning?
Government?
Okay, now it's time for the last topic.
It's about China.
China has begun to build Eco-cities.
The Eco-cities combine all the new technology,
and that is the first step to the new kind of production.
But even there, they make too many compromises.
The compromises diminish the value of these cities somehow.
But at least it is another step forward.
It seems that we have the dream, then we take two steps forward,
then comes reality, and we take one step backward.
But in the end, the balance is one step forward.
Remember that. Thank you.