ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Edward Burtynsky - Photographer
2005 TED Prize winner Edward Burtynsky has made it his life's work to document humanity's impact on the planet. His riveting photographs, as beautiful as they are horrifying, capture views of the Earth altered by mankind.

Why you should listen

To describe Canadian photographer Edward Burtynsky's work in a single adjective, you have to speak French: jolie-laide. His images of scarred landscapes -- from mountains of tires to rivers of bright orange waste from a nickel mine -- are eerily pretty yet ugly at the same time. Burtynsky's large-format color photographs explore the impact of humanity's expanding footprint and the substantial ways in which we're reshaping the surface of the planet. His images powerfully alter the way we think about the world and our place in it.

With his blessing and encouragement, WorldChanging.com and others use his work to inspire ongoing global conversations about sustainable living. Burtynsky's photographs are included in the collections of over 50 museums around the world, including the Tate, London and the Museum of Modern Art and the Guggenheim in New York City. A large-format book, 2003's Manufactured Landscapes, collected his work, and in 2007, a documentary based on his photography, also called Manufactured Landscapes, debuted at the Toronto Film Festival before going on to screen at Sundance and elsewhere. It was released on DVD in March 2007. In 2008, after giving a talk at the Long Now Foundation, Burtynsky proposed "The 10,000 Year Gallery," which could house art to be curated over thousands of years preserved through carbon transfers in an effort to reflect the attitudes and changes of the world over time. 

When Burtynsky accepted his 2005 TED Prize, he made three wishes. One of his wishes: to build a website that will help kids think about going green. Thanks to WGBH and the TED community, the show and site Meet the Greens debuted at TED2007. His second wish: to begin work on an Imax film, which morphed into the jaw-dropping film Manufactured Landscapes with Jennifer Baichwal. And his third wish, wider in scope, was simply to encourage "a massive and productive worldwide conversation about sustainable living." Thanks to his help and the input of the TED community, the site WorldChanging.com got an infusion of energy that has helped it to grow into a leading voice in the sustainability community.

In 2016, he won a Governor General's Award in Visual and Media Arts for his work.

More profile about the speaker
Edward Burtynsky | Speaker | TED.com
TEDGlobal 2009

Edward Burtynsky: Photographing the landscape of oil

Edward Burtynsky retrata el paisatge del petroli

Filmed:
550,970 views

Mitjançant impressionants fotografies panoràmiques, Edward Burtynsky segueix el camí del petroli en la societat moderna, de la boca del pou a través de l'oleoducte fins als cotxes - i després més enllà, fins al previst desenllaç del pic petrolier.
- Photographer
2005 TED Prize winner Edward Burtynsky has made it his life's work to document humanity's impact on the planet. His riveting photographs, as beautiful as they are horrifying, capture views of the Earth altered by mankind. Full bio

Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.

00:15
I startedva començar my journeyviatge 30 yearsanys agofa.
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Vaig començar el meu viatge fa 30 anys.
00:18
And I workedtreballat in minesmines. And I realizedadonar-se'n that
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Treballava en mines i m'he adonat que
00:20
this was a worldmón unseeninvisible.
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aquell era un món que mai s'havia vist.
00:22
And I wanted, througha través colorcolor and largegran formatformat camerascàmeres
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Volia servir-me del color, càmeres de gran format
00:24
and very largegran printsimpressions,
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i estampes molt grans,
00:26
to make a bodycos of work that somehowd'alguna manera
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per fer un treball que d'alguna manera
00:28
becamees va convertir symbolssímbols of our
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es convertiria en símbol
00:31
use of the landscapepaisatge,
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del nostre ús del paisatge,
00:33
how we use the landterra.
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de com utilitzem la terra.
00:35
And to me this was
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Per a mi això era una peça clau
00:37
a keyclau componentcomponent that somehowd'alguna manera, througha través this mediummitjà of photographyfotografia,
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que d'alguna manera, per mitjà de la fotografia,
00:40
whichquin allowspermet us to contemplatecontemplar these landscapespaisatges,
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ens permet contemplar aquests paisatges,
00:43
that I thought photographyfotografia was perfectlyperfectament suitedadequat
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i que la fotografia era perfectament idònia
00:46
to doing this typeescriu of work.
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per aquest tipus de treball.
00:48
And after 17 yearsanys of photographingfotografiar largegran industrialindustrial landscapespaisatges,
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Després de 17 anys de fotografiar grans paisatges industrials
00:52
it occurredha passat to me that
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se'm va acudir que el petroli
00:54
oiloli is underpinningApuntalament de la the scaleescala and speedvelocitat.
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fa de suport per l'escala i la velocitat.
00:56
Because that is what has changedha canviat,
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Per què allò que ha canviat és la velocitat
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is the speedvelocitat at whichquin we're takingpresa all our resourcesrecursos.
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amb la qual estem acabant amb els nostres recursos.
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And so then I wentva anar out to developdesenvolupar a wholetot seriessèrie
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Així vaig començar a elaborar una sèrie sencera
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on the landscapepaisatge of oiloli.
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sobre els paisatges del petroli.
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And what I want to do is to kindamable of mapmapa an arcarc
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Volia fer una mena de mapa d'un arc narratiu
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that there is extractionextracció, where we're takingpresa it from the groundterra,
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aquí està l'extracció, on estem extraient de la terra,
01:13
refinementrefinament. And that's one chaptercapítol.
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i aquí el refinament. Això és un capítol.
01:15
The other chaptercapítol that I wanted to look at was
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L'altre capítol que volia mirar a fer era
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how we use it -- our citiesciutats,
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com ho fem servir, les nostres ciutats,
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our carscotxes, our motorculturesmotorcultures,
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els nostres cotxes, les nostres cultures motoritzades,
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where people gatherreunir around the vehiclevehicle
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on la gent es reuneix al voltant d'un vehicle
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as a celebrationcelebració.
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com en un festeig.
01:27
And then the thirdtercer one is this ideaidea of the endfinal of oiloli,
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El tercer capítol és la idea de la fi del petroli,
01:29
this entropicantròpics endfinal,
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aquesta fi entròpica, (on acaben)
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where all of our partsparts of carscotxes, our tirespneumàtics,
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totes les peces dels nostres cotxes, rodes,
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oiloli filtersfiltres,
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filtres d'oli,
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helicoptershelicòpters, planesavions --
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helicòpters, avions -
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where are the landscapespaisatges where all of that stuffcoses endsacaba up?
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on queden els paisatges on acaben totes aquestes coses?
01:41
And to me, again, photographyfotografia was
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Per a mi, novament, la fotografia era
01:43
a way in whichquin I could exploreexplora and researchrecerca the worldmón,
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la manera amb la qual podia explorar i investigar el món,
01:46
and find those placesllocs.
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i trobar aquests paratges.
01:48
And anotherun altre ideaidea that I had as well,
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Una altra idea que també vaig tenir,
01:50
that was broughtportat forwardendavant by an ecologistecologista --
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la va avançar un ecologista -
01:54
he basicallybàsicament did a calculationcàlcul where
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bàsicament ell va fer un càlcul
01:57
he tookva prendre one literlitre of gasgas and said,
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prenent un litre de benzina i dient
01:59
well, how much carboncarboni it would take, and how much organicorgànic materialmaterial?
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"Ara bé, quant carboni i quant material orgànic caldria?"
02:03
It was 23 metricmètrica tonstones for one literlitre.
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El resultat era 23 tones mètriques per un litre.
02:06
So wheneversempre que sigui I fillomplir up my gasgas,
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Ara al omplir el diposit sempre penso en
02:08
I think of that literlitre, and how much carboncarboni.
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aquell litre, i en la quantitat de carboni.
02:10
And I know that oiloli comesve from the oceanoceà and phytoplanktonfitoplàncton,
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Sé que el petroli ve de l'oceà i del fitoplàncton,
02:13
but he did the calculationscàlculs for our EarthTerra
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però el seu càlcul era al nivell del planeta
02:16
and what it had to do to produceproduir that amountquantitat of energyenergia.
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i que havia de fer per produir aquesta quantitat d'energia.
02:18
From the photosyntheticfotosintètic growthcreixement,
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Amb la producció fotosintètica,
02:20
it would take 500 yearsanys of that growthcreixement
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caldrien 500 anys
02:23
to produceproduir what we use, the 30 billionmil milions barrelsbarrils we use perper yearcurs.
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per produir els 30 mil milions de barrils que fem servir cada any.
02:28
And that alsotambé broughtportat me to the factfet that
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Així vaig arribar a la conclusió que
02:30
this posesplanteja suchtal a riskrisc to our societysocietat.
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això era un gran risc per la nostra societat.
02:33
Looking at 30 billionmil milions perper yearcurs,
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Considerant els 30 mil milions per any,
02:38
we look at our two largestel més gran suppliersproveïdors,
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mirem els nostres dos proveïdors més grans,
02:40
SaudiAràbia Saudita ArabiaArabia and now CanadaCanadà, with its dirtybrut oiloli.
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Aràbia Saudita i ara Canadà, amb el seu petroli brut.
02:42
And togetherjunts they only formforma about 15 yearsanys of supplysubministrament.
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Els dos junts només arriben a 15 anys de provisions.
02:46
The wholetot worldmón, at 1.2 trilliontrillió estimatedestimat reservesreserves,
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En tot el món s'estimen 1,2 bilions en reserves,
02:49
only givesdóna us about 45 yearsanys.
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això només ens dóna al voltant de 45 anys.
02:51
So, it's not a questionpregunta of if, but a questionpregunta of when
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Per tant no és una qüestió de "si", sinó de
02:54
peakpic oiloli will come upondamunt us.
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"quan" ens caurà a sobre el pic petrolier.
02:56
So, to me, usingutilitzant photographyfotografia --
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Així que, per a mi, usar la fotografia -
02:58
and I feel that all of us need to now begincomençar to really
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crec que tots nosaltres hem de començar realment
03:01
take the tasktasca of usingutilitzant our talentstalents,
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a donar-nos la tasca d'utilitzar els nostres talents,
03:03
our waysmaneres of thinkingpensant,
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les nostres maneres de pensar,
03:06
to begincomençar to dealacord with what I think is probablyProbablement
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per començar a abordar el que crec que és
03:08
one of the mostla majoria challengingdesafiant issuesproblemes of our time,
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un dels reptes més grans de la nostra època,
03:11
how to dealacord with our energyenergia crisiscrisi.
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com afrontar la nostra crisi energètica.
03:13
And I would like to say that, on the other sidecostat of it,
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I m'agradaria dir que, d'altra banda,
03:15
30, 40 yearsanys from now, the childrennens that I have,
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en 30, 40 anys, als nens que tinc,
03:17
I can look at them and say, "We did everything
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podré mirar-los i dir-los "Vam fer
03:19
we possiblypossiblement, humanlyhumanament could do,
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tot el que era humanament possible
03:22
to begincomençar to mitigatemitigar this,
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per començar a mitigar això,
03:25
what I feel is one of the mostla majoria importantimportant and criticalcrític
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que crec és un dels moments més
03:27
momentsmoments in our time. Thank you.
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importants i crítics del nostre temps. Gràcies.
03:30
(ApplauseAplaudiments)
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(Aplaudiments)
Translated by Radina Matic
Reviewed by Noemi Casadesus Viola

▲Back to top

ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Edward Burtynsky - Photographer
2005 TED Prize winner Edward Burtynsky has made it his life's work to document humanity's impact on the planet. His riveting photographs, as beautiful as they are horrifying, capture views of the Earth altered by mankind.

Why you should listen

To describe Canadian photographer Edward Burtynsky's work in a single adjective, you have to speak French: jolie-laide. His images of scarred landscapes -- from mountains of tires to rivers of bright orange waste from a nickel mine -- are eerily pretty yet ugly at the same time. Burtynsky's large-format color photographs explore the impact of humanity's expanding footprint and the substantial ways in which we're reshaping the surface of the planet. His images powerfully alter the way we think about the world and our place in it.

With his blessing and encouragement, WorldChanging.com and others use his work to inspire ongoing global conversations about sustainable living. Burtynsky's photographs are included in the collections of over 50 museums around the world, including the Tate, London and the Museum of Modern Art and the Guggenheim in New York City. A large-format book, 2003's Manufactured Landscapes, collected his work, and in 2007, a documentary based on his photography, also called Manufactured Landscapes, debuted at the Toronto Film Festival before going on to screen at Sundance and elsewhere. It was released on DVD in March 2007. In 2008, after giving a talk at the Long Now Foundation, Burtynsky proposed "The 10,000 Year Gallery," which could house art to be curated over thousands of years preserved through carbon transfers in an effort to reflect the attitudes and changes of the world over time. 

When Burtynsky accepted his 2005 TED Prize, he made three wishes. One of his wishes: to build a website that will help kids think about going green. Thanks to WGBH and the TED community, the show and site Meet the Greens debuted at TED2007. His second wish: to begin work on an Imax film, which morphed into the jaw-dropping film Manufactured Landscapes with Jennifer Baichwal. And his third wish, wider in scope, was simply to encourage "a massive and productive worldwide conversation about sustainable living." Thanks to his help and the input of the TED community, the site WorldChanging.com got an infusion of energy that has helped it to grow into a leading voice in the sustainability community.

In 2016, he won a Governor General's Award in Visual and Media Arts for his work.

More profile about the speaker
Edward Burtynsky | Speaker | TED.com
THE ORIGINAL VIDEO ON TED.COM

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