A group of scientists 21 published a study in the journal Nature.
Warming, resource destruction
and overpopulation lead us to a tipping point.
The biology of the Earth will experience a revolution
at least as radical
that during the last glaciation, 11,000 years ago.
Will we a mass extinction
similar to those which, in the distant past,
have eradicated most species in a geological nod?
3 years ago, Cyril came to talk to me about that study
while i was still pregnant
it was saying that my son would grow in a world, where water, food, oil
will be dramatically lacking
entire cities could be swallowed by oceans
it was suggesting that a part of the humanity could disappear before the end of the century
Back then, i was directing a NGO
and i had never seen a so scary study
But still, we were only a few thousand people to manifest in the street
No one seemed to react amongst the politic leaders
So we decided to get together with a crew of friends who were working in the film industry
We told them about the content of the study
Almost all of them had children, but not all of us were ecological or activists
but no one wanted to stand idly by
we all wanted to do something about it
coordinators of the study published in the review Nature, in June 2012
We do not realize:
the upheavals affecting the world today
take place at a speed
and a magnitude never seen.
We cause the extinction of animal and plant species
to an unprecedented pace
since an asteroid wiped out the dinosaurs.
It goes very fast and it is we who are doing this.
The last time temperatures
have reached the level that we will know in a few decades,
it was there 14 million years,
long before the appearance of humans.
Our species has never lived so under temperatures
we might know in our lifetime.
The global population is growing at such a rate
it has tripled during my existence.
This is unheard !
These persons we add to the planet
need more food
at the same time we devastate biodiversity.
Can be accommodated if change is slow,
but when it's so sudden, so unexpected,
then the problems begin.
And it is in this world we live today.
What will most likely happen
due to limited resources,
particulary water,
which is one of the crucial problems
is that people will feel cornered and migrate.
In move, they will come into contact
with less poor and this will create
animosity between individuals from different parts of the world.
So the war, violence ...
We do not have much time...
20 years maybe
to take the right direction.
This is THE critical time for humanity.
How to tell all what we have heard to people already fed up to be anxious about catastrophes
and how to make a great number of people to go into action
We went to pay a visit in south of England
to Rob Hopkins, the founder of the movement of transition
He was one of the only person i could think of who could help us find another way to consider the issue
and another way to take action
It's fascinating as our species
is gifted
to imagine its own extinction,
its own demise.
We make films where we are exterminated by zombies,
atomic bombs, disease, robots, aliens,
funny little Gremlins ... all kinds of stuff.
We love it.
But where are the movies that show how to do things differently
and solve the problem?
There are not, we do not know them.
When scientists tell us:
"If you want to maintain the biosphere
"Within the limits allowed the appearance of civilizations,
"All that we associate with our history,
"We must first reduce our emissions by 8, 9, 10% per year."
We do not have stories that tell that.
We see this as a loss, degradation.
If you say: "How it will be in 20 years
"If we start to reduce our emissions? "
Many already think in ice caves,
to eat rotten potatoes.
It's the end of the world...
Exactly. But it could be fantastic!
So we travelled all over the world to find men and women who offer solutions
to all those problems
we wanted to put those solutions all together, like a puzzle, in order to tell another story
that would make us feel like building another world
and soon we realized we had to start this story by the beginning :
how to feed ourselves
differently!
Because according to most of the experts, it's by the food that civilization can collapse
and where our economic and industrial model have already collapsed
like in Detroit, USA or in Todmorden, England
it's through the food that people started to invent a different story
to live better but also to be able to survive to those shocks
Between 1960 and today, Detroit saw its population decreased from 2 millions to 700 000 residents
the city was a kind of industrial monoculture
with the majority of jobs in the automotive industry.
When the sector shut down, all the jobs went away and a good part of the residents with it.
Beside the fact that so many buildings were abandonned, it was almost impossible finding fresh food.
So the people who hasn't left Detroit - mostly the poorest people -
rolled up their sleeves and decided to grow their own food.
Looks a butterfly ...
It'll be the best.
Someone wants him?
With double ration of garlic.
Someone else ?
We gave the daring mission
to create an autonomous city with food,
where most of the fruits and vegetables consumed in the city
has grown in Detroit by its inhabitants, for its inhabitants.
In 2050,
the world will be very different.
We will not have the oil and energy we have,
we will not have the same access to water
or arable land.
Above all, the population: 9 billion people,
70% live in cities.
Food should push around people.
All communities face challenges
and if some have not yet experienced it,
it is likely that it will happen to them.
So...
Why am I doing this ? Because we must understand
how to make it work here,
rather than change of place because there is no other place to go.
There's a lot of romance around urban agriculture.
This is the new sexy thing, right?
It is nothing new,
but many see it
but many see it as a new way to revive cities
and that's exactly it. The potential is huge.
But this romanticism that surrounds it,
this is very far from the reality of the work that must be.
That's why I sometimes say that urban farms,
it looks great on a PowerPoint presentation.
You find yourself here, it's hot,
the sun hits you over, you get dirty.
It's not easy,
provide an intense work.
So, we must
give ourselves the means to have courage.
This is a sacred place for me.
I come here...
I work...
Life is full of frustrations,
problems that we must face.
Here it is quiet and peaceful,
I can make a connection with the earth,
get my hands dirty...
Urban agriculture has great potential ...
to feed city dwellers,
but it will not replace rural agriculture.
The two must go hand in hand.
Urban, suburban and rural areas
must all produce food.
This is quite logical,
the majority of the world population
is concentrated in urban areas,
that food grows closer to where people live.
And it is better for the environment.
In the USA,
food travels an average of 2400 km
from where it grows and where it is consumed.
The ecological impact is phenomenal.
There are 1600 urban farms in Detroit
2400 hectares of unused land could still be cultivated
The goal of the mouvement is to feed half of the population
Let me help you...
Y wrote what?
Sage.
It's good, Irah.
Incredible Edible Food share
should pick ...
Me, me, me, me!
There are nearly 7 years
I was at a conference on the state of the world resource
depletion everything we already know.
I thought : I wait that long,
but nobody does anything.
Not ordinary people.
They talk about economy, but not what we let our kids.
Then it came to me like that, in a flash:
Why not start in our city?
Here, in this café, in our homes, in our streets ...
Why not ?
So Mary and I
we created this movement.
We do not say: "Are we going to save the planet?"
We just started where we were.
And then what did you do?
We held a meeting here:
What future for your children? What food?
And 60 people came.
- We were stunned! - No one knew what to do.
We were not ready! We hoped to 5.
Incredible Edible has been created, the daughter of Mary found the name.
We invented the idea of propaganda-gardens
and roads in front of schools, buildings ...
It was interesting, funny, alive,
of simple things to change our lives.
That's where we are: food in the heart of the streets,
before the doctor or at the station.
What good these gardens, so nobody sees them?
It takes where people speak:
a busy street, which was used as dog toilet
that nobody respected.
We created
a reason to talk through a plant.
It's crazy, right?
Strangers
are in front of a massive and discuss.
That's what we need for the future:
connect with each other.
I am convinced that the food
and the conversation is the answer.
Corn is slow this year.
Our special maize police.
He should be there, right?
You should expect ...
Do not tempt me ! One might even break a raspberry.
People take their foot to gather outside the police station.
Free, without permission.
What did you think
seeing these people appropriate the space
and plant these vegetables?
A mixture of confusion, fear ...
Who are these people ? Where do they come from?
What are they doing on our land, not theirs!
We were very bureaucrats:
where forms are, the project, insurance?
The usual inhibitions official structures.
It took this dialogue ...
Pam, Mary, Estelle, another, Nick ...
Talking to them, we saw that they were sincere,
they had a purpose.
Not just plant a street corner,
but changing the way people get involved where they live,
learn, create networks of entrepreneurs,
regain control,
because people have the power.
Local governments have less and less money,
it is a solution!
Since 2013, the Calderdale district made available for its 200 000 residents all the vacant lots for food growing
Like recommended Malik, when we were in Detroit,
the residents of Todmorden decided to not only producing in town, but to use again the country nearby.
10 minutes away from the center, we met Nick Green, head gardener of Todmorden, in his "incredible farm".
Nick has a biochemistry doctoral degree
he's now a true especialist in agroecology.
When Incredible Edibles began
no one knew where we were going:
We said: planting, we'll see.
After 3 or 4 years,
we got seriously set:
youth training, food production.
We produce half a ton per year
on 300 square meters of vegetable trays.
On one hectare, this is 14 tonnes,
is a lot of food.
She is better, his leg gets better.
Currently, the world is fed by small farmers,
with small farms
that produce most of world food.
Industrial farms provide a fraction.
In terms of production,
manufacturers are totally ineffective.
What they do well is money.
What they do wrong is food.
If you leave the land to the people, they produce more.
Rufus.
One!
Go ahead, ignore me.
It just takes more work
should be an industrial operator,
use fewer chemicals, and soil gives more.
Industrial agriculture is not the only way to feed the world.
This is a story we are told and we finally believe?
Its a story
that the chemical industry,
agricultural equipment boxes and banks
need to tell their survival.
This is not true.
It's a lie.
I wanted to answer a very simple question : is the agroecology able to feed the world?
and i created a report that i submitted to the Human Rights Council of the UN, in March 2011, and my answer is clearly affirmative.
70 or 75% of what is eaten in the world, comes from small farmers.
Big farmers are often able to produce large amount of food
of agricultural raw material,
only a part of this raw material will be used for feeding people,
the rest will be used to feed cattle, or as biofuel.
Because until now, as hundreds of experts are repeating,
industrial agriculture doesn't know to produce food without destroying nature and farmers.
By simplifying everything, we replace humans by machines,
we cut down forests to do monoculture crops in gigantic fields
and since the soil becomes ill, the plants become ill
and they are attacked by some insects or some fungus
so we spray pesticides, herbicides on them, we plant GMO that make people and animals sick.
and since we all want to eat meat, we cram billions of animals,
we cut down even more forests to grow soya and mais to feed them,
we drain water, and as a result, we don't have enough space to feed people,
and then we ship the food worldwilde, that travel thousands of miles,
and all of this contributes to disrupting the climate
we are doing things all backwards...
How many farmers can be destroyed before destroying agriculture?
Those who control the agriculture produce nothing.
Those who control food produce nothing.
Coca-Cola produces nothing, it is a situation rent.
Monsanto does not produce seed.
She lives of intellectual property rights.
Cargill produces no vegetable.
She buys and sells.
If we continue to destroy this base,
destroying the ecological base where food grows
and the social base that the product, how to feed us?
What the governments want? They want to maintain social peace, making sure the households will spend the less possible amount for food,
and for instance, in some European countries, households consume like 13% of the family budget for food
if tomorrow we had to charge the real price of the food to households, by making them pay
the costs of the social and environmental damage, of the public health-care that result from the industrial agriculture,
we would have to incruse the food budget up to 25 or 30%, and that would be a politically untenable situation.
This is the reason why we keep on supporting the most competitive farmers, who use a kind of
harmful agriculture, for the environment, for health etc. but who are satisfying the short terms expectations
of the politics and of the general public.
So we started looking for those small and so productive farms Olivier told us about,
to see with our own eyes if they were really capable to feed the world.
and we ended up in Bec Hellouin, very close to our home,
in a permaculture farm that was showing an extraordinary productivity.
Our dream was to create a big garden, using as few oil as possible, or no oil at all if possible
Currently, for one calorie in our plate, we need 10 to 12 calorie of fossile oil...
which is totally absurd, because we know that, maybe tomorrow, or the day after that, oil will be
much more scarce, and i think we all want to continue eating.
So we have to discover ways to feed ourselves without involving oil. It's very important.
So it's not at all a new country-dwellers whim, to practice an entirely manual agriculture,
it's a vital necessity for feeding the world of tomorrow.
With this precision seeder, i can sow 6 lines of vegetables, i come and go once and i sow 12 lines of them,
when a tractor would sow just 3.
and we even go beyond that, because we redo what were doing the 19 century Parisian market gardeners,
before the mechanization, we do mixed crops,
so i sow 12 lines of carrots, and just after 12 lines of radishes,
and then plant 2 lines of brussel sprouts.
So in 30 inches wide, i have 24 lines of vegetables and 2 lines of brussel sprouts.
And that is one of the secret of productivity of this place, with innovative tools, very simple and all manual,
allow us to have a productivity, that would looks crazy to a regular market gardener.
"chickens chickens chickens...!"
We have here an example of mixed crops : basil under tomato plants.
The tomato plant being a creeper, it will get the light from above,
basil has no problem at all with semi-shade,
and both of them will be satisfied with quite little water.
And since basil has a strong scent, it's an inhibitor of unwanted bugs
that could come and stick on the tomato plants.
And besides, vine is making a kind of screen, it releases an adventageous humidity for the vegetables below
anyway, for this kind of summer we are having currently, with quite some heat,
and, last but not least, we have grapes!
so, everything is producing, but the goal of each plant is not only to produce, but also to play a role in this ecosystem.
Everyone has more than one function, and that's what's so great in this much-vaunted permaculture.
To grow like this makes the intellectual challenge far more important than when i was a jurist,
and that i was doing very complicated stuff, and even not in my native language,
in many other languages...
and now, i have to learn lots of different languages too,
things i don't know, and i think it gives you a kind of confidence, and a kind of power - maybe it's not the best way to say it -
to be able to produce your own food, it gives you such a feeling, like : i can survive!
Here we are in the forest garden... it's an imitation of the natural forest,
except that all the plants are edible.
And the great thing about it, is that it needs like zero upkeep : no oil, no watering, no fertilizers.
It produces an overabundance of good fruits, and it's a little oasis of biodiversity,
it captures carbon, and it's completely autonomous
In nature, there's no monoculture, plants are always like partners,
forests are hundreds of thousands years old, and have always worked this way.
Humanity feeds from around 20 species of plants,
and 60% of our food is wheat, corn and rice based,
which are all annual cereal,
when in our long evolution, when we were prehistoric people and wandering in nature,
we were eating mainly fruits, berries, leaves, roots, perrenial plants,
our body is designed to eat this kind of food,
more fruits, more berries, etc.
so our diet based on cereals, meat, dairy products, is not healthy and very harmful for the planet.
So you created everything... Yes, it was naked like the back of our hand...
there were no tree, no pond, nothing,
and the analysis of the soil were showing a very low fertility level
here we have pebbles cover by a bad type of soil.
So in 8 years, we went from one hectar of naked soil to this amazing luxuriance.
We realized along the way that, with our hands we could do things
that the machines couldn't, and especially taking care of the soil in a loving way.
The soil is the foundation of agriculture, so when it's very rich, very nurtured and healthy,
inevitably we have excelent results.
Secondly, it's about to densify more the crops, and thirdly to mixed crops.
If we put together these 3 things, we can reach to produce more than 100 euros per square metter.
What did you want to prove with this study? We wanted to prove that with one hactar of crops,
which is a small surface, will permit to create a sustentable activity properly payed.
And in the first year, we produced more than 32 000 euros of vegetables in 1000 square metters,
even if it was a bad year,
the following years we reached 39 000 euros, and like 54 000 for this year, gaining confidence,
and being bolder, seeing that it's working,
so, these are the same turnovers as the ones of our colleague who work on more than 1 hectare
so it proves that if you work all manually on a very small surface, you can produce
as much as with a tractor working in ten times the surface, more or less.
And this gives hope... and lets imagine plenty of very small farms, much more easy to create,
and to accomodate everywhere, in cities, in suburbs, and we can imagine now a society
with real food security, besides the fact that it's a deeply beautiful agriculture.
Besides Charles and Perrine, one billion and a half farmers grow without tractors and without oil.
The study led by Olivier for the UN in 68 countries, shows that
when using agroecology, they could multiply their productivity by two.
And using permaculture, they certainly could multiply them by 3 or 4.
Since 70% of what we eat comes from what these small farmers produce, we could - if eating no much meat -
feed 10 to 12 billions people for the 20 next years. By creating millions
of small farms all around cities, dozens of millions of jobs, regenerating ecosystem, capturing CO2 in the ground,
allowing small farmers making more money, and producing healthier food for their communities.
So... why aren't we doing it?
Governments, scientifics are unanimous to recognize that the current system is not working as it should,
and is leading us to a dead end, but alternatives are very slow to appear.
Why is that? Why governments don't help them to emerge?
The real advisers of the governments are the big corporations, and they are at their service. And it's understandable,
how could we reproach to a government to desire to open exporting markets and favoring their own economic activities,
the problem being it's contrary to the democratic demand of the people.
What are the companies that can prevent agriculture to change?
The ones that are earning the most money with the system as it is currently...
5 of the 6 richest companies in the world are oil companies.
Oil is used to work with tractors, to make fertilizers, pesticides,
so to work on huge fields, to send the food all over the world,
and so, if we'd find a way to not use oil, we'd be forced to use permaculture and agroecology?
It's possible.
And so, can we do it without oil?
Our entire civilization is based on fossil fuels.
Fertilizers, pesticides: fossil fuels.
Construction materials : fossil fuels.
Pharmaceutical products : fossil fuels.
Synthetic fibers: fossil fuels.
Transportation, heat, light ...
After two industrial revolutions, the 19th and 20th centuries,
where we unearthed fossil carbon layers
to make our civilization,
the atmosphere is saturated with CO2.
Methane and nitrous oxide trap heat from the sun to Earth.
Change happens in real time, I had underestimated the speed.
Disruption of the climate is terrifying because it changes the water cycle.
That's the heart of the problem.
On our blue planet, everything depends on water.
Each additional degree due to industry
increased by 7% evaporation in the air.
It goes back,
rainfall is more concentrated.
The whole water cycle is disrupted.
More violent events.
More blizzards in winter
spring floods,
droughts in summer,
tsunamis, typhoons and hurricanes Category 3, 4 and 5.
Our ecosystems can not follow such an upheaval:
they run out.
Scientists tell us, in all the studies:
We entered the sixth mass extinction.
This is the biggest news since our appearance on Earth.
It is enormous.
It happened that from 5 extinctions 450 million years,
when life was scanned.
And it's coming fast, the chemistry of the planet rocker:
mass extermination.
We want to be the first carbon neutral capital by 11 years.
Our goal is to become energy independent for 2025 - 2030
Iceland and Reykjavik,
a fossil fuel free future is possible.
Our goal is to achieve
a system of 100% local and renewable energy.
Everything should be produced by the sun, wind and water.
We reduced emissions by more than 40%
from 1995.
This is a good rate, but there is still 60%
and it is the most difficult.
We invested nearly a billion euros
to build wind turbines
and to rid us Coal and oil.
Pushed by people and by political leaders, the main companies of the country, like Dong Energy,
convert their carbon factories into biomass factories.
The Avdor company is one of the most efficient in the world. It uses forestry waste and claw brought
by the local farmers, to produce electricity for 1,3 milions of homes and heat for 200 000 homes
of Copenahagen and nearby.
And in front of the adjacent city beach, city hall and thousands of residents,
bought together wind turbines, to produce their own renewable electricity.
In Denmark today,
about 20,000 people have shares in wind,
that bring them 6 to 7%.
This is better than the bank.
Financial investments in wind
can bring in more than the drop in the bank?
Much more.
In 2025, Copenhagen will be completely self-sufficient in terms of renewable energy.
And for 2050, the goal is to achieve this for all denmark,
from different sources: wind, biomass, sun, energy from the sea, geothermal energy.
And others regiones in the world are already following the same path.
These pipelines from the mountains
feed the plant, Hellisheidi,
which produces 300 megawatts
of electricity
and hot water supplied throughout the city.
Reykjavik has therefore
benefits from fully renewable geothermal sources.
In the middle of the 60's oil crisis, Islandic leaders decided to set up
a strategy to live without fossil energy.
We climb the mountain
to see the first igloos.
40 years later, the island is 100% self-sufficient, thanks to hydroelectricity, that uses the force of the water,
and to geothermy that uses the heat of Earth.
They only have to solve the vehicles problem.
The noise of the steam rising from the ground
and passing through the dome.
It's a little magic ...
in this fog today.
The weather is not always so, sometimes shine.
I say to tourists.
France, Switzerland, Germany,
the United States, Japan, Italy,
the resources exist
to replace fossil fuels for heating
and hot water
by geothermal energy.
In developing countries, the potential is immense:
nothing in the Rift in Africa,
could produce 15 gigawatts geothermal power
in Kenya and Ethiopia, for example.
The equivalent of 20 nuclear power plants.
In the island of La Réunion, 35% of energy is already produced by renewable sources.
The goal is to achieve 100% by 2025 or 2030.
La Réunion has been aware very soon of the necessity to use renewable energy.
For environmental as well as economic reasons, you can't kid yourself.
Fossil energies are extremely expensive,
for isolated areas like islands.
This island is quite small and only occupied in the shores.
The problems are both to build and to feed people, and to produce solar energy.
We had the idea to try to share space, between renewable enrgy and agriculture,
in order to have both.
Agri-energy uses greenhouses where the ground is dedicated to growing, and half of the roofs
to energy producing.
Those greenhouses protect crops from hurricanes, and permit the collect of rain water to be water self-sufficient.
(Those greenhouses provide in electricity for 600 homes of the island.)
The company paid for those, in exchange of the rights to use the roofs.
A win-win partnership.
The company used the same principle around the harbour's jail, where the industrial unused land
has been replaced with market greenhouses, beehives, an arboretum, and a solar power plant,
that provides for 12 000 homes.
Prisoners learn there to grow vegetables, and to build solar panels.
The goal is to prepare them for jobs that will be needed in the future.
For the first time, panels are connected to some batteries, for stocking the energy.
A solar watt cost 66 dollars to produce in 1970,
today it is 66 cents
and the cost tends to zero.
Once paid the solar panel,
the sun is free,
it does not send a bill.
The wind does not send a bill,
simply maintain the wind turbine,
is almost zero marginal cost.
Same goes for geothermal.
It is a revolution of unprecedented proportions.
The fossil and nuclear are offside,
when anyone can produce its own energy,
at almost no marginal cost.
In Germany, the wholesale electricity is generated
by small players
and democratically run cooperatives.
They obtain low-interest loans.
And four great companies?
They produce less than 7% of the new electricity.
They do not follow.
Because these are giants,
which deal with central government,
their economy of scale is vertical.
But the new energy is everywhere.
The sun, wind, geothermal energy are everywhere.
And these small players are taking small amounts,
they store it and share.
When millions of small producers aspire solar,
wind, geothermal, biomass,
all of it put together, in a side economics,
it outperforms these nuclear power plants.
And so it was possible to replace fossil energies by renewable energies in most of the cases.
But alternative ways were not enough, consuming less was also required.
This is what explained to us Thierry Salomon, engineer, and president of the association Megawatt.
Is it reasonnable to have in our subways video screens, when only one of them
consumes as much electricty -for everyday life- as 2 families.
And they say they will put one million of those screens!
Is it reasonnable in a city, to drive a 1000 pounds car, for just carrying a 150 pounds man... There's someting wrong.
And we are used to these wrong things.
We can consume less, but we can't always searching for the production of more and more watts, endlessly,
in some kind of race energy... We have to think about
all our consumption. What is the energy we could avoid producing,
and still having a normal life?
More than half of the energy in the world. Around 60 to 65% of the world consumption
of today could be saved.
In France, we need 2 nuclear power plant just for the electric devices on standby.
To produce a smartphone, 125 pounds of CO2 has to be released in the atmosphere.
A video game avatar consumes as much energy as 40 Ethiopians.
80% of the energy we produce is used for transport, air-conditionning and heat.
We renovated and insulated our buildings, our homes.
They are heated by central energy of the city.
This is an important investment.
But as Copenhageners,
my heating costs less.
Today my heating is cheaper ...
How much ?
I have a 100m2 in central Copenhagen.
I pay 60 to 65 euros per month for heating.
It's an investment.
But the money returns, it benefits everyone.
In Copenhagen, we met Else, who workes for city hall,
and Mikkel, her boyfriend.
Else invited us to follow her during one day, to see what the city transport system looks like.
We will go from here, to here...
Or we can follow another path...
What frightens me, is that people go very fast...
It's really not relaxed...!
Well, it's transport! It's not sunday...!
I work for the city of Copenhagen, in the technic and environment branch,
so we try to understand how the city could be more appropriate, could use its resources more cleverly,
from 5 people, 4 use a bycicle, and 20% go walking,
26% go with bycicles, and 21% use public transport.
So 67% of the people don't use a car.
It's a good percentage, but we'd like it to be 75% by 2025.
We now know,
thanks to research, and it checks for 50 years,
that the more we built roads, the more cars.
It was also discovered that by creating bicycle paths,
, facilities for bikes, so we invite people to do,
after 10 years, there are many more cyclists.
We also realized that improving public spaces,
encouraging people to walk,
they take to the streets, and there are more of public life.
We also realized
that urbanism has created unhealthy conditions.
Spending time with ass in a chair,
in a car ...
sitting at his computer ...
is a major health problem.
Moreover, nothing is cheaper than developing
infrastructure for walking and cycling.
It is important for social integration
and for the sense of security
that people meet instead of staying home
to be afraid of each other.
We have the most vibrant cities, more durable,
safer and healthier cities.
So what are we waiting for?
Copenhagen interconnected its transport means, bicycles, buses, subways, trains, boats,
so the people can travel without car, within a 50 miles radius.
Before 2040, the city count on substituing oil cars with hydrogen cars, biogas cars, electric cars,
of which the batteries could stock sun and wind energy,
So we have there an elevator to go out? Yes! so you want to do the sporty way,
or to take the elevator?
We can make a race, to see what's the fastest way!
Oh, i thought you were taking the elevator!
Quicker!
You do not build cities for the happiness of cars,
nor the town planners or architects.
Everything we build
nfluences the behavior of people, their choices,
their lifestyles.
We must build cities
where life is pleasant, where a good time.
When we wonder: "How can you afford
to be carbon neutral?"
I answer: "How not to be? Look around us.
"There is no alternative."
But I see that cities can begin this work,
become carbon neutral.
For me, cities are world leaders.
Where nations fail, they take over.
When we knew where we were headed to, we became all crazy... we were thinking Vertigo
and Golden Gate, bullit with Steve McQuenn, Coppola's Sentinel Building, Castro and Harvey Milk,
er... Cyril, wasn't. He just wanted to bring us here... Great...!
Achieve zero waste, what does that mean?
Zero waste means
that everything is reduced, used, recycled or composted,
nothing goes in landfills or is incinerated.
Where are you in this process
to achieve zero waste?
San Francisco recycles 80% of its waste.
This includes what is generated by the housing,
for commercial enterprises,
and planning projects.
We provide the means.
There are three bins:
green for compost and food, blue for recycling,
and black for the little that remains.
The law now requires residents and businesses
recycle and compost ...
It is an obligation ?
If they do not ...
Yes, you can be fined
if you do not recycle correctly.
Every person and every company pay
for composting and waste collection,
is the bill every month,
and they get a discount
depending on the volume of material they have diverted from landfills.
This can save thousands of dollars a year.
The state has saved more than $ 3 million.
In one year, San Francisco Hilton's Hotel saved 145 000 euros just by separating and composting the waste.
The garbage trucks pass among people,
collect organic waste
and come here
and unload in this big dump near the fence.
A shovel just mix them,
and load them into the large rotary sorter.
Watch the beautiful material comes through.
You have to see it with the eyes of a garbage man.
Here, a garbage collector does not see garbage,
he sees paper, glass,
he sees resources,
food waste composting.
This is a very good material. It is subtle.
It is dense.
Just right for compost:
twigs and leaves.
To me this is like the floor of a forest.
All this comes from the earth,
we want to make it to land.
Comes the next step of the process:
make a thinner material,
ideal for plants. It must be thin enough
to end the nutrients pass through the roots.
After screened,
we bring here
to pour it on these big mounds.
It's hot ... very, very hot.
It is because of germs.
There are billions of billions.
In a pile like that ...
there are more microbes,
in this single job,
that of humans on the planet.
Farmers buy us compost
and income from the sale helps to fund the operation.
It's not worth very expensive but it gives us an income.
We sell about $ 9 per cubic meter.
All major urban areas
should be composting food waste, garden waste ...
Why fill landfills with that while farmers in need?
I am a farmer, I want to compost.
We do not produce enough, there is a huge demand.
It's good for the soil, it is good for plants.
It avoids to throw in landfills, it makes nutrients to farms
it saves water,
it fertilizes the soil
while absorbing CO2 from the atmosphere.
Spreading compost over a quarter of the pasturelands would stock in the soil three quarters of the CO2 emitted by the California state.
Women have always provided food in the cities.
We must reverse the roles.
Making food to farms as compost.
In the US, around 300 towns et 1000 Universities followed this waste composting program.
In the US, if every town would recycle 75% of its waste, it would create 1,5 millions new jobs.
Thanks to optical scanners, 100% of hard plastic is recycled.
And since 2007, plastic bags are prohibited.
This is not waste, these are resources.
One of the absurdity of the global system is that well-known endless growth,
that we call upon at all times as a solution, when it's the big problem,
because it generates a permanent insatisfaction for the people, who then stop seeing the planet as a miraculous oasis,
where life is good, lost in a big sideral universe
and instead are seeing it as a deposit of ressources, that must be drained to the last peace of it (fishes, trees etc.).
The difference between animal and human behavior, is that, when the lion eat an antelope, it just digests it.
I've seen documentaries with lions completely relaxed in front of a relaxed too herd of antelopes,
it's like: no needs, no danger!
A lion attackes an atelope only when it's hungry, it doesn't do it to destroy it, or to have a lot so it can
sell them to buddies! It doesn't have werahouses, it doesn't say: buddies, you don't need to hunt! i have antelopes!
There lies the difference: human beeings hunt for accumating,
with the purpose of earning money.
So, renewable energies are possible, as long as we save energy and consume less. Yes!
Ok... but why are talking suddenly about growth?
The problem is that the financial system needs growth to keep working, and to have growth,
the people must buy all the time, new phones, new cars, to consume more.
So you can't consume more and at the same time consume less.
Yeah... So what's the next step?
To rethink our economic model. Wow! Isn't that an expert thing?
Don't worry...
How to create wealth, jobs, without growth, and without destroying the planet?
That's what we try to understand at Pocheco, a 114 employees firm, in North of France.
Each year, they create 2 billions envelopes, have the most modern machines fleet
of all Europe, and all that in the region with the highest unemployment rate.
It was not too small, nor too huge, it had just the right size for our study.
The capitalist business of this beginning of century is contaminated by a "financialization" approach.
Which means, the priority goes to make the stockholders richer.
And meanwhile, in France for instance, 10 millions people are under the poverty threshold,
and 3,5 millions are searching for a job.
So we can stretch this thing indefinitely, and wait to see when the elastic band will break,
but here we considered that's enough, and the company needs constant investments
At Pocheco, it's a full time activity to find solutions. The incomes disparity has a 1 to 4 ratio,
when the average ratio in France is 1 to 100, no dividend are payed to stockholders,
and money is consistently reinvested inside the company.
Instead of focusing on the money race, they focus on saving energy, saving resources and at the same time
increasing productivity, security, friendliness, skills, and reducing the arduousness.
In fact, the industry of the past was : i destroy raw material, i turn it into a new product,
that will become a waste, that i will finally throw away.
The result of that is well know, unmanageable landfills, garbages everywhere,
polluted oceans, polluted rivers, and raw material getting scarce.
Therefor, the industry of tomorrow, like the one we practiced since 20 years,
is the one where raw material is not extracted, but is picked up from 20th century waste,
it's used, transformed, with an energy produced by the sun, to create, indeed, an object,
that can be repared, that must be durable, and once at the end of their useful lives,
that can be recycled and therfore returning to this circularity.
They apply this circularity principle to all topics,
and when they start to show you the factory, it's hard to follow them!
The paper we use to prodcue envelopes comes from the forrest. So we cut down trees. But the people
we are working with, plant 4 new trees for each tree that is cut.
To produce envelopes with a lower grammage, reduces the amount of raw material used.
These are containers from which we collect paper waste, and we sell that back.
So this is good raw material that will be recycled.
For many time, the packaging system was to put manually envelopes in boxes.
To replace that, we put them on reels. There are 38 000 envelopes on one reel,
and that way we could reduced by one third our consumption of cardboard boxes,
and besides, that increased productivity, because it's way faster.
In 1998, we started to use only water based inks, made with pure natural pigments,
and so there's no need to use anymore chemical and toxic products to clean the machines,
we uset only water.
Inside the washing machine, there's rain water and Marseille soap. It's wastewater but not toxic,
will be sent to bamboo plants, and their roots system will activate bacteries that will decompose impurities,
will eat them, and the only biomass produced is the bamboo's stem, that grows, that we cut, that we dry,
and that will be used to heat the factory.
At Pocheco, the heat comes from bambus, and from pallets that all goes into the wood boiler,
but this boiler is used only part time, because the main heating system,
comes from here : the pump room. Here we reduce. We use this heat for the entire factory.
The objective is to make everything productive, even the roof, which is
producing energy with the solar panels - and soon with the wind - , collecting
and filtering rain water for all the factory use : sanitary use, watering, washing the machines,
producing honey from the beehives, and isolating from the noise, with the green roof.
We talk a lot about the micro particles produced by the diesel engines,
these are exactly what this green roof absorbs.
If people decided to universalized green roofs for all the supermarkets, the air pollution
problem could decreased drastically in this country.
Since 20 years, our "ecolonomy" investment is around 10 millions of euros, and our ecolonomy savings
are around 15 millions of euros. So the balance, after 20 years, is plus 5 millions.
- While saving too energy, water, CO2... - Of course! The only economy is not
the financial economy. Money is required to invest, but it's a mean, not a goal.
We don't need to be richer and richer, we don't need to go quicker and quicker.
All those companies that are still believing today that globalization means to be a leader in their own country,
then becoming a leader in their continent, then winning a second continent, then 3, 4,
5 continents... There are limits... Everything has limits! except for the sunfish that keeps growing
until it dies, all living systems are limited and must not grow indefinitely.
Consuming less ressources, to be more clever, more autonomous, is also part of the plan of
the transition towns movement, that Rob Hopkins started in South England in 2008.
To combat climate change, and to move away from a total reliance on oil,
the "transitioners" think that the inhabitants of a place must produce the major part of their energy needs,
of their food, and relocalize a part of their economy.
Why must we learn to be more independent?
I remember, at 18, I had just finished school,
I went for my results.
They were not terrible ....
I was with my friends, a beautiful day like this,
and I looked at them and said:
We are hopeless, Real bums ...
On a desert island, we will not we eat each other.
None of us could do anything.
And I really think that when it happens,
when people without skills meet,
it's different for a meeting between people who know everything.
This remains a meeting, but the relationship is different.
When two communities
two economies interact,
if they are completely dependent on imports
and not make anything,
the quality of their relationship is very different
from most resilient places where we produce food locally,
it produces energy, it manages water.
Totnes is fortunate to have many active projects.
I participate in two of them: make sure
to focus on two wheels, repairing bicycles.
And I'm part of the team of the local currency.
local currencies of the projects are interesting.
They ask this question:
Who has the right to print money?
Who?
Totnes has a ticket for 21 pounds ...
We can do it, so why not?
The idea is this: we want a more resilient
local economy, where money circulates locally.
A pound spent in a local business
flows and this generates more
2.5 pounds of activity in the local economy.
While at the supermarket, it only generates 1.4 pounds.
Money escapes ...
In a more resilient economy,
we want more money circulates.
So this post, in Totnes, is 21 pounds.
In nearby there is absolutely worthless.
This is a very useful tool to build resilience.
We do not get rid of the pound sterling, it is used in parallel.
The most beautiful is that they celebrate
the place, culture, history.
Here are 10 books in Brixton, with David Bowie on it,
which is so much more cool than to have the queen.
It's legal to print a ticket of 21 pounds of Totnes?
When we started, we formed a panel
of eminent alternative economists and asked them,
do we have the right to do that?
For this, the first book of Totnes ...
we have the right to print it and imagine that it is a book?
They replied: "No idea! Try it and see what happens! "
Talk about experts!
It's not that, a panel of experts.
So it was launched and others followed.
Lewis, Bristol and Brixton and all the others.
But in fact, nobody knew ...
"He who controls the money supply of a nation controls the nation." said once Jefferson.
So it was really worth it to discover who had the power to create money.
We talked about this issue with Mark Burton, researcher at the Bristol University.
So... who has the power to create currency?
All the money, almost, is created by private banks
whose main motivation
is to make money to pay their shareholders.
They do it for that purpose
not to be useful, or to meet the real needs
of society.
Money is omnipresent
in our lives, every moment,
everywhere ...
but we do not know how it is created and what it implies.
We must begin to question it
and the impact it has.
So how is money created?
Guess I am 6 ...
By banks as loans.
I am a bank and you come
you just borrow me 10 O00 pounds to buy a car.
I consider whether you can repay me.
I think so,
I hit 10000 on your account, and the money is there.
I created money ...
money again.
From scratch ?
Like this?
- With the tap of a keyboard? - That's all.
You think I'm crazy!
A little yes !
But I would especially like to do it!
Add me money ...
Of course, there are controls,
banks can not add 10,000 pounds
and go spend it.
This is related to the loan.
All the money that is created
is created as well as a debt
with interest
we have to pay. And when you repaid the money,
it disappears, it leaves the system.
For the economy to work, they must pay ever.
Otherwise, the money disappears and is the recession.
It's endless, everyone is already so indebted,
and you say that we must borrow again and again,
to keep
the economy running?
It works like that, yes.
Without borrowing any money.
It's crazy !
In UK, 97% of the money is created by private banks through loans.
In the Euro zone, it's about 85%. What remains (bills and change) is created by central banks.
Henry Ford, the founder of the dinasty, affirmed that, if the americans understood how their banking system is working,
there would be a revolution the next day. I think he's right.
Bernard Lietaer is an economist. He studied in MIT in company of the Nobel price Paul Krugman,
has been an adviser for many global corporations, and high ranking official in the Belgium central bank,
where he directed for the UN the technical part of the launching of the Ecu, forerunner of the Euro.
All patriarchal societies in history have done the same thing we're doing : a monetary monopoly
with interests. It's quite logical since it's a mechanism - and the people don't realize it - that concentrates
the means at the top. Even the Soviet system, even the Chinese system, were based on the same concept :
a single currency is created, on a national scale, through debts and interests. That's the general mechanism.
It concerns all world currencies, so we have a worldwide pine forest, in which all pines
can vary in size, but they're all pines. What does it mean? Just don't let a cigarette fall into it!
The slightest hitch and everything's gone!
To take economy classes is like a brainwash to make you believe
that everything must work with one single currency. Because it's more efficient.
And that's true, but it's also way more fragile! It has'nt a proper resilience.
Farming monoculture = more diseases, more blazes, less water, less animals.
money monoculture = 145 banking crahes, 208 monetary crises, since 1970.
We can learn what's working in a natural ecosystem, and directly apply it to the monetary system.
What do all these divers ecosystems have in common? They never allow one single monoculture.
We need diversity. I think we need the Euro, and even a unique global currency,
and we need a currency for your own district. This is what an ecosystem is about!
Primary forest of Bélouve, La Réunion.
An ecosystem with more than 1000 animal and plant species.
We were willing to believe that diversity was working better than monoculture,
it was quite logical, hearing all what we've heard so far.
But we wanted to see an example that would prove that.
So Bernard Lietaer sent us to Bâle, where a complementary currency
exists since 80 years, for the SMEs.
In 1934, while all the western economy has been draged down into depression by the 29's crack,
and that banks wouldn't grant anymore loans, 15 businessmen have had a quite original idea :
Creating a currency with no interest, for their private use, in order to revive their activities.
This solution worked so well, that after 2 years, the early 15 members became 2000.
80 years later, the wir currency has a bank, like any other bank.
Switzerland has officially 2 currencies, the Swiss franc, and the wir franc.
The majority of the Swiss doesn't know it, since the wir is used only by the 60 000 SMEs
that participate to this sytem. We cannot use this currency outside of that network. It worth nothing.
It's the same idea that was explaining Rob. The trick is to prevent money to end up
in the global corporations pockets, and to protect the economic ecosystem.
In that case, the Swiss SMEs. And in order for that ecosystem to work, there must be
lots of interactions, in which everyone is both the client and the supplier of the others.
For example, the owner of the bar will buy his tables and chairs to a furniture seller,
(one that accepts the wir), who will order them to a carpenter belonging to that network, who will buy
his wood in wir to a forrest logger, who will go occasionally get a drink in the above bar,
and so on goes the circle. When the members want to trade outside of the network,
they use again the Swiss franc, the dollars or the euro.
So, who creates this currency, since in the regular network, money is made by both central banks and
by loans? It's the wir bank that creates it, and offers it cheap,
since it's not part of the big financial market, and doesn't cost to the bank nothing,
and therefore can grant loan at negligible rate. So there are interests, now?
There are interests on loan, but negligible. On what are'nt there any interests?
On the assets. -OK. This means, when you have money in your account, it doesn't yield you anything.
- Exactly! - So there's no point letting it there... - None! - Can't become a billionaire in wir...!
- We could! But it's not so interesting... - That's a good thing! And what a difference!
It's like another world! And so, do you think if there's a big economic crise, this kind of
complementary currency system really can be a solution?
Yes it can, for the weak regions, like Greece, for instance. If there was a Greek wir, we could start the economy again,
since this wir couldn't be used in Switzerland, USA, London... in the stock markets, so instead of sending billions of euros
that will disappear in 48 hours from the country, and that we will find in the big foreign stock markets
for speculative reasons, there's no use at all!
There must be a currency that works only in that weak economy, and therefore will be invested back
in the country economical network. - Yes, because, besides the fact that money flies away quickly,
they cannot borrow anymore. - Exactly! and that is money they create themselves! And i'm not talking about alternative
systems, but about complementary systems. Because to have only one currency will attract
the same problems, the same diseases...
So it was possible to create currrencies without creating debt, for both companies and cities. In Bristol, Engalnd, where was
Marc, one of the best local currency example was growing. His colleague Kiran was expecting us in the city market.
- Anyone can create money? - Absolutely.
But to really change the system, it must be done at a certain scale.
We need a diversity of people in the system that you create
that can exchange essential goods and services:
food, electricity, transportation ...
All must have confidence in the system itself.
The money is actually based on the confidence of all.
The problem with the international financial system
is that some large companies
have little local interests.
They do not have the same need
o maintain a healthy community,
a well-functioning society,
the people who live and work in the real economy.
It was indeed very easy, all what it takes was to go in a city store that exchange British pounds for Bristol Pounds
and we could use them in more than 600 stores, restaurants and companies of the city.
We could pay with bills, and even by texting.
I hit two books for a coffee,
in "Bristol Pounds" and send ...
- That's all ? - That's all !
How not to agree? It supports local businesses.
That limit tax evasion.
Who does not agree?
This creates a pool of local currency for the community
and promotes business development.
It reduces transport circuits
in CO2 emissions. The exchanges are more local,
whether for food, materials, etc.
It is less travel products.
The economy is more local, resilience, ecological.
Who does not agree?
Everyone is.
All parties.
The easiest was to obtain a political consensus.
The city's mayor, George Ferguson, decided to be paid in Bristol Pounds.
Like Bristol, hundreds of cities all over the world, are creating their own currency.
In order that this model expands, the best way would be that the city councils accepts to
receive local taxes in complementary currency, and that they use it to pay partially their
council civil servants and their suppliers. Accross the atlantic, this idea about
relocalizing activities and creating communities that controls again the economy, is spreading
widely since like 10 years. The Balle movement is an alliance of 35 000 independent businessmen,
spreads in 80 networks all across USA. They have their activities in every sector.
Food, energy, building, transport, clothes, services...
And each year, for 3 days, they gather. This year, it takes palce in Oakland...
Well, it's like american style, they like to dance...
Sometimes they even sing...
But most importantly, they talk about how to support the creation of a worldwide network for local economy,
alive, sustainable, interconnected to each other. They believe in community, in the necessity to be together,
to face the cold logic of globalization, of financial business, of "every man for himself".
BALL simply said ...
we can not let others determine our future,
is ours to do.
Companies that grow and go global
are very strong to create dollars ...
but very few people see color.
To create more jobs,
more wealth for more people,
we must increase the density and diversity of local businesses.
The worst way to support the economy
and create jobs,
it's what we do in the US, in the name of economic development.
That is to say, spend
huge sums of money
to attract or retain multinationals.
It is a failure, a proven failure of economic development.
This is not where the jobs are, it's not where the future.
We know, for example, through several studies,
that for every dollar
spent at local and independent businesses,
comparing jobs created,
compared to a multinational,
it is 2-4 times more.
Every dollar I spend locally
2 to 4 times more impact on employment,
2 to 4 times more impact on wealth and income,
2 to 4 times more impact on the taxes charged by the municipality,
2 to 4 times more impact on donations to associations.
That's a huge difference.
Multinationals control governments.
As citizens, we can change that
by refusing to buy these large companies,
by launching our own local businesses.
Here's how to make economic power in our communities,
and thus strengthen democracy.
If multinationals continue to act this way,
the money will flood policy.
The richest control the legislature,
and we will have more democracy.
If what we have is people power,
we need to use it.
To use our personal power, is it to build circular circular economy businesses, to create new currencies,
to buy local and independent, to boycott, is that it? - Yes it is! But if we really want to see
more small companies, more diversity, the laws have to be changed, because
so far, they favor big corporations, allowing them to pay less taxes, to sell cheap products even if
they come from the other side of the world (thanks to free trade), so politicians must change the game.
But everybody says that big corporations influence politicians, laws and the markets.
Yeah, i know... - So what? - So we have a problem with our democracies...
There's a mistrust in Parliament, in politicians, in authorities,
because people feel excluded... In English, there's a nice expression : "a sense of theft"
a feeling of loss, and this is justified, citizens have lost their grip,
their involvment in their societies governments.
There's a newly published study, from the Princeton University, that says : America is
no longer a democracy. It's an oligarchy. They were comparing what wanted the people
with the preferences of the economic elite. Systematically, public decisions
are more attuned to the needs of the economic world, than to most people.
Everybody knows that the dice are loaded
Everyone rolls fingers crossed
Everyone knows that the war is over
Everyone knows that the good guys lost
Everybody knows the fight was rigged
The poor remain poor and the rich get richer
It goes like this
Everybody knows it
Everybody knows that the boat is sinking
Everybody knows that the captain lied
Everybody has this uneasy feeling
As if his or her dog had just died
Everyone talks only
Everybody wants a box of chocolates
And a long-stemmed rose
Everybody knows it
Do we disobey?
Is this a key to the future?
We must obey the higher laws
which are of two kinds.
One comes from the Earth, the laws of Gaia,
the laws of diversity,
that tell us to protect the Earth,
its resources and its benefits.
And everything that opposes our duty towards the Earth,
we must not take part,
in deference to these higher laws.
The second category,
it is the laws that flow from human rights, democracy.
Any law that interferes with your humanity,
which deprives us of freedom, independence,
we must not take part.
To stop obeying to their governments and to market's law, that's what Icelanders decided to do in 2009.
While banks and big corporations speculation led to one of the biggest bankrupt in history,
put thousands of people out of business and left without a home, they decided to
take the streets and to hold the government accountable.
In our view, iceland was perfect,
our beautiful democracy
protected us against corruption and everything else.
We were very unconscious
of what happened, and is still happening
in the world with this global capitalism
that is destroying us slowly.
We were happy before our plasma screens,
with our holiday abroad, all rich and well fed.
Until the day when we realized that this whole "reality" was false.
Every saturday, during months, they stood up in front of the Parliament, of banks, and won't let
the political and financial leaders breath.
Is it wants to fire corrupt?
Transfer the government?
Do we want the elections?
Thanks to be here.
Come back next Saturday at the same hour,
as we will continue to do so
until the government resigns.
Outside, the directors of the central bank.
They will not miss us.
And the 26th of January, 2010, after months of fight, the prime minister, the government,
the director of the central bank resign. And unlike France or USA, citizens will not bail out the banks
that have speculated with their money. And instead of going back home and wait for the leaders to set things up,
a movement emerges with the goal that what happened between politicians, big corporations and bankers,
never happened again.
The 6th of November 2010, 1000 citizens selected at random get together to identify
the country key priorities.
The 27th of November 2010, 25 citizens are elected to create a new draft constitution.
We wanted to write a new constitution
for the people of Iceland, by the people of Iceland.
Everyone had access to the Constitutional Council,
during the debates.
You could contact him by mail, Facebook,
make a phone call, or come to the meetings.
It was very open.
There was very good proposals,
certain that we used in our draft constitution.
We recurring themes, such as:
how to make our elected officials accountable for their actions,
introducing transparency to see what they do,
and allocate powers to prevent corruption?
People are not destructive, except a tiny minority.
Most are good and kind.
But money and power make blind.
It is a sad rule.
Power tends to be maintained.
We wanted to break it.
In July 2011, the group of the 25 give the draft to the Parliament.
A text saying that the power of politicians, banks and corporations will be supervized by citizens.
3 months later, a consultative referendum is organized, and the results is 67% of Yes.
Then it's the turn of the deputies to endorse the draft, but the Conservatives won't let that happen, for 4 years now.
Because of the institutions, elected officials have the final say on validating or not what people have choosen.
And in that case, they went against their will. So what to do?
I think the futur of democarcy lies in new forms of representing people.
Until now, we only know one way of doing it, elections. There's all Germany from one side,
and the German Parliament on the other side, in which people are brought through elections.
There's another way to have people represented, it's not through the aristocratic way of elections,
but through random draw, which is still used today for only one particular case : the trial juries.
It's in use in Belgium, Norway, France, USA etc. And even if it's far to be perfect, we can see that
almost all the time, the 12 juries take very seriously their duty. They get deeply involved to take
the decision that will serve the society.
The random chosen people have maybe less skills than elected politicians,
but on the other side they're more free, and not so tied to personal political and economical interests.
There's an amazing thing that happened in Texas... Texas! the american oil state! They organized
democratic deciding encounters about renewable energies, especially the wind-powered one. And before that,
people has been asked if they'd be agree to pay a bit more for sustainable economy.
In texas! Very few people wanted to pay more. And they made tests with random people who have been
informed with all the data, and they saw that the people ready to pay more has greatly increased.
Today, Texas is the state that has the biggest number of wind turbines in all USA!
That's amazing! If elected leaders had to decide this issue, Texas would be still a fully oil based state!
I personally dream about a Belgian chamber having elected citizens, and the Senate having drawn by lot citizens.
Citizens involving and serving society and democracy, every day, this is exactly what we saw in the other side of the world,
near Chennai. Since 1950, India has become the biggest democracy in the world. We knew
there were still problems of corruption, inequalities, caste system, but we've heard
also about a local democracy experiment that was revolutionary, in Kuthambakkan.
This story gathered highly unlikely ingredients, starting with Elango, an untouchable, considered
as dirt when he was a child, nonetheless made advanced studies, become a chemist,
succed to get elected mayor, and doesn't even try to keep all the power for himself.
The story goes on with inhabitants that in theory don't talk to each other, don't touch each other,
and get together to form a citizens assembly to take decisions.
Today, with local governments,
decentralized democracy is stronger.
We vote, we rule.
We vote, we participate in the citizens' assemblies.
During these meetings, we elect the President of the Municipal Council
and all other members. Everyone attends the meetings.
Each voter has the right to come to meetings
to see what the board does, what is its program.
One can even control.
Villagers can say:
"Do not do that, but first that."
The priorities of the people are heard.
When I presented my plan at the meeting,
every line, every orientation were discussed together.
It became the project of the inhabitants.
They watch you, they correct you,
then they participate.
Once the programm adopted, everybody gets to work to concretize it.
Inhabitants clean the town, the city provides trash cans, public lightning, rain collect system, the school is fixed,
the families are encouraged to send the children to this school, and when 40% of them weren't
attending class, almost all are going now everyday.
Elango raises funds to create jobs that can now benefits from hundreds of women,
who quickly create a federation and with their pay they set up a micro-credit system to lend money
to other women who whish to create their own business.
Meetings are the parliament of the people.
If the next takes place within 3 months,
and we did move things forward,
on the next meeting, people will say:
"Yes, we talked about it at the last meeting,
and it's already 30%. Fantastic !"
Then there is more support
and confidence in the system grows.
The inhabitants go for an even more ambitious project : to renovate the slums where live the untouchables
and where the other cast members never set foot.
Here is another part of the village,
Kuthambakkam Nord.
Before I was elected in 1996,
it was a slum with open sewers
and a terrible problem of space.
Now, 10 years later, it changed a lot.
And here again, everybody helps. Even the high casts members. And after a few months, 150 houses in ecological local material
are built! The untouchables dig the drains of the district, fix the roads and the wells of the town, and permit
the town to save 31 000 euros.
Usually, when we create a township,
you have a section reserved for upper castes,
and one for the lower castes.
I thought : why not create a township
where all the poor live together?
I brought this matter to the citizens' assembly,
and most poor accepted.
We started an experiment by building semi-detached houses:
on one side, an untouchable poor family,
the other, a poor family of another caste.
It is historic and it happened here first.
And if you look:
it is an untouchable family and them not.
They are really mixed.
It is a beautiful ideal, live together.
We are Brahmins.
But we live with our neighbors untouchable as a family.
I never thought it possible.
We are very happy here. There is no difference.
Everyone came to the wedding of our daughter.
Our whole family was very happy to share this moment.
Ailleurs, on ne vit pas ainsi, toutes les castes ensemble.
Seeing this, the government
has funded more than 300 similar
districts in the state.
After 2 mandates, Elongo leaves the city hall, and creates the mayor academy.
In 10 years, he taught to 900 elected members the principe of the citizens self-governance.
His idea is to create the republic of towns like Gandhi dreamt up, and where there's
a strong democracy, starting at the lowest level.
- There are how many toilets? - 900.
It takes even how much?
The village has 18,000 to 20,000 residents.
We need more toilets.
When citizens have power, they are building a true democracy.
In fact, we always have the feeling that politic is a matter of politicians, that we only vote,
but that's a mystake, everyone should make politics all the time, be aware of what happens, get involve
in the decisions taken, be more autonomous, and that's something we should learn as a child,
we should learn it at school! ... Oh! i know what's next! - EDUCATION -
To educate their generations of citizens, that's undoubtedly what Scandinavian countries
that are always in the top ten for their social, democratic and ecological systems.
Amongst them, Finland, since 2009, is well ahead in the pisa rankings which evaluates the educational
systems of the OECD. In 2012, it was still in the first european place in science and reading, and in 4th
place in mathematics. So we spent 3 days in a public school in a working class suburb
of Helsinki, which welcomes 530 students from 6 to 16. The Kirkkojärvi school.
It's a beautiful school. Everything looks new.
From when she dates?
This building is 4 years old,
it was built in 2010.
It's normal to have such beautiful buildings?
When building a new school, we always want to do the best.
We are located in a relatively poor area,
and it is good that the company has held
in well show the importance of education.
It's like a gift to the people here.
In Finland, there is little wealth,
we have forests, wood.
We have no mines, no gold, no oil ...
Our strength
is an excellent education.
How would you describe your education system?
Very little bureaucracy.
The key word is trust.
The department relies on local authorities,
who trust the headmaster,
who trusted the teachers. There was no inspection.
No national ranking,
as in so many countries where schools are compared with each ...
There was no evaluation.
Not Sorted? No: "This school is better"?
We devote our time to teach, not to evaluate.
The bottom line is to train teachers.
In Finland, they do everything a master of 5 years at the university.
They form in schools,
they train with real classes.
They discover many pedagogies.
We at Montessori, Steiner, everywhere.
And they study thoroughly the child psychology.
We want to give them many models,
many ideas,
a real perception of the ability of children to learn,
difficulties it may encounter.
And, of course, individual cases
are followed by an additional teacher.
In most of the classes, there are assistant teachers for the students in difficulty, for the ones who don't
speak well Finnish, or just to have a specialized teaching. At Kirkkojärvi,
50% of the students are of foreign origin.
I love my job.
What, in particular?
Having a good relationship with the students,
become close, so they gain confidence.
It feels good.
I love being with them.
Yes I like that.
It's important to feel good in class.
If the atmosphere is very strict, it worries
them and they can no longer concentrate.
What is the difference
between education in the past and what you do now?
Before, they were 40 per class
and they sat in silence as pegs,
not to get noticed ...
And the professor made his course to the class.
Today,
we can circulate,
students have the right to speak for math, for example,
they have the right to exchange
not too much, of course, easy.
It increases their confidence in themselves.
That being so enriched them with others,
and learn from each other.
They also learn that the teacher is not an authority,
not some god but ...
but we're all the same, equal ... this stuff.
This is freer, more open, more ...
social. Living together,
is important in life.
Not just the materials. They have, of course.
CP, when learning to read,
some begin with the letters and combine them,
others by the words
and they dismounted, somehow.
You teach reading in several ways?
I use several methods
to provide opportunities to each student.
They always end up learning.
Some quickly, others less, but they will eventually learn,
whatever the method.
There is not a good method, there are many.
In my time, there was only one,
it is no longer so today ...
I have learned! So everything should work.
All students are different and we try to take reflect the fact
that not all learn the same way.
Thanks to this way of working, young Finns are very successfull in traditional subjects,
even though they study on average 1h30 less than french students. This makes 2000 hours less,
between the age of 7 and 15 years. But the goal is mostly to teach them how to learn, to make them
more independent. The knowledge today is available everywhere, but Carry and her crew help each of them
to draw on this mass of knowledge and to find a good way to acquire what they
will need for their future lives.
The teachers eat with the children.
It's part of the job.
It is an educational moment.
They are together, it's fun, they teach them good manners.
it is a moment of relaxation
for children and for teachers.
In France, being so close,
we fear losing all authority ...
The authority comes from many things.
It comes from the skill in his craft,
and respect.
Not need a title for it.
This proximity does not create discipline problems?
The reason is not there.
We have problems,
comme toutes les écoles du monde.
But being closer,
it's easier.
They do not want us stories
we're friends, they see they want to help.
Its not always easy,
but the punishments, it does not help.
Reason, reassure them,
listen to them, let them make decisions,
is how to encourage them to cooperate.
Between 7 and 16 years, everything is free for the Finnish students :
books, healthcares and even the cafeteria...
Young Finns not only learn math, Finnish and history, but also to knit, to sew,
to make clothes, wood, metal, leather-working, to build things, to do the laundry, to tidy, to clean,
to cook, to draw, to paint, to play instruments...
Was it already and when you were little?
No, the system was changed in the early 70s.
This is a very slow process.
When we want to change school,
it takes 10, 20 years.
How did you get here?
In Finland, it is not a political issue.
After the elections, when governments change,
no messes education.
Every 6 years, we change programs
and is always by mutual agreement.
What is the goal of the school for you?
Prepare for life as a result.
We give them the basics, general education,
so that they can feel
they are rather manuals or rather intellectuals.
As humans, what will they need,
what are you trying to teach them?
Tolerance,
not racial ideas,
understand the difference, understand that everyone is important,
some need help, to love each other ...
I hope they take it with them when they leave school.
Maybe everything was all about that, to get the people to work together...
There probably aren't perfect schools, nor perfect democratic or economic models,
but what seems to have emerged from our trip, is a new vision of the world, where power
and authority are not concentrated in just a few hands, on the top of a pyramid, but where everything is
connected, mutually dependent, in a network, like in nature, a more complex world,
where diversity is our true strength, where each person, each community is more independent, to be more free,
where each one has more power, and more responsability, a bit like a cell from our body, that needs to be healthy
in order to have the full body working, but depends too upon all the other ones.
Those persons are writing a new story, they're telling us that it's not too late,
but that we have to take action, now.
All these people are not alone, we've filmed a very few minority of all those who are building another future.
There is in the world :
more than 1200 TRANSITION TOWNS
more than 800 AMAZING EDIBLE groups
thousands of URBAN FARMS
4000 COMPLEMENTARY currencies
one 100% ORGANIC country (Bhutan)
other countries soon RENEWABLE ENERGY independent.
a 19 yo boy who invented a machine TO CLEAN THE OCEANS
engineers who create COMPRESSED AIR MOTORS
millions of people who SHARE instead of buying
houses that produce MORE ENERGY than what they consume.
And millions of other who PLANT TREES
and spread compost TO CAPTURE CO2
Of course, we won't be able to promise to our children that the world will change
drastically in a blink of an eye, but what we can promise is that solutions exist!
Promise that thousands of men and women are raising everyday,
Promise that if we use all our energy, if we get together, we all have the power to change the world... TOMORROW!
TOMORROW
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Subtitles: Cyril Dion and Paul Benita
Subtitles: Monal Group