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We look around and what do we see?
We see businesses going on as usual,
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we see governments - at best -
thinking four years down the road
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when they really need to be thinking
seven generations down the road.
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We need positive visions for humanity
and the planet.
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Around the world I actually see
more hope than hopelessness.
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The future with less oil could be preferable
to the present with lots of oil.
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Ladakh, or "Little Tibet", in the
Western Himalayas,
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one of the highest inhabited places on Earth.
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This is a remote land, and was for
centuries isolated from the outside world.
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Until recently, the Ladakhis sustained themselves
through farming and regional trade.
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It was a way of life that was finely
tuned to the local environment.
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Economic analyst and author Helena Norberg-Hodge
knows Ladakh from the inside.
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She believes that the Ladakhis' story can shed light
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on the root causes of the crises
nowfacing the planet.
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I have spent much of the last 35 years in Ladakh,
working with the people to find
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ways of strengthening their culture
as it confronts the modern world.
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Over the years, Ladakh became a second
home to me - almost like a first home.
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It was a huge source of inspiration.
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I learned about social, ecological, and personal
well-being, about the roots ofhappiness.
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I was also forced to reconsider
many of the basic assumptions
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that I had always taken for granted, and to
look at my own Western culture in a different light.
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There was this sort of radiance and vitality
that I had never experienced anywhere else.
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Even the material standard of living was high.
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They had large, spacious houses,
plenty of leisure time.
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There was no unemployment - it had never existed.
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And no one went hungry.
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Of course they didn't have our comforts and luxuries,
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but what they did have was a way of life that
was vastly more sustainable than ours,
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and that was also far more joyous and rich.
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In the mid-1970s Ladakh was suddenly
thrown open to the outside world.
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Cheap subsidized food, trucked in on subsidized
roads, by vehicles running on subsidized fuel
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undermined Ladakh's local economy.
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At the same time, the Ladakhis were
bombarded with advertising and media images
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that romanticized western-style consumerism,
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and made their own culture
seem pitiful by comparison.
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As the area was increasingly
exposed to the consumer culture,
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I sawhow people started to think of themselves
as backward, primitive, and poor.
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In the early years I went to this beautiful village,
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and just out of curiosity I asked a young man
from the village to showme the poorest house.
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He thought for a bit and then said,
"We don't have any poor houses here."
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The same young man I heard
ten years later saying to a tourist,
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"Oh, if you could only help
us Ladakhis, we're so poor."
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Today, Ladakh faces a wide range of problems
that were unknown in the traditional culture.
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The changes in Ladakh were so clear-cut,
and I saw with my own eyes cause and effect.
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One minute you've got vital people
and a really sustainable culture.
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The next you've got pollution, both air and water,
you've got unemployment,
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a widening gap between rich and poor,
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and perhaps most shockingly of all, in a
people who had been so spiritually grounded,
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divisiveness and depression.
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These changes weren't the result of innate human
greed or some sort of evolutionary force;
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they happened far too suddenly for that.
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They were clearly the direct result of
exposure to outside economic pressures.
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And I witnessed howthese pressures
created intense competition,
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breaking down community and the connection
to nature that had been the cornerstone
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of Ladakhi culture for centuries.
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This was Ladakh's introduction to globalization.
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Globalization is the most powerful force
for change in the world today,
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affecting not only remote populations like Ladakhis,
but societies across the planet.
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For some people, globalizing economic
activity is our biggest hope for the future -
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the solution to world poverty in particular.
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For others, it's a fundamental cause of many of the
problems we face today, and an ongoing threat.
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People often think of globalization as
something that brings us all closer together
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through faster communication,
easiertravel, and so on.
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But at it's core it's an economic process.
It's about deregulation,
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and that means freeing up big banks and
big businesses to enter local markets worldwide.
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The focus in on profit, not people.
That doesn't bring us together.
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On the contrary, it's leading to
increased competition and division.
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Globalization is the rapid expansion of a
process that started about 500 years ago.
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At that time Europeans conquered and
colonized much of the world.
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They dismantled self-reliant economies
and enslaved their populations -
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forcing them to work in mines,
cotton fields and tea planations.
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In the mid-twentieth century colonialism gave way
to a more subtle form of enslavement: Debt.
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Shackled by so-called 'aid'
packages and crippling loans,
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nation after nation fell deeper into poverty, making it
easier for corporations and financial institutions,
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the successors of the colonial merchants, to
extract money, resources and cheap labor.
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00:10:02,538 --> 00:10:08,651
Today those transnational businesses have grown so
large and powerful that they effectively
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control governments, dictate economic policy,
and shape people's opinions and worldviews.
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00:10:17,068 --> 00:10:23,036
Yet the push for growth, through global trade
in both goods and finance, continues.
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In orderto compete, the big corporations are
demanding ever more deregulation,
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00:10:29,863 --> 00:10:32,767
still further globalization.
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It's an agenda that has major implications for both
ecosystems and people around the world.
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It's hard to get your head around globalization.
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It's tempting to ignore it, to leave it to the experts.
But we simply can't afford to.
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00:11:01,630 --> 00:11:04,466
Even though it's something that happens 'out there',
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it has a profound effect on every aspect
of our lives, even our sense of self.
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00:11:11,853 --> 00:11:15,258
What we're seeing is rising levels
of depression in the West.
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00:11:15,360 --> 00:11:20,770
Some studies show rises as doubling,
other studies show rising as much as tenfold.
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The stresses on the average household
have increased enormously.
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Theirjobs are much more demanding.
More travel, more work at home.
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More access at any time.
Longer commutes for many people.
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And all the time we're exposed to images
of a certain level of material success,
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a certain level oflooks, a certain lifestyle
that we are measuring ourselves up to
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and seeing ourselves not as good as.
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00:11:50,267 --> 00:11:55,245
There is a constant pressure on people
to have bigger, better, more.
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00:11:55,245 --> 00:11:59,186
But, of course, in the end what does that
bring us? It doesn't bring us happiness.
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Material reward has never brought us happiness.
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00:12:02,594 --> 00:12:07,171
Every year since the end of World War II one of
the big polling firms has asked Americans,
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"Are you happy with your life?"
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The number of Americans who say,
"Yes, I'm very happy with my life"
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the percentage peaks in 1956, and goes
slowly but steadily downhill ever since.
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00:12:19,464 --> 00:12:23,840
That's interesting because in that same 50 years
we have gotten immeasurably richer.
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We have three times as much stuff.
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00:12:26,579 --> 00:12:32,786
Somehowit hasn't worked, because that same
affluence tends to undermine community.
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00:12:33,727 --> 00:12:40,609
I think the only people who are happy, deeply happy,
and deeply secure are people who know
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they can rely on someone else in life, people
who knowthey are not alone in this world.
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Lonely people have never been happy people.
Globalization is creating a very lonely planet.
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00:13:11,742 --> 00:13:14,738
It's corporations who are raising our children.
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Who's driving the food choices of childern?
Who's driving the entertainment choices of children,
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who's driving what they want to buy
and what they care about?
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More and more it's a set of
corporations that sell to kids.
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00:13:31,785 --> 00:13:33,914
Human greed is very easy to exploit.
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The method of exploiting greed is also very cruel -
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Comparison and competition.
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People lose their own identity right from childhood.
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Our children don't want to speak
their languages anymore,
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they no longer want to be
associated with their own culture.
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It's cool to wear designerjeans.
It's cool to eat at McDonald's.
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Our children learn to reject
their own culture in school.
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00:14:10,935 --> 00:14:13,634
Why? Because the teacher tells them,
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00:14:14,108 --> 00:14:17,639
"If you don't learn multiplication,
you'll go to feed the pigs."
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"If you don't learn multiplication,
you'll go to farm like your father."
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As if to farm would be an offense
or a crime or something bad.
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Young people are looking for
acceptance; they want to belong.
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And they're nowbeing told that if they
want the respect of their peer group,
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00:14:37,625 --> 00:14:43,160
they've got to have the latest running shoes,
the latest gadgets, the latest clothing.
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00:14:43,270 --> 00:14:46,311
And, of course, as they go down that consumer path
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it leads to separation and envy,
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not to the sense of connection -to the love -
that at a deep level they're really looking for.
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00:14:58,871 --> 00:15:04,884
In a previous era, before the modern era of
consumer capitalism, people's sense of self,
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their personal identities, were shaped largely
through their communities, their neighborhoods.
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Nowadays, where all those
supports have fallen away,
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the gap that was left has been filled by
the marketers, who came in and said:
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"Don't worry if you don't knowwho you are.
We will provide you with a packaged identity
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which you can use - by buying
our products, of course -
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to create a sense of self, which you can
then project onto the world."
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The role models that are beamed
across the world today
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look very different from people in
Africa, South America, or Asia.
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They marginalize the majority
of the global population.
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And even if you are blonde, blue-eyed and beautiful,
you're never quite beautiful enough.
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Around the world sales of blue contact lenses are
escalating and more and more people are
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using chemicals to lighten their skin and hair.
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If you look at what's currently motivating
industrial growth, not only in the US but in the
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so-called emerging, developing nations
- China, India, South Korea, and others -
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it has a great deal to do with the desire
to emulate the American way of life.
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I think Americans are very interesting.
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I admire them.
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They are so different from
Chinese people in every way.
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They are tasteful and fashionable.
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Encouraging consumerism threatens
the ecological fabric of the entire planet.
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00:17:04,606 --> 00:17:10,552
Natural resources are already stretched to
breaking point by population pressures.
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And yet we have an economic system
that encourages each and every one of us
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to consume more and more and more.
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It's a terrific onslaught of marketing,
merchandising, advertising, brainwashing.
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So we are on a big consumptive splurge.
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But we have four times the population of the US
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and if we start consuming, and all the
consumption levels reach like America,
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then we'll be consuming all the
resources of the planet right in India.
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The consumer culture that globalization
promotes is increasingly urban.
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At first glance, high density urban living might appear
to reduce per capita use of resources.
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00:18:00,525 --> 00:18:04,295
But this is only true when compared
with life in the suburbs.
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Compared to more genuinely
decentralized living patterns,
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urbanization is extremely resource intensive.
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This is particularly clear in the global South.
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The moment a person moves into the city,
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the energy use shoots up, the water use shoots up.
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The infrastructure to run a city per capita
is much bigger than the infrastructure to
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produce a high quality of life in a village.
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00:18:39,175 --> 00:18:43,116
When hundreds of millions of
rural people are pulled into cities,
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the food they once grewthemselves
must nowbe grown for them,
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typically on giant, chemical-intensive farms.
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All this food must then be brought into the cities
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on roads purpose-built to accommodate
larger and larger trucks.
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00:19:01,723 --> 00:19:05,959
Providing water involves enormous
dams and man-made reservoirs.
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00:19:08,170 --> 00:19:15,118
Energy production means huge, centralized
power plants, coal and uranium mines,
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and thousands of miles of transmission lines.
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Meanwhile, much of the waste that is produced,
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including countless tons of
potentially valuable compost,
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must be trucked out of the city to be treated,
buried, incinerated, or dumped at sea.
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The end result is that urban
dwellers typically consume
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significantly more non-renewable resources
than their land-based relatives.
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We've gotten to the end of the
supply chain, and there is no more.
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If we decide in the name of fairness
to try to industrialize the entire world,
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the result will be universal starvation,
universal famine.
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Ecosystems will collapse and we'll
ultimately see the end of our species.
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The globalization of the economy is having an
ever-increasing impact on the earth's climate,
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not only through the waste and excesses
inherent in the consumer culture
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and the escalation in resource use
that results from urbanization,
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but because the very logic of globalization
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requires that goods travel ever longer
distances from producer to consumer.
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Because ofhidden subsidies and skewed
regulations, food from the other side of the world
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tends to cost less than food from a mile away.
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In the UK, butter from New Zealand
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costs significantly less than butter
from the farm down the road.
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And in Ladakh, buttertrucked in over the Himalayas
for several days costs half as much as local butter.
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We often hear about efficiencies of scale,
but actually the truth is
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what we've developed today is a system
that could not be more wasteful.
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We have tuna fish caught on the east coast of
America, flown to Japan, processed,
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flown back to America and sold to consumers.
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00:21:35,719 --> 00:21:38,191
We have English apples flown to
South Africa to be waxed,
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flown back again to be sold to consumers.
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The whole process involves
incredible quanitities of waste.
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A series of treaties, new ones almost every year,
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promote economic growth
through international trade.
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As a consequence, countries today
routinely import and export
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nearly identical quantities of identical products.
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00:22:11,729 --> 00:22:16,973
Every day of the year, grain, meat,
live animals, canned goods,
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00:22:16,973 --> 00:22:23,353
and a whole range of manufactured products,
not to mention waste - even used batteries -
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crisscross the planet.
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All of this at a time when rising CO2 emissions
are threatening our very survival.
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The global economy has become a casino, and we're
all potential losers. One major casualty is ourjobs.
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00:22:47,939 --> 00:22:53,383
Corporate mergers, takeovers,
relocation to lower wage countries
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00:22:53,484 --> 00:22:56,625
threaten the livelihood of virtually all of us:
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00:22:56,625 --> 00:23:00,395
Accountants, assembly line workers, even CEOs.
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00:23:00,700 --> 00:23:05,210
And when we retire it gets no better;
as we've seen recently,
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00:23:05,210 --> 00:23:09,082
pension funds are at the mercy
of uncontrolled speculation.
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It's notjust in the West that
livelihoods are underthreat.
217
00:23:15,231 --> 00:23:17,870
In the less industrialized parts of the world,
218
00:23:17,870 --> 00:23:22,847
finding and holding onto ajob is
becoming increasingly difficult.
219
00:23:22,847 --> 00:23:26,218
The first victims are small farmers.
220
00:23:27,657 --> 00:23:33,899
The present development model
encourages urbanization
221
00:23:34,105 --> 00:23:41,587
and intentionally works to
reduce the number of farmers.
222
00:23:41,587 --> 00:23:46,932
All those displaced farmers
have nowhere to go but the city
223
00:23:46,932 --> 00:23:53,037
where they become cheap laborfor
industry, for investment from abroad.
224
00:23:54,749 --> 00:23:56,820
All we want is our land!
225
00:23:56,820 --> 00:24:00,817
Give us some land and we'll work hard
to make something, to make a life.
226
00:24:01,330 --> 00:24:05,773
Removing people from the land
is the root of all unemployment.
227
00:24:05,773 --> 00:24:11,217
It is the root of the creation of slums
and the rural-urban migration.
228
00:24:11,886 --> 00:24:15,222
I don't want to be a beggar!
229
00:24:15,660 --> 00:24:22,335
Lfl could have my land back, I'd go
back to my main business, farming.
230
00:24:23,877 --> 00:24:26,918
Making people disposable in
terms of working with the land
231
00:24:26,918 --> 00:24:30,625
is creating probably the biggest human crisis.
232
00:24:30,625 --> 00:24:35,202
No human rights community is noticing it,
no Amnesty has noticed it,
233
00:24:35,202 --> 00:24:39,109
but 100,000 Indian farmers
have been driven to suicide.
234
00:24:49,432 --> 00:24:53,040
When people are pushed off
the land into crowded cities,
235
00:24:53,040 --> 00:24:56,815
members of diverse ethnic and religious groups
236
00:24:56,815 --> 00:25:00,950
are forced into intense competition
for the few available jobs.
237
00:25:02,460 --> 00:25:10,274
Differences that were once accepted become
a source of fear, fundamentalism, and conflict.
238
00:25:13,817 --> 00:25:19,162
Globalization, which is creating
the gap between the rich and poor,
239
00:25:19,162 --> 00:25:25,309
is directly affecting the survival
of certain people - a lot of people -
240
00:25:25,309 --> 00:25:30,320
and this gives them only few options.
241
00:25:30,320 --> 00:25:36,163
And people will have to take options
when it is a life and death situation.
242
00:25:36,866 --> 00:25:42,402
It will create terrorism. It will
create a lot of disharmony.
243
00:25:50,830 --> 00:25:57,177
You destroy language, you destroy the roots
of who you are, you destroy the history,
244
00:25:57,177 --> 00:26:00,081
and you become nobody in the world.
245
00:26:00,250 --> 00:26:05,762
Globalization with its homogenous
way oflooking at the world
246
00:26:05,762 --> 00:26:11,140
and that we must have one
worldviewis extremely dangerous.
247
00:26:11,140 --> 00:26:18,521
It is dangerous for diversity.
This is not healthy for harmonizing our societies.
248
00:26:19,491 --> 00:26:26,530
In Ladakh, Buddhists and Muslims had lived
side by side for 500 years without any conflict.
249
00:26:26,840 --> 00:26:32,717
But with the advent of the neweconomy,
unemployment increased exponentially,
250
00:26:32,920 --> 00:26:38,331
and so did competition forthe
narrowrange of new commodities,
251
00:26:38,331 --> 00:26:42,067
like kerosene and coal, cement and plastic.
252
00:26:42,607 --> 00:26:47,243
The end result was friction,
conflict, and ultimately violence.
253
00:26:48,120 --> 00:26:53,587
After only about a decade, Buddhists and
Muslims were literally killing each other.
254
00:27:05,389 --> 00:27:13,237
It's widely believed that whatever the social and
environmental costs, globalization is unstoppable.
255
00:27:13,841 --> 00:27:20,054
It's seen as an inevitable, almost natural
process driven by 'free markets'
256
00:27:20,054 --> 00:27:24,860
and the so-called 'efficiencies of scale'
enjoyed by bigger businesses.
257
00:27:25,766 --> 00:27:30,310
If there's one thing that political parties from
the left to the right seem to agree on today,
258
00:27:30,310 --> 00:27:33,282
it's the power and value of the free market.
259
00:27:33,282 --> 00:27:37,825
But the irony is that the majority of really
polluting things that are happening today
260
00:27:37,825 --> 00:27:40,698
would not exist within a genuine free market.
261
00:27:40,698 --> 00:27:44,639
Nuclear power couldn't exist, for example,
without massive state support.
262
00:27:45,208 --> 00:27:53,124
There are billions and billions of dollars being
poured into continuing business as usual,
263
00:27:53,526 --> 00:27:59,529
whether that's subsidizing fossil fuels,
whether it's subsidizing huge monocultures,
264
00:27:59,705 --> 00:28:06,117
whether it's giving corporate welfare to some of the
largest and most powerful corporations around.
265
00:28:06,387 --> 00:28:11,898
It would be impossible to maintain the current
global economy as it is today without enormous
266
00:28:11,898 --> 00:28:15,235
support from governments around the world.
267
00:28:15,306 --> 00:28:18,244
We're about as far away from a
free market as it is possible to be.
268
00:28:18,580 --> 00:28:23,991
Support for big business comes not only in the
form of subsidies but through the increasing
269
00:28:23,991 --> 00:28:31,667
deregulation of trade and finance under
the auspices of such bodies as the WTO.
270
00:28:32,676 --> 00:28:37,586
At the global level regulations are
being increasingly stripped away
271
00:28:37,586 --> 00:28:45,092
with the effect that transnational corporations and
banks are free to operate across the entire planet.
272
00:28:45,770 --> 00:28:51,738
Meanwhile, at the national level there's
ever more red tape and bureaucracy.
273
00:28:52,051 --> 00:28:58,793
This places an unfair, disproportionate burden
on small and medium sized businesses,
274
00:28:59,099 --> 00:29:04,338
and every year hundreds of thousands
of them are going out ofbusiness.
275
00:29:05,780 --> 00:29:11,091
It's basically a system which criminalizes
the small producer and processor
276
00:29:11,091 --> 00:29:14,724
and deregulates the giant business.
277
00:29:16,369 --> 00:29:21,005
The leverage ofinternational financial
agreements and the world trade agreements
278
00:29:21,580 --> 00:29:31,167
levers people, often against their will,
into a beggar-thy-neighbor, dog-eat-dog,
279
00:29:31,167 --> 00:29:36,078
global commodity market
in which speculation is king,
280
00:29:36,078 --> 00:29:40,143
and real people and local
communities are an afterthought.
281
00:29:51,745 --> 00:29:58,180
If the global economy is such a destructive force,
why do policymakers continue to promote it?
282
00:29:59,327 --> 00:30:03,203
More than anything, perhaps, it's because
they believe that the world needs
283
00:30:03,203 --> 00:30:07,702
what globalization is supposed to deliver:
Economic growth.
284
00:30:08,079 --> 00:30:10,243
Economic growth means strength and vitality.
285
00:30:10,351 --> 00:30:15,529
Not only our economies, but our societies,
our political systems, the entire culture
286
00:30:15,529 --> 00:30:21,531
is focused on making sure that
our GDP grows as fast as possible.
287
00:30:22,043 --> 00:30:24,708
And I stand for programs that
will mean growth and progress.
288
00:30:24,782 --> 00:30:31,092
It's as if every problem we have
can be solved by increasing GDP.
289
00:30:31,296 --> 00:30:34,971
Economic growth is the key
to the future of this country.
290
00:30:34,971 --> 00:30:38,845
Poverty is the problem -
more economic growth is the answer.
291
00:30:38,845 --> 00:30:42,654
Unemployment is the problem -
more economic growth is the answer.
292
00:30:42,654 --> 00:30:47,187
Environmental decline is the problem -
more economic growth is the answer.
293
00:30:47,397 --> 00:30:52,807
Afiscal stimulus plan that will jump-start
economic growth is long overdue.
294
00:30:53,009 --> 00:30:58,477
Using GDP as a measure of
societal progress is little short of madness.
295
00:30:58,888 --> 00:31:02,055
If there's an oil spill, GDP goes up.
296
00:31:02,462 --> 00:31:06,961
If the water is so polluted we have
to buy it in bottles, GDP goes up.
297
00:31:07,240 --> 00:31:15,486
War, cancer, epidemic illnesses -
all of these things involve an exchange of money
298
00:31:16,025 --> 00:31:19,658
and that means that they end up on the
positive side of the balance sheet.
299
00:31:21,870 --> 00:31:25,139
It's not only the measure of growth
that is coming under scrutiny;
300
00:31:25,411 --> 00:31:28,384
it's whole concept of growth itself.
301
00:31:29,687 --> 00:31:32,488
You cannot have infinite growth on a finite planet.
302
00:31:35,132 --> 00:31:39,198
No matter how you dress it up
the whole thing stares you in the face.
303
00:31:39,976 --> 00:31:42,948
There isn't enough resources for growth.
304
00:31:43,951 --> 00:31:48,484
The evidence is clear that we as a species are now
beyond the carrying capacity of the planet.
305
00:31:49,129 --> 00:31:52,035
And this shift has happened within the last 20 years.
306
00:31:52,035 --> 00:31:56,101
I mean, this hasn't happened in the four-and-a-half
billion year history of the planet Earth.
307
00:32:00,720 --> 00:32:06,359
Concerns over climate change, coupled with the near
meltdown of the global financial system,
308
00:32:06,733 --> 00:32:11,038
have ensured that alarm bells
are finally beginning to ring.
309
00:32:11,577 --> 00:32:15,951
The response of governments, however,
has been essentially more of the same.
310
00:32:16,520 --> 00:32:21,832
Whether it's bailouts to big banks, stimulus
packages to encourage consumer spending,
311
00:32:21,832 --> 00:32:24,705
or carbon trading schemes -
312
00:32:24,705 --> 00:32:29,748
all these supposed solutions
actually reinforce the system
313
00:32:29,748 --> 00:32:31,912
that created the problems in the first place.
314
00:32:32,822 --> 00:32:37,891
In the meanwhile Big Business is
spending hundreds of millions of dollars
315
00:32:38,000 --> 00:32:42,339
to convince us that they are
leading the way to a green economy.
316
00:32:42,977 --> 00:32:46,348
"Industry is ready for the green revolution."
317
00:32:46,785 --> 00:32:51,193
Superficial solutions extend
to the general public as well.
318
00:32:51,428 --> 00:32:55,460
The emphasis is on changing
individual consumer behavior.
319
00:32:55,704 --> 00:32:59,847
We should drive less, screw in
more efficient light bulbs,
320
00:32:59,847 --> 00:33:03,287
consume more environmentally-friendly products.
321
00:33:03,621 --> 00:33:09,601
There are things that we can do as individuals,
but I worry a great deal that all of those,
322
00:33:09,601 --> 00:33:14,977
including enlightened well-meaning environmental
groups, who urge us to take individual action,
323
00:33:15,213 --> 00:33:18,152
try to persuade us that we
personally can solve the problem.
324
00:33:19,121 --> 00:33:24,399
You can turn off the television in your house;
you can say no to McDonalds and Nike.
325
00:33:24,399 --> 00:33:29,476
You can decide not to work in ajob
that doesn't have meaning foryou
326
00:33:29,476 --> 00:33:33,151
or isn't making the world a
better place, and live on less.
327
00:33:33,151 --> 00:33:39,365
But there's a limit to howfar we can
go with those solutions as a society.
328
00:33:39,365 --> 00:33:43,533
We have to do something about the institutions
that are at the root of the problem.
329
00:33:44,074 --> 00:33:49,245
And those are primarily the large
corporations which drive our system.
330
00:33:49,352 --> 00:33:54,421
They have enormous political power.
It's a system run amok.
331
00:33:55,899 --> 00:33:58,539
In the end, the only power
332
00:33:58,539 --> 00:34:01,245
that any of these institutions of empire
333
00:34:01,245 --> 00:34:07,223
or plutocracy or whatever have are the
power that we as citizens yield to them.
334
00:34:07,223 --> 00:34:10,798
And they remain in power because
we accept their legitimacy.
335
00:34:10,798 --> 00:34:15,069
And if we withdrawthat legitimacy,
they lose their power over us.
336
00:34:16,009 --> 00:34:20,720
We shall have to raise our voice and unite ourselves
337
00:34:20,720 --> 00:34:23,419
and help those people who are telling the truth.
338
00:34:24,494 --> 00:34:29,739
We're here to support folks who are
trying to fight against the world's largest,
339
00:34:29,739 --> 00:34:32,210
richest, and probably meanest corporation.
340
00:34:34,482 --> 00:34:41,563
I think we need to start imagining an economy
that isn't obsessed with economic growth -
341
00:34:41,563 --> 00:34:49,848
one whose purpose is not to maximize profits,
but to provide high quality, satisfyingjobs,
342
00:34:49,848 --> 00:34:53,652
producing goods and services
that people really do need.
343
00:34:55,226 --> 00:35:01,867
In 1972 the then King of Bhutan coined
the term "Gross National Happiness"
344
00:35:02,408 --> 00:35:06,315
and embedded the concept in the
country's development policy.
345
00:35:07,519 --> 00:35:12,530
Following his lead, economists across the world
have begun to develop more meaningful ways
346
00:35:12,530 --> 00:35:15,229
of measuring well-being and prosperity.
347
00:35:15,904 --> 00:35:21,314
One such measure is the GPI,
or Genuine Progress Index.
348
00:35:22,886 --> 00:35:30,034
The purpose of the Genuine Progress Indexis to count
things more accurately, more comprehensively,
349
00:35:30,034 --> 00:35:35,603
to take into account our human,
social, community, natural wealth
350
00:35:36,181 --> 00:35:39,622
in addition to our produced and material wealth
351
00:35:39,622 --> 00:35:46,159
and actually count full social, environmental
and economic benefits and costs.
352
00:35:46,637 --> 00:35:53,350
Only with a full cost accounting system will we
begin to understand that goods that are shipped
353
00:35:53,350 --> 00:35:59,296
from 10,000 miles away are actually far more
expensive than goods produced locally.
354
00:35:59,630 --> 00:36:01,769
If you look at the current system,
355
00:36:01,769 --> 00:36:06,679
we're seeing the distance between production
and consumption continue to increase.
356
00:36:06,679 --> 00:36:09,919
We're seeing the distance between
people and power continue to increase.
357
00:36:09,919 --> 00:36:13,928
I think economic globalization is responsible
for that - it's increasing those trends.
358
00:36:13,928 --> 00:36:18,198
And the obvious answer for me is the opposite -
and that is economic localization.
359
00:36:18,504 --> 00:36:28,425
We've got to begin localizing our politics,
localizing our economies, localizing our cultures
360
00:36:28,425 --> 00:36:32,058
localizing our spirits, you know,
even our spiritual natures.
361
00:36:32,534 --> 00:36:35,062
There is only one economics that will make sense.
362
00:36:35,407 --> 00:36:37,311
That is local economics.
363
00:36:37,311 --> 00:36:38,473
Everywhere.
364
00:37:01,897 --> 00:37:09,141
Localization is a systemic, far-reaching
alternative to corporate capitalism.
365
00:37:09,547 --> 00:37:14,616
Fundamentally, it's about reducing
the scale of economic activity.
366
00:37:14,691 --> 00:37:21,696
That doesn't mean eliminating international trade
or striving for some kind of absolute self reliance.
367
00:37:21,940 --> 00:37:27,686
It's simply about creating more accountable
and more sustainable economies
368
00:37:27,686 --> 00:37:31,126
by producing what we need closer to home.
369
00:37:31,727 --> 00:37:35,668
No-one's saying there's going to be a
complete end to international trade.
370
00:37:36,137 --> 00:37:41,479
But at the very least we should be saying,
"local needs should come first."
371
00:37:41,648 --> 00:37:46,225
At a policy level the first step is
to start the process of bringing
372
00:37:46,225 --> 00:37:50,433
transnational corporations
under democratic control.
373
00:37:50,433 --> 00:37:56,971
We need to focus on three key mechanisms that
governments use to shape the economy:
374
00:37:57,750 --> 00:38:04,731
What they choose to regulate, both at the national
level, and internationally through trade treaties;
375
00:38:04,731 --> 00:38:10,266
what they choose to tax; and
what they choose to subsidize.
376
00:38:10,878 --> 00:38:17,291
At the moment governments of every
political color are using these mechanisms
377
00:38:17,291 --> 00:38:20,924
to favorthe big and the global.
378
00:38:21,367 --> 00:38:27,045
If there is to be any chance of averting further
social and environmental breakdown,
379
00:38:27,045 --> 00:38:29,278
we need to level the playing field.
380
00:38:29,384 --> 00:38:34,729
In the United States right nowlocal
governments are giving 50 billion dollars a year
381
00:38:34,729 --> 00:38:37,501
to attract and retain non-local businesses
382
00:38:37,501 --> 00:38:42,812
and we've calculated that the federal
government is giving another 63 billion dollars.
383
00:38:42,812 --> 00:38:49,961
That is 113 billion dollars a year that is
making local businesses less competitive.
384
00:38:49,961 --> 00:38:57,511
Lf, for example, a fraction of the subsidies that
have gone into nuclear power or fossil fuels
385
00:38:57,511 --> 00:39:00,216
were to go into renewable energies,
386
00:39:00,216 --> 00:39:04,426
if a fraction of the subsidies that have
gone into the whole infrastructure
387
00:39:04,426 --> 00:39:10,171
that supports the private car was
to go into mass transit systems,
388
00:39:10,171 --> 00:39:12,472
it's incredible what we could achieve.
389
00:39:19,391 --> 00:39:23,332
One of the initiatives I'm involved in is the Business
Alliance for Local Living Economies,
390
00:39:23,332 --> 00:39:27,141
and it's about bringing together
local independent businesses
391
00:39:27,141 --> 00:39:31,751
to withdrawtheir dependence on
the corporate global economy
392
00:39:31,751 --> 00:39:34,590
and begin to weave together the
relationships of a neweconomy
393
00:39:34,590 --> 00:39:38,588
that is really grounded in community
and works by community values.
394
00:39:40,035 --> 00:39:43,642
In the global economy it's as though
our arms have become so long
395
00:39:43,642 --> 00:39:45,475
that we can't see what our hands are doing.
396
00:39:45,881 --> 00:39:49,020
But when the economy is operating
on a more human scale,
397
00:39:49,020 --> 00:39:52,961
it becomes easier for us to see
the impact of our choices.
398
00:39:53,163 --> 00:39:59,131
We can see if the environment has been polluted with
chemicals or if workers have been exploited.
399
00:39:59,409 --> 00:40:02,314
And so business becomes
much more accountable.
400
00:40:02,783 --> 00:40:07,393
Across the United States communities
thought that their pathway to prosperity
401
00:40:07,393 --> 00:40:10,533
was to attract and retain non-local business.
402
00:40:10,533 --> 00:40:14,029
And they've come to realize that
this is a fundamental dead end.
403
00:40:14,174 --> 00:40:19,519
So instead they are now working with their
local businesses to nurture local jobs
404
00:40:19,519 --> 00:40:23,328
and helping those businesses
connect with local markets.
405
00:40:23,328 --> 00:40:27,603
By redefining their economic problem as a local one,
406
00:40:27,603 --> 00:40:33,071
they have been able to take control over forces
that previously seemed overwhelming.
407
00:40:35,854 --> 00:40:42,391
Global business creates enormous wealth for the few,
but leaves the great majority worse off.
408
00:40:43,336 --> 00:40:48,381
Small businesses and local economies, on the
other hand, can generate wealth in ways that
409
00:40:48,381 --> 00:40:51,353
are both more equitable and sustainable.
410
00:40:52,623 --> 00:40:57,190
One of the most important studies that
we have on the effects oflocal business
411
00:40:57,266 --> 00:41:04,348
compared the impacts of $100 spent at a
local bookstore versus $100 spent at a chain.
412
00:41:04,348 --> 00:41:12,633
$100 spent at the local bookstore left $45 in the local
economy. $100 spent at the chain left $13.
413
00:41:12,633 --> 00:41:17,042
So you get three times the income effects,
three times the jobs,
414
00:41:17,042 --> 00:41:21,050
three times the tax proceeds for local governments.
415
00:41:21,050 --> 00:41:27,364
The principal difference was that the local bookstore
had a local, high-level management team,
416
00:41:27,364 --> 00:41:33,469
it used local lawyers and accountants,
it advertised on local radio and TV.
417
00:41:33,678 --> 00:41:36,171
None of those things were true of the chain store.
418
00:41:37,119 --> 00:41:43,395
There are movements to localize not only
business, but banking and finance as well.
419
00:41:44,200 --> 00:41:50,046
One of the things we have to do
is put finance back into its box.
420
00:41:50,046 --> 00:41:53,788
So the re-regulation of the banking sector is vital.
421
00:41:53,788 --> 00:41:58,898
Breaking up banks that are too big to fail -
or were called "too big to fail"
422
00:41:58,898 --> 00:42:05,479
Separating speculative functions from high street,
mainstream, retail functions of banking,
423
00:42:05,479 --> 00:42:10,548
so that money becomes our servant
once more, rather than our master.
424
00:42:10,690 --> 00:42:18,640
The financial crisis has actually given us a
reminder that local banking and local pensions
425
00:42:18,640 --> 00:42:21,737
are, in fact, more stable financial institutions.
426
00:42:22,615 --> 00:42:26,724
We can have our money at credit unions -
where that money is available to the community
427
00:42:26,724 --> 00:42:29,998
for community reinvestment and the
profits are reinvested in the community -
428
00:42:29,998 --> 00:42:34,736
rather than these huge speculative bubbles
caused by financial shenaniganry by big banks.
429
00:42:36,678 --> 00:42:41,712
Turning away from global business has nothing
to do with turning away from the world,
430
00:42:41,923 --> 00:42:46,525
turning away from international
collaboration or cultural exchange.
431
00:42:46,700 --> 00:42:53,773
More than ever today, with our global
problems, we need global cooperation,
432
00:42:54,049 --> 00:42:58,354
but that is very different from the
globalization of the economy.
433
00:43:09,549 --> 00:43:16,895
Agriculture and food production is one area
where not only is localization desirable,
434
00:43:17,466 --> 00:43:20,097
in fact it is necessary.
435
00:43:20,907 --> 00:43:23,913
If you shorten the distance between
producers and consumers,
436
00:43:23,913 --> 00:43:28,055
you're cutting out your food miles, you're cutting out
your emissions, your oil dependency,
437
00:43:28,055 --> 00:43:32,018
you're putting money straight back into the
local economy where it's desperately needed.
438
00:43:32,932 --> 00:43:39,903
In a local food economy consumers often
pay less while farmers' earnings increase.
439
00:43:40,949 --> 00:43:46,553
What's more, local food systems
actively benefit the environment.
440
00:43:47,130 --> 00:43:54,340
Localization is structurally, inextricably linked
to the revitalization of diversity on the land.
441
00:43:54,912 --> 00:43:57,886
When farmers sell in the global market,
442
00:43:57,886 --> 00:44:02,453
they are forced to specialize in a very
narrowrange of standardized products.
443
00:44:02,796 --> 00:44:05,268
Whereas when they sell in the local market
444
00:44:05,268 --> 00:44:10,975
it's actually in their economic interest to
increase the variety of their products.
445
00:44:12,016 --> 00:44:15,854
A whole array of food-based
movements is emerging:
446
00:44:16,125 --> 00:44:22,560
Farmers' markets, consumer/producer cooperatives,
community supported agriculture,
447
00:44:23,173 --> 00:44:30,815
edible schoolyards, slowfood,
permaculture, and urban gardens.
448
00:44:31,691 --> 00:44:35,967
Let's take the example of a farmers' market.
It's good because it uses less energy.
449
00:44:35,967 --> 00:44:39,099
It's really good because it builds more community.
450
00:44:39,174 --> 00:44:43,012
The average shopper at the farmers' market
has ten times as many conversations
451
00:44:43,115 --> 00:44:45,951
as the average shopper at the supermarket.
452
00:44:46,189 --> 00:44:49,530
You know howyou go into the supermarket and
you just run in and grab something and run out.
453
00:44:49,530 --> 00:44:53,766
You come shopping here and you just go, "Ahhh."
454
00:44:55,041 --> 00:45:00,553
Paradoxically, many of the most effective
initiatives to rebuild local food economies
455
00:45:00,553 --> 00:45:04,288
are happening in big cities, from London to Sydney.
456
00:45:05,062 --> 00:45:10,096
In San Francisco, government policy
now requires all public institutions
457
00:45:10,340 --> 00:45:16,810
- from schools and hospitals to prisons -
to obtain their food from local sources.
458
00:45:18,992 --> 00:45:24,995
It goes without saying that most of the food that's
consumed in this country is consumed by cities.
459
00:45:25,139 --> 00:45:28,513
So by definition citizens within those urban centers
460
00:45:28,513 --> 00:45:33,821
should be designing and directing
policy around food procurement.
461
00:45:34,592 --> 00:45:40,237
So we have an executive order that is
advancing a series of principles.
462
00:45:40,237 --> 00:45:44,873
One is we want to see more gardens like this
throughout at least our city and county.
463
00:45:45,048 --> 00:45:48,920
Second, we want to establish new procurement
strategies, newpurchasing strategies.
464
00:45:49,123 --> 00:45:52,688
If we're going to buy food in
San Francisco, let's buy it regionally.
465
00:45:54,134 --> 00:45:59,111
In Detroit, a city hit hard by
the collapsing car industry,
466
00:45:59,111 --> 00:46:04,680
a focus on local food is helping people
regain control over their own lives.
467
00:46:09,968 --> 00:46:15,914
We went from a situation where
this area was fully populated.
468
00:46:15,914 --> 00:46:18,943
Today most of the land is vacant.
469
00:46:20,090 --> 00:46:27,205
The grocery stores that we have are basically
liquor stores that have a little food in them,
470
00:46:27,205 --> 00:46:32,079
but the food is old, old, old and terrible quality.
471
00:46:32,483 --> 00:46:38,827
And since we have so many people who need food,
it's only logical for us to use the land to raise food.
472
00:46:39,030 --> 00:46:41,302
The garden feeds any and everybody,
473
00:46:41,302 --> 00:46:43,874
from that person who comes down
here every day in herJaguar
474
00:46:43,874 --> 00:46:46,573
to the person who comes down here
asking if we have any cans.
475
00:46:47,448 --> 00:46:51,445
So any and everybody can eat, but the
only thing we ask is, "Come and get dirty...
476
00:46:51,991 --> 00:46:55,795
If you see a weed, pick a weed,
and you can always eat."
477
00:46:56,033 --> 00:46:59,139
I mean people come looking forthe garden.
"I see your tomatoes over there - looking good -
478
00:46:59,139 --> 00:47:01,975
can I get a couple of those?"
"Yeah, man, c'mon."
479
00:47:02,246 --> 00:47:11,130
If you want one to grow, you gotta put water,
seeds, and sunshine and water on them too.
480
00:47:11,532 --> 00:47:16,175
We should have something to share with the rest of
the country and with people who are middle class
481
00:47:16,175 --> 00:47:22,679
about what needs to be changed in society:
Changes in values, changing in ways of surviving.
482
00:47:22,757 --> 00:47:27,868
You know, just as a prophetic message, I think that
Detroit might need to look into agriculture again -
483
00:47:27,868 --> 00:47:32,444
We have no choice, with the state of
our economy and where we're headed,
484
00:47:32,444 --> 00:47:37,422
the Big Three no longer, so there are
no factories to take care of people,
485
00:47:37,422 --> 00:47:40,494
you're going to see a lot more people actually
getting back and attempting to reclaim
486
00:47:40,494 --> 00:47:42,487
that which was once theirs.
487
00:47:45,605 --> 00:47:52,519
The rapidly growing local food movement represents
a powerful challenge to the corporate order.
488
00:47:52,787 --> 00:47:59,598
Increasingly, big businesses are attempting to jump
on the bandwagon by painting themselves as "local".
489
00:48:00,069 --> 00:48:03,737
I've been growing potatoes for Lay's since 1964.
490
00:48:04,045 --> 00:48:08,350
We grow potatoes in Texas.
Lay's makes potato chips in Texas.
491
00:48:08,721 --> 00:48:10,486
So it's a natural fit.
492
00:48:16,973 --> 00:48:22,251
At the same time it's commonly argued
that if we in the West localize,
493
00:48:22,251 --> 00:48:26,994
we'll be depriving the Third World
of an important export market.
494
00:48:26,994 --> 00:48:30,559
The reality, however, is very different.
495
00:48:31,336 --> 00:48:36,781
The idea that poverty reduction in the South
depends on market access to northern markets
496
00:48:36,781 --> 00:48:38,614
is a child of globalization.
497
00:48:38,786 --> 00:48:45,062
We have limited resources. There's limited land,
there's limited water, there's limited energy.
498
00:48:45,667 --> 00:48:48,840
And if we have to use that land and water and energy
499
00:48:48,840 --> 00:48:55,087
to produce one extra lettuce head
for a British household,
500
00:48:55,087 --> 00:48:59,153
we can be sure we are robbing Indian
peasants of their rice and their wheat.
501
00:48:59,864 --> 00:49:05,041
We are robbing India of her water.
We are, in fact, creating a situation
502
00:49:05,041 --> 00:49:09,916
where we are exporting to the Third World
and the South famine and drought.
503
00:49:11,623 --> 00:49:18,638
The smarterthing to do is to help communities
in the global South achieve food self-reliance
504
00:49:18,638 --> 00:49:20,870
and other forms of self-reliance.
505
00:49:21,310 --> 00:49:25,911
That's a vision for eliminating global
poverty I think we can stand behind.
506
00:49:27,089 --> 00:49:31,666
Proponents of globalization argue
that on a crowded planet,
507
00:49:31,666 --> 00:49:36,631
only large-scale industrial farms can feed the world.
508
00:49:37,745 --> 00:49:43,587
But smaller, locally-adapted farms are much
more 'efficient' in two very important ways.
509
00:49:44,259 --> 00:49:47,231
First, because they are less mechanized,
510
00:49:47,231 --> 00:49:50,865
they provide far more jobs than
their industrial counterparts.
511
00:49:51,607 --> 00:49:56,950
And second, they are able to produce
substantially more food per acre.
512
00:49:58,189 --> 00:50:03,098
This is our vegetable garden. It's 100% organic.
You can see the yield of these...
513
00:50:03,433 --> 00:50:07,441
Basically, we get very good yields
because we don't use fertilizers.
514
00:50:07,441 --> 00:50:11,849
The soil, ifit is managed well,
the productivity is unbelievable.
515
00:50:12,052 --> 00:50:16,294
For 15 years we have been
analyzing small farms in India:
516
00:50:16,294 --> 00:50:21,271
In the wet areas of Kerala, in the high
Himalayas, in the deserts of Rajasthan.
517
00:50:21,271 --> 00:50:27,484
And our research has shown again and again
and again that bio-diverse, small farms
518
00:50:27,484 --> 00:50:35,924
using ecological inputs produce 3 to 5 times
more food than industrial monocultures.
519
00:50:36,203 --> 00:50:41,247
All I need is a complete integrated farm
of one acre and I can feed 20 people.
520
00:50:41,247 --> 00:50:44,988
We don't need agricultural scientists, we don't
need hybrid seeds, we don't need GM,
521
00:50:44,988 --> 00:50:48,689
we don't need anything. We just need
to be left alone to do ourfarming.
522
00:50:55,711 --> 00:51:01,554
Global warming is already here,
and the era of cheap oil will soon be over.
523
00:51:02,426 --> 00:51:05,566
But projections of energy needs for the future
524
00:51:05,566 --> 00:51:11,910
almost always assume the continued growth
of global business and long-distance trade -
525
00:51:12,413 --> 00:51:16,650
and that means a continued
large-scale use of fossil fuels.
526
00:51:17,959 --> 00:51:22,833
We need to get back to basics, to
see what our real energy needs are.
527
00:51:23,271 --> 00:51:27,980
Do we really need the stuff that the
consumer culture is foisting on us?
528
00:51:27,980 --> 00:51:34,995
And couldn't most of our real needs -
for clothing and housing, forfood and drink -
529
00:51:34,995 --> 00:51:37,694
be produced far closerto home?
530
00:51:38,469 --> 00:51:43,146
If we cut out the outrageous waste
inherent in the current system,
531
00:51:43,146 --> 00:51:48,525
we'd be able to meet a far higher
proportion of our energy requirements
532
00:51:48,525 --> 00:51:51,520
from decentralized, renewable sources.
533
00:51:52,299 --> 00:51:57,611
We have wind power, we have photovoltaics.
We knowhowto save energy,
534
00:51:57,611 --> 00:52:04,285
we can cut energy consumption in halfin the next few
years by some strategic investments at no cost.
535
00:52:04,659 --> 00:52:10,297
The wide range of renewable energy technologies,
small, medium, and large scale,
536
00:52:10,705 --> 00:52:17,352
will pound for pound, dollar for dollar, yen for yen
give you between 2 and 4 times as many jobs
537
00:52:17,352 --> 00:52:23,594
as the kind of centralized, old-fashioned energy
technologies we've got at the moment.
538
00:52:23,900 --> 00:52:26,997
There 's a win - win -win.
539
00:52:28,176 --> 00:52:31,550
The argument for pursuing a
more localized energy path
540
00:52:31,550 --> 00:52:35,456
is particularly strong when
applied to the global South.
541
00:52:35,758 --> 00:52:43,173
In the less industrialized world most people still live
in relatively decentralized towns and villages
542
00:52:43,341 --> 00:52:46,872
and are far less dependent on fossil fuels
543
00:52:47,517 --> 00:52:49,817
It's not a question of "no development".
544
00:52:50,190 --> 00:52:52,929
In Ladakh we've been working with local NGOs
545
00:52:52,929 --> 00:52:56,994
to demonstrate a range of
renewable energy technologies
546
00:52:57,405 --> 00:53:03,544
from photovoltaics to passive solar,
small-scale hydro and some wind.
547
00:53:03,952 --> 00:53:09,230
We've been able to showthat it's
far less expensive and much easier
548
00:53:09,230 --> 00:53:13,940
to introduce a decentralized,
renewable energy infrastructure,
549
00:53:13,940 --> 00:53:18,814
than it is to build up the conventional
fossil fuel-based infrastructure.
550
00:53:19,285 --> 00:53:25,025
And it also allows the fabric of community
and social cohesion to continue.
551
00:53:37,056 --> 00:53:48,047
When we localize, we give our children
role models and a standard they can live by
552
00:53:48,047 --> 00:53:53,625
that affirms them, and affirms who they are in society
553
00:53:53,625 --> 00:54:01,074
without having to look outside their culture
to find imagery or symbols, to emulate.
554
00:54:01,074 --> 00:54:05,744
The symbols, the standards, the values
are right here amongst them.
555
00:54:06,352 --> 00:54:09,759
When people turn away from
the global consumer culture
556
00:54:09,759 --> 00:54:14,403
and start reconnecting with each other
in their own local communities,
557
00:54:14,403 --> 00:54:17,843
they're providing very different
role models fortheir children.
558
00:54:18,779 --> 00:54:27,363
The distant images of perfection in the global media
and in advertising create feelings of inferiority
559
00:54:27,363 --> 00:54:34,980
which all too often in later life translate
into fear, small-mindedness, and prejudice.
560
00:54:34,980 --> 00:54:39,656
On the other hand, when children identify
with real, flesh-and-blood people
561
00:54:39,656 --> 00:54:42,964
who all have their strengths and weaknesses,
562
00:54:42,964 --> 00:54:48,272
they get a much more realistic sense
of who they are, of who they can be.
563
00:54:50,012 --> 00:54:52,986
I sawthis so clearly in Ladakh.
564
00:54:52,986 --> 00:54:59,132
There were no 'celebrities' there.
Everyone was seen, heard, and appreciated.
565
00:54:59,132 --> 00:55:05,812
In effect, everybody was 'somebody'.
And that sense ofbelonging built confidence
566
00:55:05,812 --> 00:55:12,623
and a deep sense of self-respect, which
in turn generated respect for others.
567
00:55:12,994 --> 00:55:19,307
Local economies create a more secure identity
not only by strengthening community,
568
00:55:19,307 --> 00:55:22,678
but by nurturing a deeper connection with the earth.
569
00:55:25,922 --> 00:55:34,931
Young people are now desperately looking for
something else than what they learn in universities.
570
00:55:35,309 --> 00:55:39,774
They were desperately looking
for contact with nature.
571
00:55:40,654 --> 00:55:43,793
It's important to learn traditional
farming, but at the same time
572
00:55:43,793 --> 00:55:49,032
just being in the mud, having fun working like this...
573
00:55:49,239 --> 00:55:51,938
They are learning what it means to live.
574
00:55:52,212 --> 00:55:59,319
They eat rice everyday and nowthey're learning,
"Hey, this is where rice is coming from."
575
00:55:59,660 --> 00:56:04,262
Local knowledge is knowledge that
tells you about life. It is about living.
576
00:56:04,404 --> 00:56:07,410
I call it "grandmothers' knowledge"
and I think the biggest thing we need,
577
00:56:07,410 --> 00:56:11,118
the task for today, is to create
"grandmothers' universities" everywhere,
578
00:56:11,118 --> 00:56:13,681
so that local knowledge never disappears.
579
00:56:20,438 --> 00:56:26,714
Sometimes we get an impression that it's all doom
and gloom, that absolutely nothing is happening.
580
00:56:27,554 --> 00:56:29,490
That's both complacent and wrong.
581
00:56:29,725 --> 00:56:34,268
Wherever you look, there are things
happening at the local level that
582
00:56:34,268 --> 00:56:39,313
if they were identified and supported,
could rapidly accelerate the change
583
00:56:39,313 --> 00:56:43,048
to a more sustainable way of doing things.
584
00:56:43,354 --> 00:56:48,865
In 'eco-villages', 'transition towns',
and 'post-carbon cities'
585
00:56:48,865 --> 00:56:53,102
people are working to rebuild their
economies from the ground up
586
00:56:53,509 --> 00:56:59,944
by favoring local production for
local needs over long-distance trade.
587
00:57:02,495 --> 00:57:07,539
The transition town movement in Britain
and in other countries around the world
588
00:57:07,539 --> 00:57:12,538
has been described as one of the fastest
growing social experiments we've ever seen.
589
00:57:13,184 --> 00:57:18,095
We're going to be looking much, much more
towards the local, towards urban agriculture,
590
00:57:18,095 --> 00:57:23,801
realigning our local agriculture towards
local markets rather than international markets.
591
00:57:24,409 --> 00:57:28,918
Building will move much more
back towards local materials -
592
00:57:28,918 --> 00:57:33,294
using strawbale, cob, clay plasters, hemp, timber,
593
00:57:33,294 --> 00:57:37,497
using the best of modern design,
but using those local materials.
594
00:57:39,006 --> 00:57:45,119
In the Japanese town of Ogawamachi
an organic waste recycling scheme
595
00:57:45,119 --> 00:57:49,254
is the starting point for a whole
range oflocally run projects.
596
00:57:50,565 --> 00:57:55,234
A collectively-owned biodigester
produces both energy for the community
597
00:57:55,608 --> 00:57:58,638
and compost for a nearby farm.
598
00:57:59,350 --> 00:58:05,785
The farm, in turn, sells its produce to local
residents and a local food restaurant.
599
00:58:06,298 --> 00:58:11,263
Purchases within the community can
be made in the town's own currency.
600
00:58:12,678 --> 00:58:16,988
All over the world, money leaks
out of the local economy
601
00:58:16,988 --> 00:58:20,796
like something falling through the mesh of a basket.
602
00:58:20,796 --> 00:58:25,439
What we're trying to do here in
Ogawamachi is to cover the mesh,
603
00:58:25,439 --> 00:58:28,469
to prevent those leaks from happening.
604
00:58:29,079 --> 00:58:32,454
On every continent a pattern is emerging.
605
00:58:32,454 --> 00:58:37,454
We are seeing the beginnings of a
worldwide localization movement.
606
00:58:38,433 --> 00:58:44,513
One organization alone, Via Campesina,
which both opposes globalization
607
00:58:44,513 --> 00:58:48,689
and campaigns for food sovereignty
and local self-reliance,
608
00:58:48,689 --> 00:58:53,597
represents more than 400 million
small farmers worldwide.
609
00:58:56,672 --> 00:59:01,750
It's a very big change we've had
on account of these gardens.
610
00:59:01,750 --> 00:59:04,745
We've got tomatoes, and cabbage!
611
00:59:05,324 --> 00:59:08,091
People are much happier.
612
00:59:08,765 --> 00:59:13,976
Our aim is to defend our own cultures.
613
00:59:13,976 --> 00:59:21,915
Our very existence is a barrier, a form
of resistance to the industrial model.
614
00:59:26,303 --> 00:59:31,645
In some communities even the government
is supporting a shift toward the local.
615
00:59:31,981 --> 00:59:34,452
Local governments realized in recent years
616
00:59:35,722 --> 00:59:39,965
that we have a much bigger role to
play in what goes on in the world.
617
00:59:39,965 --> 00:59:44,341
And what we've encouraged is local business
- local people supporting each other
618
00:59:44,341 --> 00:59:47,644
rather than relying on the multinationals.
619
00:59:48,048 --> 00:59:50,679
It's about building community
as well as a strong economy.
620
00:59:50,754 --> 00:59:57,099
We can do this, and do it well,
and enjoy a quality oflife that is far superior
621
00:59:57,302 --> 01:00:02,268
to a homogenized, corporate way of life
that's imposed on people.
622
01:00:02,513 --> 01:00:06,789
Local communities are gaining strength
by linking up across the world
623
01:00:06,789 --> 01:00:09,625
to collaborate and share information.
624
01:00:10,497 --> 01:00:16,042
In exchanges with the less industrialized world,
westerners can play an important role
625
01:00:16,042 --> 01:00:22,249
by exposing the reality behind the
romanticized images of the consumer culture.
626
01:00:22,890 --> 01:00:29,132
People often say, "How can we tell them in the
Third World not to consume, not to drive cars?
627
01:00:29,370 --> 01:00:31,308
We're doing it."
628
01:00:31,308 --> 01:00:36,581
And, of course, that's absolutely true. We have
no right to tell people howto live their lives.
629
01:00:37,087 --> 01:00:43,500
But we can tell them that they are not stupid and
backward or primitive if they live on they land,
630
01:00:44,436 --> 01:00:51,349
and that there's no need to blindly emulate a
consumer culture in order to feel that you're worthy.
631
01:00:52,052 --> 01:00:57,086
We can provide more real information
about the situation in the West:
632
01:00:57,330 --> 01:01:02,207
About our social and environmental
problems, and also about our search
633
01:01:02,207 --> 01:01:05,202
for more ecological and sustainable solutions.
634
01:01:06,683 --> 01:01:09,314
We've been doing this in our work in Ladakh.
635
01:01:09,689 --> 01:01:14,700
We've also been providing community
leaders with 'reality tours' to Europe
636
01:01:14,700 --> 01:01:20,613
where they can see with their own eyes that, yes,
there are certain comforts and technologies
637
01:01:20,613 --> 01:01:25,578
that can improve life, but
there are also huge problems.
638
01:01:32,773 --> 01:01:36,611
We've lost so many of the things
that the Ladakhis take for granted:
639
01:01:37,282 --> 01:01:42,385
We've lost our connection with community,
our connection with nature,
640
01:01:42,694 --> 01:01:48,263
we don't have time - something
that the Ladakhis have plenty of.
641
01:01:49,709 --> 01:01:53,672
So there's a reality there that needs to be conveyed.
642
01:01:55,521 --> 01:01:57,923
Have you got any grandchildren, Albert?
643
01:01:58,059 --> 01:02:00,360
No. Not married.
644
01:02:13,559 --> 01:02:21,202
The global consumer culture is failing us, but we're
told it's the only way - that there's no alternative.
645
01:02:24,717 --> 01:02:30,195
For an increasing number of people across the world,
however, there is an alternative,
646
01:02:30,195 --> 01:02:35,035
and one that offers the prospect
of real and lasting prosperity.
647
01:02:39,916 --> 01:02:43,190
Bringing the local economy back home,
back to the local level, isn't about sacrifice,
648
01:02:43,190 --> 01:02:47,495
it's not about returning to the Dark Ages and
asking people to do things they wouldn't want to do.
649
01:02:48,301 --> 01:02:50,771
On the contrary, it's about enriching our lives.
650
01:02:50,973 --> 01:02:56,050
It could be more vibrant and diverse and
abundant; and people working closer to home,
651
01:02:56,050 --> 01:03:00,755
spending more time with their families,
breathing cleaner air, eating better food...
652
01:03:01,328 --> 01:03:05,270
...rediscovering the values of
community and mutual caring,
653
01:03:05,270 --> 01:03:09,644
that's where the real happiness,
the real well-being lies.
654
01:03:09,846 --> 01:03:15,291
Consumerism has got us weighed down with
carbon chains, and I suppose the message would be
655
01:03:15,291 --> 01:03:20,291
"Break your carbon chains, be free,
have a better quality oflife."
656
01:03:21,071 --> 01:03:26,983
The wonderful thing is that as we
decrease the scale of economic activity,
657
01:03:26,983 --> 01:03:30,582
we actually increase our own well-being.
658
01:03:31,660 --> 01:03:37,806
That's because at the deepest level
localization is about connection.
659
01:03:37,806 --> 01:03:42,649
It's about re-establishing our sense
of interdependence with others
660
01:03:42,649 --> 01:03:44,745
and with the natural world.
661
01:03:44,888 --> 01:03:49,660
And this connection is
a fundamental human need.
70690
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