How You Can Change The World
[Music]
that was a great introduction thank you
very much
but now everyone expects a lot from me i
don’t like that
um basically i want to ask you do you
know what this is
you can say something what is this
it’s water well yeah what what is the
water in
it’s a bottle it’s a glass bottle right
so why did i buy a glass bottle and not
a plastic bottle after all i mean
plastic would have been so much easier
right it’s not as heavy
it’s not as expensive and i can just
throw it away right after i’m done using
it
right i mean of course there’s this
whole thing about ocean pollution into
production and all the other
environmental factors blah blah blah but
i mean does it really make a difference
if one person buys one more plastic
bottle
let’s do a little thought experiment so
i’m gonna
tell three people let’s say three people
these three young men in the first row
to not buy any plastic packaging
for one whole week okay so now we have
person a
one of the three um is super
enthusiastic about it he’s like yeah i’m
gonna do this
he really wants to change something
about the environment and he succeeds he
does the full
seven days right amazing
um person b however also super
enthusiastic
also tries to change something about
climate change and
the environment but then again he
doesn’t really succeed because
you know after the second day he sees
this yogurt that he really wants to eat
and he he just sees these strawberries
that would go so great with the yogurt
and after he has bought those he thinks
to himself well i mean now that i’ve
already bought some plastic
it’s already over right i’m just going
to give up and then we have person c
my personal favorite who just goes
yeah but nah why would i right
environment already done yeah let’s
forget about type c for now let’s just
think about person a and b
this is actually a pretty good outcome
because even though not everyone cut
back their plastic waste
one person managed to cut it completely
for a whole week
and the other managed to do it for two
days that’s still pretty good right
and now i didn’t only tell them to not
buy
any plastic but i also told them on the
next day
to tell three more people the same thing
that they shouldn’t buy any plastic
and that they should tell three more
people on the next day
so of course person a and b they were
super enthusiastic about it person b
hasn’t given up yet so they tell more
people which leads to two more type a
two more type b and two more type c
people
now of course those are also gonna tell
people c
not so much not as enthusiastic about it
and then they tell more people so after
one month how many people do you think
we have reached
any numbers anyone want to guess
no okay sad
we have reached 1 billion 770
million 741
and 823 people
what a billion people
okay that sounds kind of a lot right
back to my original question
what does this have to do with the one
person that can change anything
let’s do this thought experiment again
um we’ve got person a again
person b again person c again they
a person a and b tell someone again so
we have two more
people a one more person b and two more
people c
because this one person b that was
supposed to be there thought to himself
yeah but i’m just one person what am i
supposed to do about it right
so now we only have three people that
continue the message
and it’s amazing that instead of that
one billion
we only have left 805 million now okay
that’s still 805 million people right
that’s amazing that’s almost a billion
but that’s a huge difference
a huge difference because the perfect
group
the group that actually um
[Music]
got a billion people to work with them
save
375 000 tons
of plastic that is so much
okay whereas the other group only saved
281
000 again also a lot but the difference
of 93
000 tons is about as much as austria can
recycle
in a year that is
a lot right so we have this huge
gigantic i’m gonna say
a toxic pool floatie floating around in
the ocean with 300 000
tons of plastic in the water
and that is how much we could save in
one month if we got each uh if we got
the next one to work with each other
now i know that’s big numbers and it’s
hard to imagine that so
let’s kind of go less global and only
focus on the first week
um we have 64 people
after one week that’s that should be
about how many people are in this room
right now maybe we’re a little less
um half of those people actually lasted
a full week
of not using or buying any plastic so
why can’t you make that a month
right why can’t you make that a year
now all of this doesn’t mean oh my god i
can never buy anything wrapped in
plastic again because that’s really hard
you have to buy some tools you have to
buy some things
that just come in plastic packaging and
that’s just it you can’t really do
anything about it
but um this is about every person
and every decision they make
right because i can say i’m going to go
to a farmer’s market
and i’m going to bring my own tupperware
i’m going to bring my own box
buy my strawberries there instead of
going to the supermarket
and buying them in a plastic tin
and some plastic wrapping and getting a
plastic bag to take it with me
right and this not only applies
to plastic but this is a metaphor for
anything because if i tell you for
one week don’t drive a car
take a bike instead go walk instead or
maybe drive
like carpool with someone else to save
gas to
not produce as much co2 that’s
still some there’s still a lot of co2
that we saved and that is still
a big factor that
we that’s still a big thing
okay let’s say it like that um
now here’s the thing um
let’s say you are one domino piece
you’re one domino tile
and you have the choice of either
staying
in your own little comfort zone
and not being a part of anything bigger
than that
or you have the chance to create a
comfort zone not just for yourself
but for many many generations after you
a comfort zone for the entire planet
this is not about one decision of oh my
god i’m gonna buy a glass bottle but
this is about
every little decision every day that
affects your little community
your town your country and even your
entire planet
that is how to change the world don’t be
type b
don’t be type c but believe in what you
can do believe in what one person
actually matters now go change the world
thank you very much