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 fotografa as paisagens do petróleo

Filmed:
550,970 views

Em espantosas fotografias de grande formato, Edward Burtynsky acompanha o caminho do petróleo através da sociedade moderna, desde os poços, aos oleodutos ao motor dos carros -- e mais além, até ao projectado final pico do petróleo.
- 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 startedcomeçado my journeyviagem 30 yearsanos agoatrás.
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Iniciei a minha viagem há 30 anos.
00:18
And I workedtrabalhou in minesminas. And I realizedpercebi that
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E trabalhei em minas. E percebi que
00:20
this was a worldmundo unseeninvisível.
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este era um mundo não visto.
00:22
And I wanted, throughatravés colorcor and largeampla formatformato camerascâmeras
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E eu queria, através da cor e das câmaras de grande formato
00:24
and very largeampla printsimprime,
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e impressões muito grandes,
00:26
to make a bodycorpo of work that somehowde alguma forma
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construir um conjunto de obras que de alguma forma
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becamepassou a ser symbolssímbolos of our
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se tornasse um símbolo do nosso
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use of the landscapepanorama,
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uso das paisagens,
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how we use the landterra.
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de como usamos a terra.
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And to me this was
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E isto, para mim, era
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a keychave componentcomponente that somehowde alguma forma, throughatravés this mediummédio of photographyfotografia,
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um componente-chave que de alguma forma, através da fotografia,
00:40
whichqual allowspermite us to contemplatecontemplar these landscapespaisagens,
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que nos permite contemplar estas paisagens,
00:43
that I thought photographyfotografia was perfectlyperfeitamente suitedadequado
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eu pensei que a fotografia era o meio perfeito
00:46
to doing this typetipo of work.
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para realizar este tipo de trabalho.
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And after 17 yearsanos of photographingfotografando largeampla industrialindustrial landscapespaisagens,
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Depois de 17 anos a fotografar paisagens industriais,
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it occurredocorreu to me that
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ocorreu-me que
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oilóleo is underpinningsustentamento the scaleescala and speedRapidez.
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o petróleo estava subjacente à escala e velocidade,
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Because that is what has changedmudou,
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porque isso é o que tem mudado,
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is the speedRapidez at whichqual we're takinglevando all our resourcesRecursos.
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é a velocidade a que exploramos os nossos recursos.
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And so then I wentfoi out to developdesenvolve a wholetodo seriesSeries
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E por isso, prossegui e desenvolvi uma série inteira
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on the landscapepanorama of oilóleo.
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acerca das paisagens do petróleo.
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And what I want to do is to kindtipo of mapmapa an arcarco
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E o que eu quero fazer é delinear um arco
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that there is extractionextração, where we're takinglevando it from the groundchão,
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que começa na extracção, em que o retiramos do solo,
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refinementrequinte. And that's one chaptercapítulo.
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o refinamento. E esse é um capítulo.
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The other chaptercapítulo that I wanted to look at was
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E o outro capítulo que eu queria observar era
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how we use it -- our citiescidades,
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como o utilizamos, nas nossas cidades,
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our carscarros, our motorculturesmotorcultures,
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nos nossos carros, na nossa cultura motora,
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where people gatherreunir around the vehicleveículo
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em que as pessoas se reunem à volta do veículo
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as a celebrationcelebração.
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como celebração.
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And then the thirdterceiro one is this ideaidéia of the endfim of oilóleo,
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E, depois, o terceiro é esta ideia do fim do petróleo,
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this entropicentrópica endfim,
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este final entrópico,
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where all of our partspartes of carscarros, our tirespneus,
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em que todas as partes dos nossos carros, os nossos pneus,
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oilóleo filtersfiltros,
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os filtros de óleo,
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helicoptershelicópteros, planesaviões --
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helicópteros, aviões --
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where are the landscapespaisagens where all of that stuffcoisa endstermina up?
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onde estão as paisagens onde toda essa tralha se deposita?
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And to me, again, photographyfotografia was
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E para mim, novamente, a fotografia era
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a way in whichqual I could exploreexplorar and researchpesquisa the worldmundo,
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a forma pela qual podia explorar e investigar o mundo,
01:46
and find those placeslocais.
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e encontrar estes locais.
01:48
And anotheroutro ideaidéia that I had as well,
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E outra ideia que tive, também,
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that was broughttrouxe forwardprogressivo by an ecologistecologista --
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que foi proposta por um ecologista --
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he basicallybasicamente did a calculationCálculo where
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Ele, basicamente, fez um cálculo em que
01:57
he tooktomou one literlitro of gasgás and said,
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ele pegou num litro de gasolina e disse,
01:59
well, how much carboncarbono it would take, and how much organicorgânico materialmaterial?
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bem, quanto carbono utilizaria e quanto material orgânico?
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It was 23 metricmétrica tonstoneladas for one literlitro.
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E era 23 toneladas para um litro.
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So wheneversempre que I fillencher up my gasgás,
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Por isso, quando eu abasteço de gasolina,
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I think of that literlitro, and how much carboncarbono.
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eu penso nesse litro e em quanto carbono.
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And I know that oilóleo comesvem from the oceanoceano and phytoplanktonfitoplâncton,
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E eu sei que o petróleo vem do oceano e do fitoplâncton.
02:13
but he did the calculationscálculos for our EarthTerra
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Mas ele fez os cálculos para a nossa Terra
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and what it had to do to produceproduzir that amountmontante of energyenergia.
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e o que teria de fazer para produzir essa quantidade de energia.
02:18
From the photosyntheticfotossintéticos growthcrescimento,
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A partir do crescimento fotossintético,
02:20
it would take 500 yearsanos of that growthcrescimento
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demoraria 500 anos desse tipo de crescimento
02:23
to produceproduzir what we use, the 30 billionbilhão barrelsbarris we use perpor yearano.
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para produzir o que utilizamos, os 30 mil milhões de barris que usamos por ano.
02:28
And that alsoAlém disso broughttrouxe me to the factfacto that
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E isso também me levou ao facto de que
02:30
this posesposes suchtal a riskrisco to our societysociedade.
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isto coloca a nossa sociedade em grande risco.
02:33
Looking at 30 billionbilhão perpor yearano,
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Se considerarmos 30 mil milhões por ano,
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we look at our two largestmaiores suppliersfornecedores,
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olhamos para os nossos dois maiores fornecedores,
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SaudiArábia Saudita ArabiaArábia and now CanadaCanadá, with its dirtysujo oilóleo.
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a Arábia Saudita e, agora, o Canadá, com o seu petróleo sujo
02:42
And togetherjuntos they only formFormato about 15 yearsanos of supplyfornecem.
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E, juntos, eles apenas formam cerca de 15 anos de fornecimento.
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The wholetodo worldmundo, at 1.2 trilliontrilhão estimatedestimado reservesreservas,
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O mundo inteiro, com os estimados 1,2 biliões de reservas
02:49
only givesdá us about 45 yearsanos.
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apenas nos dá cerca de 45 anos.
02:51
So, it's not a questionquestão of if, but a questionquestão of when
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Por isso, não é uma questão de "se", é uma questão de "quando"
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peakpico oilóleo will come uponsobre us.
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nos confrontaremos com o final do petróleo.
02:56
So, to me, usingusando photographyfotografia --
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Por isso, para mim, usando a fotografia --
02:58
and I feel that all of us need to now begininício to really
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e eu acho que todos nós precisamos de começar mesmo
03:01
take the tasktarefa of usingusando our talentstalentos,
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a usar os nossos talentos,
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our waysmaneiras of thinkingpensando,
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as nossas formas de pensar,
03:06
to begininício to dealacordo with what I think is probablyprovavelmente
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para começarmos a lidar com o que eu acho que é, provavelmente,
03:08
one of the mosta maioria challengingdesafiador issuesproblemas of our time,
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uma das questões mais desafiantes do nosso tempo,
03:11
how to dealacordo with our energyenergia crisiscrise.
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como lidar com a crise de energia.
03:13
And I would like to say that, on the other sidelado of it,
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E gostaria de dizer, quando ultrapassarmos isto,
03:15
30, 40 yearsanos from now, the childrencrianças that I have,
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daqui a 30 ou 40 anos, as crianças que tiver,
03:17
I can look at them and say, "We did everything
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poso olhar para elas e dizer, "Fizémos tudo
03:19
we possiblypossivelmente, humanlyhumanamente could do,
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o que poderiamos, humanamente, fazer,
03:22
to begininício to mitigateatenuar os this,
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para começar a mitigar isto,
03:25
what I feel is one of the mosta maioria importantimportante and criticalcrítico
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no que eu acho que é um dos momentos mais importantes
03:27
momentsmomentos in our time. Thank you.
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e críticos do nosso tempo. Obrigado.
03:30
(ApplauseAplausos)
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(Aplausos)
Translated by Inês Pereira
Reviewed by Rafael Eufrasio

▲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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