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Mike Barry, Bernardo Bertolucci, John Bradin, Gro Harlem Brundtland, Colin Campbell, Agnes Ciccarone, Barry Coates, the Dalai Lama, Emilio d'Alessio, Felix Dodds, Stanley Ewen, Michael Ewing, Buckminster Fuller, Deborah Koons Garcia, Bernward Geier, Jane Goodall, Benny Haerlin, Mark Halle, Randy Hayes, Brendan Hoare, R.D. Laing, Jonathan Lash, Richard Leakey, Claude Martin, Maria Gracia Mammucini, Rigoberta Menchú Tum, Robert Müller, David Norris, Wally N'Dow, Helena Norberg Hodge, Russell Parkinson, Rémi Parmentier, Eddie Punch, Bushra Razack, Danny Schechter, Percy Schmeiser, Vandana Shiva, Achim Steiner, Kaarin Taipale, Mathis Wackernagel, Jack Wafula, Ernst Ulrich von Weiszäcker, David Woollcombe, and Werner Zittel.
A small selection of these interviews may now be viewed online:
Watch these Global Vision videos at bigpicture.tv (will open in a new window) :
Colin Campbell •
Petroleum geologist and author from Ireland. He has worked with BP, Shell, Esso and Texaco and has been a consultant to several governments. In 1998 he and Jean Laherrère were largely responsible for convincing the International Energy Agency (IEA) that the worldís output of conventional oil would peak within a decade. He is the author of two books and numerous papers on oil depletion and has lectured and broadcast widely. Dr Campbell appeared in the films The End of Suburbia (2004) and A Crude Awakening (2006).
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The future of oil
Dr. Campbell discusses the decline of global oil and gas production and talks about the likely impacts oil depletion will have on geopolitics. He addresses some of the solutions that may help defuse the situation. Advances in energy efficiency, in particular, offer many opportunities to this effect. He then talks about renewable systems such as wind turbines and tidal power and ends by suggesting what the individual can do to help accelerate the transition to energy sustainability.
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Bernward Geier •
NGO Director from Germany. Director for International Relations at the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements
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Organic growth (part one)
Geier talks about the organic market and how organics have become mainstream in many countries throughout the world. He discusses the importance of buying locally grown organic food and highlights the continued growth of local box schemes and farm gate sales. Certain organic foods cannot be grown locally and in these cases, Geier advocates buying ìfair tradeî where possible.
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Organic growth (part two)
In this second clip, Geier explains how buying organic food will encourage more farmers to convert. Despite being a premium product, this will bring the price of organic food down. He talks about the roles schools, governments and the transport sector can play in supporting the movement. He finishes by talking about the ever-looming threat of food scares and how GM is not, in his view, a sustainable way forward.
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Jane Goodall •
Primatologist, NGO President and Educator from the United Kingdom. Humanitarian and Dr. Goodall is the founder of the Jane Goodall Institute and of the global youth programme Roots and Shoots. She is a United Nations 'Messenger of Peace' and recipient of the 2001 Gandhi/King Award for Nonviolence.
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Reasons for hope
Dr. Jane Goodall reflects upon the lessons she has learned about human nature in studying chimpanzees at Gombe National Park in Tanzania. She notes that while mankind has almost certainly inherited a common aggressive gene, the human species has also developed a sophisticated brain with the ability to curb aggressive behavior. She speaks about the messages of hope that form the basis for her educational programme, ëRoots and Shoots.í Individual actions, she says, do matter and each of us can make a difference as collectively we face the many social and environmental challenges that surround us.
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The TACARE Project in Tanzania
Dr. Jane Goodall talks about TACARE ‚ a pilot project she set up in Tanzania to address poverty and support sustainable livelihoods in the villages around Lake Tanganyika. The project works to arrest the rapid degradation of natural resources, especially in the remaining indigenous forest at Gombe National Park. The project, started in 1994, has proved very successful and has since been replicated in several other countries in Africa.
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Eco-tourism in Africa
Speaking at the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, September 2002, Dr. Goodall talks about the effects commercial logging in Africa has on the environment and the lives of indigenous peoples. She calls for a curbing of the illegal bush meat trade and discusses the various advantages sustainable forestry and the management of other natural resources can offer to local communities. While recognizing the advantages of globalization, she notes the many disadvantages it has for the third world ‚ both in terms of culture and the economy.
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Mark Halle •
NGO Director from the USA and Switzerland. Boardmember of the International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development. European Representative and Director of Trade and Investment at IISD - the International Institute for Sustainable Development. Former Director of the Global Policy Division at IUCN - the World Conservation Union.
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Redefining security
Halle talks about how environmental decline represents the most pressing security threat to all nations, North and South. He warns that if governments around the world do not act to ameliorate the situation, then the people with look elsewhere for solutions. He speaks about the sharp rise in partnerships between civil society and the private sector and the convergence of human rights, sustainability and governance issues. He emphasises that populations in the developed nations of the northern hemisphere can no longer isolate themselves from the problems of the southern hemisphere. The world, he says, is too interconnected.
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Randall Hayes • NGO President and Sustainability Consultant from the USA.
Founder and president of Rainforest Action Network. Executive Director of the International Forum on Globalization. He is the former President of San Francisco's Commission on the Environment and, more recently, the city of Oakland's Director of Sustainability.
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Forest facts and pulp fiction
Randy Hayes talks about the extent of the loss of the ìold growthî forests on the planet. He discusses the prospects for saving them from deforestation and states the case for total protection going forward. He talks about the vast opportunities for developing timber alternatives such as kenaf, hemp and paper substitutes. He ends by summarizing the key components required to make the world a more sustainable habitat for us all.
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Wally N'Dow •
NGO Secretary-General from Gambia. Has worked with the United Nations in Africa for more than 25 years. He is the former Secretary General of the UN Conference on Human Settlements (Habitat II) and is Co-chair of the State of the World Forum.
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Sustainable communities
Speaking at the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg in 2002, Dr NíDow talks about the need to reduce the ecological footprint of the worldís cities. With regards to sustainable development worldwide, he speaks about the emergence of a culture of collaboration; one that is slowly replacing old patterns of competition and contest. He sees a significant shift happening as civil society and NGOs form partnerships across national boundaries. This has created an environment of unprecedented cooperation and opportunity, he notes, as different communities share their various problems. He ends with an inspiring vision for the 21st century.
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Helena Norberg-Hodge •
Author and NGO Director from the UK. Founder of the International Society for Ecology and Culture. Co-founder of the International Forum on Globalisation. Winner of a Right Livelihood Award in 1986, also known as the 'Alternative Nobel Prize.' She is the author of the highly acclaimed Ancient Futures: Learning from Ladakh.
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Sustainable Economics
Helena Norberg-Hodge talks about globalization. She explains how governments across the political spectrum pander to private sector demands, often at the expense of smaller businesses. Deregulation and subsidies mean that ìbig businessî is driving farmers and other small enterprises into bankruptcy. Many small businesses are forced to merge in order to survive. This, she says, creates a stress-ridden corporate culture based on survival of the biggest. What is needed, Norberg-Hodge suggests, is greater awareness that a sustainable economy ultimately depends on the health of the worldís natural and social environment. She notes that this is already happening as diverse interest groups link up to challenge the status quo.
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The Local Food Movement (Part One)
In the first part of this two-part series, Helena Norberg-Hodge talks about the benefits that supporting the local food economy can bring to both consumers and producers. By shortening transport costs and ìfood milesî consumers can help reduce CO2 emissions and costly packaging. This directly improves the livelihoods of local farmers as they struggle to compete with big agribusiness. Small farmers everywhere, she says, are having to meet increasingly costly regulatory requirements brought about, in many cases, by the polluting practices of their larger competitors. This means spending money they donít have. She encourages people to support local farmerís markets to ìbring the food economy home!î
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The Local Food Movement (Part Two)
In the second part of this two-part series, Helena Norberg-Hodge explains why supporting the local food economy neednít mean we stop buying coffee, tropical fruits and other items flown in from abroad. Consumers should be more aware of the origins of their staple foods ‚ that way, she says, they can make conscious choices to support local growers where possible. This cuts down on transportation and pollution and offers a host of other advantages to consumers and small producers alike.
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Why GM Won't Solve Hunger
Many Bio-tech companies market their GM seeds using the claim that GM is the answer to world hunger. Here, Norberg-Hodge explains how these profit-driven corporations are in reality preventing third-world farmers from planting the local native seeds they have been using for generations. She also cites the lack of in-depth risk assessment as a reason for putting the technology on hold.
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Danny Schechter •
Journalist, Film Producer, Film Director, Media Activist from the USA. He is an award-winning journalist, author, film producer and director. He is founder and Vice President of Globalvision and is Executive Director of MediaChannel, based in New York City. He spent eight years at ABC News and has worked for CNN, public television and commercial radio.
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Greening the media
Award-winning journalist Danny Schechter explains why the mainstream media often ignores environmental issues. The media is a problem, he says, especially in America where foreign news coverage has been systematically reduced in recent years. If the general public is to get the information it needs to understand the environmental crisis more fully, then news reporting needs to change. In the meantime, a growing independent media sector is working hard to fill the information gap.
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Dr. Ernst Ulrich von Weizsäcker •
NGO President, Politician from Germany. Former President and Founder of the Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy. Dr. von Weizsäcker is now a member of the German Bundestag. In 1998, he co-wrote a book with Amory Lovins entitled 'Factor Four: Doubling Wealth, Halving Resource Use.'
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Factor four efficiency
Dr. von Weizsäcker describes how the globalized economy allows corporations to blackmail governments around the world. This, he explains, fuels short-term thinking at a time when long-term solutions are much needed. One such solution, he suggests, is the development of greater energy efficiency. He refers to a book he co-wrote with Amory Lovins of the Rocky Mountain Institute, in which he argues that resource productivity can be increased by a factor of four. He closes by speculating that improved energy efficiency would be of benefit not only to the environment, but to the economy as well.
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Mathis Wackernagel •
NGO Director from Switzerland.
A world leader in ecological footprint analysis and the Executive Director of Global Footprint Network.
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Ecological footprints
In collaboration with Canadian William Rees, Mathis Wackernagel has pioneered and developed an ecological measurement called the Ecological Footprint. Here he describes the significance of footprint analysis, explaining that humanityís ecological footprint is currently 20% greater than the carrying capacity of the Earth. This represents far more than that which can be regenerated by nature. In short, we are running an ecological deficit. Can we learn to balance our books?
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