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 fotografía los paisajes del petróleo

Filmed:
550,970 views

En impresionantes fotografías de formato grande, Edward Burtynsky sigue la ruta del petróleo a través de la sociedad moderna, desde la cabeza del pozo y el oleoducto hasta el motor del auto... y luego hasta el proyectado final del pico del 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 startedempezado my journeyviaje 30 yearsaños agohace.
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Empecé mi viaje hace 30 años
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And I workedtrabajó in minesminas. And I realizeddio cuenta that
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Trabajaba en minas y me di cuenta
00:20
this was a worldmundo unseeninvisible.
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que este era un mundo nunca visto
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And I wanted, throughmediante colorcolor and largegrande formatformato camerascámaras
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Y quería, a través del color y cámaras
00:24
and very largegrande printshuellas dactilares,
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de gran formato y muy grandes impresiones
00:26
to make a bodycuerpo of work that somehowde algun modo
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hacer un trabajo que de alguna manera
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becameconvirtió symbolssímbolos of our
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se convierta en símbolos
00:31
use of the landscapepaisaje,
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de nuestro uso del paisaje,
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how we use the landtierra.
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de cómo usamos la tierra.
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And to me this was
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Para mí, esto era
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a keyllave componentcomponente that somehowde algun modo, throughmediante this mediummedio of photographyfotografía,
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un componente clave que de alguna manera, a través
00:40
whichcual allowspermite us to contemplatecontemplar these landscapespaisajes,
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de la fotografía, nos permite contemplar estos paisajes,
00:43
that I thought photographyfotografía was perfectlyperfectamente suitedadecuado
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y pensé, que la fotografía se adaptaba perfectamente
00:46
to doing this typetipo of work.
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para este tipo de trabajo.
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And after 17 yearsaños of photographingfotografiando largegrande industrialindustrial landscapespaisajes,
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Y luego de 17 años de fotografiar grandes paisajes industriales
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it occurredocurrió to me that
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se me ocurrió que
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oilpetróleo is underpinningapuntalamiento the scaleescala and speedvelocidad.
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el petroleo está apuntalando la escala y la velocidad,
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Because that is what has changedcambiado,
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porque, eso eso lo que ha cambiado,
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is the speedvelocidad at whichcual we're takingtomando all our resourcesrecursos.
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la velocidad a la que estamos tomando todos nuestros recursos.
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And so then I wentfuimos out to developdesarrollar a wholetodo seriesserie
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Así que empecé a desarrollar una serie completa
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on the landscapepaisaje of oilpetróleo.
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de paisajes del petroleo.
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And what I want to do is to kindtipo of mapmapa an arcarco
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Y lo que quería hacer es mapear un arco narrativo
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that there is extractionextracción, where we're takingtomando it from the groundsuelo,
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donde, aquí esta la extracción, donde estamos extrayendo desde el suelo,
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refinementrefinamiento. And that's one chaptercapítulo.
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refinación. Y eso es un capítulo.
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The other chaptercapítulo that I wanted to look at was
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El otro capítulo que quería ver era
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how we use it -- our citiesciudades,
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cómo lo usamos, nuestras ciudades,
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our carscarros, our motorculturesautoculturas,
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nuestros autos, nuestras culturas del motor
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where people gatherreunir around the vehiclevehículo
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donde la gente se aglutina alrededor de un vehiculo
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as a celebrationcelebracion.
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como una celebración
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And then the thirdtercero one is this ideaidea of the endfin of oilpetróleo,
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Y luego está el tercer capítulo que es la idea del fin del petroleo
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this entropicentrópico endfin,
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su fin entrópico
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where all of our partspartes of carscarros, our tiresllantas,
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donde todas nuestras partes de autos, nuestras ruedas,
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oilpetróleo filtersfiltros,
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filtros de aceite
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helicoptershelicópteros, planesaviones --
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helicópteros, aviones --
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where are the landscapespaisajes where all of that stuffcosas endstermina up?
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¿dónde están los paisajes en los que todas nuestras cosas terminan?
01:41
And to me, again, photographyfotografía was
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y para mí, nuevamente, la fotografía era
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a way in whichcual I could exploreexplorar and researchinvestigación the worldmundo,
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una manera con la cual podía explorar e investigar el mundo
01:46
and find those placeslugares.
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y encontrar esos lugares.
01:48
And anotherotro ideaidea that I had as well,
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Y otra idea que tuve también,
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that was broughttrajo forwardadelante by an ecologistecologista --
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fue presentada por un ecologista --
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he basicallybásicamente did a calculationcálculo where
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Él básicamente hizo un cálculo donde
01:57
he tooktomó one literlitro of gasgas and said,
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tomó un litro de gasolina y dijo
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well, how much carboncarbón it would take, and how much organicorgánico materialmaterial?
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bueno, ¿cuánto carbono conlleva, y cuánto material orgánico?
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It was 23 metricmétrico tonsmontones for one literlitro.
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Resultaron 23 tonelada métricas por cada litro.
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So whenevercuando I fillllenar up my gasgas,
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Así que, siempre que lleno mi tanque de gasolina
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I think of that literlitro, and how much carboncarbón.
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Pienso en ese litro, y en la cantidad de carbono.
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And I know that oilpetróleo comesproviene from the oceanOceano and phytoplanktonfitoplancton,
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Y, yo sé que esa gasolina viene del océano y del fitoplancton
02:13
but he did the calculationscálculos for our EarthTierra
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Pero él hizo el cálculo para nuestro planeta
02:16
and what it had to do to produceProduce that amountcantidad of energyenergía.
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y lo que tenía que hacer para producir esa cantidad de energía.
02:18
From the photosyntheticfotosintético growthcrecimiento,
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Desde el crecimiento fotosintético,
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it would take 500 yearsaños of that growthcrecimiento
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tomaría 500 años desde ese crecimiento
02:23
to produceProduce what we use, the 30 billionmil millones barrelsbarriles we use perpor yearaño.
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para producir los 30 mil millones de barriles que usamos al año
02:28
And that alsoademás broughttrajo me to the facthecho that
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Esto me condujo además al hecho de que
02:30
this posesposes suchtal a riskriesgo to our societysociedad.
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esto pone a nuestra sociedad en riesgo.
02:33
Looking at 30 billionmil millones perpor yearaño,
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Mirando los 30 mill millones por año,
02:38
we look at our two largestmás grande suppliersproveedores,
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miramos a nuestros dos grandes proveedores
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SaudiSaudi ArabiaArabia and now CanadaCanadá, with its dirtysucio oilpetróleo.
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Arabia Saudita y ahora Canadá, con su petróleo sucio.
02:42
And togetherjuntos they only formformar about 15 yearsaños of supplysuministro.
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Y juntos, solamente forman alrededor de 15 años de provisiones
02:46
The wholetodo worldmundo, at 1.2 trilliontrillón estimatedestimado reservesreservas,
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En todo el mundo se estiman 1.2 billones en reservas
02:49
only givesda us about 45 yearsaños.
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eso solo nos da alrededor de 45 años
02:51
So, it's not a questionpregunta of if, but a questionpregunta of when
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Así que, no es una cuestión de 'si', sino una cuestion de 'cuándo'
02:54
peakpico oilpetróleo will come uponsobre us.
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el pico del petróleo se nos vendrá encima.
02:56
So, to me, usingutilizando photographyfotografía --
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Así que, para mí, usar la fotografía --
02:58
and I feel that all of us need to now beginempezar to really
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y yo creo que todos nosotros podemos empezar a realmente,
03:01
take the tasktarea of usingutilizando our talentsprendas,
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tomar la tarea de usar nuestros talentos
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our waysformas of thinkingpensando,
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nuestras maneras de pensar,
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to beginempezar to dealacuerdo with what I think is probablyprobablemente
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para empezar a abordar lo que creo que es probablemente
03:08
one of the mostmás challengingdesafiante issuescuestiones of our time,
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uno de los temas más dificiles de nuestro tiempo,
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how to dealacuerdo with our energyenergía crisiscrisis.
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cómo enfrentar nuestra crisis energética.
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And I would like to say that, on the other sidelado of it,
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Y a mí me gustaría decir que, en el otro lado,
03:15
30, 40 yearsaños from now, the childrenniños that I have,
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en 30, 40 años, a los niños que tengo,
03:17
I can look at them and say, "We did everything
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podré mirarlos y decirles "hicimos todo
03:19
we possiblyposiblemente, humanlyhumanamente could do,
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lo que posiblemente como humanos, podíamos hacer
03:22
to beginempezar to mitigatemitigar this,
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para empezar a mitigar esto",
03:25
what I feel is one of the mostmás importantimportante and criticalcrítico
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lo que creo que es uno de los momentos más importantes
03:27
momentsmomentos in our time. Thank you.
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y crítico de nuestro tiempo. Gracias
03:30
(ApplauseAplausos)
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(aplausos)
Translated by Alex Fabricio Jaramillo
Reviewed by Jesus Nuevo-Chiquero

▲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
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