TEDxOilSpill
Carl Safina: The oil spill's unseen villains -- and victims
Filmed:
Readability: 3.2
817,323 views
Even as the Deepwater Horizon tragedy unfolded, Carl Safina took the stage at TEDxOilSpill to share what the facts were known at the time. In a blood-boiling cross-examination, he suggests that the consequences will stretch far beyond the Gulf -- and many so-called solutions are making the situation worse.
Carl Safina - Ecologist, writer
Carl Safina's writing explores the scientific, moral and social dimensions of our relationship with nature. Full bio
Carl Safina's writing explores the scientific, moral and social dimensions of our relationship with nature. Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
00:16
This is the ocean as I used to know it.
0
1000
3000
00:19
And I find that
1
4000
2000
00:21
since I've been in the Gulf a couple of times,
2
6000
2000
00:23
I really kind of am traumatized
3
8000
2000
00:25
because whenever I look at the ocean now,
4
10000
3000
00:28
no matter where I am,
5
13000
2000
00:30
even where I know
6
15000
2000
00:32
none of the oil has gone,
7
17000
2000
00:34
I sort of see slicks,
8
19000
2000
00:36
and I'm finding that I'm very much
9
21000
2000
00:38
haunted by it.
10
23000
2000
00:41
But what I want to talk to you about today
11
26000
2000
00:43
is a lot of things that try
12
28000
2000
00:45
to put all of this in context,
13
30000
2000
00:47
not just about the oil eruption,
14
32000
3000
00:50
but what it means and why it has happened.
15
35000
3000
00:53
First, just a little bit about me.
16
38000
2000
00:55
I'm basically just a guy that likes to go fishing
17
40000
2000
00:57
ever since I was a little kid,
18
42000
2000
00:59
and because I did,
19
44000
2000
01:01
I wound up studying sea birds
20
46000
2000
01:03
to try to stay in the coastal habitats that I so loved.
21
48000
3000
01:06
And now I mainly write books
22
51000
2000
01:08
about how the ocean is changing,
23
53000
2000
01:10
and the ocean is certainly changing very rapidly.
24
55000
3000
01:13
Now we saw this kind of graphic earlier on,
25
58000
3000
01:16
that we really live on a hard marble
26
61000
3000
01:19
that has just a slight
27
64000
2000
01:21
bit of wetness to it.
28
66000
2000
01:23
It's like you dipped a marble in water.
29
68000
2000
01:25
And the same thing with the atmosphere:
30
70000
2000
01:27
If you took all the atmosphere
31
72000
2000
01:29
and rolled it up in a ball,
32
74000
2000
01:31
you would get that little sphere of gas on the right.
33
76000
2000
01:33
So we live on
34
78000
2000
01:35
the most fragile, little soap bubble you can imagine,
35
80000
3000
01:38
a very sacred soap bubble,
36
83000
2000
01:40
but one that is very, very easy to affect.
37
85000
3000
01:43
And all the burning of oil and coal and gas,
38
88000
3000
01:46
all the fossil fuels,
39
91000
2000
01:48
have changed the atmosphere greatly.
40
93000
2000
01:50
Carbon dioxide level has gone up and up and up.
41
95000
3000
01:53
We're warming the climate.
42
98000
3000
01:56
So the blowout in the Gulf
43
101000
2000
01:58
is just a little piece
44
103000
2000
02:00
of a much larger problem that we have
45
105000
3000
02:03
with the energy that we use to run civilization.
46
108000
3000
02:06
Beyond warming,
47
111000
2000
02:08
we have the problem of the oceans getting more acidified --
48
113000
3000
02:11
and already measurably so,
49
116000
2000
02:13
and already affecting animals.
50
118000
3000
02:16
Now in the laboratory,
51
121000
2000
02:18
if you take a clam and you put it in the pH
52
123000
2000
02:20
that is -- not 8.1,
53
125000
2000
02:22
which is the normal pH of seawater --
54
127000
2000
02:24
but 7.5,
55
129000
2000
02:26
it dissolves in about three days.
56
131000
3000
02:29
If you take a sea urchin larva
57
134000
2000
02:31
from 8.1,
58
136000
2000
02:33
put it in a pH of 7.7 --
59
138000
2000
02:35
not a huge change --
60
140000
2000
02:37
it becomes deformed and dies.
61
142000
3000
02:40
And already, commercial oyster larvae
62
145000
3000
02:43
are dying at large scales
63
148000
2000
02:45
in some places.
64
150000
2000
02:47
Coral reefs are growing slower
65
152000
2000
02:49
in some places because of this problem.
66
154000
2000
02:51
So this really matters.
67
156000
2000
02:53
Now, let's take a little tour
68
158000
2000
02:55
around the Gulf a little bit.
69
160000
2000
02:57
One of the things that really impresses me about the people in the Gulf:
70
162000
3000
03:00
They are really, really aquatic people.
71
165000
3000
03:03
And they can handle water.
72
168000
2000
03:05
They can handle a hurricane that comes and goes.
73
170000
2000
03:07
When the water goes down, they know what to do.
74
172000
3000
03:10
But when it's something other than water,
75
175000
2000
03:12
and their water habitat changes,
76
177000
2000
03:14
they don't have many options.
77
179000
2000
03:16
In fact, those entire communities
78
181000
2000
03:18
really don't have many options.
79
183000
2000
03:20
They don't have another thing they can do.
80
185000
3000
03:23
They can't go and work
81
188000
2000
03:25
in the local hotel business
82
190000
2000
03:27
because there isn't one in their community.
83
192000
3000
03:31
If you go to the Gulf and you look around,
84
196000
2000
03:33
you do see a lot of oil.
85
198000
2000
03:35
You see a lot of oil on the ocean.
86
200000
2000
03:37
You see a lot of oil on the shoreline.
87
202000
3000
03:40
If you go to the site of the blowout,
88
205000
2000
03:42
it looks pretty unbelievable.
89
207000
2000
03:44
It looks like you just emptied the oil pan in your car,
90
209000
3000
03:47
and you just dumped it in the ocean.
91
212000
2000
03:49
And one of the really most incredible things, I think,
92
214000
3000
03:52
is that there's nobody out there
93
217000
2000
03:54
trying to collect it
94
219000
2000
03:56
at the site where it is densest.
95
221000
3000
03:59
Parts of the ocean there
96
224000
2000
04:01
look just absolutely apocalyptic.
97
226000
3000
04:05
You go in along the shore,
98
230000
2000
04:07
you can find it everywhere.
99
232000
2000
04:09
It's really messy.
100
234000
2000
04:11
If you go to the places where it's just arriving,
101
236000
2000
04:13
like the eastern part of the Gulf, in Alabama,
102
238000
3000
04:16
there's still people using the beach
103
241000
2000
04:18
while there are people cleaning up the beach.
104
243000
2000
04:20
And they have a very strange way of cleaning up the beach.
105
245000
3000
04:23
They're not allowed to put more than 10 pounds of sand
106
248000
2000
04:25
in a 50-gallon plastic bag.
107
250000
2000
04:27
They have thousands and thousands of plastic bags.
108
252000
2000
04:29
I don't know what they're going to do with all that stuff.
109
254000
2000
04:31
Meanwhile, there are still people trying to use the beach.
110
256000
2000
04:33
They don't see the little, tiny sign
111
258000
2000
04:35
that says: "Stay out of the water."
112
260000
2000
04:37
Their kids are in the water; they're getting tar
113
262000
2000
04:39
all over their clothes and their sandals. It's a mess.
114
264000
3000
04:42
If you go to the place where the oil has been a while,
115
267000
2000
04:44
it's an even bigger mess.
116
269000
2000
04:46
And there's basically nobody there anymore,
117
271000
3000
04:49
a few people trying
118
274000
2000
04:51
to keep using it.
119
276000
2000
04:53
You see people who are really shell-shocked.
120
278000
2000
04:55
They are very hardworking people.
121
280000
2000
04:57
All they know about life is they get up in the morning,
122
282000
2000
04:59
and if their engine starts, they go to work.
123
284000
3000
05:02
They always felt that they could rely on
124
287000
3000
05:05
the assurances that nature brought them
125
290000
2000
05:07
through the ecosystem of the Gulf.
126
292000
2000
05:09
They're finding that their world is really collapsing.
127
294000
3000
05:12
And so you can see, literally,
128
297000
3000
05:15
signs of their shock,
129
300000
3000
05:20
signs of their outrage,
130
305000
3000
05:25
signs of their anger,
131
310000
3000
05:32
and signs of their grief.
132
317000
3000
05:35
These are the things that you can see.
133
320000
3000
05:40
There's a lot you can't see, also,
134
325000
2000
05:42
underwater.
135
327000
2000
05:44
What's going on underwater?
136
329000
2000
05:46
Well, some people say
137
331000
2000
05:48
there are oil plumes.
138
333000
2000
05:50
Some people say there are not oil plumes.
139
335000
3000
05:53
And Congressman Markey asks, you know,
140
338000
3000
05:56
"Is it going to take a submarine ride
141
341000
3000
05:59
to see if there are really oil plumes?"
142
344000
3000
06:02
But I couldn't take a submarine ride --
143
347000
2000
06:04
especially between the time I knew I was coming here and today --
144
349000
3000
06:07
so I had to do
145
352000
2000
06:09
a little experiment myself
146
354000
2000
06:11
to see if there was oil in the Gulf of Mexico.
147
356000
2000
06:13
So this is the Gulf of Mexico,
148
358000
3000
06:16
sparkling place full of fish.
149
361000
3000
06:19
I created a little oil spill
150
364000
2000
06:21
in the Gulf of Mexico.
151
366000
2000
06:23
And I learned -- in fact, I confirmed -- the hypothesis
152
368000
2000
06:25
that oil and water don't mix
153
370000
3000
06:28
until you add a dispersant,
154
373000
3000
06:33
and then
155
378000
3000
06:36
they start mixing.
156
381000
2000
06:38
And you add a little energy
157
383000
2000
06:40
from the wind and the waves,
158
385000
2000
06:42
and you get a big mess,
159
387000
3000
06:45
a big mess
160
390000
2000
06:47
that you can't possibly clean,
161
392000
2000
06:49
you can't touch, you can't extract
162
394000
3000
06:52
and, I think most importantly -- this is what I think --
163
397000
3000
06:55
you can't see it.
164
400000
2000
06:57
I think it's being hidden on purpose.
165
402000
3000
07:00
Now this is such a catastrophe and such a mess,
166
405000
3000
07:03
that lots of stuff is leaking out on the edges of the information stream.
167
408000
3000
07:06
But as many people have said,
168
411000
2000
07:08
there's a large attempt to suppress what's going on.
169
413000
3000
07:11
Personally, I think that
170
416000
2000
07:13
the dispersants are
171
418000
2000
07:15
a major strategy to hide the body,
172
420000
3000
07:18
because we put the murderer
173
423000
2000
07:20
in charge of the crime scene.
174
425000
2000
07:22
But you can see it.
175
427000
2000
07:24
You can see where the oil
176
429000
2000
07:26
is concentrated at the surface,
177
431000
2000
07:28
and then it is attacked,
178
433000
3000
07:31
because they don't want the evidence, in my opinion.
179
436000
3000
07:34
Okay.
180
439000
2000
07:36
We heard that bacteria eat oil?
181
441000
2000
07:38
So do sea turtles.
182
443000
2000
07:40
When it breaks up,
183
445000
2000
07:42
it has a long way to go
184
447000
2000
07:44
before it gets down to bacteria.
185
449000
2000
07:46
Turtles eat it. It gets in the gills of fish.
186
451000
3000
07:49
These guys have to swim around through it.
187
454000
2000
07:51
I heard the most incredible story today
188
456000
3000
07:54
when I was on the train coming here.
189
459000
3000
07:57
A writer named Ted Williams called me,
190
462000
2000
07:59
and he was asking me a couple of questions
191
464000
2000
08:01
about what I saw,
192
466000
2000
08:03
because he's writing an article for Audubon magazine.
193
468000
2000
08:05
He said that he had been in the Gulf a little while ago --
194
470000
3000
08:08
like about a week ago --
195
473000
2000
08:10
and a guy who had been a recreational fishing guide
196
475000
3000
08:13
took him out to show him what's going on.
197
478000
3000
08:16
That guide's entire calendar year
198
481000
3000
08:19
is canceled bookings.
199
484000
2000
08:21
He has no bookings left.
200
486000
2000
08:23
Everybody wanted their deposit back. Everybody is fleeing.
201
488000
3000
08:26
That's the story of thousands of people.
202
491000
2000
08:28
But he told Ted
203
493000
3000
08:31
that on the last day he went out,
204
496000
2000
08:33
a bottlenose dolphin
205
498000
2000
08:35
suddenly appeared next to the boat,
206
500000
3000
08:38
and it was splattering oil
207
503000
2000
08:40
out its blowhole.
208
505000
3000
08:43
And he moved away
209
508000
2000
08:45
because it was
210
510000
2000
08:47
his last fishing trip,
211
512000
2000
08:49
and he knew that the dolphins scare fish.
212
514000
2000
08:51
So he moved away from it,
213
516000
2000
08:53
turned around a few minutes later,
214
518000
2000
08:55
it was right next to the side of the boat again.
215
520000
2000
08:57
He said that in 30 years of fishing
216
522000
2000
08:59
he had never seen a dolphin do that.
217
524000
2000
09:01
And he felt that --
218
526000
3000
09:04
he felt that it was
219
529000
2000
09:06
coming to ask for help. Sorry.
220
531000
3000
09:12
Now, in the Exxon Valdez spill,
221
537000
3000
09:15
about 30 percent of the killer whales
222
540000
2000
09:17
died in the first few months.
223
542000
3000
09:20
Their numbers have never recovered.
224
545000
2000
09:22
So the recovery rate of all this stuff
225
547000
2000
09:24
is going to be variable.
226
549000
2000
09:26
It's going to take longer for some things.
227
551000
3000
09:29
And some things, I think, will probably
228
554000
2000
09:31
come back a little faster.
229
556000
2000
09:33
The other thing about the Gulf that is important
230
558000
3000
09:36
is that there are a lot of animals
231
561000
2000
09:38
that concentrate in the Gulf
232
563000
2000
09:40
at certain parts of the year.
233
565000
3000
09:43
So the Gulf is a really important piece of water --
234
568000
2000
09:45
more important than a similar volume
235
570000
3000
09:48
of water in the open Atlantic Ocean.
236
573000
3000
09:51
These tuna swim the entire ocean.
237
576000
2000
09:53
They get in the Gulf Stream. They go all the way to Europe.
238
578000
2000
09:55
When it comes time to spawn, they come inside,
239
580000
2000
09:57
and these two tuna that were tagged,
240
582000
2000
09:59
you can see them on the spawning grounds
241
584000
3000
10:02
very much right in the area of the slick.
242
587000
2000
10:04
They're probably having, at the very least,
243
589000
3000
10:07
a catastrophic spawning season this year.
244
592000
3000
10:10
I'm hoping that maybe the adults
245
595000
2000
10:12
are avoiding that dirty water.
246
597000
2000
10:14
They don't usually like to go into water
247
599000
2000
10:16
that is very cloudy anyway.
248
601000
2000
10:18
But these are really high-performance
249
603000
2000
10:20
athletic animals.
250
605000
2000
10:22
I don't know what this kind of stuff will do in their gills.
251
607000
3000
10:25
I don't know if it'll affect the adults.
252
610000
2000
10:27
If it's not, it's certainly affecting
253
612000
2000
10:29
their eggs and larvae, I would certainly think.
254
614000
2000
10:31
But if you look at that graph that goes down and down and down,
255
616000
3000
10:34
that's what we've done to this species
256
619000
2000
10:36
through overfishing over many decades.
257
621000
3000
10:39
So while the oil spill,
258
624000
2000
10:41
the leak, the eruption,
259
626000
2000
10:43
is a catastrophe,
260
628000
2000
10:45
I think it's important to keep in mind
261
630000
2000
10:47
that we've done a lot to affect what's in the ocean
262
632000
2000
10:49
for a very, very long time.
263
634000
2000
10:51
It's not like we're starting with something
264
636000
2000
10:53
that's been okay.
265
638000
2000
10:55
We're starting with something that's had a lot of stresses
266
640000
2000
10:57
and a lot of problems to begin with.
267
642000
2000
10:59
If you look around at the birds,
268
644000
2000
11:01
there are a lot of birds in the Gulf
269
646000
2000
11:03
that concentrate in the Gulf at certain times of the year,
270
648000
3000
11:06
but then leave.
271
651000
2000
11:08
And they populate much larger areas.
272
653000
3000
11:11
So for instance,
273
656000
2000
11:13
most of the birds in this picture are migratory birds.
274
658000
3000
11:16
They were all on the Gulf in May,
275
661000
2000
11:18
while oil was starting to come ashore in certain places.
276
663000
3000
11:22
Down on the lower left there
277
667000
2000
11:24
are Ruddy Turnstones and Sanderlings.
278
669000
2000
11:26
They breed in the high arctic,
279
671000
2000
11:28
and they winter down in southern South America.
280
673000
2000
11:30
But they concentrate in the Gulf
281
675000
2000
11:32
and then fan out all across the arctic.
282
677000
3000
11:35
I saw birds that breed in Greenland
283
680000
2000
11:37
in the Gulf,
284
682000
2000
11:40
so this is a hemispheric issue.
285
685000
3000
11:43
The economic effects
286
688000
2000
11:45
go at least nationally in many ways.
287
690000
3000
11:48
The biological effects are certainly hemispheric.
288
693000
3000
11:53
I think that this is one of the most
289
698000
2000
11:55
absolutely mind-boggling
290
700000
3000
11:58
examples of total unpreparedness
291
703000
2000
12:00
that I can even think of.
292
705000
2000
12:02
Even when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor,
293
707000
3000
12:05
at least they shot back.
294
710000
2000
12:07
And we just seem to be
295
712000
2000
12:09
unable to figure out what to do.
296
714000
2000
12:11
There was nothing ready,
297
716000
3000
12:15
and, you know, as we can see
298
720000
2000
12:17
by what they're doing.
299
722000
2000
12:19
Mainly what they're doing is booms and dispersants.
300
724000
2000
12:21
The booms are absolutely not made for open water.
301
726000
3000
12:24
They don't even attempt to corral
302
729000
3000
12:27
the oil where it is most concentrated.
303
732000
3000
12:30
They get near shore. Look at these two boats.
304
735000
2000
12:32
That one on the right is called Fishing Fool.
305
737000
3000
12:35
And I think, you know, that's a great name
306
740000
2000
12:37
for boats that think that they're going to do anything
307
742000
3000
12:40
to make a dent in this by dragging a boom between them
308
745000
3000
12:43
when there are literally hundreds of thousands
309
748000
2000
12:45
of square miles in the Gulf right now
310
750000
2000
12:47
with oil at the surface.
311
752000
2000
12:49
The dispersants make the oil go right under the booms.
312
754000
3000
12:52
The booms are only about
313
757000
2000
12:54
13 inches in diameter.
314
759000
2000
12:57
So it's just absolutely crazy.
315
762000
3000
13:00
Here are shrimp boats employed.
316
765000
2000
13:02
There are hundreds of shrimp boats employed to drag booms instead of nets.
317
767000
3000
13:05
Here they are working.
318
770000
2000
13:07
You can see easily
319
772000
2000
13:09
that all the oily water just goes over the back of the boom.
320
774000
3000
13:12
All they're doing is stirring it.
321
777000
3000
13:15
It's just ridiculous.
322
780000
2000
13:17
Also, for all the shoreline that has booms --
323
782000
3000
13:20
hundreds and hundreds of miles of shoreline --
324
785000
2000
13:22
all of the shoreline that has booms,
325
787000
2000
13:24
there's adjacent shoreline that doesn't have any booms.
326
789000
3000
13:27
There is ample opportunity
327
792000
2000
13:29
for oil and dirty water to get in behind them.
328
794000
3000
13:32
And that lower photo, that's a bird colony that has been boomed.
329
797000
3000
13:35
Everybody's trying to protect
330
800000
3000
13:38
the bird colonies there.
331
803000
2000
13:40
Well, as an ornithologist,
332
805000
3000
13:43
I can tell you that birds fly, and that --
333
808000
3000
13:46
(Laughter)
334
811000
2000
13:50
and that booming a bird colony
335
815000
3000
13:53
doesn't do it; it doesn't do it.
336
818000
3000
13:56
These birds make a living by diving into the water.
337
821000
3000
14:00
In fact,
338
825000
3000
14:03
really what I think they should do, if anything --
339
828000
3000
14:06
they're trying so hard to protect those nests --
340
831000
3000
14:09
actually, if they destroyed every single nest
341
834000
3000
14:12
some of the birds would leave,
342
837000
2000
14:14
and that would be better for them this year.
343
839000
3000
14:17
As far as cleaning them,
344
842000
3000
14:20
I don't mean to cast any aspersion
345
845000
3000
14:23
on people cleaning birds.
346
848000
2000
14:25
It's really, really important
347
850000
2000
14:27
that we express our compassion.
348
852000
2000
14:29
I think that's the most important thing that people have,
349
854000
2000
14:31
is compassion.
350
856000
2000
14:33
It's really important to get those images
351
858000
2000
14:35
and to show it.
352
860000
2000
14:37
But really, where are those birds going to get released to?
353
862000
3000
14:40
It's like taking somebody out of a burning building,
354
865000
2000
14:42
treating them for smoke inhalation
355
867000
2000
14:44
and sending them back into the building, because the oil is still gushing.
356
869000
3000
14:48
I refuse to acknowledge this
357
873000
2000
14:50
as anything like an accident.
358
875000
3000
14:53
I think that this is the result of gross negligence.
359
878000
3000
14:56
(Applause)
360
881000
5000
15:01
Not just B.P.
361
886000
2000
15:03
B.P. operated
362
888000
2000
15:05
very sloppily and very recklessly
363
890000
3000
15:08
because they could.
364
893000
2000
15:10
And they were allowed to do so
365
895000
2000
15:12
because of the absolute failure of oversight
366
897000
3000
15:15
of the government that's supposed to be
367
900000
3000
15:18
our government, protecting us.
368
903000
3000
15:23
It turns out that --
369
908000
2000
15:25
you see this sign on almost every commercial vessel in the United States --
370
910000
3000
15:28
you know, if you spilled a couple of gallons of oil,
371
913000
2000
15:30
you would be in big trouble.
372
915000
2000
15:32
And you have to really wonder
373
917000
2000
15:34
who are the laws made for,
374
919000
3000
15:37
and who has gotten above the laws.
375
922000
3000
15:40
Now there are things that we can do in the future.
376
925000
2000
15:42
We could have the kinds of equipment that we would really need.
377
927000
3000
15:45
It would not take an awful lot
378
930000
2000
15:47
to anticipate
379
932000
2000
15:49
that after making 30,000 holes
380
934000
2000
15:51
in the sea floor of the Gulf of Mexico looking for oil,
381
936000
3000
15:54
oil might start coming out of one of them.
382
939000
2000
15:56
And you'd have some idea of what to do.
383
941000
3000
15:59
That's certainly one of the things we need to do.
384
944000
3000
16:02
But I think we have to understand where this leak
385
947000
2000
16:04
really started from.
386
949000
3000
16:07
It really started from the destruction
387
952000
2000
16:09
of the idea that the government is there
388
954000
3000
16:12
because it's our government, meant to protect
389
957000
3000
16:15
the larger public interest.
390
960000
2000
16:21
So I think that the oil blowout,
391
966000
2000
16:23
the bank bailout,
392
968000
2000
16:25
the mortgage crisis and all these things
393
970000
3000
16:28
are absolutely symptoms of
394
973000
3000
16:31
the same cause.
395
976000
2000
16:33
We still seem to understand
396
978000
2000
16:35
that at least we need the police to protect us
397
980000
3000
16:38
from a few bad people.
398
983000
3000
16:41
And even though the police can be a little annoying at times --
399
986000
2000
16:43
giving us tickets and stuff like that --
400
988000
2000
16:45
nobody says that we should just get rid of them.
401
990000
3000
16:48
But in the entire rest of government right now
402
993000
3000
16:51
and for the last at least 30 years,
403
996000
2000
16:53
there has been a culture of deregulation
404
998000
3000
16:56
that is caused directly
405
1001000
2000
16:58
by the people who
406
1003000
2000
17:00
we need to be protected from,
407
1005000
2000
17:02
buying the government out from under us.
408
1007000
3000
17:05
(Applause)
409
1010000
9000
17:15
Now this has been a problem for a very, very long time.
410
1020000
3000
17:18
You can see that
411
1023000
3000
17:21
corporations were illegal at the founding of America,
412
1026000
2000
17:23
and even Thomas Jefferson complained
413
1028000
3000
17:26
that they were already
414
1031000
3000
17:29
bidding defiance to the laws of our country.
415
1034000
3000
17:33
Okay, people who say
416
1038000
2000
17:35
they're conservative,
417
1040000
2000
17:37
if they really wanted to be
418
1042000
2000
17:39
really conservative and really patriotic,
419
1044000
2000
17:41
they would tell these corporations
420
1046000
2000
17:43
to go to hell.
421
1048000
2000
17:45
That's what it would really mean to be conservative.
422
1050000
3000
17:49
So what we really need to do
423
1054000
2000
17:51
is regain the idea
424
1056000
2000
17:53
that it's our government
425
1058000
2000
17:55
safeguarding our interests
426
1060000
2000
17:57
and regain a sense of unity
427
1062000
2000
17:59
and common cause in our country
428
1064000
2000
18:01
that really has been lost.
429
1066000
2000
18:04
I think there are signs of hope.
430
1069000
2000
18:06
We seem to be waking up a little bit.
431
1071000
2000
18:08
The Glass-Steagall Act --
432
1073000
2000
18:10
which was really to protect us from the kind of thing
433
1075000
2000
18:12
that caused the recession to happen,
434
1077000
2000
18:14
and the bank meltdown
435
1079000
2000
18:16
and all that stuff that required the bailouts --
436
1081000
2000
18:18
that was put in effect in 1933,
437
1083000
2000
18:20
was systematically destroyed.
438
1085000
3000
18:23
Now there's a mood to put some of that stuff
439
1088000
2000
18:25
back in place,
440
1090000
2000
18:27
but the lobbyists are already there
441
1092000
2000
18:29
trying to weaken the regulations
442
1094000
2000
18:31
after the legislation has just passed.
443
1096000
3000
18:34
So it's a continued fight.
444
1099000
2000
18:36
It's a historic moment right now.
445
1101000
2000
18:38
We're either going to have an absolutely
446
1103000
2000
18:40
unmitigated catastrophe
447
1105000
2000
18:42
of this oil leak in the Gulf,
448
1107000
2000
18:44
or we will make the moment we need out of this,
449
1109000
2000
18:46
as many people have noted today.
450
1111000
2000
18:48
There's certainly a common theme
451
1113000
2000
18:50
about needing to make the moment out of this.
452
1115000
2000
18:52
We've been through this before
453
1117000
2000
18:54
with other ways of offshore drilling.
454
1119000
2000
18:56
The first offshore wells were called whales.
455
1121000
3000
18:59
The first offshore drills were called harpoons.
456
1124000
3000
19:02
We emptied the ocean of the whales at that time.
457
1127000
3000
19:05
Now are we stuck with this?
458
1130000
2000
19:07
Ever since we lived in caves,
459
1132000
2000
19:09
every time we wanted any energy,
460
1134000
2000
19:11
we lit something on fire, and that is still what we're doing.
461
1136000
3000
19:14
We're still lighting something on fire
462
1139000
2000
19:16
every time we want energy.
463
1141000
3000
19:19
And people say
464
1144000
2000
19:21
we can't have clean energy
465
1146000
2000
19:23
because it's too expensive.
466
1148000
3000
19:26
Who says it's too expensive?
467
1151000
2000
19:28
People who sell us fossil fuels.
468
1153000
2000
19:30
We've been here before with energy,
469
1155000
3000
19:33
and people saying the economy
470
1158000
2000
19:35
cannot withstand a switch,
471
1160000
2000
19:37
because the cheapest energy was slavery.
472
1162000
3000
19:40
Energy is always a moral issue.
473
1165000
3000
19:43
It's an issue that is moral right now.
474
1168000
2000
19:45
It's a matter of right and wrong.
475
1170000
2000
19:47
Thank you very much.
476
1172000
2000
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Carl Safina - Ecologist, writerCarl Safina's writing explores the scientific, moral and social dimensions of our relationship with nature.
Why you should listen
Carl Safina explores how the ocean is changing and what those changes mean for wildlife and for people.
Safina is author of seven books, including Song for the Blue Ocean, which was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year, Eye of the Albatross, Voyage of the Turtle and The View From Lazy Point. Safina is founding president of The Safina Center at Stony Brook University, where he also co-chairs the University's Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science. A winner of the 2012 Orion Award and a MacArthur Prize, among others, his work has been featured in outlets such as The New York Times, National Geographic, CNN.com and The Huffington Post, and he hosts “Saving the Ocean” on PBS.
His latest book, Beyond Words: What Animals Think And Feel, explores the inner lives of animals.
Carl Safina | Speaker | TED.com