Original subtitles

Is there some way I can actually talk about nature...

and kind of bring a certain appreciation...

for what it represents?

That we come from nature, and that we have to understand what it is...

so as not to harm it and then to ultimately harm ourselves.

That there is an importance to have a certain reverence for what nature is...

because we are connected to it and we are part of it.

And if we destroy nature, we destroy ourselves.

So I believe that as a fundamental philosophical position...

when I look at the world.

So I started thinking, well...

maybe the new landscape of our time, the one to start to talk about...

is the landscape that we change.

The one that we, you know, disrupt...

in pursuit of progress.

So, I‘m trying to look at...

the industrial landscape...

as a way of defining who we are...

and our relationship to the planet.

It‘s just this thing that‘s just growing, and it‘s part of our economy...

and it‘s part of our politics, and it‘s a part of how we elect our governments.

It‘s part of everything we do.

But it‘s this big machine that started rolling...

and I‘m not coming at it...

to celebrate or glorify the industry, nor am I trying to damn it.

I‘m just trying to say, “Well, this is what it is.”

So to show those types of images of those types of places...

allows the viewer...

to begin to comprehend the scale.

So it‘s another landscape. It is a landscape.

It‘s a different landscape.

Good morning, guys.

Good morning!

Under these particular circumstances,

we can easily discover many shortcomings.

They complain about us every day. Watch the way you operate.

Also, watch those knobs for controlling temperature and those for steam.

Don't laugh.

Don't talk.

You, stand behind him. Four in a row. Stand straight. You, come to this row.

Regarding the unqualified material, our group, 2B, did the worst.

Every time we worked on 7562, if I didn't remind you,

then nobody would label the bad items, so they got messed up.

They were scattered everywhere.

Besides this, the worst thing, there were no labels for them.

So when the products were moved, the bad ones went out as well.

I'm not a god. I'm a human being, just like you.

I am only 1 person and you are 20.

When those materials were rejected, the quality controller complained a lot.

This is the bad habit that exists in our group, 2B.

Edward? They want to know how you like it so far.

It‘s okay if we move...

Like trying to fill this area up here is the, uh, most important.

Like, yeah, that one group, the colored sh

That‘s good. Eh, Noah?

Marching them all down here is fantastic ‘cause I lose them down at the other end anyways.

So you want the foreground to be full.

They‘re coming. It‘s looking okay.

I wish that I had the light about a half hour ago.

It‘s deadened down a bit. I‘m hoping it opens up.

— I think we‘re good. I‘m just shooting now. — Okay, good.

It should be good. No problem. He is shooting now.

That‘s good.

That‘s perfect.

Ladies and gentlemen, Ed Burtynsky.

Inspired by nature. That‘s the theme here.

And I think, quite frankly...

that‘s where I started.

I had a bit of an epiphany being lost in Pennsylvania.

I took a left turn trying to get back to the highway and ended up in a town called Frackville.

And I got out of the car and I stood up, and it was a coal mining town...

and I did a 360 turnaround...

and that became one of the most surreal landscapes I had ever seen.

Totally transformed by man.

And that— that got me to—

to go out and look at the largest industrial incursions that I could find.

And that became the baseline of what I was doing.

I guess in the back ofeverybody‘s mind, when you think of extraction industries...

that we all know that stuff comes from somewhere, but we‘re disconnected from that.

So my images brought those landscapes into our consciousness...

and for about ten years I explored that kind of landscape...

through quarries and mines nickel or copper or iron ore.

And ones that had been going on for long periods of time...

so that the evidence of that accumulated taking

in one frame you can show the dimensions...

of our extraction in the landscape.

When looking at China...

I was looking at that place where all these materials coalesce...

and so they‘re coming in from all around the world

iron ore and aluminium and, uh, wood.

All these things that China has very little of.

And then these factories are this place...

where all these materials get formed into products...

and sent back out around the world.

We haven't sorted these recycling materials in time.

Now there's too much to do.

You wouldn't start working until you were told to.

You don't want to work?

The other aspect of what‘s happening in China...

is that a lot of the recycled materials that are collected here...

are being taken to China by ship.

That‘s cube metal.

This is armatures, electrical armatures...

where they‘re getting the copper and the high—end steel from electrical motors.

50% of the world‘s computers end up in China to be recycled.

It‘s referred to as e—waste there.

And, um, the way they recycle is that they actually heat up the boards...

and with pairs of pliers they pull off all the components.

They‘re trying to get all the valued metals out of those components.

But the toxic smells when you‘re coming to a town...

that‘s actually doing this kind of burning of the boards...

you can smell it a good five or ten kilometers before you get there.

I‘m not usually known for portraits...

but I couldn‘t resist on this one, where she‘s probably

She‘s been through Mao, and she‘s been through the great leap forward

and the cultural revolution...

and now she‘s sitting on her porch with this e—waste beside her.

It‘s quite something.

So. All right. No, higher.

Higher, a bit higher.

There we go.

Okay.

It's not useable anymore.

So after you sort them out, will you smash all of them?

Yes. All will be smashed.

In one of the towns that was the most notorious...

for e—waste recycling...

they were smashing monitors...

and taking using the glass...

but inside the monitor...

was full of phosphors and of lead, different types of cadmium, different

pretty toxic, uh, heavy metals.

And— So all of this, of course...

would wash into the rivers, would go into the— the soil...

and after every rain, it would get it further and further into the water table...

to the point where the water table is totally contaminated...

and they‘re now having to ship water in.

First, welcome to our company. This is the headquarter office.

During the past 13 years, our company has been expanding steadily.

Our product is sold in more than 60 countries and territories around the world.

Our products cover from the origin

to the terminal of low voltage electrical safeguards,

which includes the TSM1 Smart Breaker,

Smart and Multi-functional Breaker...

and the TSM21 Breaker, TSM Small Breaker,

and the TSY Power Supply Protector.

My name is Tan Yanfang.

How long have you been working here?

Six years.

I can assemble 400 units every day without overtime.

The shell of the TSM Small Breaker

is made of the best quality materials in the world,

including specialized parts imported from Holland.

The products are mainly for... Excuse me...

I feel so nervous.

That's okay.

Can I use...

Can I use my notes?

You can read. That's fine.

We will keep updating our marketing, focussing on technical research,

to serve our customers best.

Professional, high-quality, and large-scale work

will make our company an industry leader.

Our corporate goal is to be exceptional. Professionalism is our principle.

— Are we moving on now? — Yeah, we‘re gonna move on.

The lights really good. Let‘s try and get some more stuff.

Yeah.

Changes here are huge.

My father told me when he came here in the early '90s,

there were no ships being built. Now it's getting richer here.

My mother is a welder, just like me. My father is an assembler.

I failed to get into high school and my uncle worked here.

That's why I came here to work.

You might want to pull this a bit for the sky.

You already got one, right?

Yeah,just ‘cause I overexposed a bit in the second one, so I want to pull it a bit.

Yup.

These ships carry, I think, a great metaphor...

of, you know, connecting us through seas.

The materials that we experience all come through ships...

so they have become the kind of reason...

that has allowed, um, globalization...

to take the proportions it has.

The high tide is at 13—

So 1:30 is high tide.

They want it in farther ‘cause they can get— they can work on it.

— It‘s too far out for them to get it together. — Right.

I want to see if we can actually walk up to that other big ship.

And how— Where do they anticipate it to land? What‘s their best guess?

They don‘t know. It‘s all the will of God.

I like it.

At one point, I was shooting a mine, and it was a silver mine.

Okay, it‘s a little dark.

I arrive in my car, made out of iron, you know, filled with gas.

I pull out a metal tripod...

and grab him that‘s loaded with silver and start taking pictures.

So everything that I‘m doing is connected to the thing I‘m photographing.

Looking at these ships in Bangladesh...

the connection was clear.

At some point, I probably filled a tank of gas...

from the oil that was delivered by one of these tankers.

These oil tankers still had sludge and crude at the bottom of the ships...

that had to be scraped out, and it was all done by hand.

You know, 18, 19, 20—year—old boys, even younger...

in oil up to their necks.

It‘s very, very low—paid work and very dangerous work...

so you rarely see anybody over 30 at work there.

The whole idea of energy...

entered my work around 1997...

when I began to photograph oil fields and oil refineries.

And I had this, what I call an oil epiphany...

when one day I was driving and started to think...

about how oil had affected my life...

and I was holding onto a plastic steering wheel that was probably made from oil derivatives...

in a car with paints that were oil...

looking through glass that was probably heated through oil...

driving on black tar.

as a key building block of the last century.

I thought of it as the oil party—

that, you know, there‘s this great abundance of black liquid...

that gives us this mobility, this freedom.

And I couldn‘t help but feel...

that, you know, China was kind of either joining the last dance...

or the second—last dance to this party...

that peak of oil is somewhere

that either we‘re— we‘ve hit it or we‘re about to hit.

You know, no matter what we do, we just can‘t get enough...

to supply the world demand.

So to look at China and the way they‘re expanding...

to be the manufacturers of the world...

is a very different energy footprint.

And because they‘re entering late in the game...

it remains a question of how long they‘ll be able to sustain.

— Excuse me. — Yeah.

As far as I understand, the problem right now

— Yeah. — I mean, this is my personal idea.

Okay.

Is that the court itself has the very regulation

Yeah.

That no media is allowed to come to this, uh

Yeah, no, I understand that.

But my understanding is, from Mr. Chen Ling this morning

— I think, maybe he — You know? Yeah, no, no. That‘s okay.

Maybe Mr. Chen Ling does not know that there is a certain regulation that, uh

Yeah.

Really, it has—

— Well, let‘s go see. — Let‘s go see.

We don‘t even know what we‘re talking about. Then we‘ll come back and talk.

— Right. Okay. Let‘s— — Okay, so let‘s do that.

What you see here is the Three Gorges Dam...

and this is the largest dam by 50%...

uh, ever attempted by man.

Most of the engineers around the world left the project...

‘cause they said, “It‘s just too big.“

Um, in fact, when it did actually fill with water a year and a half ago...

they were able to measure a wobble within the Earth as it was spinning.

It took 15 days to fill it. So, this is a massive—

It‘s created a reservoir 600 kilometers long...

one of the largest reservoirs ever created.

And it‘s actually a relief for what‘s going on in China...

because, I think, on the table right now...

there‘s 27 nuclear power stations to be built in the next 10 years...

and coal—burning furnaces are going in there for electric power...

literally weekly.

Take a look at that.

Oh, wow.

So I made three trips to the Three Gorges Dam...

looking at that massive transformation of a landscape.

And it‘s not— It looks like a bombed—out landscape, but it isn‘t.

It—What it is— It‘s a landscape that is an intentional one.

This is a need for power...

and they‘re moving 13 full—sized cities up out of the reservoir...

and fittening all the buildings so they can make way for the ships.

And it was all the people who lived in those homes...

were the ones that were actually working and getting paid, per brick...

to take their cities apart.

I want to go back through to shoot with some different lights.

Yeah, this is spectacular. Good find, jeff.

This will all be over in another three weeks or a month.

And it‘s here for the moment, and once they‘re through this rubble, it‘s finished...

then the water floods it.

So there‘s this crazy, frenetic activity for the next month or two...

and then it‘s gone forever, so—

Okay.

Okay.

Okay.

Okay.

Well, I think it‘s all— It‘ll be okay.

I need that Polaroid.

Keep working on the shot.

This model has 600 square meters...

in a scale of 1 to 500.

It‘s the biggest of its kind in the world...

so it set a Guinness record.

The planning is from 2001 to 2020...

so 20 years‘ planning.

Now we also have 50 years‘ planning.

First we see this blue river is Huang—p‘u River.

Here, this is Huang—p‘u River.

And in the eastern side is called Pudong area.

Pudong area.

The western side is called Puxi area.

When Mao finished his reign...

there was 90% agrarian and 10% urban.

Uh, the current idea coming from Beijing...

is to see it 30% agrarian and 70% urban...

which, when you look at 1.3 billion—

The urbanization of China...

um, is unprecedented in the world.

...meters, 88 stories...

now the highest building of Shanghai.

This building is under construction.

The name is World Financial Center.

When this building finished...

they will have 492 meters...

101 stories.

In the future, they will become the highest building of Shanghai.

Here is Century Park. Century Park.

Behind Century Park, we will see many white, small buildings.

And here is Villa Garden. Villa area.

One of the things I focused on in terms of the urbanization of China...

was Shanghai, in that Shanghai is probably China‘s fastest—growing city.

In the last five years...

And it‘s growing in this kind of crazy fashion...

in that thousands and thousands of high—rise dwellings...

are replacing the older, traditional dwellings...

that were there.

So the garden‘s about 1,800 square meter.

So I have two gardener come every day...

to keep these plant all lovely.

Actually, in the evening, when all this light on the garden...

really look beautiful.

Quiet.

Since I am in the real estate business...

I visit lots of property...

and...

Shanghai developed really quickly.

Really, I think the fastest city in the world.

You see this open kitchen here...

actually was my garage.

Originally, this house looked totally different.

This is the study room.

I spend lots of time here.

This is my favorite bookshelf.

This is antique style. Chinese antique style.

Red. Red color means happy.

I think the Shanghai city is, more or less, for the younger people...

younger generation.

Some older generations, they are not happy...

because they are feeling their hearts still belong to the old place.

This is everywhere in the world, same.

I bought a property, um, close by here...

called Xi Zhou Hua Cheng.

And they could not build the property which they promised us.

The reason was they needed longer time to convince old lady, you know...

to move just a little bit, maybe...

away from, you know, the area.

Even ten minutes. But she just did not.

It was impossible for her.

The whole community was knocked down, but this house.

She just didn‘t want to leave.

We are changing the nature of this planet.

We are changing the air, we are changing the water...

we are changing the land.

And that‘s just not China. That‘s the world at large.

There are times when I have thought about my work...

and putting it into a more politicized environment.

If I said, “This is a terrible thing that we‘re doing to the planet“...

then people will either agree or disagree.

By not saying what you should see...

that may allow them to look at something that they never looked at...

and to see their world a little differently.

So I think many people today...

sit in that uncomfortable spot...

where, you know, we don‘t necessarily want to give up what we have...

but we realize what we‘re doing...

is creating problems that run deep.

It‘s not a simple right or wrong.

It needs a whole new way of thinking.

There are lots of coal mines here.

Coal is mined on a large scale to meet the energy needs of our country,

because our economy is developing very fast.

But it brings some environmental problems.

Did you just say that large-scale coal mining

is to meet China's demands in her economic development?

We came here for that.

l have to let you know that he's going to publish a book

about the development of Chinese industry...

and we understand that China needs a lot of energy for development.

No shooting. No shooting.

He's just taking a picture.

Don't shoot, guys.

- Excuse me. - Yeah.

As far as I understand, the problem right now...

- I mean this is my personal idea... - 0kay.

is that the court itself has the very regulation

that no media is allowed to come to this.

No I understand that. But my understanding is, Tianjin Harbour Goods Distribution Centre

from Mr. Chendling this morning

- I think, maybe he... - You know? Yeah, no, no. That's okay.

Maybe Mr. Chendling does not know that there is a certain regulation that...

I understand it's quite windy today.

It's very dirty, very dirty.

I don't think it's a good day to make beautiful pictures.

It's very gloomy here.

For example, even this industrial waste, it's kind of like garbage.

Still it appears beautiful through his camera.

Take a look at these pictures.

This book is a retrospective of his past 20 years' work.

Most of the pictures were taken in Canada.

Here are some pictures of mines.

The book we are making needs a picture...

Actually, our concern is that it will cause some negative influence.

Let's just go to the site and have a look.

Workers, before you go to the site,

please check that you are wearing safety equipment or proper clothing.

Please check if there's any potential danger

and if you are clear about today's work.

Today's highest temperature: 26 to 27 centigrade; lowest: 15 to 16.

- Old Master? How are you? - Yes.

- Are you working here? - Yes.

How about the work? Is it hard?

Of course it's hard.

- 20 Yuan. - What?

- 20, uh, 30 Yuan.

So, 30 Yuan a day? Oh.

What do you think of this project?

Are you proud of your involvement on such a huge project?

I'm just a general labourer here.

We are just working for our boss, getting paid here.

We have three shifts a day: day shift, mid shift and night shift.

How long have you been working here?

I've been working here nine years.

Nine years? Wow.

It's just work. It's all for our country.

The project was officially launched on December 14, 1994.

It has been almost ten years.

It will take 17 years to finish, ending in 2009.

This is the biggest dam that has ever been made in the world

and probably ever will be made.

There are three main functions of the dam.

The first is to avoid floods. That's the most crucial function.

The second is to generate electricity.

The third is to improve transportation.

That's it.

The full length of the dam is 2,309 metres.

There will be 26 generators installed...

as well as 6 underground generators, as back-up, which makes 32 total.

Each one generates 700,000 kW, with a total capacity of 22,400,000 kW

which supplies 84.7 billion kWh per year.

How many people have to relocate due to the construction of the dam?

According to the statistics we got in the 1992 census, 830,000,

but considering population growth, the actual amount is around 1,100,000.

Are these people content with their new homes?

Do not ask me this question. I'm not in charge of this.

Yangtze River Cities, China, 2002

It's a very broad view.

It's hard to see the details.

Because our country was poor in the past, people's life standards were low.

Compared with the old city, the new city has been improved

regarding the scale and construction quality.

Generally speaking, life quality has been improved as well.

Because people feel happy about the fresh environment.

You have so much free time that you can wash your dog?

These houses were basically old houses.

We were old neighbours. We've been neighbours for decades.

My father and mother grew up here...

and I was born here.

I'm more than 60 years old now.

Go further. You will find an interesting place to shoot.

They came door to door to persuade you to move, one by one;

sometimes they deceived people into going.

Sometimes they coaxed them.

Often they beat people up. One guy here got broken bones.