TEDWomen 2010
Hans Rosling: The magic washing machine
Filmed:
Readability: 2.9
2,973,428 views
What was the greatest invention of the industrial revolution? Hans Rosling makes the case for the washing machine. With newly designed graphics from Gapminder, Rosling shows us the magic that pops up when economic growth and electricity turn a boring wash day into an intellectual day of reading.
Hans Rosling - Global health expert; data visionary
In Hans Rosling’s hands, data sings. Global trends in health and economics come to vivid life. And the big picture of global development—with some surprisingly good news—snaps into sharp focus. Full bio
In Hans Rosling’s hands, data sings. Global trends in health and economics come to vivid life. And the big picture of global development—with some surprisingly good news—snaps into sharp focus. Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
00:15
I was only four years old
0
0
2000
00:17
when I saw my mother load a washing machine
1
2000
3000
00:20
for the very first time in her life.
2
5000
3000
00:23
That was a great day for my mother.
3
8000
2000
00:25
My mother and father had been saving money for years
4
10000
3000
00:28
to be able to buy that machine,
5
13000
2000
00:30
and the first day it was going to be used,
6
15000
2000
00:32
even Grandma was invited
7
17000
2000
00:34
to see the machine.
8
19000
2000
00:36
And Grandma was even more excited.
9
21000
3000
00:39
Throughout her life
10
24000
2000
00:41
she had been heating water with firewood,
11
26000
2000
00:43
and she had hand washed laundry
12
28000
2000
00:45
for seven children.
13
30000
2000
00:47
And now she was going to watch
14
32000
3000
00:50
electricity do that work.
15
35000
3000
00:53
My mother carefully opened the door,
16
38000
4000
00:57
and she loaded the laundry
17
42000
2000
00:59
into the machine,
18
44000
2000
01:01
like this.
19
46000
2000
01:03
And then, when she closed the door,
20
48000
2000
01:05
Grandma said, "No, no, no, no.
21
50000
2000
01:07
Let me, let me push the button."
22
52000
3000
01:11
And Grandma pushed the button,
23
56000
2000
01:13
and she said, "Oh, fantastic!
24
58000
3000
01:16
I want to see this! Give me a chair!
25
61000
2000
01:18
Give me a chair! I want to see it,"
26
63000
2000
01:20
and she sat down in front of the machine,
27
65000
3000
01:23
and she watched the entire washing program.
28
68000
4000
01:27
She was mesmerized.
29
72000
2000
01:29
To my grandmother,
30
74000
3000
01:32
the washing machine was a miracle.
31
77000
3000
01:35
Today, in Sweden and other rich countries,
32
80000
3000
01:38
people are using
33
83000
2000
01:40
so many different machines.
34
85000
2000
01:42
Look, the homes are full of machines.
35
87000
2000
01:44
I can't even name them all.
36
89000
2000
01:46
And they also, when they want to travel,
37
91000
3000
01:49
they use flying machines
38
94000
3000
01:52
that can take them to remote destinations.
39
97000
2000
01:54
And yet, in the world, there are so many people
40
99000
2000
01:56
who still heat the water on fire,
41
101000
3000
01:59
and they cook their food on fire.
42
104000
3000
02:02
Sometimes they don't even have enough food,
43
107000
2000
02:04
and they live below the poverty line.
44
109000
3000
02:07
There are two billion fellow human beings
45
112000
3000
02:10
who live on less than two dollars a day.
46
115000
2000
02:12
And the richest people over there --
47
117000
2000
02:14
there's one billion people --
48
119000
2000
02:16
and they live above what I call the "air line,"
49
121000
4000
02:20
because they spend more than $80 a day
50
125000
3000
02:23
on their consumption.
51
128000
2000
02:25
But this is just one, two, three billion people,
52
130000
3000
02:28
and obviously there are seven billion people in the world,
53
133000
3000
02:31
so there must be one, two, three, four billion people more
54
136000
3000
02:34
who live in between the poverty and the air line.
55
139000
3000
02:37
They have electricity,
56
142000
3000
02:40
but the question is, how many have washing machines?
57
145000
3000
02:43
I've done the scrutiny of market data,
58
148000
3000
02:46
and I've found that, indeed,
59
151000
2000
02:48
the washing machine has penetrated below the air line,
60
153000
3000
02:51
and today there's an additional one billion people out there
61
156000
3000
02:54
who live above the "wash line."
62
159000
3000
02:57
(Laughter)
63
162000
2000
02:59
And they consume more than $40 per day.
64
164000
4000
03:03
So two billion have access to washing machines.
65
168000
3000
03:06
And the remaining five billion,
66
171000
2000
03:08
how do they wash?
67
173000
2000
03:10
Or, to be more precise,
68
175000
2000
03:12
how do most of the women in the world wash?
69
177000
3000
03:15
Because it remains hard work for women to wash.
70
180000
4000
03:19
They wash like this: by hand.
71
184000
3000
03:22
It's a hard, time-consuming labor,
72
187000
4000
03:26
which they have to do for hours every week.
73
191000
3000
03:29
And sometimes they also have to bring water from far away
74
194000
3000
03:32
to do the laundry at home,
75
197000
2000
03:34
or they have to bring the laundry away to a stream far off.
76
199000
4000
03:38
And they want the washing machine.
77
203000
3000
03:41
They don't want to spend such a large part of their life
78
206000
3000
03:44
doing this hard work
79
209000
2000
03:46
with so relatively low productivity.
80
211000
2000
03:48
And there's nothing different in their wish
81
213000
2000
03:50
than it was for my grandma.
82
215000
2000
03:52
Look here, two generations ago in Sweden --
83
217000
3000
03:55
picking water from the stream,
84
220000
2000
03:57
heating with firewood and washing like that.
85
222000
3000
04:00
They want the washing machine in exactly the same way.
86
225000
3000
04:03
But when I lecture to environmentally-concerned students,
87
228000
3000
04:06
they tell me, "No, everybody in the world cannot have cars and washing machines."
88
231000
4000
04:11
How can we tell this woman
89
236000
2000
04:13
that she ain't going to have a washing machine?
90
238000
2000
04:15
And then I ask my students,
91
240000
2000
04:17
I've asked them -- over the last two years I've asked,
92
242000
2000
04:19
"How many of you doesn't use a car?"
93
244000
2000
04:21
And some of them proudly raise their hand
94
246000
2000
04:23
and say, "I don't use a car."
95
248000
2000
04:25
And then I put the really tough question:
96
250000
2000
04:27
"How many of you
97
252000
2000
04:29
hand-wash your jeans and your bed sheets?"
98
254000
2000
04:31
And no one raised their hand.
99
256000
3000
04:34
Even the hardcore in the green movement
100
259000
3000
04:37
use washing machines.
101
262000
2000
04:39
(Laughter)
102
264000
4000
04:43
So how come [this is] something that everyone uses
103
268000
2000
04:45
and they think others will not stop it? What is special with this?
104
270000
3000
04:48
I had to do an analysis about the energy used in the world.
105
273000
3000
04:51
Here we are.
106
276000
2000
04:53
Look here, you see the seven billion people up there:
107
278000
2000
04:55
the air people, the wash people,
108
280000
2000
04:57
the bulb people and the fire people.
109
282000
3000
05:00
One unit like this
110
285000
2000
05:02
is an energy unit of fossil fuel --
111
287000
3000
05:05
oil, coal or gas.
112
290000
2000
05:07
That's what most of electricity and the energy in the world is.
113
292000
3000
05:11
And it's 12 units used in the entire world,
114
296000
3000
05:14
and the richest one billion, they use six of them.
115
299000
3000
05:17
Half of the energy is used by one seventh of the world's population.
116
302000
3000
05:20
And these ones who have washing machines,
117
305000
2000
05:22
but not a house full of other machines,
118
307000
2000
05:24
they use two.
119
309000
2000
05:26
This group uses three, one each.
120
311000
2000
05:28
And they also have electricity.
121
313000
2000
05:30
And over there they don't even use one each.
122
315000
3000
05:33
That makes 12 of them.
123
318000
2000
05:35
But the main concern
124
320000
2000
05:37
for the environmentally-interested students -- and they are right --
125
322000
3000
05:40
is about the future.
126
325000
2000
05:42
What are the trends? If we just prolong the trends,
127
327000
3000
05:45
without any real advanced analysis, to 2050,
128
330000
3000
05:48
there are two things that can increase the energy use.
129
333000
3000
05:51
First, population growth.
130
336000
2000
05:53
Second, economic growth.
131
338000
2000
05:55
Population growth will mainly occur among the poorest people here
132
340000
3000
05:58
because they have high child mortality
133
343000
2000
06:00
and they have many children per woman.
134
345000
2000
06:02
And [with] that you will get two extra,
135
347000
2000
06:04
but that won't change the energy use very much.
136
349000
2000
06:06
What will happen is economic growth.
137
351000
3000
06:09
The best of here in the emerging economies --
138
354000
2000
06:11
I call them the New East --
139
356000
2000
06:13
they will jump the air line.
140
358000
2000
06:15
"Wopp!" they will say.
141
360000
2000
06:17
And they will start to use as much as the Old West are doing already.
142
362000
3000
06:20
And these people, they want the washing machine.
143
365000
3000
06:23
I told you. They'll go there.
144
368000
2000
06:25
And they will double their energy use.
145
370000
2000
06:27
And we hope that the poor people will get into the electric light.
146
372000
3000
06:30
And they'll get a two-child family without a stop in population growth.
147
375000
2000
06:32
But the total energy consumption
148
377000
2000
06:34
will increase to 22 units.
149
379000
2000
06:36
And these 22 units --
150
381000
3000
06:39
still the richest people use most of it.
151
384000
3000
06:43
So what needs to be done?
152
388000
2000
06:45
Because the risk,
153
390000
2000
06:47
the high probability of climate change is real.
154
392000
3000
06:50
It's real.
155
395000
2000
06:52
Of course they must be more energy-efficient.
156
397000
3000
06:55
They must change behavior in some way.
157
400000
2000
06:57
They must also start to produce green energy,
158
402000
2000
06:59
much more green energy.
159
404000
2000
07:01
But until they have the same energy consumption per person,
160
406000
3000
07:04
they shouldn't give advice to others --
161
409000
2000
07:06
what to do and what not to do.
162
411000
2000
07:08
(Applause)
163
413000
2000
07:10
Here we can get more green energy all over.
164
415000
4000
07:14
This is what we hope may happen.
165
419000
2000
07:16
It's a real challenge in the future.
166
421000
3000
07:19
But I can assure you that this woman in the favela in Rio,
167
424000
3000
07:22
she wants a washing machine.
168
427000
2000
07:24
She's very happy about her minister of energy
169
429000
3000
07:27
that provided electricity to everyone --
170
432000
2000
07:29
so happy that she even voted for her.
171
434000
3000
07:32
And she became Dilma Rousseff,
172
437000
2000
07:34
the president-elect
173
439000
2000
07:36
of one of the biggest democracies in the world --
174
441000
2000
07:38
moving from minister of energy to president.
175
443000
3000
07:41
If you have democracy,
176
446000
2000
07:43
people will vote for washing machines.
177
448000
2000
07:45
They love them.
178
450000
2000
07:49
And what's the magic with them?
179
454000
2000
07:51
My mother explained the magic with this machine
180
456000
3000
07:54
the very, very first day.
181
459000
2000
07:56
She said, "Now Hans,
182
461000
2000
07:58
we have loaded the laundry.
183
463000
2000
08:00
The machine will make the work.
184
465000
2000
08:02
And now we can go to the library."
185
467000
2000
08:04
Because this is the magic:
186
469000
2000
08:06
you load the laundry,
187
471000
2000
08:08
and what do you get out of the machine?
188
473000
2000
08:10
You get books out of the machines,
189
475000
3000
08:13
children's books.
190
478000
2000
08:15
And mother got time to read for me.
191
480000
2000
08:17
She loved this. I got the "ABC's" --
192
482000
2000
08:19
this is where I started my career as a professor,
193
484000
3000
08:22
when my mother had time to read for me.
194
487000
2000
08:24
And she also got books for herself.
195
489000
2000
08:26
She managed to study English
196
491000
2000
08:28
and learn that as a foreign language.
197
493000
2000
08:30
And she read so many novels,
198
495000
2000
08:32
so many different novels here.
199
497000
3000
08:35
And we really, we really loved this machine.
200
500000
3000
08:39
And what we said, my mother and me,
201
504000
3000
08:42
"Thank you industrialization.
202
507000
3000
08:45
Thank you steel mill.
203
510000
2000
08:47
Thank you power station.
204
512000
2000
08:49
And thank you chemical processing industry
205
514000
3000
08:52
that gave us time to read books."
206
517000
2000
08:54
Thank you very much.
207
519000
2000
08:56
(Applause)
208
521000
13000
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Hans Rosling - Global health expert; data visionaryIn Hans Rosling’s hands, data sings. Global trends in health and economics come to vivid life. And the big picture of global development—with some surprisingly good news—snaps into sharp focus.
Why you should listen
Even the most worldly and well-traveled among us have had their perspectives shifted by Hans Rosling. A professor of global health at Sweden's Karolinska Institute, his work focused on dispelling common myths about the so-called developing world, which (as he pointed out) is no longer worlds away from the West. In fact, most of the Third World is on the same trajectory toward health and prosperity, and many countries are moving twice as fast as the west did.
What set Rosling apart wasn't just his apt observations of broad social and economic trends, but the stunning way he presented them. Guaranteed: You've never seen data presented like this. A presentation that tracks global health and poverty trends should be, in a word: boring. But in Rosling's hands, data sings. Trends come to life. And the big picture — usually hazy at best — snaps into sharp focus.
Rosling's presentations were grounded in solid statistics (often drawn from United Nations and World Bank data), illustrated by the visualization software he developed. The animations transform development statistics into moving bubbles and flowing curves that make global trends clear, intuitive and even playful. During his legendary presentations, Rosling took this one step farther, narrating the animations with a sportscaster's flair.
Rosling developed the breakthrough software behind his visualizations through his nonprofit Gapminder, founded with his son and daughter-in-law. The free software — which can be loaded with any data — was purchased by Google in March 2007. (Rosling met the Google founders at TED.)
Rosling began his wide-ranging career as a physician, spending many years in rural Africa tracking a rare paralytic disease (which he named konzo) and discovering its cause: hunger and badly processed cassava. He co-founded Médecins sans Frontièrs (Doctors without Borders) Sweden, wrote a textbook on global health, and as a professor at the Karolinska Institut in Stockholm initiated key international research collaborations. He's also personally argued with many heads of state, including Fidel Castro.
Hans Rosling passed away in February 2017. He is greatly missed.
Hans Rosling | Speaker | TED.com