WEBVTT 00:00:28.409 --> 00:00:34.588 He is Marcos from Barcelona, but it could be anyone, anywhere else. 00:00:35.799 --> 00:00:41.275 He will run across something that happens every day in offices and homes around the world. 00:01:00.913 --> 00:01:06.151 A piece of the printer has failed and the manufacturer recommends taking it to technical service. 00:01:08.168 --> 00:01:10.713 My technician makes a preliminary diagnosis, 00:01:10.713 --> 00:01:13.104 but it costs 15 euros plus VAT. 00:01:13.104 --> 00:01:16.404 Surely will be difficult find the pieces to be able to repair it. 00:01:16.404 --> 00:01:19.778 Repairing it isn't really worth it. 00:01:19.778 --> 00:01:22.245 Repairing it will cost about 110 or 120 EUR. 00:01:22.245 --> 00:01:24.698 There are printers from 39 EUR. 00:01:24.698 --> 00:01:28.249 I would advise you to look for new printers. 00:01:28.249 --> 00:01:31.184 I would buy a new one, without doubt. 00:01:31.184 --> 00:01:35.965 It isn't coincidence that the three vendors suggest to buy a new printer. 00:01:36.842 --> 00:01:42.457 If he accepts, Marcos will be another victim of planned obsolescence, 00:01:42.457 --> 00:01:45.818 the secret engine of our consumerist society. 00:01:56.178 --> 00:02:00.322 Our society is dominated by a growth economy 00:02:00.322 --> 00:02:04.169 whose logic is not to grow to meet the needs, 00:02:04.169 --> 00:02:06.116 but rather grow to grow. 00:02:27.065 --> 00:02:31.334 In this documentary we will disclose how planned obsolescence 00:02:31.334 --> 00:02:34.188 has defined our lives since the 1920s. 00:02:34.188 --> 00:02:40.307 When manufacturers began to shorten the lifetime of the products to boost sales. 00:02:40.768 --> 00:02:45.343 So they reduced the lifetime of products to 1000 hours. 00:02:47.266 --> 00:02:53.478 We will discover that designers and engineers were forced to choose new values and goals. 00:03:07.355 --> 00:03:10.426 We will learn about a new generation of consumers 00:03:10.426 --> 00:03:13.058 that are going against the manufacturers. 00:03:15.212 --> 00:03:19.068 Is an economy without planned obsolescence feasible? 00:03:19.068 --> 00:03:21.341 and without its impact on the environment? 00:03:38.995 --> 00:03:41.341 Buy, throw away, buy. The secret history of planned obsolescence. 00:04:14.982 --> 00:04:20.120 The Livermore light bulb has been operating without interruption since 1901. 00:04:20.120 --> 00:04:25.223 At the moment two webcams have expired and the light bulb is going for the third. 00:04:33.184 --> 00:04:36.550 In 2001, when the bulb turned one hundred years old 00:04:36.550 --> 00:04:41.005 Livermore organized a big American-style birthday. 00:05:48.903 --> 00:05:54.418 The formula for a long lasting filament is not the only mystery in the history of light bulbs. 00:05:55.049 --> 00:06:00.038 One much greater secret is how and why this humble product became 00:06:00.038 --> 00:06:03.229 the first victim of planned obsolescence. 00:06:05.434 --> 00:06:08.411 Christmas of 1924 day was a special day. 00:06:08.642 --> 00:06:13.738 In Geneva several gentlemen in suits gathered together in a special room 00:06:13.738 --> 00:06:15.466 with a secret plan. 00:06:15.466 --> 00:06:20.341 They created the first worldwide cartel 00:06:20.341 --> 00:06:24.863 to control the production of light bulbs 00:06:24.863 --> 00:06:28.501 and distribute the world market shares among themselves. 00:06:29.963 --> 00:06:32.539 The cartel was called Phoebus. 00:06:33.647 --> 00:06:38.947 Phoebus included major light bulb manufacturers in Europe and the United States 00:06:38.947 --> 00:06:43.547 and even those from distant colonies in Asia and Africa. 00:06:44.208 --> 00:06:49.065 The objective was to exchange patents, to control the production 00:06:49.065 --> 00:06:52.197 and, above all, control the consumer. 00:06:52.197 --> 00:06:59.004 They wanted people to buy light bulbs on a regular basis. 00:06:59.004 --> 00:07:02.994 If light bulbs lasted too much, it would be an economic disadvantage. 00:07:03.000 --> 00:07:08.611 Initially the goal of manufacturers was a long lifetime for their light bulbs. 00:07:25.353 --> 00:07:32.821 In 1881 Edison put up for sale its first light bulb, it lasted up to 1500 hours. 00:07:34.402 --> 00:07:38.199 In 1924, when the Phoebus cartel was founded, 00:07:38.199 --> 00:07:41.774 2500 hours of useful lifetime were announced with pride 00:07:41.774 --> 00:07:46.187 and manufacturers highlighted the longevity of their light bulbs. 00:07:46.187 --> 00:07:51.865 So the Phoebus cartel thought of limiting the lifetime of the light bulbs 00:07:51.865 --> 00:07:54.159 to 1000 hours. 00:07:58.743 --> 00:08:03.837 A committee was created in 1925, the "1000 hour life Committee" 00:08:03.837 --> 00:08:11.375 to technically reduce the light bulbs lifetime. 00:08:14.567 --> 00:08:18.699 More than 80 years after, Helmut Hรถge, a historian from Berlin, 00:08:18.699 --> 00:08:21.180 finds evidence of the Committee activities 00:08:21.180 --> 00:08:24.854 hidden among internal documents of members of the cartel. 00:08:24.854 --> 00:08:27.262 Companies like Phillips in the Netherlands 00:08:27.262 --> 00:08:31.225 Osram in Germany and Lamparas Zeta in Spain. 00:08:31.886 --> 00:08:35.897 Here is a document from the cartel. 00:08:49.480 --> 00:08:53.873 Pressured by the cartel, manufacturers performed experiments 00:08:53.873 --> 00:08:56.311 to create a more fragile light bulb 00:08:56.311 --> 00:08:58.735 that complied with the new 1000 hours standard. 00:09:09.859 --> 00:09:12.977 Manufacturing was strictly controlled 00:09:12.977 --> 00:09:15.720 to make sure that regulations were met. 00:09:17.597 --> 00:09:20.290 One of the measurements was to mount different shelves 00:09:20.290 --> 00:09:24.405 with many lampholders, 00:09:24.405 --> 00:09:30.951 where they mounted different combinations with samples of each series. 00:09:30.951 --> 00:09:34.558 Companies like Osram recorded meticulously 00:09:34.558 --> 00:09:37.222 the duration of these bulbs. 00:09:39.545 --> 00:09:43.840 Phoebus, created a complicated bureaucracy to impose their rules. 00:09:43.840 --> 00:09:49.331 Manufacturers were severely fined if they diverted from the established goals. 00:09:55.223 --> 00:09:59.285 Here is a table of fines of 1929 00:09:59.285 --> 00:10:03.693 showing how much Swiss francs 00:10:03.693 --> 00:10:07.178 the members of the cartel had to pay 00:10:07.178 --> 00:10:11.601 if their bulbs lasted, 00:10:11.601 --> 00:10:13.824 for example, more than 1500 hours. 00:10:20.292 --> 00:10:23.399 As planned obsolescence took effect, 00:10:23.399 --> 00:10:25.666 lifetime started to fall. 00:10:25.666 --> 00:10:30.909 In just 2 years shrank from 2500 to less than 1500 hours. 00:10:34.648 --> 00:10:38.692 In the 1940s the cartel had already achieved its goal. 00:10:38.692 --> 00:10:42.302 A standard light bulb lasted for 1000 hours. 00:11:16.849 --> 00:11:21.198 In the following decades, dozens of new light bulbs were patented. 00:11:21.198 --> 00:11:23.839 Even one that lasted 100.000 hours. 00:11:25.070 --> 00:11:28.133 But none was commercialized. 00:11:29.349 --> 00:11:31.934 Officially, Phoebus never existed, 00:11:31.934 --> 00:11:34.720 even though their trail was never completely hidden. 00:11:35.182 --> 00:11:40.110 Their strategy was to change the name from time to time. 00:11:40.110 --> 00:11:43.671 They were called "International Cartel of Electricity" 00:11:43.671 --> 00:11:46.341 and later on they change it again. 00:11:46.341 --> 00:11:51.056 The important thing is that this idea still exists as an institution. 00:11:56.644 --> 00:12:02.699 In Barcelona, Marcos has ignored the vendors advice to replace the printer. 00:12:02.699 --> 00:12:04.723 He is determined to fix it. 00:12:04.723 --> 00:12:10.179 And he has found someone on the internet who has discovered what happened to his printer. 00:12:26.844 --> 00:12:29.237 Marcos has contacted the author of the video. 00:13:12.963 --> 00:13:16.561 Planned obsolescence started at the same time 00:13:16.561 --> 00:13:19.270 as mass production and the consumerist society. 00:13:42.885 --> 00:13:47.602 Already in 1928 an influential advertisement magazine warned: 00:13:48.278 --> 00:13:52.350 ".. an article which refuses to wear out is a tragedy of business." 00:13:54.535 --> 00:13:57.962 In fact, with mass production, prices fell down 00:13:57.962 --> 00:13:59.639 and products became more affordable. 00:13:59.639 --> 00:14:03.024 People started buying for fun rather than by need. 00:14:03.402 --> 00:14:05.025 The economy accelerated. 00:14:26.563 --> 00:14:28.073 In 1929, 00:14:28.073 --> 00:14:31.916 the Wall Street Crash abruptly stopped the incipient consumerist society 00:14:31.916 --> 00:14:36.468 and led the United States to a deep economic recession. 00:14:45.332 --> 00:14:50.522 The people formed lines no longer to buy, but instead to ask for work and food. 00:14:54.061 --> 00:14:58.329 From New York came a radical proposal to revive the economy. 00:15:01.283 --> 00:15:03.985 Bernald London, a prominent real estate investor, 00:15:04.278 --> 00:15:08.897 suggested getting out of the depression through mandatory planned obsolescence. 00:15:09.897 --> 00:15:13.151 It was the first time that the concept appeared in writings. 00:15:14.336 --> 00:15:17.952 London proposed that all products had a limited lifetime 00:15:17.952 --> 00:15:22.883 with an expiration date, after which these would be considered legally dead. 00:15:23.538 --> 00:15:27.149 The consumers would return it to a Government Agency 00:15:27.149 --> 00:15:28.703 for its destruction. 00:15:44.052 --> 00:15:48.228 Bernald London believed that with mandatory planned obsolescence 00:15:48.228 --> 00:15:52.120 factories would keep producing, the people would keep consuming 00:15:52.120 --> 00:15:54.555 and there would be work for everybody. 00:16:00.385 --> 00:16:04.910 Giles Slade is already in New York to know more about the person that is behind this idea. 00:16:05.264 --> 00:16:07.684 He wonders if with planned obsolescence, 00:16:07.684 --> 00:16:13.247 Bernald London aimed to maximize benefits or, to help the unemployed. 00:16:16.770 --> 00:16:22.511 Dorothea Weitzner met Bernald London in the 1930s during a family outing. 00:17:23.692 --> 00:17:27.478 In fact the idea of Bernald London passed unnoticed 00:17:27.478 --> 00:17:31.002 and mandatory planned obsolescence was never put into practice. 00:17:36.448 --> 00:17:41.876 Twenty years later, in the 1950s, planned obsolescence resurfaced, 00:17:41.876 --> 00:17:47.492 but with a crucial twist, it wasn't to force the consumer but to seduce him. 00:18:02.138 --> 00:18:06.536 This is Brooks Stevens' voice, the apostle of planned obsolescence 00:18:06.536 --> 00:18:08.367 in the post-war america. 00:18:09.044 --> 00:18:12.730 This elegant industrial designer, created from electrical appliances 00:18:12.730 --> 00:18:17.344 to cars and trains, always taking in mind planned obsolescence. 00:18:20.852 --> 00:18:25.826 In tune with the time, the designs of Brooks Stevens expressed speed and modernity. 00:18:25.826 --> 00:18:28.450 Even his house was unusual. 00:19:31.768 --> 00:19:35.332 Brooks Stevens traveled throughout the United States 00:19:35.332 --> 00:19:38.720 promoting the planned obsolescence in talks and speeches. 00:19:38.720 --> 00:19:41.508 His ideas settled and were widespread. 00:20:02.759 --> 00:20:05.719 Design and marketing seduced the consumer 00:20:05.719 --> 00:20:07.909 to always want the latest model. 00:20:37.595 --> 00:20:44.174 Freedom and happiness through unlimited consumption, the American way of life of the 1950s 00:20:44.174 --> 00:20:46.743 settled the foundations of the current consumerist society. 00:21:29.999 --> 00:21:35.243 Nowadays, planned obsolescence is taught in design and engineering schools. 00:21:36.271 --> 00:21:39.015 Boris Knuf gives lectures about product life cycle. 00:21:39.445 --> 00:21:42.680 The modern euphemism of planned obsolescence. 00:21:54.761 --> 00:22:00.190 Students are taught to design for a business world dominated by a single goal: 00:22:00.190 --> 00:22:02.686 frequent and repeated purchases. 00:22:37.449 --> 00:22:42.596 Planned obsolescence is in the root of the considerable economic growth 00:22:42.596 --> 00:22:46.286 that the Western World has lived since the 1950s. 00:22:48.440 --> 00:22:53.696 Since then, growth has been the Holy Grail of our economy. 00:22:56.189 --> 00:22:58.858 We live in a society of growth 00:22:58.858 --> 00:23:02.727 whose logic is not to grow to satisfy the needs 00:23:02.727 --> 00:23:04.689 but grow to grow. 00:23:04.689 --> 00:23:08.696 Infinitely grow, with a production without limits 00:23:08.696 --> 00:23:13.858 and to justify it, consumption should grow without limits. 00:23:15.583 --> 00:23:19.931 Serge Latouche, a well-known critic of the Society of Growth, 00:23:19.931 --> 00:23:22.557 writes often about its mechanisms. 00:23:24.111 --> 00:23:27.201 There are three key instruments: 00:23:27.201 --> 00:23:31.793 advertising, planned obsolescence and the credit. 00:23:50.238 --> 00:23:55.141 The critics of the Society of Growth alerts that it is unsustainable in the long term, 00:23:55.757 --> 00:23:58.492 because it is based on a flagrant contradiction. 00:23:59.585 --> 00:24:02.685 Anyone who believes that unlimited growth 00:24:02.685 --> 00:24:05.200 is compatible with a limited planet 00:24:05.200 --> 00:24:06.562 is either crazy 00:24:06.562 --> 00:24:08.062 or is an economist. 00:24:08.062 --> 00:24:11.946 The problem is that we are all economists. 00:24:31.418 --> 00:24:34.918 We could say that with the Society of Growth 00:24:34.918 --> 00:24:37.618 we are inside a race car 00:24:37.618 --> 00:24:40.995 that, right now, clearly nobody is driving, 00:24:42.180 --> 00:24:43.957 going full speed 00:24:43.957 --> 00:24:45.564 and whose fate 00:24:45.564 --> 00:24:49.526 is either hitting a wall 00:24:49.526 --> 00:24:51.207 or falling into a precipice. 00:25:08.022 --> 00:25:10.917 Consulting instruction manuals, 00:25:10.917 --> 00:25:13.627 Marcos realizes that engineers 00:25:13.627 --> 00:25:17.869 determine the lifetime of many printers, during the design phase. 00:25:25.945 --> 00:25:30.670 They achieve it by putting a chip inside the printer. 00:25:42.292 --> 00:25:44.192 I found the chip. 00:25:44.192 --> 00:25:47.077 It is an EEPROM chip where 00:25:47.077 --> 00:25:48.392 a count of prints is stored. 00:25:49.354 --> 00:25:51.546 When it reaches a determined number, 00:25:51.546 --> 00:25:53.708 the printer hangs and stops printing. 00:26:02.934 --> 00:26:06.888 What do engineers think when they have to design a product that fails? 00:26:06.888 --> 00:26:12.037 The dilemma is reflected in a classic British film of 1951 00:26:12.037 --> 00:26:15.772 where a young chemist invents a everlasting thread. 00:26:16.388 --> 00:26:19.258 The chemist believes that he made a great progress. 00:26:27.608 --> 00:26:29.916 But not everyone likes the invention, 00:26:30.947 --> 00:26:34.769 and soon he finds himself chased not only by the owners of the factory 00:26:34.769 --> 00:26:37.970 but also by the workers who fear for their jobs. 00:26:47.318 --> 00:26:53.201 In 1940 the giant chemist Dupont presented a revolutionary synthetic fiber: 00:26:53.201 --> 00:26:54.368 the nylon. 00:26:58.984 --> 00:27:03.618 For women the durable socks were a major step forward 00:27:03.618 --> 00:27:05.352 but the joy lasted a little. 00:27:38.582 --> 00:27:42.911 Dupont's chemists had reasons to be proud 00:27:42.911 --> 00:27:46.617 even the men admired the resistance of nylon stockings. 00:28:02.564 --> 00:28:05.876 Dupont gave new instructions to Nicole Fox's father of and his colleagues. 00:28:25.900 --> 00:28:30.362 The same chemists that applied all their knowledge to create a durable nylon 00:28:30.362 --> 00:28:34.354 embraced the new trend and made it more fragile. 00:28:34.354 --> 00:28:38.053 That everlasting thread disappeared from factories, 00:28:38.053 --> 00:28:39.720 like in the film. 00:28:50.695 --> 00:28:55.818 What was the opinion of Dupont's chemists about deliberately reducing the lifetime of a product? 00:29:56.834 --> 00:30:00.692 Planned obsolescence affected not only engineers. 00:30:00.692 --> 00:30:05.230 The frustration of consumers echoed in the classic play of Arthur Millers: 00:30:05.230 --> 00:30:07.103 Death of a salesman. 00:30:07.118 --> 00:30:10.767 Like Willy Loman, the consumers could only complain. 00:30:31.685 --> 00:30:36.184 Consumers didn't know that in the other side of the Iron Curtain, 00:30:36.184 --> 00:30:37.757 in the countries of the Eastern block 00:30:37.757 --> 00:30:41.805 there was an entire economy without planned obsolescence. 00:30:48.466 --> 00:30:54.359 The Communist economy was not based on the free market, but it was planned by the State. 00:30:54.359 --> 00:30:59.091 It was inefficient and suffered from a chronic lack of resources. 00:30:59.091 --> 00:31:04.192 In that system, planned obsolescence did not have any sense. 00:31:08.253 --> 00:31:13.056 In the old East Germany, the most efficient communist economy, 00:31:13.056 --> 00:31:20.031 the norms stipulated that fridges and washing machines should last for 25 years. 00:31:23.047 --> 00:31:28.114 I bought this fridge in East Germany in 1985, 00:31:28.114 --> 00:31:31.538 it is at least 24 years old. 00:31:32.722 --> 00:31:36.557 I never had to change the light bulb 00:31:36.557 --> 00:31:38.888 which is also nearly 25 years old. 00:31:42.103 --> 00:31:49.354 In 1981 an East Berlin's factory began to produce a long lasting light bulb. 00:31:49.354 --> 00:31:54.213 They presented it in an international fair, in search of western buyers. 00:31:55.244 --> 00:31:58.242 When the East Germany manufacturers 00:31:58.242 --> 00:32:01.164 presented these long lasting light bulbs 00:32:01.164 --> 00:32:03.145 at Hanover fair in 1981, 00:32:03.837 --> 00:32:07.379 their colleagues in the West said: "You will be without jobs." 00:32:07.379 --> 00:32:10.309 The engineers of East Germany said: 00:32:10.309 --> 00:32:12.907 "No, the opposite, 00:32:12.907 --> 00:32:16.315 we will keep our jobs 00:32:16.315 --> 00:32:19.907 if we save resources and do not waste tungsten." 00:32:23.138 --> 00:32:26.466 The people of the West rejected the light bulb. 00:32:27.374 --> 00:32:30.522 In 1989 Berlin Wall fell, 00:32:31.291 --> 00:32:36.711 the factory closed and the production of the long lasting light bulb stopped. 00:32:38.249 --> 00:32:42.404 Nowadays, it can only be seen in exhibitions and museums. 00:32:52.173 --> 00:32:57.206 20 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, unrestrained consumerism 00:32:57.206 --> 00:33:00.202 exists both in the East and in the West. 00:33:06.726 --> 00:33:10.066 With a difference, in the internet age, 00:33:10.066 --> 00:33:14.454 the consumers are willing to fight against planned obsolescence. 00:34:41.493 --> 00:34:46.400 Elizabeth Pritzker, a San Francisco lawyer, heard about the video 00:34:46.400 --> 00:34:49.952 and decided to sue Apple on the matter of the iPod battery. 00:34:50.353 --> 00:34:54.485 Half a century after the case of the cartel, planned obsolescence 00:34:54.485 --> 00:34:56.807 came back to courts again. 00:35:10.032 --> 00:35:13.300 A lot of these iPods had problems with their batteries 00:35:13.300 --> 00:35:16.846 and their owners were willing to go to court. 00:35:17.738 --> 00:35:20.957 One of them was Andrew Westley. 00:36:16.918 --> 00:36:20.966 In December 2003 Elizabeth Pritzker presented the lawsuit 00:36:20.966 --> 00:36:23.335 to San Mateo County's Court. 00:36:23.335 --> 00:36:26.344 A stone's throw away from Apple's headquarters. 00:37:06.748 --> 00:37:11.135 After months of tension, the two parts reached an agreement. 00:37:11.135 --> 00:37:16.407 Apple created a replacement service and extended the warranty to 2 years. 00:37:16.407 --> 00:37:19.958 The prosecutors received a compensation. 00:37:54.086 --> 00:37:58.690 Planned obsolescence causes a constant flow of waste 00:37:58.690 --> 00:38:02.521 that end in Third World countries, like Ghana in Africa. 00:38:22.722 --> 00:38:26.159 An international treatment prohibits shipping electronic waste 00:38:26.159 --> 00:38:27.878 to the Third World countries. 00:38:27.878 --> 00:38:30.873 But buyers use a simple trick: 00:38:30.873 --> 00:38:34.007 they declare them as second-hand products. 00:38:39.974 --> 00:38:43.411 More than 80% of the electronic waste that arrives in Ghana 00:38:43.411 --> 00:38:47.911 can not be repaired and end up abandoned in landfills around the country. 00:39:25.488 --> 00:39:29.851 Nowadays, here there are no children playing after school. 00:39:29.851 --> 00:39:34.681 Instead, young people from poor families, come to look for scrap. 00:39:36.213 --> 00:39:40.951 They burn the plastic cable cover to obtain the metal inside. 00:39:47.345 --> 00:39:52.072 The smallest kids scavenge in the wreckage to find 00:39:52.072 --> 00:39:55.719 any piece of metal that the adults might have forgotten. 00:41:28.806 --> 00:41:34.183 People from all over the world has begun to act against planned obsolescence. 00:41:35.814 --> 00:41:39.628 Mike Anane is fighting at the end of the chain, 00:41:39.628 --> 00:41:42.478 he has begun collecting information. 00:42:20.210 --> 00:42:24.070 Mike thinks about turning this information into evidence 00:42:24.070 --> 00:42:26.119 for a lawsuit at court. 00:42:49.798 --> 00:42:55.463 Marcos is in internet again, looking into how to lengthen the lifetime of his printer. 00:42:57.711 --> 00:43:02.105 A russian website seems to offer a free software 00:43:02.105 --> 00:43:04.724 for printers with a counter chip. 00:43:06.038 --> 00:43:10.882 The developer has bothered to explain his personal motivation. 00:43:28.599 --> 00:43:34.335 Marcos does not know what can happen, but decides to download the software anyway. 00:43:36.726 --> 00:43:41.280 From a small village in France, John Thackara fights against planned obsolescence 00:43:41.280 --> 00:43:45.804 helping people around the world to share business and design ideas. 00:44:28.623 --> 00:44:34.195 One of them is Warlden Phillips, descendant of the dynasty of light bulbs manufacturers. 00:44:53.826 --> 00:44:56.811 Nearly a century after the light bulb cartel, 00:44:56.811 --> 00:45:02.152 Warner Philips continues the family tradition, but with a different perspective, 00:45:02.152 --> 00:45:05.588 produces a led light bulb that lasts 25 years. 00:45:35.938 --> 00:45:39.911 If the carriers paid the real cost of transport, 00:45:39.911 --> 00:45:44.182 not to mention that the oil is a non-renewable resource 00:45:44.182 --> 00:45:47.083 and for which there is no substitute, 00:45:47.083 --> 00:45:50.833 I would say that the costs would be multiplied by 20 or 30. 00:46:06.007 --> 00:46:09.538 Also we can fight against planned obsolescence 00:46:09.538 --> 00:46:13.448 rethinking the engineering and the production of the products. 00:46:13.878 --> 00:46:17.711 A new concept: "Cradle to cradle". 00:46:17.711 --> 00:46:21.077 Asserts that if the factories worked as the nature 00:46:21.077 --> 00:46:24.082 obsolescence itself would be obsolete. 00:46:25.133 --> 00:46:28.989 When we talk about protecting the environment, 00:46:28.989 --> 00:46:32.637 we always think about: cut, resign, reduce. 00:46:33.313 --> 00:46:36.960 But in spring, a cherry tree 00:46:36.960 --> 00:46:39.462 neither cut nor resigns. 00:46:43.818 --> 00:46:46.827 The natural cycle produces in abundance, 00:46:46.827 --> 00:46:51.797 but the fallen flowers and dry leaves are not waste, 00:46:51.797 --> 00:46:54.327 but nutrients for other organisms. 00:46:56.324 --> 00:47:00.364 Nature don't produce waste, only nutrients. 00:47:03.012 --> 00:47:08.128 Braungart believes that industry can imitate the virtuous cycle of nature. 00:47:08.482 --> 00:47:14.552 And he proved it by re-designing the production process of a Swiss textile manufacturer. 00:47:17.333 --> 00:47:21.425 When you upholster a sofa with a textile like this 00:47:21.425 --> 00:47:25.070 the clippings are so toxic 00:47:25.070 --> 00:47:29.204 that should be removed alongside the toxic waste. 00:47:31.876 --> 00:47:38.561 Braungart discovered that the factory used by inertia hundreds of 00:47:38.561 --> 00:47:39.838 highly toxic dyes and chemical products. 00:47:40.893 --> 00:47:45.969 To produce the new textiles, Braungart and his team reduced the list 00:47:45.969 --> 00:47:48.049 to only 36 substances. 00:47:48.049 --> 00:47:49.661 All of them biodegradable. 00:47:51.170 --> 00:47:55.001 We select ingredients that you could eat. 00:47:55.001 --> 00:47:58.112 If you'd like, you could add them to your muesli. 00:47:59.282 --> 00:48:01.126 In a society of wastefulness, 00:48:01.126 --> 00:48:03.325 a short-life product creates a problem of waste. 00:48:03.325 --> 00:48:06.612 If a society produces nutrients, 00:48:06.612 --> 00:48:10.047 short-life products could turn into something new. 00:48:11.404 --> 00:48:14.831 For the more radical critics of planned obsolescence, 00:48:14.831 --> 00:48:17.965 it is not enough to reform processes, 00:48:17.965 --> 00:48:21.612 they want to rethink our economy and our values. 00:48:22.426 --> 00:48:26.092 It is a true revolution, a cultural revolution, 00:48:26.092 --> 00:48:29.555 because it is a change of paradigm and mentality. 00:48:30.318 --> 00:48:33.894 This revolution is called: Degrowth. 00:48:33.894 --> 00:48:37.066 Serge Latouche travels from talk to talk explaining 00:48:37.066 --> 00:48:41.094 how to abandon the Society of Growth once and for all. 00:48:42.340 --> 00:48:45.969 The Degrowth is a provocative slogan 00:48:45.969 --> 00:48:51.635 that tries to break up with the euphoric speech 00:48:51.635 --> 00:48:55.885 about viable, infinite and sustainable growth. 00:48:55.885 --> 00:49:00.832 It attempts to demonstrate the need for a change of logic. 00:49:03.278 --> 00:49:05.590 The essence of Degrowth 00:49:05.590 --> 00:49:08.934 can be summarized in one word: reduce. 00:49:08.934 --> 00:49:12.714 Reducing our ecological footprint, 00:49:12.714 --> 00:49:15.737 the over-production and the over-consumption. 00:49:16.759 --> 00:49:20.195 To reduce the consumption and production, 00:49:20.195 --> 00:49:22.151 we can release time 00:49:22.151 --> 00:49:25.536 to develop other types of wealth 00:49:25.536 --> 00:49:30.250 that have the advantage of not exhausting themselves with use, 00:49:30.250 --> 00:49:32.478 like friendship or knowledge. 00:49:58.021 --> 00:50:03.199 If happiness depends on the level of consumption, 00:50:03.199 --> 00:50:06.681 we should be absolutely happy, 00:50:06.681 --> 00:50:11.650 because we consume 26 times more than in Marx's time. 00:50:11.650 --> 00:50:13.485 But polls show 00:50:13.485 --> 00:50:16.110 that people are not 20 times happier, 00:50:16.110 --> 00:50:18.733 because happiness is always subjective. 00:50:23.353 --> 00:50:27.835 The Degrowth's critics fear that it will destroy the economy 00:50:27.835 --> 00:50:30.760 and take us back to the Stone Age. 00:50:33.161 --> 00:50:36.009 Returning to a sustainable society, 00:50:36.009 --> 00:50:40.398 whose ecological footprint is not bigger than a planet, 00:50:40.398 --> 00:50:43.856 does not mean going back to the Stone Age, but back to the 1960s, 00:50:43.856 --> 00:50:47.108 considering the parameters of a country as France, 00:50:47.108 --> 00:50:49.731 which, is not the Stone Age. 00:50:52.608 --> 00:50:57.603 The society of Degrowth makes Gandhi's vision a reality: 00:50:57.603 --> 00:51:00.644 "The World is big enough 00:51:00.644 --> 00:51:02.851 for everyone's needs 00:51:02.851 --> 00:51:05.150 but it is too small 00:51:05.150 --> 00:51:06.891 for the greed of one man." 00:51:33.293 --> 00:51:38.023 Marcos is installing the Russian freeware on his computer. 00:51:42.032 --> 00:51:47.409 With the new program he can put the printer chip counter to zero. 00:51:50.661 --> 00:51:53.842 The printer is unlocked immediately. 00:52:07.217 --> 00:52:09.215 The end?