All language subtitles for VICE - 05x07 - Life Under Sharia & Plastic Oceans.aAF.English.C.orig.Addic7ed.com

This week on Vice:

Indonesia's internal
struggle over Sharia.

This is the
Sharia police division.

We're about to go
on patrol with them,

as they make sure people
are abiding by Islamic law.

And then, the monumental effort

to clean up the plastic
in our ocean.

This is the very first time
that the Ocean Cleanup guys

have had their product
actually in the water.

What we're seeing here
is just one segment,

and eventually, the thing will be about
a thousand times larger than this.

We're finding plastic
in Antarctic species.

So, this is really
a global issue.

Go! Go! Go!

We are not animals!

Sync & corrections by honeybunny
www.addic7ed.com

Sharia is a strict code of
Islamic law based on the Quran,

which has been in
the news a lot lately

because it's the underlying
philosophy of ISIS,

who believe that all
countries in the world

should practice this
type of governance.

But adherence to Sharia has also been
gaining ground in other countries.

Indonesia, the most populous
Muslim country in the world,

usually known for its
moderate brand of Islam,

is now experimenting with Sharia

in the province of Aceh.

Suroosh Alvi went
to Indonesia to investigate.

So, it's Wednesday
night in Aceh.

This is the Sharia police
division behind me,

and we're about to go on patrol
with them as they go around town

and make sure people
are abiding by Islamic law.

If they see couples
that are just sitting together,

they'll talk to them, make sure
that they are a married couple.

So everybody is getting on their
motorcycles and running away.

The buzzkill division.

Sharia police...

...killing good vibes.

The strict
Islamic code of Sharia

is most common in countries
such as Saudi Arabia and Iran,

but now it's taking root
in parts of Indonesia,

a historically secular country.

Previously common
practices like socializing

between unmarried men and women,

drinking alcohol, or even
wearing Western clothing,

are violations of the law.

Unfortunately, this
interpretation of Sharia

targets some communities
more than others.

We've read a lot about

the Sharia police going after

gay couples,
and people having gay sex.

How do you actually patrol?

Prejudice against
Aceh's LGBTQ population,

already widespread
in the region,

has now effectively
become state-sanctioned.

These two teens were arrested
for homosexual behavior

and agreed to speak to us
about life under Sharia.

What is life for you
like here in Aceh?

The Indonesian Ulama Council

released a fatwa against
the LGBT community

proposing punishments
ranging from a hundred canings

to the death penalty

for individuals accused
of homosexual acts.

While the death penalty
has only been proposed

by Aceh's most
extreme hardliners,

those caught
violating Sharia law

face harsh and very
public repercussions.

Why are you here?

Why did they
put you in this cell?

Are they gonna punish you

by caning you,
in front of everyone?

These taxi
drivers were jailed

for nearly a month
for violating Sharia,

awaiting the same fate that people
across Aceh are becoming accustomed to.

But even the
executioners of Sharia law

have mixed feelings about it.

You're a moral enforcer.

Do you see this job as an honor?

The call for
enforcement of Sharia

is actually relatively
new to Aceh,

and was amplified in the wake of one
of the deadliest natural disasters

in recorded history,

which many here interpreted
as a religious reckoning.

We're standing in front
of the grand mosque in Aceh,

which was built
in the late 1800s.

When the tsunami
happened in 2004,

everything was destroyed
around the mosque for miles,

and this is one of the only
structures that survived.

And this event
was a turning point

in terms of the evolution
of Sharia in Aceh.

The tsunami killed
over 230,000 people

but also forced the end
of a decades-long civil war

between Aceh separatists

and the Indonesian
central government.

Aceh was given partial autonomy
as part of a peace agreement,

allowing them to enforce Sharia
as the law of the land.

Syahrizal Abbas was instrumental

in upholding Sharia in Aceh

and explained
its evolution to us.

Abbas and fellow hardliners

believe the tsunami
was the wrath of God,

punishing the people
of Aceh for living in sin,

and that the way
to fix their society

was through punishment
for these moral crimes.

So, if you're caught
having gay sex,

you could get caned
up to a hundred times?

Mm-hmm.

That seems a little extreme, no?

Yeah, uh...

Really?

Does it appear that
the behavior is being modified

of the population by the
implementation of caning?

As the citizens
of Aceh find themselves

increasingly under this control,

Sharia may be gaining traction
in the rest of Indonesia,

as a recent poll found up
to 72 percent

of Indonesian Muslims
support Sharia law.

And with a recent
surge in attacks

targeting minority
Buddhists and Christians,

there's a growing fear

that as Sharia gains strength
in the Indonesian capital,

the country's long-standing
legacy of secularism is at risk.

In the capital of Jakarta,

we spoke to Islamic
preacher Syamsudin Uba

about why he supports
the spread of Sharia.

We just spent a few days in Aceh

to look at the Sharia system
that they have there.

What is your view on the Sharia system
that they have implemented in Aceh?

What was the last thing you said?

To clarify what I thought
he meant by Syria and Iraq,

I asked him about some
cities that until now

had been exclusively
controlled by ISIS.

Are you referring
to the Sharia that is

in Ramadi and Mosul in Iraq,

and in Raqqa in Syria?

Are those the cities that
you're talking about?

May I see?

Yikes.

What does it say?

I said "Islamic Caliphate"
and then...

Good timing.

And this isn't the first
time that he's pledged support

for Al-Baghdadi,
the leader of ISIS.

In March of 2014,

the preacher led a rally
of hundreds of people

encouraging them
to join the Islamic State.

And he was arrested
and briefly detained

for publicly promoting
ISIS in 2015.

What you're preaching
is that there should be

the establishment of an Islamic
caliphate in Indonesia

in which the leader
will be Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi.

Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi
is leader of an organization

that perpetrated
attacks in Paris,

California.

Baghdadi's organization
is responsible

for countless atrocities

and violations of human rights,

and death, and rape,

and lots of bad... shit.

So, I'm having trouble
reconciling your pitch.

Don't you think
what you're preaching

is creating
a psychological environment

that makes it very easy
to take that next step

and to pick up a gun,
and-- and fight?

While Uba maintains
that his messaging is

that Indonesians should not
engage in violence or radicalism,

hundreds of Indonesians have left the
country to join ISIS in Syria...

and ISIS attacks have recently
struck very close to home.

And as the Indonesian government
attempts to stop further attacks,

along with ISIS
recruitment attempts,

it's clear that there's
a battle for hearts and minds

raging in the world's most
populous Muslim country,

with extremists like Uba

opposing activists
like Alissa Wahid,

the daughter of Indonesia's
former president,

who is fighting for the secular
ideals Indonesia was founded on.

Does the existence
of a Sharia state

create an environment
of religious intolerance?

The Sharia should live
in the personal

and everyday life of a Muslim.

It should not be formalized.

Because the fundamental of Islam

is belief that God
creates people

from different types, from different
background to help each other.

We're the fundamentalists,
not them.

They're the extremists.

One of Vice's first-ever
documentaries

focused on the Great
Pacific Garbage Patch,

an enormous mass of plastic
swirling in the Pacific Ocean

that some have estimated to be
larger than the state of Texas.

Now, what we found
was tons of discarded plastic

breaking down into a mix
of debris and chemical sludge.

We're nowhere near land.

We're nowhere near
any other ships.

We've changed the
composition of ocean water

almost a thousand miles
from shore.

It's always
been Vice's mission

to keep following the issues even
after they fade from the news cycle.

And today there are some major
new developments in this story.

So we sent Isobel Yeung

to see if there might finally
be some workable solutions

for saving the world's oceans.

We are just driving

towards the very southern tip
of Hawaii's big island,

which, not so long ago,
was an absolute paradise.

But this one-time paradise has become
a magnet for the ocean's plastic.

All you can see
as far as the horizon

is the remains of human refuse.

This could be from Asia, it could
be from the mainland, America,

and a lot of this stuff comes from
the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.

The Garbage Patch, also
known as the North Pacific Gyre,

is where ocean currents converge

to create a concentration
of plastics.

A lot of the plastic
at Kamilo Beach

has been circulating
in the ocean for so long

it's been broken down into tiny
particles, or micro-plastics.

Which are nearly
impossible to clean up.

How frequently do you do
these beach clean-ups?

You know, we've done
32 so far this year.

We're gonna pick this stuff up and
come back down here next week,

and it could potentially be
just as dirty, if not worse.

This plastic doesn't
just ruin a day at the beach.

It's estimated that
nearly 700 marine species

have encountered
man-made debris.

At Hawaii's Oceanic Institute

Dr. David Hyrenbach
is studying how plastic

is becoming a permanent
part of our ecosystem.

So this bird was incidentally
killed-- Whoa, that is a beast!

Then you see the hooks
coming out of the neck there. - Oh.

This is the gizzard.
so the heart's out of the way.

Let me just...

I see some plastic!

- Whoa. Look at that.
- Okay.

A 2015 study predicted
that as many as 90 percent

of all seabirds worldwide

now consume plastic
as part of their diet.

How far do you think most of
this plastic has traveled from?

It could be coming
from anywhere.

I mean, we're finding
plastic in Antarctic species.

You know, places where
people don't really go.

So this is really
a global issue.

And it's not just
birds eating this plastic.

Oceanographer
Dr. Anela Choy

is studying the plastics impact
on the entire ocean food chain.

This is a lancetfish,

and what's great about these guys is
they sample the environment for us.

So, we sample the stomachs from
different locations in the ocean

um, take a look at what--
what they're feeding on.

Whoa! Look what we have here.
Whoa! Wow.

What the hell is that? That's
a giant piece of plastic.

Oh, God.

These pieces of plastic
are made out of petroleum

and other chemical contaminants.

When pieces of plastic
are in the water column,

they sort of act
as little sponges.

They actually accumulate toxins,

and then they get
ingested by animals,

and so, we're still learning about
the chemistry of what happens

when fish like that eats it.

How out of hand
is this situation getting?

Animals at almost every single
trophic level of the food web

in the open ocean
are ingesting plastics.

Yeah, it's the biggest
habitat on the planet.

Mm-hmm. - And if there's plastic
throughout that habitat,

it's gonna have some
really serious impacts.

Many of the species
humans eat prey on lancetfish.

Meaning plastic is likely finding
its way up the food chain

and into our dinners.

Are you worried that any of that plastic
might find its way into the fish?

Of course this happens.

You know, I mean, how are we gonna stop it?
I don't know.

It's coming from
all over the world.

So, what happens when
you gut the fish on the boat?

You find like a plastic bag, or like,
bottle caps, things like that.

Wow. You are what you eat depending
on what the fish ingests,

so it's probably not the best
for the fish, and for you.

Plastic in our world's
oceans is reaching crisis levels.

Since the Great Pacific Garbage
Patch was discovered in 1997,

four additional patches have
been found across the globe,

accumulating more
and more plastic.

We spoke with Dominic Waughray
at the World Economic Forum,

who is tracking the problem
on a global scale.

Plastic is one of the most pervasive
human-made materials that we have.

We have the problem
that we make a lot of plastic.

We kind of use it once, or at the most
twice, and then we get rid of it,

and ultimately, it can
only go into three places.

It can be burnt,

it can be landfilled,

or it can be dumped, and dumping
often then means the sea.

Don't forget with the mass
urbanization that we're going through

a lot of this is
in coastal areas.

Most big cities are by the sea.

Eight million tons of that plastic
goes into the ocean every year.

That's about an equivalent

of one garbage truck
every minute.

That one garbage truck will become
four garbage trucks by 2050 or so.

If we carry on that rate,
there will be more plastic,

by weight,
in the ocean than fish.

So as a human, sort of, conundrum,
this, surely, can't be good.

What is the wake-up call?

With 165 million tons of
plastic already in the ocean,

and more being
dumped in every day,

it's hard to imagine how we would
even begin to clean this up.

But there is someone who is
attempting to do just that.

When talking about
environmental issues,

I think a common response is,

"Well, that's, pfft,
a long way off.

That's for our children
to worry about."

So, hello, here I am.

Since Boyan was 16, he's
been on an environmental mission.

Now, six years later,

he's crowd-funded millions of
dollars to start his own company:

The Ocean Cleanup.

Along with a team of top
engineers and scientists,

their goal is simple:

to rid the world's
oceans of plastic.

We caught up with Boyan
at the Ocean Cleanup offices

and plastic laboratory.

So, this is the Great
Pacific Garbage Patch.

This is the concentration
of plastic,

- these little specks here?
- Right.

So, there are-- there are
five of them in the world. - Mm-hmm.

And because the North Pacific is most
polluted, we'll start with that.

We're trying all these
different variables,

like how large should it be,
what angle should it be,

to get to a system that collects most
plastic for as little cost as possible.

Boyan and his team spent years

mapping the Great Pacific
Garbage Patch to understand

how to go about cleaning it up.

So talk me through how
the Ocean Cleanup works.

So really the problem is that
although there is a lot of plastic,

it's spread out over
a very large area,

so you first need to concentrate
it before you get it out.

So, what we propose is to deploy

sort of an artificial coastline,
where there is no coastline,

So we have this very long
array of floating barriers

that is anchored to the sea bed.

The ocean current does
the hard work for us,

brings the plastic towards it,

and concentrates in the center.

And once it's in the center, it's so
dense you can hardly see the water,

and that's the spot where
we can then easily take it out,

and store it before shipping
it to land for recycling.

Over 95 percent of the mass
is still in those big objects,

which is so urgent to clean up,

because all that big stuff
will become micro-plastics

over the next few decades,
which is the problem.

Why has no one else attempted to clean
up on the scale that you're proposing?

People assume that a complex problem
requires a complex solution,

but I think the simpler a
solution can be, the better.

When I started this, I didn't
know whether it would work,

but I thought, considering
the scale of the problem,

that it was just
important to at least try.

After months spent
perfecting the design,

Boyan's invention is ready
for the ultimate test.

To find out whether
it can survive in the ocean.

Welcome to the Ocean Cleanup's
prototype unveiling.

Boyan and his team have got their first
prototype in the sea going out today.

So, we're gonna go and see the
progress in getting it out.

And there's going to be tests
for all weather sorts,

which is the perfect place
to do it here on the North Sea.

It gets pretty stormy out here.

The conditions in the
North Sea are pretty severe.

Now, with the first minor
storm, we'll get forces higher

than during a hundred-year
storm in the Pacific Ocean.

It's pretty safe to say that if it
survives here, it will survive anywhere.

But to scale the array to be
scooping up the Pacific Garbage Patch,

Boyan has a way to go.

What we're seeing here
is just one segment,

and eventually, the thing will be about
a thousand times larger than this.

- Wow.
- And then somewhere in the center

of the giant
V-shaped array,

we would have these conveyor belts
and pumps to extract the plastic.

I mean, 100 kilometers, it's very
large for a manmade structure,

but it's peanuts compared to
the size of the Pacific Ocean.

Assuming everything
does go to plan,

what's the next step?

We should be ready to deploy the
first full operational system

uh, by late 2017.

So that will be the first time
we're actually removing plastic

from the ocean at a large scale.

And then, if that goes well,

we should be ready to start the
largest cleanup in history by 2020.

So, this is just the beginning,
it's not the end.

While Boyan
works towards hitting

the next milestone
of his experiment,

he's simultaneously
planning what to do

with the degraded plastic
he's able to collect

and how to make
it valuable again.

This is one of the
companies we're working with

to actually produce the recycling
product, because eventually,

this is sort of how we want to
finance the whole Ocean Cleanup.

This is a machine, where we
put in the flakes... Mm-hmm.

...so the ground-up
ocean plastic objects.

So to get the-- the highest
quality of, uh, of plastic

we really want to sort it
first before recycling it.

Then it should exit here as... Ooh!
It's coming out like spaghetti.

It's like a pasta machine.

It is exactly as
a pasta machine.

The process involves
chopping up the plastic

into tiny beads,
known as nurdles.

These are then sold and melted down into
the objects we use in everyday life.

So then it's just
shredding it up in nuggets?

Yeah, so this is sort of the
whole currency of the plastic industry.

So, car companies buy these
nurdles to make their products,

and furniture companies
use them as well.

So, it's sort of giving
ocean plastic a second life.

This is pretty cool to know that

this plastic has been around
for the last few decades,

and could have come
from anywhere in the world.

Oh, yeah, and this
could have well been

some of the first plastic that was ever
produced at scale in the '50s and the '60s.

While Boyan is recycling ocean
plastics into more permanent uses,

the vast majority of the world's
plastics are never recycled at all.

In fact, even the most commonly used
are only recycled 14% of the time.

But at IBM,
Dr. Jeannette Garcia

is developing a process
called "chemical recycling"

that could change how we think
about plastics altogether.

How do you see plastic? Is it a
big problem or a great invention?

I think of plastic as being
a great invention,

because it permeates
our entire life.

Plastic is ubiquitous,
in everything from shoes,

pills, to healthcare,
to disposable syringes,

and so to try to do
away with it completely,

is probably not a viable option.

Tell us about chemical recycling and
why you think that's the answer.

The main difference is that
in mechanical recycling,

what you're doing is
you're taking the material

and you have to shred it down,
then melt it down, remold it,

and it can only happen a certain number
of times before it loses the properties.

Chemical recycling is different,
because what you actually do

is you take the material,
and you chemically react it

so it goes back down
to its most fundamental unit.

That fundamental unit
can then be reacted again

back into the same thing
or into something different,

and we can reach a 100 percent,
like, full cycle process.

If we can scale
this process up,

we could take the hundreds of millions
of tons of discarded plastics

recycle them, and move towards
a zero waste economy.

People are gonna start realizing
that we can save money,

and a lot of money
by recycling materials,

and so that it makes
sense from all standpoints.

We have to start thinking
of our landfills as gold mines.

With the right approach,
and the will to make it happen,

all this trash would
become valuable again,

and solving this mammoth
environmental task

could create an
economic miracle.

Economically, if we had
to pay for all that plastic,

which we could do
something better with,

between $80 and
$120 billion a year

that you can make valuable with straight
away, effectively we're dumping,

but like anything in life,
if there's a problem,

then there's gonna
be opportunity.

We know through
history in terms of

disruptions in industries
or new products

that it's kind of innovators and disruptors
who kind of take us to the next level.

The fact that we
now are creating a path

in which there is a chance that
we can have clean oceans again,

that could potentially inspire

a lot more people to get
involved with this problem.

Human history is
a long list of things

that couldn't be done
and then were done.

Really, the challenge
in this century

is to convert a lifestyle
created in a previous century

into one that will still
be around in the next century.

Sync & corrections by honeybunny
www.addic7ed.com