Andy Hobsbawm: Do the green thing

14,455 views ・ 2008-12-01

TED


Please double-click on the English subtitles below to play the video.

00:12
Great creativity. In times of need, we need great creativity.
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Discuss. Great creativity is astonishingly, absurdly, rationally, irrationally powerful.
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Great creativity can spread tolerance, champion freedom,
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make education seem like a bright idea.
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00:32
(Laughter)
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00:33
Great creativity can turn a spotlight on deprivation,
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or show that deprivation ain't necessarily so.
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00:41
Great creativity can make politicians electable,
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or parties unelectable.
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00:47
It can make war seem like tragedy or farce.
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00:51
Creativity is the meme-maker that puts slogans on our t-shirts
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00:55
and phrases on our lips.
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00:57
It's the pathfinder that shows us a simple road
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01:00
through an impenetrable moral maze.
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01:02
Science is clever, but great creativity is something less knowable,
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01:07
more magical. And now we need that magic.
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01:10
This is a time of need.
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01:12
Our climate is changing quickly, too quickly.
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01:14
And great creativity is needed to do what it does so well:
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to provoke us to think differently with dramatic creative statements.
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01:21
To tempt us to act differently
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with delightful creative scraps.
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01:26
Here is one such scrap from an initiative I'm involved in
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using creativity to inspire people to be greener.
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01:32
(Video) Man: You know, rather than drive today, I'm going to walk.
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01:36
Narrator: And so he walked, and as he walked he saw things.
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Strange and wonderful things he would not otherwise have seen.
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01:44
A deer with an itchy leg. A flying motorcycle.
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A father and daughter separated from a bicycle by a mysterious wall.
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And then he stopped. Walking in front of him was her.
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The woman who as a child had skipped with him through fields
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02:00
and broken his heart.
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Sure, she had aged a little.
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In fact, she had aged a lot.
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But he felt all his old passion for her return.
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02:07
"Ford," he called softly. For that was her name.
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02:11
"Don't say another word, Gusty," she said,
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for that was his name.
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02:14
"I know a tent next to a caravan, exactly 300 yards from here.
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Let's go there and make love. In the tent."
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02:22
Ford undressed. She spread one leg, and then the other.
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Gusty entered her boldly and made love to her rhythmically
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while she filmed him, because she was a keen amateur pornographer.
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02:33
The earth moved for both of them.
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And they lived together happily ever after.
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02:38
And all because he decided to walk that day.
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02:44
(Applause)
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02:54
Andy Hobsbawm: We've got the science, we've had the debate.
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02:57
The moral imperative is on the table.
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02:59
Great creativity is needed to take it all,
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03:01
make it simple and sharp.
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03:03
To make it connect. To make it make people want to act.
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03:07
So this is a call, a plea,
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03:09
to the incredibly talented TED community.
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03:11
Let's get creative against climate change.
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03:13
And let's do it soon. Thank you.
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03:15
(Applause)
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Original video on YouTube.com
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