How we can turn the tide on climate Christiana Figueres and Chris Anderson
[Citizens of the world]
[We face a global crisis
of unprecedented scale]
[Please stand by for a message from … ]
[the Secretary-General of
the United Nations António Guterres]
The climate emergency
is the defining crisis of our time.
We are in a race against time,
and we are losing.
There is a growing tide of impatience,
especially among young people,
with global inaction.
We need more ambition from all:
governments, cities, businesses,
investors and people everywhere.
So I’m pleased you are
launching TED Countdown.
Your influence and ideas
can help accelerate momentum
for a carbon-neutral world by 2050.
That is the only way to avert
the worst impacts of global heating.
We have the tools, the science
and the resources.
Let us now get into this race
with political will and energy.
To do anything less will be a betrayal
of our entire human family
and generations to come.
Thank you.
Announcer: And now, please welcome
one of the architects
of the Paris Climate Agreement
Christiana Figueres
and the head of TED, Chris Anderson.
(Applause)
Chris Anderson: Welcome, welcome.
Something remarkable
is going to happen in the next hour.
The world’s single
most alarming challenge,
which looks something like this …
is about to go head-to-head
with some of the world’s
most amazing minds
and courageous hearts,
which look something like you.
The extraordinary audience we have
here in New York and around the world.
Christiana, it’s quite the crowd
we get to hang out with this morning.
Christiana Figueres:
It sure is, no kidding.
It’s a good thing
that everyone is here together,
because actually, this initiative
that we’re just about to launch
needs everyone to participate.
And here it is.
Countdown.
CA: Countdown is a global initiative
to cut greenhouse gas emissions.
It’s seeking bold solutions
in five big areas,
imagining what could be achieved
if different groups broke out
of their silos and acted together.
Starting today, you can go to
countdown.ted.com
and sign up to join the Countdown.
Early in 2020,
we’ll be sharing plans
on how you can connect
with others in your company,
your city or your school
to engage in this issue.
It’s all leading up to global gatherings
on 10.10.2020.
Everyone in the world
is invited to participate.
CF: And so that’s why,
although I’ve been part
of many initiatives along the years,
I’m really excited about this one.
Because Countdown
is an invitation to everyone, everyone,
to play their part in saving our planet
and creating an exciting future.
Politicians and citizens,
CEOs and their customers,
their employees, their investors,
old and young,
north and south.
CA: (Laughs) I see what you did there.
(Laughter)
But look, our goal is not to plunge in
with something new that is competitive
with the amazing initiatives
already out there.
No.
It’s to identify the best solutions
that have already been worked on,
to cross-fertilize them, to amplify them
and then activate them
by bringing together
these different groups.
CF: And if that happens,
we believe there is a way out
of the climate crisis.
That’s what we want to facilitate.
But now, Chris, question:
Why are you and TED
interested in participating
and actually activating
the climate agenda,
when I thought you were
all about spreading ideas?
CA: Well, indeed, that has been
our focused mission for the last 15 years,
Ideas Worth Spreading.
But last summer,
we concluded that the urgency
of some issues,
and especially climate,
demanded that we try to do more
than just spread ideas,
that we actually try to activate them.
Now, we’re just a relatively
small nonprofit –
that would not amount to anything
if we fail to bring other people on board.
But the amazing thing
is that that has happened.
Everyone we’ve spoken to about this
has got excited about participating.
And one of the key moments, frankly,
was when you came on board, Christiana.
I mean, you were key
to the Paris Agreement.
And the world was stunned
at the consensus that emerged there.
What was the key to creating
that consensus?
CF: I would say it was to really challenge
and change people’s assumption
about what is possible
if we set a shared intention
and then collectively
pursue it and achieve it.
So our mantra then, and continues to be:
“Impossible is not a fact,
it’s an attitude.”
In fact, only an attitude,
and that is something we can change.
CA: Well, that mantra, certainly,
we’re going to have to hold onto
in the months ahead,
because the scientific consensus
is actually worsening.
For a quick report from the front lines,
here’s the head
of the thousands of scientists
who make up the IPCC, Dr. Hoesung Lee.
(Video) Hoesung Lee: We recently released
three special reports
that show the damage and risks
of past and future climate change.
They also show that stabilizing climate
would imply a drastic reduction
in greenhouse gas emissions
in the near term.
Society will have to go
through unprecedented changes
to meet this goal.
Even limiting warming
to 1.5 degrees Celsius
will bring more extreme weather,
rising sea levels
and water shortages in some regions,
and threats to food security
and biodiversity.
Higher temperature will bring
more of these damages,
threatening lives and livelihoods
of millions of people
all around the world.
CA: We’re lucky to have with us
another world-leading scientist,
Johan Rockström here.
He was responsible for creating
the Planetary Boundaries framework.
Johan, how serious is our situation?
(Video) Johan Rockström: Last week,
we released in “Nature”
the 10-year update of the risk
of crossing tipping points,
irreversible tipping points,
in the Earth system.
We know 15 such tipping points,
including the Greenland
and West Antarctic ice shelf,
and the permafrost
in the Siberian tundra, for example,
and we today have observational evidence,
I mean, empirical evidence,
that nine of the 15 have woken up
and are on the move.
We haven’t crossed the tipping point yet,
the window is still open,
but they are warning us
that now is the time to truly move,
because the moment we cross them,
like, for example, approaching
a tipping point in the Amazon rain forest,
we would risk losing the battle,
because the planet will be taking over
its self-reinforced warming.
So that is why this initiative
is so incredibly important.
Let’s go.
CA: Well said.
(Applause)
So, both are very clear there
that this agenda of cutting emissions
is absolutely crucial.
How has that been going?
CF: Not very well,
because despite what we know,
despite everything
that science has told us,
despite everything that we have done,
including adopting the Paris Agreement,
we’ve actually been increasing
greenhouse gases consistently
over the past few decades,
to the point where
we’re now at 55 gigatons
of carbon dioxide equivalent
that we are collectively, as humanity,
emitting every year.
And as we have heard, we have one path,
there is one path
that we have to follow, and that is:
Start now to decrease emissions,
instead of going up, go down –
reverse the trend, bend the curve.
Reduce emissions, starting in 2020,
to the point where we will be at one half
the current level of emissions by 2030,
and then continue decreasing them,
until we are at net zero by 2050.
It’s the only path that we can accept.
CA: How do you even begin to start
tackling a goal as daunting as that?
CF: Well, we could starting by breaking
the simple, yet daunting, challenge
into its constituent pieces,
five main areas.
CA: And so these five together
are actually all huge,
and if we can find compelling
solutions in each of them,
they would actually add up
to an action plan
that matches the scale of the problem.
Well, here are the five.
CF: Power.
How rapidly can we move
to 100 percent clean energy?
CA: The built environment.
How can we re-engineer
the stuff that surrounds us?
CF: Transport.
How do we transform the ways
we move – ourselves and goods?
CA: Food.
How can we spark a worldwide shift
to healthier food systems?
CF: And certainly, nature.
How extensively can we re-green the earth?
Now, it’s worth noting
that the answers to these questions
and the measures that we would undertake
don’t just reduce net emissions –
they do that, certainly,
together, to zero –
but they also point the way to a future
that is much better
and genuinely exciting.
So, think about cool
new forms of transport,
clean air, healthier food,
beautiful forests
and oceans bursting with life.
So, you know, solving the climate crisis
isn’t about sacrificing
and settling for a mediocre future,
it’s about the exact opposite.
It’s about co-creating
a much better future for all of us.
CA: So how do we tackle these questions?
(Laughter)
CA: Let’s take this question here
and think about this.
How extensively can we re-green the earth?
I mean, there are obviously
many responses to this question,
many proposals.
It’s fundamentally about,
“How do we increase the amount
of sustainable photosynthesis
on planet Earth.”
Photosynthesis sequesters carbon.
There could be proposals
around giant kelp forests or seagrass,
or about forms of plants
that have deeper roots
and can sequester across the planet.
But suppose a major proposal that came out
was about reforestation.
A massive, global reforestation campaign.
I mean, a single organization,
no matter how big,
cannot take that on.
The key is for everyone to join forces,
for governments (with zoning),
businesses to invest,
investors to do that investing,
environmental groups
and philanthropists who support them,
and just a massive movement
among citizens everywhere,
transforming their lawns, their cities,
their neighborhoods,
going on trips together.
That is where, suddenly,
you can dream about something really big.
CF: So can we test that theory?
Because we are fortunate
to have with us today
someone who grew up inside
a tree-planting movement,
probably the most well-recognized
tree-planting movement.
And she is the daughter
of the Nobel Prize winner
Wangari Maathai,
and she heads up the Wangari Maathai
Foundation today.
So can we invite our very dear
friend Wanjira Mathai?
(Applause)
(Video) Wanjira Mathai:
Thank you very much,
Christiana and Chris, for doing this.
Trees have been, indeed, a part of my life
for as long as I can remember,
but we also know that for centuries,
trees and forests have cushioned us
against the harsh impacts
of climate variation
for very many years.
In my lifetime, my mother,
through the Green Belt Movement,
as you mentioned,
inspired the planting
of 50 million trees and counting
through the work of the Green
Belt Movement, one organization.
But the world now needs us
to plant 100 times more trees
than we did then.
And the only way to do that
is for all of us to come together –
cities, citizens, governments,
companies, environmental organizations –
and we must believe, therefore,
in the capacity for each of us
to be potent agents of change.
And that together, we are a force.
And I hope you will all join us.
(Applause)
CF: So together we are a force.
I think Wanjira really hits it
right there on the head,
because it’s all about collaborating
across a pretty broad spectrum of people.
And happily, there are representatives
from all of those groups here today.
And we will be inviting you
toward further engagement.
But we wanted today to introduce you
to a couple of those people,
speaking from their own perspective.
So we would like to start
with the voice of a politician.
We are incredibly honored
to have with us today
the former prime minister of Bhutan,
and I will have you know that Bhutan
is the only country in the world
that actually absorbs more carbon
than what it emits.
Our good friend, Tshering Tobgay.
(Applause)
Tshering Tobgay: My country
is typical of the global south,
in that we have not caused
this climate-change crisis.
Indeed, we are blessed
with lush forests
and many bountiful rivers
that have enabled my country, Bhutan,
to remain carbon-negative.
And yet, climate change
threatens to destroy our forests.
And to turn those very rivers
into terrible dangers for our people,
as the Himalayan glaciers melt
and threaten both near-term flooding
and the longer-term loss
of our natural water reserves.
So, I’m proud to join
this Countdown initiative
and work with all of you
and with you, and with you,
(Laughter)
constructively, to find solutions
that are both powerful and just.
Thank you.
(Applause)
CA: Thank you.
(Applause)
CA: Business, of course,
has a crucial role to play,
and so do those who control the world’s
vast pools of investment capital.
I was pleased to make
the acquaintance recently
of the chief investment officer
of Japan’s 1.6-trillion-dollar
government pension fund.
It’s actually the world’s
largest pension fund.
He’s willing and interested
to come with us on this journey
and to bring others with him.
So, somewhere is, I believe, Hiro.
Hiro Mizuno.
And you’re live. Welcome, Hiro.
(Video) Hiro Mizuno: Great.
Thanks, Chris and Christiana,
and the staff of TED,
for making this possible.
As a person in charge
of the largest pension fund in the world
and responsible for securing pension
benefits for multiple generations,
it is a hugely important issue,
how to manage climate risk.
We recently analyzed our global portfolio,
how it’s aligned with the Paris Agreement.
It was diagnosed,
our portfolio is on the path
for more than three degrees.
Far away from the Paris Agreement goals.
Our portfolio is not only sizable
but also one of the most
globally diversified portfolios.
So that means, the world is on that path.
I’m tired of hearing
the same comment repeatedly
from our portfolio companies
and, obviously, investment professionals:
“We are realistic.”
Sorry, but being “realistic”
is no longer an option.
We are fully aware of our responsibility
as the world’s largest asset owner
to inspire changes in the capital market.
We will be actively engaging
with all actors in the capital market
to move the needle.
I look forward to participating
in this crucial dialogue with you all.
Thank you.
(Applause)
CF: I’m sure all of you know
that throughout the past 12 to 18 months,
what has really been new
and powerful and exciting
is the amazing voices
of so many young people,
millions of young people
who are out there on the streets,
with anger, with outrage, with despair,
and also, asking us to do our thing.
And they have been inspired
by Greta Thunberg
but by so many other
fantastic young people
in almost every country of the world.
And today, we are delighted to have
four young activists
come join us today.
(Applause)
(Cheers)
(Applause)
Alexandria Villaseñor: This Friday,
I’ll have been
on climate strike for 52 weeks.
That’s an entire year.
During that time,
I found that many people
don’t know about climate change
or how serious the climate crisis is.
So I founded Earth Uprising International
to teach young people
about climate change,
because when they know
the science and the impacts,
they want to take action.
Being an activist
means making change happen.
Jamie Margolin:
I became a climate activist
because my life depends on it.
I’m applying to colleges right now,
trying to plan for my future.
There will be nothing to look forward to
if we don’t take urgent action
to stop the climate crisis now.
I started the youth climate justice
movement called Zero Hour back in 2017,
because this is zero hour
to act on climate change.
We have no more time.
It became clear to me
that our leaders were not
going to take real action
unless the people stood up
and demanded it,
so that’s exactly what we did.
Natalie Sweet: I became
a climate-justice activist
because if I don’t fight
for the rights of the people today,
and for the people in the future,
who will?
Xiye Bastida: I became
a climate justice activist
when I realized that the climate crisis
impacts marginalized communities the most,
including my town in Mexico.
I strike with Fridays for Future
every Friday,
because our movement
is not about gaining momentum
but about igniting cultural change.
But the fact that thousands
of students strike for climate
means that we are already
implementing climate justice
into every aspect of our lives,
which is already redefining the world.
JM: Over the course of our lifetimes,
we’ve seen the Earth deteriorate
at a rapid speed
and groups of people
traumatized and displaced
by an ever-increasing number
of natural disasters.
In 2030, I’ll be 28 years old.
AV: I’ll be 24 years old.
XB: I will be 27.
NS: I’ll be 26.
We want to be able to hand
the planet over to our children
and our children’s children,
just like many of you
have been able to do.
AV: So unless everyone –
governments, companies, schools,
scientists and citizens –
make a united commitment
to reversing the damage that we’ve caused,
it will be too late.
XB: We are not only asking you
to take care of our future,
we are also asking you
to take care of our past.
Indigenous people have been taking care
of the Earth for thousands of years,
which is why indigenous
philosophy is crucial
when implementing climate action.
JM: This climate crisis can feel
like an impossible thing to fix.
But it’s not.
And it can’t be,
because failure is simply not an option.
Failure means losing everything we love
and everything that matters.
So many of us are already working
to save the future of our world,
but it can’t just be
on the next generation to fix.
This is too much of a burden
to just put on young people’s shoulders.
It is time for you to go all hands on deck
and do everything within your power
to save everything before it’s too late.
Are you with us?
Audience: Yes.
(Applause and cheers)
(Applause)
CA: Thank you. Thank you, thank you.
And then, of course,
there’s a crucial role to be played
by the world’s storytellers,
and those with influence
on social media platforms.
Each of the following
has expressed excitement
to be part of this project.
They’ve lent us their names and support.
We have some of them here today.
Thank you so much for being here.
And let’s hear from one of them, actually.
Jimmy Kimmel: Hi, I’m Jimmy Kimmel,
and I was asked to explain
why I’m passionate about climate change.
And the reason I’m passionate
about climate change
is the same reason people who are drowning
are passionate about lifeguards.
I care about this planet,
because I live on it.
I don’t want to move to Mars,
Mars seems terrible.
I want my kids and their kids
to be able to live on Earth,
with air they can breathe
and water they can drink.
That’s why I care about climate change.
And also, I have a crush
on Leonardo DiCaprio.
(Applause)
CF: So with all these
people coming together,
we have an opportunity to explore
a new space of possibility
for solutions based on working together,
challenging each other
and inspiring one another.
So in October next year,
we will be inviting
more or less 1,000 people
from different constituencies
to meet in Bergen, Norway
to align on specific answers
to our five big questions.
CA: It will certainly be an epic event.
But even more significant
than what happens in Norway
is what happens elsewhere in the world.
Because on the final day
of that conference,
we’re planning a major activation
of our global TEDx community.
TEDx allows initiatives
to organize local events,
and there are now
4,000 such events annually.
Here’s what they look like.
They take place in more than 200
different countries,
generate more than a billion views
annually on YouTube.
We’re expecting to see events
in hundreds of cities.
We’ll be connecting our TEDx organizers
with city mayors committed
to a clean future for their cities.
This is the key to this.
It’s this connection between the powerful,
who usually own the conversation,
and millions of people around the world.
Because of the zeitgeist shift
that’s happened in the last year or two,
suddenly, ignition can happen here,
because there’s enough
critical groundswell.
If we can give people
visibility of each other,
connection to each other,
let’s dream a little here,
and give each other permission to dream.
CF: So our goal here
is to build connections
with and among all of the other
organizations that are working on climate.
For example,
the Solutions Project
is a wonderful initiative
founded by Mark Ruffalo and Don Cheadle.
And let’s hear from some of the leaders
that they have supported.
CA: Welcome, you’re live.
(Laughter)
(Video) Wahleah Johns:
Hi, my name is Wahleah Johns,
I’m with Native Renewables,
and we are working to provide
solar power for tribes
throughout the world.
We have over 15,000
Native American families
that don’t have access to electricity,
and we are working to provide solar
plus battery storage for these families
in the United States
that don’t have access to electricity.
And they are located on my reservation,
the Navajo Nation.
Anna Lappé: Hi, everyone,
I am Anna Lappé with Real Food Media,
and we work to uplift the stories
of farmers and ranchers
as a key solution to the climate crisis.
The global food system right now
is a huge contributor to this crisis,
but it doesn’t have to be.
Farmers and ranchers we really see
as on the front lines
of being part of solving the crisis.
So we try to share the stories
of the millions of farmers
from Andhra Pradesh, India
to the highlands of Oaxaca
that are using regenerative agriculture
to build healthy, carbon-rich soil,
grow good food
and foster the kind of resilient
communities that we need.
Rahwa Ghirmatzion: Hello
from PUSH Buffalo – my name is Rahwa –
where every day, residents
are visioning, planning and designing
an equitable, holistic
and sacred neighborhood,
like where I’m phoning in from, School 77,
a renovated vacant school building
that has the first 100 percent
affordable community solar array
in New York state
installed by local residents.
It’s also serving 30 affordable
senior apartments
and a mix of intergenerational spaces
that serves as a community hub,
where we’re practicing
new economy strategies
towards a livable planet.
CF: Thank you.
CA: Bravo.
(Applause)
CA: It’s so great.
(Applause)
CF: So you see, this is about everyone.
It’s about cities,
it’s about grassroots organizations,
but it’s also, of course, about business.
And so we’re inviting all companies –
underlined “all” –
to join this initiative,
to engage with your employees
on how you can best protect the planet
and your future, at the same time.
So early next year,
we’ll be sharing a toolkit
that can guide companies
toward moving quickly
towards science-based targets,
which gets them then to net zero emissions
by 2050 at the latest.
CA: So think about this,
because as an individual,
many individuals
feel powerless on this issue.
But if you were to team up
with others in your company,
you might be amazed at how much
power you actually have.
Almost all emissions come from
a company somewhere on the planet.
And the thing is, many CEOs today
are actually eager
to help solve the problem.
We just heard this morning
from Anand Mahindra,
who heads India’s biggest business group,
that he is personally
committed on this issue
and wants to be part
of this journey with us –
he’s a supporter of Countdown.
CEOs will be able to move much faster
if there’s a group of employees there
to brainstorm with, to support them,
to keep that sort of sense
of urgency on the topic.
Our website will help you connect
with others in your company
and give you guidance
on smart questions to ask,
initiatives to suggest,
because if companies can be persuaded
to do the right thing,
suddenly, this problem
seems to become solvable.
CF: So all of these efforts are building
toward one fantastic day:
Saturday, October 10, 2020 –
that is, “10.10.2020.” –
easy to remember –
when this fantastic gathering
will take place around the world.
And we hope to have, by then,
thrilling news of the report
of the very specific solutions
that nations, cities, companies, citizens
are actually already
collaborating on by then.
It’s a day when every
citizen of the planet
is invited to participate.
Your one ticket of entrance
is you are a citizen of the planet.
CA: Key to the success of the event
is for this to happen at scale.
We want to make it easy
for anyone and everyone
to find out about the initiative
and to play an active part in it.
But how do you do that?
You know, the world’s a noisy place.
I mean, the TED platform
can help a bit, maybe,
but there’s a much bigger
content platform out there.
It’s called YouTube.
And we’re delighted to be working
with them on this endeavor.
We’ll be inviting
many of their top creators
to be part of Countdown.
Collectively, they could reach
an audience in the many millions.
In fact, let’s meet one of them,
Dr. Joe Hanson of “Hot Mess,”
a new web series about the impact
of climate change on all of us.
(Video) My name’s Joe Hanson,
and I am a YouTube educator.
And you can count me in.
I work with tomorrow’s scientists,
inventors and leaders,
and they deserve to know the truth
of what the science says,
so that they can help us invent
a better future for everyone.
CA: Imagine that multiplied
by many others –
it’s very, very exciting, honestly.
CF: And of course, when it comes
to spreading the word,
every one of you in this room
can actually play your part.
So if you have any way of reaching anyone
who is concerned
about building a better future –
and that should be
every single one of us –
please, invite them to join Countdown.
CA: There’s one more card up our sleeve.
We’re excited to unveil
a global media campaign.
This is a campaign with a difference.
Just as TEDx exploded
by being allowed to grow
as a grassroots phenomenon,
this campaign is designed
to be co-opted everywhere on the planet.
If you happen to own a billboard company,
or a TV station, or a radio station,
or a website,
or a social media account,
we invite all of you to take the images
you’re about to see
and to just spread them far and wide.
Our website will make this easy.
We actually plan to translate them
into many languages,
courtesy of our volunteer army
of more than 20,000 translators worldwide.
Some of them are with us here.
If you’re a TED translator,
would you wave, please?
CF: There we go.
(Applause)
CA: Your work carries powerful ideas
to every corner of the earth.
We’re so proud of you, so grateful to you.
So this campaign’s designed
to grab attention
and to communicate, yes, urgency
but also a little smidgen of hope.
We think it might be that combination
is what is needed to really drive action.
We’d love you to let us know
what you think of these.
CF: Right now.
[Choose your future.]
(Applause)
[Turn fear into action
Join the countdown.]
(Applause)
[Action inspires action
Join the countdown.
The Earth will thank you.]
(Applause)
[10.10.2020
Climate’s Day of Destiny. You’re invited.]
CF: Remember the date.
[Mass destruction. No biggie.
(If we prevent it.)]
(Applause)
[Giant asteroid heading our way
The common enemy that can unite us.]
(Applause)
[We love natural disasters
anyway – said no one ever.
So why are we causing them?]
(Applause)
[Relax, there’s nothing
you can do about the climate
Unless you work for a company.
Or live in a city.
Or own a phone. Or a brain.]
[Cause of death: Apathy.
But there’s an antidote.]
(Applause)
[Stop f*cking everything up
Inaction on climate is obscene.
We can fix this.]
CA: Too much?
CF: No, not too much, yay, go for it.
(Applause)
[Have you gotten any action lately?
Here’s your chance.
Help turn the tide on climate.]
(Laughter)
CA: I didn’t like this one,
but my team, you know –
CF: Apparently, there are many
who do like it.
(Laughter)
[We give up. Sincerely, TED.
Spreading ideas isn’t enough.
It’s time to act. Join us?]
CA: This is, unfortunately,
truer than you know.
[Some things matter more
than partisan politics
Come fight the enemy that can unite us.]
(Applause)
[Stop burnout
Your company can help save the earth.]
[Give the planet more
than you take from it
Join the countdown.]
[Despair, meet hope
We can avoid climate catastrophe
if we take urgent action now.]
CA: That’s it.
(Applause and cheers)
CF: To bring this full circle,
we would like to bring
someone very special in.
(Video) Hi, I’m Claire O’Neill.
I am the COP president-designate
for next year’s Conference of the Parties,
the annual UN climate change talks,
which will be in the UK,
and we’re looking forward
to welcoming you there.
But right now, I’m in Spain, in Madrid,
at COP25, this annual event
where we send negotiators and activists
from all over the world
to see what we can do
to reduce CO2 emissions.
But the problem is this:
emissions are going up, not down.
And what I’m feeling is that 2020
is the year of action,
the year where we have to stop talking
and we have to start acting.
And not just here,
in these conference centers,
but everybody.
And so the value of the TED process,
the value of what we’re all doing together
is that we’re spreading out
the conversations
and the solutions from inside this space
out to everybody.
And I’m really looking forward
to working with the TED group
over the next year.
2020, for me, will be the most
important year for climate action,
and we’re all going
to deliver this together.
(Applause)
CF: OK, friends, so we’re nearly there
but just a few more very special snippets.
First, a word from one
of the many great minds
who will be accompanying us
on this journey.
A message from the great author,
historian and futurist
Yuval Harari.
Yuval Harari: Climate change
is about inequality.
Inequality between the rich,
who are mainly responsible for it,
and the poor, who will suffer the most.
Inequality between us, Homo sapiens,
who control this planet,
and the other animals,
who are our helpless victims.
Inequality between the scientists,
who painstakingly search for the truth,
and the professional deceivers,
who spread falsehoods
at the click of a button.
Climate change is about making a choice.
What kind of planet do we want to inhabit,
and what kind of humans do we want to be?
A choice between greed and compassion,
between carelessness and responsibility,
between closing our eyes to the truth
and opening our hearts to the world.
Climate change is a crisis,
but for humans, a crisis is always
also an opportunity.
If we make the right choices
in the coming years,
we cannot only save the ecosystem,
but we can also create a more just world
and make ourselves better people.
(Applause)
CF: So isn’t that a powerful framing
of what we have ahead of us,
and honestly, I think it is tragic
that the power of transformation
that we have ahead of us
is so severely diminished by those
who would want to politicize the issue
and separate it into partisan politics.
It cannot be a partisan issue,
it cannot be a politicized issue.
Happily, there are some
who are working against that.
Today, we have one of those people,
a fantastically courageous
climate scientist,
who is a committed Christian,
and who has been working on this issue
with conservatives and with the religious
and spiritual communities for years,
with incredible courage.
Katharine Hayhoe.
(Applause)
Katherine Hayhoe: When someone
says climate change, we often think,
“Oh, that’s just an environmental issue.
People who are tree huggers
or scientists care about it,
or maybe people who are on the left
hand-side of the political spectrum.”
But the reality is,
whether we know it or not,
we already care about climate change,
no matter who we are.
Why?
Because climate change affects
everything we already care about today.
It affects our health,
it affects the food we eat,
the water we drink,
the air that we breathe.
Climate change affects the economy
and national security.
I care about a changing climate
because it is, as the military calls it,
a threat multiplier.
It takes issues like poverty and hunger,
disease, lack of access to clean water,
even political instability,
and exacerbates or amplifies them.
That’s why, to care
about a changing climate,
we don’t have to be
a certain type of person.
A thermometer isn’t blue or red,
liberal or conservative –
it gives us the same number
no matter how we vote.
And we are all affected
by the impacts of a changing climate.
So to care about a changing climate,
all we have to be is one thing:
a human, living on planet Earth.
And we’re all that.
(Applause)
CF: And finally,
the man who brought this issue
so powerfully to everyone’s attention
years ago
and has continued tirelessly
to work on that issue ever since.
The one and very only, Al Gore.
(Applause)
(Video) Al Gore: Thank you.
(Applause)
Thank you so much, Christiana,
and thank you for
your outstanding leadership,
and thank you, Chris Anderson
and the entire TED community,
YouTube and all of the others
who are joining
in this fantastic initiative.
I have just three messages.
Number one, this crisis
is incredibly urgent.
Just yesterday, the scientists
gave us the report
that emissions are still going up.
Every single day,
we’re putting 150 million tons
of man-made global warming pollution
into the thin shell of atmosphere
surrounding our planet.
The accumulated amount now
traps as much extra energy every day
as would be released by 500,000
first-generation atomic bombs
exploding every single day.
And the consequences
are increasingly clear –
all that mother nature is telling us,
the fires, and the sea-level rise,
and the floods, and the mud slides,
and the loss of living species.
But the second message that I have
is the hope is very real.
We actually do have
the solutions available to us.
It is unfortunately true at this moment,
that the crisis is getting worse faster
than we are mobilizing these solutions.
But renewable energy and electric vehicles
and batteries
and regenerative agriculture,
circular manufacturing,
and all of these other solutions
are gaining momentum.
The late economist Rudi Dornbusch,
in articulating what’s known
as Dornbusch’s law, said,
“Things take longer to happen
than you think they will.
But then, they happen much faster
than you thought they could.”
We can pick up the pace.
We are gaining momentum
and soon, we will be gaining
on the crisis.
But it is essential that everyone join –
of every political persuasion,
every ideological persuasion,
every nationality,
every division has to be obliterated,
so that we, humanity,
can join together.
And in closing, I would just say
that for anyone who doubts
that we as human beings
have the ability to rise to this occasion,
when everything is on the line,
just remember that political will
is itself a renewable resource.
(Laughter)
(Applause)
CA: Thank you so much.
Thank you so much, Al,
for your leadership on this issue
for so many years.
None of this would be possible
without an extraordinary
and fast-growing list of partners.
I’d like to acknowledge them.
(Applause)
If you’re watching this,
you believe your organization
should be part of this,
you can help in some way,
join us, email me, [email protected].
This is going to take everyone.
OK, before the Q and A,
I just want to ask you a question
personally, Christiana.
Like, what do you really think?
(Laughter)
No, you’ve been in so many of these.
Does this initiative have a chance?
CF: Well, first of all,
we are at the point
where everything plays.
Everything plays.
And I’m really excited about this,
because it has been very painful to me
to see how over the past 12 to 18 months
because of the tragically
insufficient response
that we have had to climate change,
how that zeitgeist has been changing
from where we were in Paris,
which was pretty positive and optimistic,
to, now, despair, helplessness, anger.
That’s what is out there,
roaming on the streets.
And I don’t blame them,
and I have the same feelings.
But the point is,
we have to be able to transform that
into making the difference.
And I think this is what this initiative
is actually potentially ready to do,
which is to give every single person
who feels helpless –
give them a tool to do something.
Some will contribute small efforts,
some will contribute large efforts –
depends on what your influence area is.
And to those who feel angry
and despairing,
well, give them also an opportunity
to channel that energy –
which is very powerful energy –
into solutions.
And finally, what is very
exciting about this
is the scale, Chris, right?
I mean, just look at those partners
that are going to be there.
We have attempted many, many things
to bring to scale.
But this, I think, is the most promising
initiative that I have seen,
to be able to bring people to scale,
to bring efforts and solutions to scale.
And speed.
Because if there’s one thing
that we cannot, cannot fail on,
is addressing climate change,
but not only that,
to do so in a timely way.
CA: Thank you, that is eloquent.
And thank you.
That’s it.
(Applause)
OK, we have many members
of the world’s leading media here.
We’re going to have a Q and A,
they should probably have
priority on questions.
If it all goes deathly silent,
someone else can ask a question.
If you’re a member of the media here,
please feel free to put your hand up –
we’ll throw a mic to you,
and we’ll do the best we can.
Rachel Crane: Hi, Rachel Crane from CNN.
My question for you
is about more specific action
that will come out of Countdown.
We heard a lot today
about how this is mobilizing
the globe on this issue,
breaking people out of their silos,
companies out of their silos,
but I’m curious to know,
paint a picture for us,
of what the action
that will come out of this initiative
could potentially look like.
I’m sure it’s all in early phases,
we won’t hold you specifically to this.
CA: There’s an intense process
going on between now and October,
where we’re trying to engage
all of the world’s best
thinking on climate
around those five big areas.
What we’re hoping to have there
is multiple proposals in there
that collectively take a huge bite
out of those issues.
Some of them, there may be
one big one that dominates.
You know, so transport, for example.
Could we accelerate the end
of the internal
combustion engine, somehow?
What would that take?
That would be a classic problem
made for this approach,
because what governments decide right now
depends on what they see
happening elsewhere.
Would the decisions
of auto executives be shifted
if they saw millions of people
on social media saying,
“I will never buy a combustion engine”?
Would they be shifted by the market signal
of a few hundred mayors, saying,
“We are creating
a carbon-zero zone in our city,
and we’re going to expand it,
and we’re doing that soon”?
Would they be shifted by a visionary
auto CEO taking the risk
and coming forward and saying,
“You know when we said
we were going to continue this till 2050?
No. We can see the writing on the wall,
we want to be on
the right side of history,
we’re doing this in 2030.”
We think there might be a pathway to that.
So on some of these issues,
it’s going to depend on a massive amount
of discussion, bringing people together,
showing – this is what
you’re so masterful at –
is showing that other people
don’t have the attitudes
that you think they have.
They’re actually shifting,
you better shift.
And so it’s mutually raising
everyone’s ambition level.
And that is a cycle that happens,
and we’ve already seen it happening.
And so, on each of these issues,
that’s what we’re looking for.
The biggest, boldest things.
Dream bigger than we normally do,
because there are more people at the table
than there normally are,
i.e. millions of citizens engaged in this.
That’s the process,
and while that is happening,
there’ll be multiple other engagements
in companies and cities around the world.
We hope that it all comes together
in a thrilling manner in October
and we have something to celebrate.
Dominique Drakeford:
My name is Dominique Drakeford
with MelaninASS, or social media
as a form of media.
In understanding the inherent correlation
between the accumulation
of carbon in the atmosphere
and the cumulative exploitation
and extraction, extractivism economy,
which creates sacrifice zones
for black and indigenous communities,
how do we plan to,
or how do you guys plan to mitigate
those systems of oppression
as part of your strategies
within those five various components,
so that we can really
begin to reduce emissions?
CF: If the transformation
in our economy and our society
does not include inequality closing
and social justice issues,
then we’re doing nothing.
Because all of those things
will come back to bite us.
So we have to put our arms
around the entire package.
That is not easy,
but it is entirely possible.
And that’s one of the things
that I am so excited about climate change,
because it is at the front
of this transformation,
but it will bring many of the other issues
that have been relegated to nonattention.
It will bring those issues
to the fore as well.
So the transformation
has to be an integrative transformation.
Ellen Maloney: Hi, Chris, hi, Christina.
My question is, are individual efforts,
like ditching plastic straws
or going vegan,
making a difference
or are they just tokenistic
drops in the ocean?
CF: Good question.
CA: It’s a good question.
CF: They are totally important.
Absolutely important.
Because it’s not just
about the one straw that I use.
It’s about me not using that straw,
going to a restaurant
and telling the waitress,
“Excuse me, I don’t want
a plastic straw, because –”
and giving her a little lesson,
then she goes up to the manager,
the manager comes to the table and says,
“Excuse me, could you explain that to me?”
Then you go through the lesson.
And sooner than you think,
you have that restaurant,
plus the other ones.
Actually, information is contagious.
And wanting to do the right thing
is also contagious.
So don’t look at it as just
simply, you know, “What is a straw?
Am I using the straw
or am I not using plastic bags,
I have my plant-based bags
to go shopping,” etc., etc.
All of that counts.
It counts for you, first of all,
because it is a personal reminder
of who you are and what you stand for,
but it is also a very important tool
to educate everyone around you.
CA: Right, and I think
the core of our initiative is,
all that stuff matters – what you eat,
how you transport yourself, etc.,
it matters a lot.
But there is another piece of power
that individuals have
that they don’t think about
as much, perhaps,
and that we think that they should,
we invite them to,
which is what they can do as an employee
and what they can do
as a member of a city.
There’s a coming together here,
where by getting organized,
by connecting with others,
we think there is a direct route
to changing decisions
that will have an even bigger
impact on the problem.
So it’s yes, all of that,
but more as well.
(Laughter)
CF: There is an online [question],
from a classroom of children.
CA: From a classroom of children?
CF: “What can students do?”
Yay, I love that question,
totally love that question.
So first of all,
Fridays, 11 o’clock, go strike.
I mean, honestly, right?
(Applause)
Let’s go, let’s go.
And that pressure has to be maintained.
I’m totally delighted
that there’s some people here
who’ve been here doing it for 52 weeks.
The problem with this is, folks,
this is not a sprint, it’s a marathon.
So you better get ready
for many more 52 weeks, right?
And get more people involved,
because this is not easy.
If it were easy, we would have done it.
This is going to be a long-term effort.
But fantastic to be out there
in the streets,
you are getting so much
more attention from the media,
from us stupid adults
who have not done our job –
it is fantastic.
So, you know, get your voices out there.
Also, in school,
you can definitely go and improve –
The question that you just asked to TED,
that’s the question every student
should be asking their school:
“Where’s my energy coming from?”
Let’s get with it, right?
Students in colleges –
how is it possible that we still have
colleges and universities
that are not 100 percent clean energy
and that haven’t shifted
their capital and their endowment
over to low carbon?
I mean, it’s just incredible.
(Applause)
And finally, the most important thing
that young people can do
is ask your parents,
“What the hell are you doing
about my future?”
Because here is an amazing thing.
I have spoken in –
I was thinking how many –
I’ve spoken to at least three if not four
CEOs from the oil and gas industry.
I’ve spoken to three or four
major investors,
heads of their investment firms,
who come up to me, usually in private,
and say, “Christiana, the reason
why I’m changing what I do in my business
is because my daughter, or my son,
asks me at night, ‘What the hell
are you doing about my future?’ "
That is a very powerful question,
and only young people
can ask that question.
Use that tool –
ask your parents what are they
doing about your future.
Sorry about the h-word.
(Applause)
Jo Confino: Hi,
I’m Jo Confino, the HuffPost.
Christiana, a question for you,
which is one of the things
that didn’t come out so much
and this is about the spiritual traditions
and the role they play,
because what we’re seeing
is that, actually,
old wisdom is coming out
in terms of interdependence
and nothing is separate
from anything else.
What is the spiritual tradition
we can bring to this
that will make, also, a difference?
CF: What I think is very powerful
about understanding,
whether you happen to be
a spiritual person
that pursues meditation and mindfulness
or whether you’re a religious
person or not,
what I think is very powerful
about the spiritual understanding
of the human presence on this earth,
is to understand that we are not separate.
It’s not like,
“Over there is planet Earth,
and then humans are over here.”
And we are totally interconnected
with all other species
and with all other living beings,
and doing the responsible thing by them,
does the responsible thing by us.
And vice versa.
And so that interconnectedness
is one that comes
from the spiritual traditions,
but you don’t have to be religious
or spiritual to understand that.
You know, the fact is,
every single drop of water
that we drink comes from nature.
Every single morsel of food that we eat
comes from nature.
And we’ve got to heal that connection.
CA: We would welcome engagement.
(Applause)
Kaley Roshitsh: Hi, Kaley Roshitsh
from Women’s Wear Daily.
Obviously, the fashion industry
is responsible for a lot
of the carbon output,
so I wondered what is your perspective
on conscious consumption?
CA: The key goal here is to align,
at the same time,
to change opinion on what companies do,
what employees do, what consumers do.
It’s the shifts all happening
at the same time that can make change.
Right now, someone else
is always the problem.
“Our investors wouldn’t allow
us to do that.”
“There is no market for this better,
more sustainable product.”
And so, all the pieces
need to happen at the same time.
That’s our hope.
And so the lead on this is not us,
it’s employees and CEOs
and leadership teams
working in that industry.
Get together, make something happen.
And ride the tide of the zeitgeist shift
that is happening –
it’s going to work out
from the business point of view as well.
CF: Can I jump on that as well?
Because for years, for centuries,
we have been on a consumer
extract-and-consume mentality.
They way we go about our life
and the way that businesses are created
is extract, use, discard,
extract, use, discard.
That’s a simplification, but honestly,
it’s about as simple as that.
And to understand that that linear
extraction to discard
can no longer be the case,
that it needs to be circular now,
we have to go into a circular economy
that uses every single resource
that we extract –
because we will continue to extract –
that uses it not once
but two, three, four, five, 10 times,
around and around in circles.
That’s a circular economy.
And we have to get to that point,
because frankly, we’re running out
of resources to continue to extract.
Jodi Xu Klein: Hi, my name
is Jodi Xu Klein.
I’m with the South China Morning Post,
a Hong Kong publication here in the US.
So, we’ve been reporting on trade war
for more than a year,
and we’re actually living in a world
where countries are decoupling
from each other.
How do you overcome that trend
and bring everyone together?
CA: We don’t know,
these are really challenging issues.
What we do know is that we have to bring
everyone to the table
and have the discussion.
There are so many people in China,
including, on many occasions,
the Chinese government has made bold steps
to tackle this issue.
There’s a lot that the West can learn
from what’s happening in China.
CF: I would say,
in a world in which we’re seeing
a wave of nationalism and populism,
the way we go at this
is actually to expand
the breadth of engagement,
so not to let the responsibility
of engaging on climate
be in national government hands only.
Yes, they have an important role,
but we can bring it down as well
to a different level of engagement
which is every single human being.
And once we understand
that we’re all human beings
and that we all have a common future,
there’s no such thing
as all of us being in a boat
and only the one closest to the hole
in the boat are going to sink.
No.
Either we all sink
or we all float together.
Justine Calma: My name is Justine Calma,
I’m with The Verge,
thanks so much for this.
My question is about TED and YouTube’s
own carbon footprint.
Streaming video eats up
a huge amount of energy,
and I’m curious what TED and YouTube
might be doing to reduce
their own greenhouse gas emissions
connected to that.
CA: I can’t speak for YouTube, obviously.
I will say that, to quote
a line from George Monbiot,
all of us are hypocrites in this movement.
If you’ve ever bought something
or you’re wearing clothes,
or you’re eating food,
you’re a hypocrite,
you’re creating emissions.
It’s part of life.
And I think perfection is –
There’s a risk that perfection,
that an overpursuit and focus on that
and the judging that comes with it
can slow everyone down.
We want this to be a coalition
of the willing who accept
that they’re not perfect
but are willing to act.
Now, this whole process
has sparked a huge conversation in TED
about how we act more responsibly,
and that will continue.
We’re certainly not going to stop
streaming videos.
At some point you have to do math,
it’s like that – give to the planet
more than you take from it,
I think is the golden rule
that I personally really believe in.
And so if an idea, powered
by a little bit of electricity,
can ignite in someone’s brain,
I would bet on the idea
over saving the electricity.
But there’s no perfection in this.
And we definitely have a lot
that we need to improve on.
Let’s go here and then back.
Lane Florsheim: Hi, I’m Lane Florsheim
from the Wall Street Journal Magazine
and Chris, I really liked
what you were saying
about the fashion industry
and what they can do to change
and how it requires employees
and CEOs to meet together
because who understands an industry
better than the people in it
and their processes and infrastructure,
but I’m wondering, what about companies
with huge footprints,
and two that come to mind first
are Amazon and Zara,
where, by all accounts,
the workers, the employees there
don’t have very much power
and the CEOs don’t have
very much incentive to change right now.
What would you say
about those kinds of companies?
CA: So this is going to be such
an important conversation going forward,
because we’re in the ironic position
where the people who can do
the most to solve this problem
are the people who are currently
the worst offenders.
So what do we do?
Do we make them part
of the conversation or not?
I say we make them
part of the conversation,
so long as we see serious engagement.
So take Amazon.
Jeff Bezos has actually listened
to what many of his employees have said –
they’ve been very vigorous,
the employee base there,
about carbon footprint –
has listened, has engaged
with you and with others.
And they have announced,
I think it’s correct to say announced –
CF: Yes, they have.
CA: … an acceleration
of their own commitment
to go to, basically, a net zero track
by 2040, if I have it right.
It’s the companies with the thousands,
the tens of thousands of trucks
and the packaging and all the rest of it.
That is how this problem will get solved.
So I say we invite these CEOs
to be part of this,
and urge them to take it seriously
and to go fast and maybe even faster
than they’re completely comfortable doing.
But that’s, I think, what we have to do.
Not to defame, denounce,
before we’ve at least had
a serious conversation about,
“It’s time,
your employees want to do this,
your customers want to do this,
your investors increasingly
want to do this, let’s do this.”
That’s our hope.
CF: And the wonderful thing
about companies the size of Amazon,
or Walmart when they did it,
is that they have a huge
trickle-up effect.
Because when Jeff Bezos came out and said,
“I’m going to make Amazon
climate-neutral by 2040 – "
Paris Agreement says 2050,
of course he wants to do
everything better than that,
so 2040 is for Amazon.
Well good, we’re going to keep him to it.
Now, the amazing thing about that
is that in order for Amazon
to be climate-neutral by 2040,
they have to work
with all their supply chain going up.
They have to work
with all of those companies
that deliver services and goods to them
for them to also be climate neutral ASAP.
Because otherwise, they can’t meet
their own commitment.
So large companies are actually
very, very key and instrumental to this,
because it’s not just
about their footprint,
it’s about the embedded footprint
that they inherit in their supply chain.
And the transformation of that
is really huge.
CA: Last question.
Jackie Padilla: My name is Jackie
with NowThis News,
and every day, I work
with young climate activists
like the ones we’ve heard today,
but when we do stories on them,
you know, including Greta Thunberg,
I see fierce criticism that they face
and largely, it’s because
of a generational gap.
I don’t know if you’re familiar
with the phrase “OK Boomer,”
but it seems like there’s a lot
of guilt or accountability
that some are looking for,
and on the other end,
we’re looking at a lack of education
or just ignorance on the issue.
So what is your advice to young people
to respond to that criticism
to foster constructive conversations?
CF: We should probably ask them.
XB: Hi, thank you for your question.
CA: Come here.
(Applause)
XB: It is true that we
increasingly face criticism,
and it’s not only when we speak to people,
with climate deniers
or things like that,
but also on social media.
It is as much a tool to spread information
and organize our strikes
and get the information out there,
but it’s also a tool for people
who want to undermine us,
to personally attack us.
And the way in which we stay resilient
is when we build community
with each other,
when we organize,
we mimic the world we want to see.
There is no hierarchy in our organizing,
we are all working towards
the same goal constructively,
choosing our passions towards
making the strike the best it can be.
We got 300,000 people
striking in New York,
we put together a whole concert,
people called it
“Climchella,” it was great.
(Laughter)
But the point is that
it’s not going to stop us.
The criticism is not going to stop us.
And even though we know that we are kids,
and we are not here to tell you
all the solutions
that already are out there.
We are going to do it,
because every kid who cares
about the climate crisis
is going to grow up to study
through an environmental lens
and to change the world through that.
So we are here to tell you,
personally, climate activists that I know
don’t use “OK Boomer,”
because we strive
for intergenerational cooperation.
And I think that blaming
and dividing each other
is not going to get us anywhere,
which is why we don’t use it,
and I don’t think it should be used,
and I actually want to thank everybody
who is doing something,
because action inspires action.
And you inspire us,
and we’re glad
that we inspire you as well.
(Cheers and applause)
(Applause)
CA: Wow.
(Applause)
CF: There you have it.
(Applause and cheers)
(Applause)
CA: There is no better note
on which to end this.
Thank you.
(Applause)