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 Brutynsky fotografiază peisajul petrolului

Filmed:
550,970 views

Prin intermediul unor fotografii impresionante, Edward Burtynsky urmăreşte drumul petrolului în societatea modernă începând de la sursă până la conducte, până în motoarele maşinilor -- şi apoi mai departe, după sfârşitul petrolului.
- 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 starteda început my journeycălătorie 30 yearsani agoîn urmă.
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Călătoria mea a început acum 30 de ani.
00:18
And I workeda lucrat in minesmine. And I realizedrealizat that
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Am lucrat în mine. Şi am realizat că
00:20
this was a worldlume unseennevăzut.
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aceasta era o parte nevăzută a lumii.
00:22
And I wanted, throughprin colorculoare and largemare formatformat camerascamere
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Am dorit, ca prin intermediul culorii și al aparatelor cu format lat
00:24
and very largemare printsprinturi,
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și al printurilor foarte mari,
00:26
to make a bodycorp of work that somehowoarecum
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să creez baza unui proiect care
00:28
becamea devenit symbolssimboluri of our
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a devenit oarecum un simbol
00:31
use of the landscapepeisaj,
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al modului în care folosim peisajele,
00:33
how we use the landteren.
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cum folosim terenul.
00:35
And to me this was
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Pentru mine acest lucru a fost
00:37
a keycheie componentcomponent that somehowoarecum, throughprin this mediummediu of photographyfotografie,
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un element important care, prin fotografie,
00:40
whichcare allowspermite us to contemplatecontempla these landscapespeisaje,
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ne facilitează contemplarea acestor peisaje.
00:43
that I thought photographyfotografie was perfectlyperfect suitedpotrivit
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Am considerat că fotografia este potrivită
00:46
to doing this typetip of work.
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pentru acest tip de proiect.
00:48
And after 17 yearsani of photographingSesiuni foto largemare industrialindustrial landscapespeisaje,
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După 17 ani de fotografiat peisaje industriale,
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it occurreda avut loc to me that
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mi-am dat seama că
00:54
oilulei is underpinningstau la baza the scalescară and speedviteză.
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petrolul stă la baza mărimii şi a vitezei,
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Because that is what has changedschimbat,
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pentru că asta s-a chimbat:
00:58
is the speedviteză at whichcare we're takingluare all our resourcesresurse.
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viteza cu care folosim toate resursele.
01:01
And so then I wenta mers out to developdezvolta a wholeîntreg seriesserie
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Astfel am început să dezvolt o serie
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on the landscapepeisaj of oilulei.
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despre peisajul petrolului.
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And what I want to do is to kinddrăguț of mapHartă an arcarc
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Ceea ce vreau să fac este să trasez o hartă
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that there is extractionextractie, where we're takingluare it from the groundsol,
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a extracţiei petrolului din pământ,
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refinementrafinament. And that's one chaptercapitol.
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a rafinării acestuia. Acesta este primul capitol.
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The other chaptercapitol that I wanted to look at was
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Celălalt capitol la care am vrut să mă refer descrie
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how we use it -- our citiesorase,
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cum îl folosim, în oraşele noastre
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our carsautoturisme, our motorculturesmotorcultures,
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în maşini, în cultura motoarelor,
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where people gatheraduna around the vehiclevehicul
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în care oamenii se adună în jurul vehiculelor
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as a celebrationsărbătoare.
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ca la o sărbătoare.
01:27
And then the thirdal treilea one is this ideaidee of the endSfârşit of oilulei,
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Cel de-al treilea capitol se referă la sfârşitul petrolului,
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this entropicentropice endSfârşit,
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acest sfârşit entropic,
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where all of our partspărți of carsautoturisme, our tiresanvelope,
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unde toate piesele de maşini, cauciucurile,
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oilulei filtersfiltre,
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filtrele de ulei,
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helicopterselicoptere, planesavioane --
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elicopterele, avioanele --
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where are the landscapespeisaje where all of that stuffchestie endscapete up?
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unde sunt peisajele unde ajung toate astea?
01:41
And to me, again, photographyfotografie was
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Pentru mine fotografia a fost
01:43
a way in whichcare I could exploreexplora and researchcercetare the worldlume,
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modul în care am putut explora şi investiga lumea,
01:46
and find those placeslocuri.
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şi unde am găsit acele locuri.
01:48
And anothero alta ideaidee that I had as well,
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Altă ideea pe care am avut-o
01:50
that was broughtadus forwardredirecţiona by an ecologistecologist --
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care a fost adusă în discuţie de un ecologist --
01:54
he basicallype scurt did a calculationcalcul where
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Acesta a făcut nişte calcule în care
01:57
he tooka luat one literlitri of gasgaz and said,
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a luat un litru de benzină şi şi-a pus întrebarea
01:59
well, how much carboncarbon it would take, and how much organicorganic materialmaterial?
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de cât carbon şi material organic e nevoie pentru a obţine un litru de benzină?
02:03
It was 23 metricmetric tonstone for one literlitri.
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Este vorba de 23 de tone pentru un litru.
02:06
So wheneveroricând I fillcompletati up my gasgaz,
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Aşa că de fiecare dată când alimentez maşina,
02:08
I think of that literlitri, and how much carboncarbon.
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mă gândesc la litrul acela şi la carbon.
02:10
And I know that oilulei comesvine from the oceanocean and phytoplanktonfitoplanctonului,
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Şi ştiu că petrolul provine din ocean şi de la fitoplanctoni.
02:13
but he did the calculationscalcule for our EarthPământ
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Dar ecologistul a făcut calculul pentru Pământ
02:16
and what it had to do to producelegume şi fructe that amountCantitate of energyenergie.
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şi de câte resurse ar fi nevoie pentru a produce o asemenea cantitate de energie.
02:18
From the photosyntheticfotosintetice growthcreştere,
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De la creşterea fotosintetică,
02:20
it would take 500 yearsani of that growthcreştere
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ar fi nevoie de 500 de ani
02:23
to producelegume şi fructe what we use, the 30 billionmiliard barrelsbutoaie we use perpe yearan.
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pentru a produce cât folosim, cele 30 de miliarde de barili pe an.
02:28
And that alsode asemenea broughtadus me to the factfapt that
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Şi asta m-a dus cu gândul şi la faptul că aceste numere
02:30
this posesridică suchastfel de a riskrisc to our societysocietate.
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reprezintă un asemenea risc pentru societatea noastră.
02:33
Looking at 30 billionmiliard perpe yearan,
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Analizând cifra de 30 de miliarde pe an
02:38
we look at our two largestcea mai mare suppliersfurnizori,
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ne uităm la cei mai mari furnizori,
02:40
SaudiArabia Saudită ArabiaArabia and now CanadaCanada, with its dirtymurdar oilulei.
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Arabia Saudită, şi acum Canada, cu petrolul ei murdar.
02:42
And togetherîmpreună they only formformă about 15 yearsani of supplylivra.
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Şi împreună ei au aproximativ 15 ani de resurse.
02:46
The wholeîntreg worldlume, at 1.2 trilliontrilion estimatedestimativ reservesrezerve,
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Rezervele mondială de petrol este estimată la 1,2 trilioane de barili
02:49
only givesdă us about 45 yearsani.
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ne oferă resurse doar pentru ~ 45 de ani.
02:51
So, it's not a questionîntrebare of if, but a questionîntrebare of when
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Aşadar nu se pune problema dacă, ci când
02:54
peakvârf oilulei will come uponpe us.
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se va termina petrolul.
02:56
So, to me, usingutilizând photographyfotografie --
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Pentru mine, folosind fotografia --
02:58
and I feel that all of us need to now beginÎNCEPE to really
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şi cred că toţi ar trebui să începem
03:01
take the tasksarcină of usingutilizând our talentstalente,
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să ne asumăm responsabilitatea de a ne folosi talentele,
03:03
our waysmoduri of thinkinggândire,
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modul de gândire, pentru a începe
03:06
to beginÎNCEPE to dealafacere with what I think is probablyprobabil
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să căutăm soluţii pentru ceea ce eu cred că este probabil
03:08
one of the mostcel mai challengingprovocator issuesprobleme of our time,
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una dintre cele mai dificile probleme ale vremurilor noastre,
03:11
how to dealafacere with our energyenergie crisiscriză.
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cum să administrăm criza de energie.
03:13
And I would like to say that, on the other sidelatură of it,
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Aş dori să adaug că, pe cealaltă parte,
03:15
30, 40 yearsani from now, the childrencopii that I have,
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peste 30, 40 de ani, copiilor mei,
03:17
I can look at them and say, "We did everything
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le voi putea spune sincer: "Am făcut
03:19
we possiblyeventual, humanlyomeneşte could do,
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tot ce ne-a stat în putinţă
03:22
to beginÎNCEPE to mitigateatenuarea this,
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pentru a începe să rezolvăm
03:25
what I feel is one of the mostcel mai importantimportant and criticalcritic
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ceea ce eu consider că este cel mai important şi critic
03:27
momentsmomente in our time. Thank you.
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moment din vremurile noastre. Vă mulţumesc!
03:30
(ApplauseAplauze)
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(Aplauze)
Translated by Raluca Piteiu
Reviewed by Dragos Mitrica

▲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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