This reel is part of one of our Specialty Collections. Online viewing or downloads of low-res versions for offline viewing will be available for only more day, though. Online viewing or downloads of low-res versions for offline viewing has now expired, though, and cannot be viewed online. "Pro" account holders can download a low-res version without audio for offline viewing.
Sign up for a "Pro" account to download this footage.
This reel is currently not available for online viewing.
Sorry, this video is temporarily unavailable for online viewing or download. Please try again later.
Restricted Material
Access to this reel with audio is restricted. It will be available for only more day.
Access to this reel with audio has expired.
01:00:00 0 |
Title Slate Card & Countdown Air Date 3/20/75. Title: Earthwatch
|
01:00:11 11.47 |
Intro Graphics
|
01:00:21 21.19 |
Program Sponsors: The German Marshall Fund of the United States, Corporation for Public Brodcasting, Ford Foundation, IBM, Rockefeller Foundation)
|
01:00:38 38.19 |
CU of green mountains - camera pans out to show a valley in East Africa
|
01:00:52 52.41 |
Slow pan of the dry grasslands in Africa
|
01:01:02 62.55 |
Aerial view of African grasslands
|
01:01:16 76.32 |
Bill Moyers leans, one knee up, against a rock in Eastern Africa. He's wearing casual khaki safari style clothing. Wind blows his hair
|
01:02:02 122.54 |
Animated Intro Graphics. Title: Earthwatch from Nairobi
|
01:02:31 151.16 |
POV from a helicopter flying over the Rift Valley in Africa. The thriving young city of Nairobi is scene below
|
01:02:48 168.74 |
Bustling city of Nairobi. Cars speed down a multi-lane busy street. a man rides by on a bicycle. Lots of people in 70's style modern clothing are walking around the city.
|
01:02:58 178.43 |
Large multi-story buildings line the busy street. Red VW bug drives by. Palm trees
|
01:03:03 183.21 |
Kenyatta International Convention Center home of the United Nations Environmental Program, formed in 1972. Circled with flags from nations all over the world.
|
01:03:18 198.24 |
Bill Moyers sits down with Maurice Strong, head of Earth Watchers. Strong is an environmental activist and business man. Strong sits on a chair outside on the beach - his gray hair blows in the breeze
|
01:03:24 204.35 |
INTERVIEW
Maurice Strong 3:24 We have no armies at our disposal. We have no enforcement power in that sense. But we found in the environmental field that mutual self interest is a very powerful incentive to enforcement. This is a positive sign. I don't know that we'll make it. Maybe man does have the lemming instinct. I haven't lived in the Arctic. I often thought about the lesson of the lemming. You know the little animal that pop that grows in population and then suddenly makes a mad suicidal dash for the sea. I often wonder does man really have that instinct to? I hope not, I'm working on the basis that we don't have or if we have we can overcome it. But maybe we do have it. |
01:04:08 248 |
Dirt road in the grasslands of central Kenya. A jeep drives down road towards the camera
|
01:04:23 263.8 |
Zebra walk freely in a grassy area in Kenya. Tall industrial buildings can be seen in the distance
|
01:04:33 273.63 |
Aerial shot of a rural area in the Rift Valley. Dry dirt roads speckled with bunches of green trees. Three hut like structures are in the middle
|
01:04:41 281.77 |
Moyers walks with Maurice Strong along a rugged dry land in the Rift Valley, a place where archeologists have discovered some of our ancestors first tools
|
01:04:45 285.82 |
INTERVIEW
Maurice Strong 4:46 This is really where technology all began. were primitive man. First, you learn to use his intelligence to fashion tools. The fashion in this case axes and spearheads and little Hammer type instruments from out of stone. Bill Moyers 5:03 But he began to give him also control over the environment Maurice Strong 5:05 absolutely technology began to give him that leverage that he is used to improve his lot and to improve what in those days was, of course, the struggle against nature. Today, I mean, technology has reached the point where modern man has got all the power which science and technology has accumulated in him over the years, given him on him, and potential for impact on nature, which is beyond the wildest dreams of primitive man, technology is neutral technology is beneficial. It's what man does with this technology, the same technology that can can bring us benefits that can build roads, beautiful homes, and beautiful cities, and can take man to the moon, that same technology can be used to destroy forests to destroy the quality of waters and air. destroy the very stuff of life. If we take our own continent of North America, for example, and we look at the the original inhabitants of North America, they cared for North America as we've never done, I recall very much what an Indian chief said to the representative of the white man's authority who had just beaten him in battle. And the Indian chief was surrendering and handing over the land, the land of his ancestors. And he said to the white man, I would only ask you one thing, please take care of the land, throughout all of the his our history, we have cared for the land and the land is cared for us. Well, that's simple wisdom is the kind of thing that modern man with his powerful technology has got to learn. Bill Moyers 6:41 What do you think about in terms of the world's environment today, when you stand in a place like this? Maurice Strong 6:46 Well, two things one, the great resilience and the adaptability of man, because here to have lived for something like 2,800,000 years in this valley, man has clearly had to be adaptable, he's also learned to live in harmony with his natural surroundings. Modern Man also has to adapt. And of course, the rate at which we have to adapt today and the rate at which nature has to adapt to our increasing activities is accelerating vastly. Bill Moyers 7:17 Do you think man is likely to be here? 3 million years from now? Maurice Strong 7:21 Well that's the crunch question. That's the reason we're here. We're trying to help this generation of man to find the answer to that question, and I believe the answer to that question, will reside in what we do or fail to do in this generation. Bill Moyers 7:34 What do we have to learn from our ancestors who lived here? Maurice Strong 7:38 Well, you've got to learn, I think, that nature and man are part of the same complex. Man and Nature coexist. Man is part of nature. And yet today, man with the power that science and technology has placed in his hand, is the most active and influential element in the processes of nature, man has the power to impact on those processes that, you know, he's never had before. And this makes him both the central actor. And also in the final analysis of repository of most of the consequences of his actions. Some of the descendants of early man live in this area today, not much different from the way in which their ancestors are live. They're highly intelligent people. But what they don't understand so much is how is this technology and this massive intensive activity of yours? How is it really improving your life? What do we really need is a blending of the wisdom that has come to man through the ages and which now we've almost forgotten where we, we have to go to primitive man, to traditional people who are still following traditional ways. We have to go to him because he's the only man today who is the repository of this wisdom. We've shed it along with our, you know, civilized sophistication. We've shared the wisdom of the ages, and we need to rediscover it and we can discover it in real dialogue from them. Yes, they've got lots to learn from us, but we've got a lot more than we think to learn from them. |
01:06:38 398.24 |
Slow Pan of the Rift Valley, Africa
|
01:06:41 401.06 |
INTERVIEW CONTINUES
Bill Moyers 6:41 What do you think about in terms of the world's environment today, when you stand in a place like this? Maurice Strong 6:46 Well, two things one, the great resilience and the adaptability of man, because here to have lived for something like 2,800,000 years in this valley, man has clearly had to be adaptable, he's also learned to live in harmony with his natural surroundings. Modern Man also has to adapt. And of course, the rate at which we have to adapt today and the rate at which nature has to adapt to our increasing activities is accelerating vastly. Bill Moyers 7:17 Do you think man is likely to be here? 3 million years from now? Maurice Strong 7:21 Well that's the crunch question. That's the reason we're here. We're trying to help this generation of man to find the answer to that question, and I believe the answer to that question, will reside in what we do or fail to do in this generation. Bill Moyers 7:34 What do we have to learn from our ancestors who lived here? Maurice Strong 7:38 Well, you've got to learn, I think, that nature and man are part of the same complex. Man and Nature coexist. Man is part of nature. And yet today, man with the power that science and technology has placed in his hand, is the most active and influential element in the processes of nature, man has the power to impact on those processes that, you know, he's never had before. And this makes him both the central actor. And also in the final analysis of repository of most of the consequences of his actions. Some of the descendants of early man live in this area today, not much different from the way in which their ancestors are live. They're highly intelligent people. But what they don't understand so much is how is this technology and this massive intensive activity of yours? How is it really improving your life? What do we really need is a blending of the wisdom that has come to man through the ages and which now we've almost forgotten where we, we have to go to primitive man, to traditional people who are still following traditional ways. We have to go to him because he's the only man today who is the repository of this wisdom. We've shed it along with our, you know, civilized sophistication. We've shared the wisdom of the ages, and we need to rediscover it and we can discover it in real dialogue from them. Yes, they've got lots to learn from us, but we've got a lot more than we think to learn from them. |
01:09:04 544.66 |
A jeep drives on a dirt road in Rift Valley. A cloud of dust sprays up from the back wheels of the jeep
|
01:09:09 549 |
Beautiful blue sky and Lake Nakuru in the distance, formed a million years ago by volcanic eruption
|
01:09:16 556.57 |
Hundreds of flamingos fly just over the surface of Lake Nakuru, drawn to it by it's unique algae
|
01:09:22 562.51 |
INTERVIEW
Maurice Strong 9:22 There are over 400 individual species of birds in and around in the bushes you see here. In fact, there I am told that there is no place on earth where you can come to one place. It's as compact as this isn't see as many individual species of birds some of the birds that come here come from the Arctic Circle, North America. If the deterioration of the lake continues at the rate it has the last few years it hasn't got much of a chance. But because man has done more to it in the last 50 years than had occurred to destroy its prospects in the last in the previous million years. it clearly won't stand even another 50 years of this kind of activity on the part of man. he threats to the conditions that Bill Moyers 10:05 What are the threats to the conditions that exist here? Maurice Strong 10:08 Well, several and all in one way or another related to man's activities. Of course, the town of the Katuru is growing, it's a thriving Kenya town. It's has a population of something like 50,000. Now, they say it'll have a population of something like a quarter of a million in 20 years. And a lot a fair amount of small industry, in, in around the town, all of this dis discharging its storage and waste into a lake which has no outlet. And experts tell me that there is a very real risk that the lake will not very much longer support the unique bird life that it now supports. Bill Moyers 10:46 Well, the question arises, people say, Well, it's nice to have some flamingo is good if we can keep them but human life and human needs are more imperative. So if the flamingo has to go to make way for man, it's a regrettable but not necessarily catastrophic loss. Maurice Strong 11:02 Well, of course, the loss of the flamingo alone would be a loss, but as you say, not a loss that would necessarily mean that man himself was impaired particularly, but whatever temporary advantage he may have gained by the activities that have destroyed Flamingo and make Kuru is obviously going to be balanced by the threat that he increasingly is going to be feeling himself because every species has a habitat like the flamingo a habitat on which he depends for his life, and his well being and man himself has this man has to look at the whole cycle of cause and effect that he is triggering by his activities is the consequences for the flamingo maybe extinction today, but the continuation of that cycle is going to threaten man's very life and well being tomorrow. If you just look around Lake Nakuru, you see a lot of the other evidences of man's activities that are reflected in the future prospects for the lake they have burning in on the hillsides. This is the good example or a bad example of a slash and burn tactics that are helping to destroy the agricultural potential. Well, simply by exposing the earth to rain fall erosion, wind erosion right here the other side of the lake, you see that great big dust cloud? Well, this is when you know, this is Winds shifting sand shifting soil. See that carcass over there. And then all the carcasses laying along the edge of the lake, they remind us that of death to is a part of this cycle. And of course, it's part of the natural cycle. But today, what's happening, of course, is that the number of deaths of many of these species are vastly increasing over the number of births. And you know, this is what causes a species to go extinct. Now, with man, it's the other way. Today, death rates are much below birth rates. So it is this contradiction between the growing populations of man and the growing needs of men and the growing intensity of his activities, as they impact on the natural habitats of many species around the world that is causing this increased death rate amongst the animal life. Bill Moyers 13:12 Do we have anything to learn from the cycle? And from this place, Maurice Strong 13:17 Yes, one of the big things we've got to learn is that we are not only on the cause, and we're on the effects and as well Bill Moyers 13:23 what do you mean? Maurice Strong 13:23 Well, what I simply mean is that we man may be the cause of many of the processes by which the flamingo and other species are extinguished. But at the other end of the cycle, those same causes are going to reverberate on man himself. Every single species that dies, brings man himself a little closer to ultimate extinction. |
01:09:28 568.17 |
Hundreds of flamingo gather in the shallow coast of lake Nakuru. The lake is deteriorating as a result of man, interrupting the habitat of these birds
|
01:12:17 737.92 |
Dust cloud over Lake Nakuru as a result of slash and burn
|
01:12:33 753.84 |
Animal carouses strewn across the shore of Lake Nakuru (**Camera quality is a bit shaky**)
|
01:13:15 795.15 |
Montage of various shots around Lake Nakuru and wildlife
|
01:13:47 827.9 |
Joy Adamson, author who has written about Africa and its wildlife. She lives in Kenya. She speaks with Moyers outside her home in the yard
|
01:14:03 843.91 |
Slow pan of Lake Naivasha, Africa
|
01:14:17 857.52 |
INTERVIEW
Joy Adamson 14:18 I may say so in the 50 acres I have here, these are the only 50 acres where there's still some indigenous wildlife. And you see otters and Tiger and marsh rinos and they all come here because they know it is the only park where they can have a drink and a snack and shop. I feel extremely humbled, living here. And knowing that man is only a very small part and it should remain this part. Bill Moyers 14:51 Why do you say that the wildlife here is important to every country. I live in New York. Very few people from New York will ever get to Lake Naivasha. Why is it important to the rest of us? Joy Adamson 15:02 But I can only answer that for myself and for the for the tourists who come here. It's difficult for a city dweller who has never seen anything but skyscrapers and petrol pumps in basements and air conditioned rooms to realize there is a world beyond. The people are deprived today of the important values a basic values because he never sees him, they come here as a tourist, if they're lucky to come here, then then charmed by these animals, but it's a holiday, it's not their real life, then they go back again to their air conditioned rooms. And one has to bring it by education in the hall, you see, and to respect widlife is a central forum for everybody survival, not only men, Bill Moyers 15:47 you think that man has a stake in the survival of wildlife? Joy Adamson 15:51 He's responsible. That was a good one you're talking about? But the question is, is it only? I'm only on the very surface or linear of all these problems, but I feel nature is the answer for life in the wildest biggest meaning of its conception, Bill Moyers 16:19 what do you think it will take to reverse the process of destruction? Joy Adamson 16:26 The complete reshuffling of our philosophy. Bill Moyers 16:29 philosophy? Joy Adamson 16:30 as well as our over civilization, I mean, it is not necessary that we have these enormous food quantities and the need of so much more clothing and transport and all these things, which is partly status partly over civilization, Bill Moyers 16:54 you're saying then, a new concept of what is enough? Joy Adamson 16:58 Good. I mean, I say I'm 65 now 65 Now, and that is fit and strong and healthy, never Ill never anything. And that is a very modest life. But that don't feel happy when I eat so much. For me it is far more important to travel in life. |
01:17:13 1033 |
Giraffe run free in an open African field. Classical music plays in the background.
|
01:17:39 1059.34 |
Zebra run free in African grasslands
|
01:17:41 1061.89 |
Bill Moyers and Maurice Strong stand up in a movie jeep, their heads pop through the top of the open jeep. They ride through a game park where wild African animals are not fenced in.
|
01:17:46 1066 |
INTERVIEW WITH MAURICE STRONG
Maurice Strong 17:46 in many ways, this is unique in providing a habitat for species of animals, which just don't exist elsewhere. But in another sense, it's a very good and dramatic example of the general problem we face throughout the world, general problem of nature, gradually having to bear more and more of the pressures of man's activities, animals, wild animals have to compete for the use of the land with other activities of man. And of course, in this area with the expansion of Nairobi city, with the airport, just at the edge of the national park, we have the need for new agricultural land to be brought into production at the other extreme. So you have these competing uses of land all for designed, of course, to serve man's benefit to meet his economic needs, the amount of territory available for the animal population is shrinking by about 50% In the last two or three decades, one has to look at it in terms of the benefits to the society as a whole, not only to this generation, because after all, we have inherited many of these benefits. And we do have a responsibility to future generations to try to transmit them these benefits to them to permit them to enjoy these benefits, too. Bill Moyers 19:06 I've talked to Africans who say that the view you've expressed which is held widely in the United States, for example, is really a white man, European and industrialized view. We've got ours now you keep the animals for us to come see. Maurice Strong 19:19 Well thta's exactly what I meant when I said that the animals have to compete in economic terms with other possible uses of the land here in Africa. Of course, wildlife is a source of jobs. For Africans, wildlife is a source of benefit to the economy. Now, it's also true that to the extent that the rest of the world looks at African wildlife as a great resource for the world, and this is another proper way of looking at African wildlife. The rest of the world should pay something of the cost of maintaining it. And this is why we need international cooperation. This is why Africa needs and deserves international support for the maintenance of its wildlife reserves Bill Moyers 20:01 and it's not romance you're trying to preserve. Maurice Strong 20:04 No, but let's not entirely dismiss romance. You know, romance is part of man too. I don't like to feel that we must dismiss the romance. I'm a man's romantic notions as being of no significance even in terms of Africa. Even in terms of the animals, you know, let's preserve at least some of the romance. Bill Moyers 20:24 This is more than preserving the Africa of Livingston and Stanley and Tarzan. Maurice Strong 20:31 Well, of course, well that Africa is gone. It's part of history. We've got the new African out and Africa in which you see in Nairobi, some of the best that modern civilization can offer some, Nairobi has its high rises, we live in one of them. Right over there. As a matter of fact, on the horizon. |
01:17:52 1072.8 |
Wild Gazelle's roam freely in Africa
|
01:18:22 1101.96 |
Airplane flies over Nairobi national park
|
01:20:49 1249.86 |
Moyers continues his interview with Strong from a balcony of a Nairobi high rise city building.
INTERVIEW Bill Moyers 20:50 You get a good view of the Nairobi as a microcosm. Maurice Strong 20:55 Yes, and that's a good word for it. It is a microcosm, Nairobi really exemplifies so many of the issues that man faces all around the world. Here, of course, you have some of the best conditions of life I live here I enjoyed. It's one of the finest cities in the world to live in some of the best residential areas, some of the most beautiful and well planned and well cared for streets you can see anywhere in the world. Some of the buildings have tastes of character, the modern building, at the same time, Nairobi is experiencing all the pressures of growing urban life, all the pressures of population coming in, drawn in by this great magnet here. And it's difficult for any government to cope with these pressures. Bill Moyers 21:34 So you have some of the worst here too. Maurice Strong 21:35 Indeed, we have, you could see over here, some of the parts of Nairobi, where newcomers congregate from the rural areas you see all around the world, what's happening people, is it they're gathering and cities, we've got an urban revolution on in many of our countries, that urban revolution has already reached the stage where most people live in urban areas. In the developing world, most people continue to live in, in rural areas, but they're migrating at increasing rates to the cities. Actually, the city just to give you some idea, the cities of the world are growing at double the rate of world population growth and cities of over 500,000 are growing at double that rate again, Bill Moyers 22:13 What are the consequences if that kind of growth continues unchecked? Maurice Strong 22:17 Well, of course, the consequences will be catastrophic. If we if we are talking in terms of possible eco catastrophes, I am absolutely convinced that they're more likely to occur in the cities of the developing world than anywhere else. Bill Moyers 22:31 What do you mean? Maurice Strong 22:32 Well, these the city, the cities of the developing world are growing beyond anything we have ever had to cope with and in the industrialized world, and we know what trouble we're having, coping with our urban problems, but in the developing world, countries at a very low with a very low economic base, with very few resources are trying to cope with, with pressures that are just threatening to overwhelm many of them that the pressures of trying to provide decent water supply and health services etc, to populations that are expanding beyond anything any city has ever had to cope with. The meaning is clear. I think that with the right use of his resources that his talents and his creativity, man can cope with the problems of building better environments and human settlements, better urban environments, better rural environments, he can do this, but it takes the kind of commitment, the kind of priority that we give to warfare and other major societal priorities. We can do it, but the right now, we're being overcome by the problems and some of the cities of the world are literally threatened with being overwhelmed in the next decade or so with the kind of problems that we witnessed in microcosm here in Nairobi. |
01:21:39 1299.99 |
Rural neighborhood in Nairobi. Mud huts with grass roofs. Native Africans walk down dirt road in rural town.
|
01:23:45 1425.34 |
Headquarters of the United Nations Environmental Program - the ultra-modern Kenyatta Conference Center. 300 employees.
|
01:24:08 1448.42 |
Moyers sits down with 4 employees of the UN Environmental Program on chairs outside of the convention center. Mostofa Tolba (Egypt) microbiologist, Letitia Obeng (Ghana) water borne diseases, Robert Frosch (US) Ocean, S Isai Evtiev (Russia) Climate Change
|
01:24:44 1484.09 |
INTERVIEW
Robert Frosch 24:43 Were in a condition of worry, I suppose with professional warriors for the for the human race on this subject. Some of these problems are extremely difficult to even to define. We're worried about whether the combination of carbon dioxide oxide and particulate matter and heat that we put into the atmosphere might sometime result in major climate change. Or recently, the climatologists are talking about the possibility of sudden changes of abrupt changes in the climate, there is some possible geological historical evidence that this has happened, that makes the problem very much more complicated. Isai Evtiev 25:27 We don't know exactly for the moment how ecosystem function. And we have to rely heavily now on the scientific community to provide us with an answer, how much man can interfere. Without breaking systems, this particular ecosystem, Latitia Obeng 25:45 As far as interfering with the environment goes. If you take our manmade lakes, for instance, I can't get away from that. But that's my work. We must have them, especially in countries where they there's no oil, there's no coal, people need energy. And this is the easiest. So quite often the easiest way of getting energy. Exactly, we build dams. But once you build a dam, and you stop the the river flow, and you slow down, you have ecological change, you can bet anything that as long as you have human contact, you will get endemic diseases. Malaria is a typical example, if it's in a tropical country, you see, and this is what deliberate will have in the hearing. But we must have the development of the water for irrigation, we must have it for domestic use, it must be for a whole lot of things. Mostofa Tolba 26:37 People are conscious of the problems that they have caused to the environment, and they are moving into technologies and scientific knowledge, to combat or to correct the mistakes they have inflicted on the environment, and then start to think, really, and worry about what they are doing. Latitia Obeng 26:57 I think this is fairly common throughout the developing world. Now, we still got a long way to go. But I think, generally, the ordinary person. By that, I mean, the ordinary person is gradually becoming aware that there's a need to do something. Bill Moyers 27:14 Do Do any of you dealing with these problems, even though you're scientists? Do any of you're dealing with these outer possibilities, ever wake up hearing the sound of doomsday in your ear. Mostofa Tolba 27:29 We do hear the doomsday cry, but we are not pessimistic. What we are really worried about is that all the economic difficulties that different countries are facing may cover up the environmental issues. And then we would be in a condition where we are going to face different definitely with Dynamics. Robert Frosch 27:51 I think we certainly worry a lot. And as I said before, it's a it's a professional lead for us. It's part of our professional job to invent worries, and then to develop interest and action in doing something to make the worries go away to prevent the worry, the worry some events from happening. And in a way, I think that's one reason for optimism, the fact that before we have seen very widespread destruction on a global scale, we have a large community, a technical community and a political community that is beginning to worry about these problems and hence putting itself in a position to take action when they can see things beginning to get bad. But before we believe they have gotten terribly serious and irreversible. |
01:28:45 1725.54 |
Moyers sits down again with Maurice Strong at his home on the outskirts of Nairobi. They talk about the future and the progress of Earthwatch
|
01:28:55 1735.16 |
INTERVIEW
Maurice Strong 28:55 Indeed, I've I think there's been a great deal of progress on the world front, then we've just completed what I believe is a major breakthrough in respect of the Mediterranean, the Mediterranean Sea is the has known of course, the man's activities, both the creative side of man's activities and also is now experiencing the destructive set aside of man's activity for longer than perhaps any other regional sea in in, in history. Now, of course, the Mediterranean today is very severely threatened by what by pollution of the waters by a desecration of the land areas deforestation, destruction of the soil. Bill Moyers 29:38 And the breakthrough has been what? Maurice Strong 29:39 well, the breakthrough is that, you know, the Mediterranean area is characterized by a high degree of political tension That's putting it mildly and the the Middle East situation, the Cyprus Cyprus situation, these make it extremely difficult to get the countries of the region together around the same table to agree on action. We did that and We've got from to agree on a significant commitment to a program of action designed to not only protect the Mediterranean Ocean, but to improve the environment of the whole Mediterranean regions. So this is a concerted and coordinated attack on one of the largest environmental issues that the world faces today. Bill Moyers 30:18 And it's also one of the most specifics. What are some of the other immediate threats to the world environment? Maurice Strong 30:24 Well, the atmosphere for example, the common aerosol can is scientists now say is creating a possible risk isn't fully evaluated yet a possible risk to the to the ozone, and the ozone layer around the Earth is the thing that really makes life possible on this earth. Extensive damage to the ozone could be very vital to the continuance of life on Earth. One of the practical problems is, of course, that while global environmental problems of the kind we've been talking about climate, oceans, etc, can provide a means of getting global consensus or a high degree of consensus amongst amongst the nations of the world. There are other problems of a more regional or local nature in which it is much more difficult to get consensus such as well, for example, Brazil and Argentina two great neighbors in Latin America share a common river system, the Rio de la Plata, and all its various tributaries, and Brazil has recently been going to install some very major dams upstream on the river, Argentina has argued, and I do think indeed, Brazil concedes that these are going to have a significant effect on Argentina and interest downstream. Now, the issue here is to what degree should a country be obliged to consult with its neighbor, when it is going to do something in a common waterway, which will affect the interests of the other? Does the country downstream have the right to demand information in advance and consultation in advance beforehand? So some arrangement can be made? Or is it simply a matter of waiting for the event to take place, being damaged and then seeking recourse for the damage? Now, the number of such disputes is multiplying throughout the world Canada in the United States have a number of such disputes so on their common boundary Bill Moyers 32:27 but if the government upstream decides to go ahead and build the dams, regardless of the consequence to the country, downstream? There's nothing that the the United Nations there's nothing that a world body can do it there? Maurice Strong 32:39 Well, of course, right? We have, as a world body, we have been responsible for getting the agreement of governments to the acceptance of responsibility, this principle of responsibility for the consequences of your actions on others has been accepted. Now, of course, this is simply at the beginning of the whole process of developing a new environmental law on a global basis. And the enforceability of that is, of course, a matter of still a very significant question. I repeat, we have no armies to march in, but we do have a very considerable influence to evolve because just as a country may be hurt on in one instance, a, it may be the cause of the problem and another instance, so there is a generally common interest on the part of countries to observe these principles. Bill Moyers 33:29 All of this sounds so global, so cosmic, so, so beyond the citizen in my hometown, or your hometown in northern Canada, is there any particular applicability to that citizens life? |
01:33:46 2026.89 |
Maurice Strong 33:47
Absolutely, you know, the same automobile exhaust or the same smokestacks that produce a local air pollution problem in your hometown or mind are the major sources of the global environmental problems, the damp the effects that I was talking about on the on the atmosphere and the possible effects on global climate. These originate from the very same sources that pollute the air of our homes counts, and they can be dealt with by the same kinds of action. That's why there is a very direct linkage between the larger global concerns and local actions. Bill Moyers 34:23 You talk about smokestacks, automobiles, and factories, all of which are identified with the industrialized Western nations that have already achieved a high standard of living, the developing countries come along and they say, All right, Mr. Strong, all of what you have said is good in theory, but in practice, it means that you in the West who have achieved this standard of living, want to protect the environment at our expense because we have not yet gotten to where you are, and you want to slow everything down to protect this environment and keep us at a level of underdevelopment That would leave us significantly behind you in industrialization. Now, how are you going to overcome that very significant problem? Maurice Strong 35:08 Well, there are a couple of things here. One is that we in the industrialized countries do have to recognize that we who have benefited from industrialization and urbanization are also the biggest contributors to global environmental problems we have, if there's anybody who has to slow their growth, or at least control their growth and control its adverse consequences, it's us, because the larger global problems where the big, you know, the larger pollution problems really come back to us, we are the big polluters, and therefore, we should accept the largest costs of dealing with the global pollution problems, it's only proper. Now, by the same token, we can't we can't leave it leave the impression that the even the problems of pollution are not important for the developing countries, they're not as important they can't obviously, at this stage, afford the kind of measures that we can afford, they haven't had the benefits yet. Bill Moyers 36:12 Well, let's play with that a minute. Because right, as we are talking here, representatives of 104 developing nations are meeting in Algiers to talk about industrial development. And they're making it clear that quote, industrialization is the only path possible for developing nations. In other words, they're not going to accept the second class citizenship, when it comes to industrialization, aren't they going to imitate the same mistakes we've been making? Maurice Strong 36:40 Well of course, they have two things, one is a great advantage in a sense that they now are able to look back on the mistakes made by the industrialized countries and at least do something about avoiding those mistakes. That's the advantage side. On the disadvantage side, of course, they start into the their whole process of industrialization at a time when the stakes are very heavily loaded against them. Now, what we have to recognize is that in the environment, is simply one of several good reasons why we should be willing to see a much higher degree of industrialization in the in the developing world, we in the industrialized world for our own interests, and in the larger interests of this planet, should be willing to encourage a much better distribution of the world's future industrial capacity, we should be willing to see many of the new industrial plants are built in the developing world, not only from environmental, the environmental point of view, it does make sense from the environmental point of view, because clearly, a better spread of industrial capacity means a better leveling of the impact on the physical environment, better attention to decentralization of industrial locations, this sort of thing, if you make sense, internationally, as well as nationally Bill Moyers 38:06 But what you're saying, Maurice Strong, implies that the people in the industrialized nations are going to have to make sacrifices. Not long ago, an unemployed worker at General Motors said to me, the hell with the environment, I want a job. And if we spread industry around, if we help the industrialization of the newly developing countries, that man may not have a job. |
01:38:30 2310.35 |
Maurice Strong 38:21
I think his reaction shouldn't be a surprise to us. If we were that man, we may feel the same way. Why should a worker a person working in an automobile plant bear the brunt solely himself of the environmental changes that are necessary? Why should the workers in the developing countries be deprived of the benefits of industrialization and the opportunities that come with it? What we really need is this new international economic order that the developing countries have been calling for, we need very major shifts in our whole economic process. And we can't do this on a piecemeal, haphazard sort of basis. Bill Moyers 39:12 Well, that's fine in Theory. But what does that mean to that worker in Detroit, he doesn't have a job. What do you mean, new industrial order or New World Order? Maurice Strong 39:21 Well, what I mean in it, in essence is this, that in the more industrialized countries, we have got to reduce our emphasis on pure physical growth. And we've got to pursue patterns of growth, which emphasize the less physical or more sophisticated kinds of growth, the kinds of certain service oriented industries, those that make much less of a demand on the physical environment on the natural resource base. Now, this requires a very significant retooling of our economy or re gearing of the system of incentives and penalties by which our economic life is motivated. Bill Moyers 40:01 Are you saying that environment and the protection of environment can create jobs? Maurice Strong 40:05 Absolutely. I believe environmentalists have been far too defensive about environment. We environmentalists and others have been accepting the quietly the assumption that when you do something to protect or improve the environment, it's a cost. Well, this is not a cost. It's the environment is our natural capital. And when we do something to preserve it, to protect it from deterioration, or or to improve it, we're adding to our capital, either to its preservation or to its improvement. Bill Moyers 40:35 take that a step further, in what way could a retooling of the economy, help those people who are fearful rightly so in the industrialized world that if the economy shifts, and we stop or limit our growth, their livelihood is jeopardized? Maurice Strong 40:52 Well, for example, if we decide as an act, any country, United States, Canada decides as an act of national policy, that improvement of the quality of life of the people of our societies, improvement of the natural and physical environment, the manmade environment is a matter of great national importance. We then can through the instruments of public policy construct a system of incentives that will lead make it profitable for people, for companies, for private entrepreneurs, as well as for public bodies to direct their resources into these areas into building more beautiful, more habitable cities, improving recreational areas improving public transportation systems. Yeah, after all, because a job for the automobile worker in in, in Detroit is just as good for him. If he's producing public vehicles matter vehicles for mass transport systems, automobile companies, I've got to realize that they're in the transport business. They're not just in the automobile, business, even automobiles may become public service vehicles, eventually, in other words, a retooling of the industrial system. Bill Moyers 42:11 Is there any concrete evidence that some of this retooling you're talking about is beginning to happen? Or is this still just theory? Maurice Strong 42:21 Oh, some of it's happening through market forces. Look at the energy crisis, for example. Now, the energy crisis has set back the environmental movement. In some respects, it's given rise to pressures for reducing or at least deferring some of the mission control regulations, etc. On the other hand, by increasing the cost of energy it is it is increased immensely. The incentives for conservation. Conservation is now a serious economic issue and not only an environmental issue in the traditional sense, particularly in the developing countries where the impact of high energy costs is falling very sharply. Indeed |
01:43:02 2582.7 |
Bill Moyers 43:02
They're having to pay more now for the energy they use, then they're getting an economic assistance. Maurice Strong 43:08 Oh, absolutely. As a matter of fact, the increased energy costs fall primarily on the poor of the world, the poor within our own societies and the poor in the developing world, because they, the day of cheap petroleum, the day of cheap energy is over. And we've been able to build much of our wealth and much of our power on the cheap energy that we enjoyed in the past. Bill Moyers 43:33 Let me be sure I understand you then. Are you saying that we're about to enter an era of no growth? Are you saying that growth will be limited either by our own decision or because of forces beyond our control? Maurice Strong 43:45 Well, I am not a no growth man. I don't believe no growth is a viable alternative for anyone for societies any more than for people, it does require very significant changes. However, in the whole system through which we motivate our economic life, it has to make it in effect, economically attractive, profitable to do the good things to do the environmentally sound things the socially desirable things. And correspondingly it has to make it economically unattractive to do the bad things. Bill Moyers 44:19 Well, then that means if you go to this concept, some people are going to get hurt. Maurice Strong 44:24 Absolutely. In any process of major change. The people who don't adjust or don't adjust in time, some of them are going to be hurt when we moved from the from the horse and buggy stage to the automobile age. Some people got hurt but others had vastly expanded opportunity, the same, the change to what I would call an echo economy. Now echo being ecologically sound and economicly sound, this change to eco growth or eco development can be a very can unleash a tremendous amount of new dynamism in our economic system. We shouldn't be negative or defeatist about this, the commitment to building a better and more beautiful nation, a better way of life, a better quality of life, better cities, better rural areas, better connections between rural and urban life, better recreational areas, improved access to natural beauty, improved opportunities for cultural growth, for educational growth, these things aren't negative, this is going to be job creating, it's going to be stimulating to the economy, just you know, how can we accept the fact that a war, a destructive war is stimulating the economy, but that's something that improves the quality of life and increases the opportunities for human beings to express their aspirations that something like this is going to be negative to the economy, we simply have to change. Now the real question, however, is, will change come about through an anarchistic process of intense intensification of our competition for scarce land for scarce resources? For the oceans, for example, an intensification of all these processes that have got us into the present predicament, or will it come through a new era of enlightened cooperation, recognition that while competition is still very important, that cooperation is increasingly important. Bill Moyers 46:20 What's the evidence, though, that that cooperation will become a fact? Maurice Strong 46:24 Well, you see, man has always been competitive, but let's not ignore the fact to that man has also had a very significant cooperative instinct. Now detante. You hear detente amongst the great powers that have been in and still are, in many ways intensely competitive has come about because of the awareness on both sides, that cooperation is the only way of avoiding nuclear disaster. Now, equally, I think the nations of the world are beginning to realize and the peoples of their societies have got to begin to realize that cooperation on a scale beyond anything we've seen before is going to be absolutely essential. And we, for instance, security, does it really make sense that we look at security and narrow military terms, avoidance of war, avoidance of armed conflict? Should we not really see security is also tied up with security of the Earth's resources, security's security of the environmental and resource base on which the continuance of human life depends on which our well being depends. This is the kind of incentive that we've got to see for change. Bill Moyers 47:30 Take one practical question that arises as I listen to you. Can the security of the future be guaranteed unless there is a sharp reduction in the birth rate of the human population? |
01:47:44 2864.83 |
Maurice Strong 47:38
No question about it. But on the issue of population, for example, it is true that population growth must be curtailed. It is not true, however, that this must be done on a universal global basis. There are societies which need and deserve more opportunities for growth, for growth in their population. There are other societies, like the the highly industrialized societies, which have got to really concentrate more on curtailing the growing appetites of their population. See, the world is threatened by growing populations. But it's also even perhaps to a greater extent threatened by the exploding appetites of the already rich. You know, it's well known that a any infant born in our industrialized world imposes something like 40 to 50 times the demand on the Earth's resources and on the earth environment than a baby born in the developing world. Now, however, I I think what the main point is to see the interacting nature of the population issue with the resource issue with the environment issue with the whole growth issue. These can't be seen as issues separate and divorced from each other. They've got to be seen as elements in the total system of problems that we've got to deal with. Bill Moyers 49:00 All right. My cynicism comes out again. And I'm back to the Rift Valley now. For as long as we have walked on this planet, we've competed for territory. We've competed for resources. And since the rise of the nation state, our basic loyalties have been to our local countries and not to this earth. As you call upon us to Indonesians, Americans, Costa Rican, Kenyans, Russians, Swiss and others, to see ourselves as well as God sees us. Aren't you flying in the face of human nature? Maurice Strong 49:44 Well, I have to be an optimist on this. I have to look at the positive evidences in our history that we can cooperate though of course we compete. Let's just look at the way man himself has developed we've seen and talked about the Rift Valley. But as man has evolved over this, approximately 3 million years that we know he's inhabited the earth, his loyalties have been gradually enlarged his ability, his willingness to cooperate within larger and larger frameworks has been demonstrated by the fact that he has moved and his loyalties have moved from the family, to the tribe, to the village, to the town, to the city, to the city, state and now to the nation state. And each time this hasn't been because he's suddenly been struck with a wave of idealism. It's because his growing self interest has required it to grow. As man has advanced technologically and industrially, the interdependencies of man on man have grown. And if he's going to take advantage of the technological civilization, he's got to enlarge the circle within which he cooperates with other people. Now, the interesting point here that as man's loyalties have grown up to the point of the nation state, for example, he hasn't had to completely shed his loyalty to his family, your loyalty, your hometown, your loyal to your state, your loyalty to the United States of America. There's no real conflict between this hierarchy of loyalties. But now we've got to take the ultimate leave all of us, we've now got to give our loyalty as well to planet earth. And this doesn't mean that we give up our loyalty to all the other groupings to which we owe our loyalty, it simply means that we have to modify them, we have to make room for that new dimension of loyalty to planet Earth, Bill Moyers 51:32 Maurice there's blood being shared in, in Northern Ireland right now, in the Middle East right now. There are conflict, creating tension and animosities all over the earth that fly in the face of that leap. Because we don't see ourselves as citizens of the planet earth. what gives you any hope, that this fine statement of goal that you set forth has any practical possibilities of real intelligence, Maurice Strong 52:02 it has the practical possibility, simply because it's the only guarantee of survival, we simply must make that leap, there is no alternative to making it and man, all through history has shown that when there is no alternative, he can rise above these petty jealousies. And, you know, this, the the the, the, the, the changes in man's loyalties that I've described haven't come about easily. They haven't changed the basic nature of man, man is still aggressive, he's competitive, but when his self interest does force that he is prepared to be cooperative. Now, we may not make it. Perhaps our petty grieves our petty loyalties are narrowness of vision, they may possibly consume us. we may not make it. But we certainly won't make it unless we act on the basis that in when the chips are down, we will have the guts we will have the enlightenment, we will have the wisdom to do what is best and what is necessary for us. |
01:52:59 3179.97 |
Bill Moyers 53:00
Do you personally fear some remote threat of an ultimate doomsday? Maurice Strong 53:05 I think the beginning of wisdom, the beginning of the solution to the problem, the beginning of the long road to survival to continued survival of man is the recognition that doomsday is possible. We've been on this earth for a very small period of time. And it may be that we will not be here much longer. At that's up. The irony of it is that it's up to us if the gods were to have devised the most ironical possible situation for man, it is surely that which this generation of man is confronting the fact that for the first time in history, we literally have the power to bring a better a decent life to every human being on this earth. And at the same time, that same power that same knowledge gives us the capacity for total self destruction. Bill Moyers 53:59 If we do make it will it take something new, Maurice Strong 54:03 it will take something new in a very special sense. It'll take a new sense of commitment to something very old values that have been inculcated in the traditions of man not in the physical traditions, but in the cultural in the behavioral traditions of man from the very beginning values that are common to most of the world's great religions and philosophies, values that call for caring for caring for each other for caring for the earth, stewardship, stewardship of our resources of our power, sharing, sharing with our fellow man, being concerned about him, cooperating with him, not only for his good, but for our mutual good. These common values are values that we have to take seriously. You know, up until now, it's been fairly common for men to espouse these values, but actually act in a practical way as though they were divorced from reality today, the evidence of the physical world has to bring us up face to face with the fact that these old these old values which we have felt were divorced from reality, have to be seen as the basis of the new reality, that it's only by living these values by taking them seriously by incorporating them into our social life, our economic life and our political life, nationally and globally. It's only by this, that we will continue to live for another 3 million years on this planet. Bill Moyers 55:41 Well, I'd like to believe that those values will prevail. But I'm haunted from the past by the possibilities and I wonder where you come out as you look out toward the future? Maurice Strong 55:53 Well, I come out simply on the basis that we can make it if we are prepared to take as a basis of these new realities, some of the old values that we all have given lip service to I believe we can make it and I'm often reminded of the lesson that all of us should learn from past civilizations and their demise. Most past civilizations have been, have been destroyed by their own internal decay their own actions. And if it happens to us, it will happen to us. At our own hand. It'll be self inflicted destruction because it is an absolutely essential. I'm reminded particularly of Shelley's beautiful poem, he put it very, very well. When he remember when he recalled a traveller traveling in the middle eastern land and finding in the desert, a tablet of stone engraved to the honor and the glory of a great past King Ozymandias he said something like this, on that tablet of stone or written the words My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings, look on my works ye mighty and despair. Nothing beside remains. Around the ruins of that colossal wreck the loan and levels fans stretch far away. That need not be the requiem for this generation of man. It could be if we don't conduct ourselves well. |
01:57:24 3444.63 |
Ending Credits roll over a montage of shots of Nairobi undeveloped land
|
01:58:11 3491.82 |
Mail In transcript information
|
01:58:22 3502.9 |
Program Sponsors (same as above)
|
01:58:44 3524.43 |
Animated PBS graphics
|
01:58:58 3538.33 |
End Reel
|
211 Third St, Greenport NY, 11944
[email protected]
631-477-9700
1-800-249-1940
Do you need help finding something that you need? Our team of professional librarians are on hand to assist in your search:
Be the first to finds out about new collections, buried treasures and place our footage is being used.
SubscribeShare this by emailing a copy of it to someone else. (They won’t need an account on the site to view it.)
Note! If you are looking to share this with an Historic Films researcher, click here instead.
Oops! Please note the following issues:
You need to sign in or create an account before you can contact a researcher.
Invoice # | Date | Status |
---|---|---|
|