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 fotograferer oljelandskapet

Filmed:
550,970 views

I slående fotografier i stort format, følger Edward Burtynsky sporene etter olje gjennom det moderne samfunnet, fra brønnhode via rørledning til bilmotor -- og videre til bortenfor den spådde toppen og slutten for oljeeventyret.
- 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 startedstartet my journeyreise 30 yearsår agosiden.
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Jeg startet min reise for 30 år siden.
00:18
And I workedarbeidet in minesgruver. And I realizedrealisert that
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Og jeg jobbet i gruver. Og innså at
00:20
this was a worldverden unseenusett.
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dette var en usett verden.
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And I wanted, throughgjennom colorfarge and largestor formatformat cameraskameraer
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Og jeg ville, gjennom farger og storformat kameraer
00:24
and very largestor printsutskrifter,
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og veldig store bilder,
00:26
to make a bodykropp of work that somehowen eller annen måte
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lage en samling verk som på en måte
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becameble til symbolssymboler of our
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ble symboler på vår
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use of the landscapelandskap,
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bruk av landskapet,
00:33
how we use the landland.
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hvordan vi bruker jorden.
00:35
And to me this was
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Og for meg var dette
00:37
a keynøkkel componentkomponent that somehowen eller annen måte, throughgjennom this mediummedium of photographyfotografering,
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en nøkkelkomponent som på et vis, gjennom fotomediet
00:40
whichhvilken allowsmuliggjør us to contemplatebetrakte these landscapeslandskaper,
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som lar oss reflektere over disse landskapene,
00:43
that I thought photographyfotografering was perfectlyperfekt suitedvelegnet
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hvor jeg tenkte fotografiet var perfekt egnet
00:46
to doing this typetype of work.
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for denne type verk.
00:48
And after 17 yearsår of photographingfotografering largestor industrialindustriell landscapeslandskaper,
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Og etter 17 års fotografering av store industrielle landskaper,
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it occurredinntraff to me that
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slo det meg at
00:54
oilolje is underpinningunderlaget the scaleskala and speedhastighet.
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olje understøtter omfanget og hastigheten,
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Because that is what has changedendret,
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for det er det som har endret seg,
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is the speedhastighet at whichhvilken we're takingta all our resourcesressurser.
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hastigheten på uttømmingen av ressursene våre.
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And so then I wentgikk out to developutvikle a wholehel seriesserie
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Så jeg dro ut for å lage hele serier
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on the landscapelandskap of oilolje.
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om oljens landskap.
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And what I want to do is to kindsnill of mapkart an arcbue
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Og det jeg vil er på en måte å kartlegge en forbindelse
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that there is extractionutvinning, where we're takingta it from the groundbakke,
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fra der det er utvinning, hvor vi tar det opp fra grunnen,
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refinementavgrensning. And that's one chapterkapittel.
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og raffinerer. Det er ett kapittel.
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The other chapterkapittel that I wanted to look at was
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Det andre kapittelet jeg ville se på var
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how we use it -- our citiesbyer,
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hvordan vi bruker det, våre byer,
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our carsbiler, our motorculturesmotorcultures,
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våre biler, våre motoriserte kulturer,
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where people gathersamle around the vehiclekjøretøy
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hvor folk samles rundt kjøretøyet
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as a celebrationfeiring.
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som en feiring.
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And then the thirdtredje one is this ideaidé of the endslutt of oilolje,
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Og det tredje er denne ideen om oljens endestasjoner,
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this entropicentropic endslutt,
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denne entropiske slutten,
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where all of our partsdeler of carsbiler, our tiresdekk,
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hvor alle våre bildeler, dekk,
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oilolje filtersfiltre,
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oljefilter,
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helicoptershelikoptre, planesfly --
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helikopter, fly --
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where are the landscapeslandskaper where all of that stuffting endsendene up?
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hvor er landskapene der alt dette ender opp?
01:41
And to me, again, photographyfotografering was
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Og for meg, igjen, var fotografiet
01:43
a way in whichhvilken I could exploreutforske and researchforskning the worldverden,
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en måte jeg kunne utforske og studere denne verdenen,
01:46
and find those placessteder.
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og finne disse stedene.
01:48
And anotheren annen ideaidé that I had as well,
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Og en annen idé som jeg også hadde,
01:50
that was broughtbrakte med seg forwardframover by an ecologistøkolog --
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som ble trukket fram av en økolog --
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he basicallyi utgangspunktet did a calculationberegningen where
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Han gjorde en beregning hvor
01:57
he tooktok one literliter of gasgass and said,
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han tok en liter drivstoff og spurte
01:59
well, how much carbonkarbon it would take, and how much organicorganisk materialmateriale?
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vel, hvor mye karbon kreves det, og hvor mye organisk materiale?
02:03
It was 23 metricmetrisk tonstonn for one literliter.
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Det ble 23 tonn for å lage en liter.
02:06
So whenevernår som helst I fillfylle up my gasgass,
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Så hver gang jeg fyller drivstoff,
02:08
I think of that literliter, and how much carbonkarbon.
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tenker jeg på den literen, og mengden karbon.
02:10
And I know that oilolje comeskommer from the oceanhav and phytoplanktonplanteplankton,
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Og jeg vet at olje kommer fra havet og planteplankton.
02:13
but he did the calculationsberegningene for our EarthJorden
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Men han gjorde beregningene for vår jord
02:16
and what it had to do to produceprodusere that amountbeløp of energyenergi.
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og hva det kreves for å produsere den mengden energi.
02:18
From the photosyntheticfotosynteseaktiviteten growthvekst,
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Fra fotosyntese alene,
02:20
it would take 500 yearsår of that growthvekst
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ville det ta 500 år
02:23
to produceprodusere what we use, the 30 billionmilliarder barrelsfat we use perper yearår.
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å produsere det vi bruker, de 30 milliarder fatene vi bruker hvert år.
02:28
And that alsoogså broughtbrakte med seg me to the factfaktum that
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Og det førte meg til det faktum at
02:30
this posespositurer suchslik a riskFare to our societysamfunn.
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dette innebærer slik en risiko for vårt samfunn.
02:33
Looking at 30 billionmilliarder perper yearår,
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Med 30 milliarder fat i året,
02:38
we look at our two largeststørste suppliersleverandører,
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kan vi se mot våre to største leverandører,
02:40
SaudiSaudi ArabiaArabia and now CanadaCanada, with its dirtyskitne oilolje.
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Saudi Arabia, og nå Canada, med sin skitne olje.
02:42
And togethersammen they only formskjema about 15 yearsår of supplyforsyning.
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Og til sammen har de knapt nok 15 år med reserver.
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The wholehel worldverden, at 1.2 trillionbillioner estimatedAntatt reservesreserver,
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Med hele verdens 1,2 trillioner fat i estimerte reserver,
02:49
only givesgir us about 45 yearsår.
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får vi bare omtrent 45 år.
02:51
So, it's not a questionspørsmål of if, but a questionspørsmål of when
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Så det er ikke et spørsmål om vi vil nå et vendepunkt,
02:54
peaktopp oilolje will come uponpå us.
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men om når dette vendepunktet kommer.
02:56
So, to me, usingved hjelp av photographyfotografering --
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Så for meg, ved hjelp av fotografiet --
02:58
and I feel that all of us need to now beginbegynne to really
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og jeg føler at vi alle nå trenger å virkelig begynne
03:01
take the taskoppgave of usingved hjelp av our talentstalenter,
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å bruke våre talenter,
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our waysmåter of thinkingtenker,
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vår tenkemåte,
03:06
to beginbegynne to dealavtale with what I think is probablysannsynligvis
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til å begynne å ta tak i det jeg mener sannsynligvis er
03:08
one of the mostmest challengingutfordrende issuesproblemer of our time,
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en av de mest utfordrende sakene i vår tid,
03:11
how to dealavtale with our energyenergi crisiskrise.
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hvordan håndtere energikrisen.
03:13
And I would like to say that, on the other sideside of it,
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Og jeg vil si, at på den andre siden,
03:15
30, 40 yearsår from now, the childrenbarn that I have,
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30-40 år fra nå, skal jeg kunne se på barna mine,
03:17
I can look at them and say, "We did everything
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og si at vi gjorde alt vi kunne,
03:19
we possiblymuligens, humanlymenneskelig could do,
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alt som var menneskelig mulig,
03:22
to beginbegynne to mitigateredusere this,
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for å begrense dette,
03:25
what I feel is one of the mostmest importantviktig and criticalkritisk
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som jeg føler er et av de viktigste og mest kritiske
03:27
momentsøyeblikk in our time. Thank you.
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øyeblikkene i vår tid. Takk.
03:30
(ApplauseApplaus)
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(Applaus)
Translated by Martin Hassel
Reviewed by Per Aarvik

▲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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