0:00:08.433,0:00:15.351
I grew up on a beach in an island[br]called Tasmania, a beautiful place.

0:00:16.440,0:00:21.190
It gave me the opportunity to meet[br]and interact with incredible creatures,

0:00:21.681,0:00:26.633
and it was where I developed[br]a deep connectivity with the ocean.

0:00:26.833,0:00:30.610
Now, Tasmania is one of the most beautiful[br]islands on the planet.

0:00:30.610,0:00:35.470
But 30 years ago, the city I grew up in[br]had a terrible problem.

0:00:35.470,0:00:40.330
The ocean was polluted[br]with the outfall from heavy industry.

0:00:40.330,0:00:42.495
There was a pulp and paper mill,

0:00:42.505,0:00:46.806
a paint pigment plant[br]and a slaughterhouse among them.

0:00:47.216,0:00:51.576
These were causing rashes on the bodies[br]of swimmers and surfers,

0:00:51.576,0:00:55.568
and when you got out of the water,[br]you had sore red eyes.

0:00:55.888,0:00:57.768
Burnie, at that time,

0:00:57.768,0:01:01.728
had one of the highest incidence[br]of cancer in Australia.

0:01:02.388,0:01:07.348
Following the lead of three generations[br]of journalists in my family,

0:01:07.578,0:01:11.008
I made it my investigative[br]mission to uncover

0:01:11.008,0:01:13.899
whether these industries[br]were, in fact, responsible[br]

0:01:13.899,0:01:16.119
for the illnesses we were seeing

0:01:16.119,0:01:20.908
and also the poor state[br]of the ecosystem along the coastline.

0:01:21.669,0:01:25.507
So, I got a laboratory to test[br]the waters around Burnie,

0:01:25.507,0:01:29.459
and they found that the outfall[br]from the pulp and paper mill

0:01:29.459,0:01:32.009
contained organic chlorines.

0:01:32.009,0:01:37.161
And these had dangerous[br]cancer-causing dioxins.

0:01:37.831,0:01:40.070
So, I put these findings[br]to the state government

0:01:40.070,0:01:41.960
and the minister for the environment,

0:01:41.960,0:01:43.590
and he admitted for the first time

0:01:43.590,0:01:48.290
that they knew about these organic[br]chlorines and these dioxins

0:01:48.290,0:01:51.801
and that they were dangerous,[br]but they hadn't informed the public.

0:01:52.023,0:01:57.175
So, I published my stories[br]in the local newspaper,

0:01:57.901,0:02:02.413
and it caused a storm of protest[br]across Australia.

0:02:04.283,0:02:08.768
National papers declared Burnie[br]"Australia's dirtiest city."

0:02:08.768,0:02:12.707
I wasn't very popular with our local[br]tourism authority, I can tell you.

0:02:13.180,0:02:15.939
I was 20 years of age at the time.

0:02:17.529,0:02:19.647
Shortly after those stories[br]were published,

0:02:19.647,0:02:21.999
the industries started to close down,

0:02:22.589,0:02:29.449
and today, Burnie has some[br]of the bluest water along the coastline,

0:02:29.449,0:02:33.366
and the fish have returned[br]to the waters around the city.

0:02:34.248,0:02:38.418
I learned then about[br]the power of the media.

0:02:42.349,0:02:46.299
Now, as I developed my skills in the media

0:02:46.779,0:02:50.229
through newspapers, radio and television,

0:02:50.629,0:02:53.038
I also developed a passion for film.

0:02:53.038,0:02:58.748
Film gave me the ability to tell stories[br]and to make documentaries

0:02:58.748,0:03:03.698
that gave voice to silent creatures[br]like the worms from my childhood.

0:03:05.477,0:03:08.613
But I also had a deep love

0:03:08.613,0:03:13.833
for a particular species[br]that had consumed my time as a child,

0:03:13.833,0:03:18.188
and that was the blue whale,[br]an immense creature,

0:03:18.194,0:03:20.896
also incredibly shy.

0:03:21.686,0:03:27.455
An opportunity came to film a documentary[br]off the south coast of Sri Lanka.

0:03:27.455,0:03:30.144
It was the culmination, for me,[br]of a life's dream.

0:03:30.144,0:03:34.154
Now, blue whales are the biggest[br]animals ever to have lived.

0:03:34.154,0:03:36.014
They're bigger than any dinosaur.

0:03:36.014,0:03:38.263
They grow up to about 37 meters long.

0:03:38.393,0:03:40.943
They have a heart as big as a car.

0:03:40.943,0:03:43.007
But they were hunted almost to extinction,

0:03:43.007,0:03:46.357
and as a result,[br]they're extremely elusive.

0:03:46.357,0:03:51.377
Trying to find them is like trying to find[br]a needle in a massive haystack.

0:03:52.083,0:03:55.673
We went up and down the coastline[br]of Sri Lanka for weeks on end,

0:03:55.679,0:03:57.695
searching for these whales.

0:03:57.695,0:04:01.845
We would see a spout in the distance,[br]we'd head towards it.

0:04:02.055,0:04:05.736
We would get our cameras[br]into our underwater housings.

0:04:05.967,0:04:09.696
We'd get our teams into the water,[br]we'd move towards the whales,

0:04:10.038,0:04:11.906
and then we would never see them again.[br]

0:04:11.906,0:04:16.080
And this happened day after day[br]after day after day.

0:04:16.080,0:04:19.611
And if you want to know[br]what it's like to go crazy,

0:04:19.611,0:04:22.580
look out into an open ocean,[br]empty open ocean

0:04:22.580,0:04:25.930
for day after day after day after day.

0:04:25.930,0:04:28.740
That's where coffee[br]became a big friend of mine.

0:04:29.769,0:04:34.360
So, we searched[br]near an underwater seamount,

0:04:34.360,0:04:35.995
and this is where krill gather

0:04:35.995,0:04:38.075
because they're brought in[br]by the currents.

0:04:38.075,0:04:41.445
And we knew the whales would head there[br]because they eat krill.

0:04:41.445,0:04:43.055
We didn't find whales.

0:04:43.055,0:04:47.185
What we found was something[br]very significant.

0:04:47.185,0:04:50.424
It was a floating landfill of plastic.

0:04:50.851,0:04:56.542
This was a massive slick of detritus[br]as far as the eye could see.

0:04:57.183,0:05:03.574
It contained old fishing nets, bait boxes,[br]plastic bottles, used lighters,

0:05:03.574,0:05:07.252
even unopened biscuits -[br]the wastage of humanity.

0:05:07.252,0:05:09.613
It was absolutely dreadful.

0:05:09.743,0:05:14.123
It was the sign of a coming tragedy.

0:05:14.613,0:05:16.741
We didn't know that at the time.

0:05:16.918,0:05:20.302
We kept looking for the whales[br]for three weeks,

0:05:20.302,0:05:21.692
and our time finally ran out.

0:05:21.692,0:05:25.652
We had to head back to port[br]because our visas were about to expire.

0:05:25.942,0:05:29.241
But I'm an incredibly stubborn individual,

0:05:29.241,0:05:34.732
and I hadn't come this far and worked[br]this hard to give up this easily,

0:05:34.732,0:05:39.913
so I refused to allow the cameras[br]to be packed away.

0:05:40.281,0:05:45.334
I refused to allow the dive tanks[br]to be put under the boat.

0:05:47.072,0:05:50.763
I was going to exhaust[br]every possible moment we had on the water.

0:05:51.632,0:05:57.073
Now, when someone yells "Whale,"[br]your adrenaline really spikes.

0:05:57.712,0:06:01.792
Someone yelled "Whale,"[br]and my adrenaline shot through the roof.

0:06:02.723,0:06:09.103
There, 100 meters[br]off our bow, was a spout -

0:06:09.573,0:06:10.934
(Splashing sound)

0:06:10.934,0:06:13.337
high and very visible.

0:06:14.898,0:06:16.937
We cut the motors on the boat,

0:06:17.716,0:06:19.564
we put the dive teams in the water,

0:06:19.564,0:06:22.614
and the cameras,[br]and I got in with the crews,

0:06:22.614,0:06:27.896
and we slowly finned over[br]towards what was a pot of whales.

0:06:27.896,0:06:31.152
And as we got closer, we realized[br]this was a family of eight,

0:06:31.152,0:06:34.904
and in this family[br]of eight whales was a juvenile.

0:06:34.904,0:06:38.554
And when I say "juvenile,"[br]he was 15 meters long.

0:06:39.054,0:06:42.021
And he was as curious of us[br]as we were of him,

0:06:42.021,0:06:46.603
and with the big flick of his tail,[br]he dived incredibly deep and out of sight,

0:06:46.873,0:06:51.264
and then, moments later, he came up[br]right between our cameras,

0:06:52.134,0:06:54.344
and we had, for the first time,

0:06:54.344,0:06:57.494
footage, under water,[br]on cinematic cameras,

0:06:57.494,0:06:59.574
of a juvenile blue whale.

0:06:59.574,0:07:02.583
It was a profound moment for us.

0:07:03.824,0:07:07.155
As we were heading back to port[br]and I was reflecting on the shoot,

0:07:07.155,0:07:11.259
I realized that these whales[br]were resting and probably feeding

0:07:11.259,0:07:15.602
right near where we had filmed[br]this floating landfill of plastic.

0:07:15.602,0:07:19.591
Now, whales, when they feed -[br]blue whales - they open their mouths,

0:07:19.591,0:07:24.490
they suck in thousands of liters of water,[br]and they expel that water,

0:07:24.490,0:07:28.323
leaving behind the krill[br]in their baleen, or their teeth.

0:07:28.332,0:07:32.680
But whales can't tell the difference[br]between krill and plastic.

0:07:34.222,0:07:40.402
The Sri Lankan expedition[br]was the start of an epic quest for us,

0:07:40.762,0:07:43.443
but it posed more questions[br]than it answered:

0:07:43.443,0:07:45.833
If whales were consuming plastic

0:07:45.833,0:07:49.223
in a pristine environment[br]like the Indian Ocean,

0:07:49.223,0:07:53.642
what was happening to marine life[br]in oceans in other parts of the planet?

0:07:54.081,0:08:00.824
And if as we'd found out that 350 million[br]tons of plastic were being made that year,

0:08:00.824,0:08:03.943
how much of that[br]was ending up in the oceans?

0:08:03.943,0:08:08.013
And if marine life in oceans[br]around the world were consuming plastic,

0:08:08.014,0:08:10.224
and we're at the top of the food chain,

0:08:10.224,0:08:12.564
what did that mean for human health?

0:08:13.244,0:08:18.464
Well, we gathered teams[br]and crews and scientists,

0:08:18.464,0:08:23.220
and we traveled for four years[br]around the globe to 20 different locations

0:08:23.220,0:08:27.624
to answer these questions[br]for our film "A Plastic Ocean."

0:08:28.163,0:08:30.454
Our investigation was relentless.

0:08:30.454,0:08:35.304
For example, we found[br]that 70% of plastic sinks.

0:08:36.044,0:08:40.144
Now, what we'd seen then[br]was just the tip of the iceberg,

0:08:40.144,0:08:44.444
so we hired a research vessel[br]and two submarines,

0:08:44.444,0:08:46.124
and we went to the Mediterranean,

0:08:46.124,0:08:48.583
and we traveled to the bottom [br]of the Mediterranean,

0:08:48.583,0:08:50.633
1,600 meters below the surface,

0:08:50.633,0:08:55.033
to see what happened[br]to plastic in the absence of light,

0:08:55.033,0:08:56.644
in the absence of oxygen.

0:08:57.524,0:08:59.633
We traveled thousands of kilometers

0:08:59.633,0:09:04.063
to the Pacific, to islands[br]where seabirds were ingesting plastic,

0:09:04.063,0:09:05.703
mistaking it for food.

0:09:07.474,0:09:13.723
One of the most powerful scenes[br]in the film is of a heroic little seabird

0:09:13.723,0:09:15.424
called a shearwater.

0:09:15.424,0:09:19.624
These birds, chicks,[br]were turning up dead in their hundreds

0:09:19.624,0:09:22.164
on an island called Lord Howe Island.

0:09:23.194,0:09:25.834
And when we opened[br]the stomachs of these birds,

0:09:25.834,0:09:29.873
we found them filled with plastic.

0:09:30.513,0:09:33.732
In one particular little chick,

0:09:34.112,0:09:39.122
we found 272 pieces of plastic.

0:09:39.532,0:09:44.384
That's equal to about 12 pizzas[br]if you were to eat them all at once

0:09:44.384,0:09:46.394
and put them in your stomach.

0:09:46.394,0:09:49.664
Can you imagine the pain[br]this animal was going through?

0:09:49.664,0:09:54.504
As we opened other chicks,[br]we found a red bottle cap,

0:09:54.504,0:09:55.884
and I realized at that moment

0:09:55.884,0:10:01.573
that that bottle cap could have been[br]a bottle cap I threw away years earlier

0:10:01.573,0:10:05.645
without understanding[br]the consequences of my actions.

0:10:06.244,0:10:09.997
Now, if I'm a surfer, a diver[br]and an ocean explorer,

0:10:09.997,0:10:14.994
and I didn't realize the consequences[br]of my actions to the natural world

0:10:14.994,0:10:16.064
eight years ago,

0:10:16.064,0:10:19.255
how could I expect anyone else[br]to understand theirs?

0:10:20.404,0:10:27.243
We needed awareness, and "A Plastic Ocean"[br]would become the tool for that awareness.

0:10:30.401,0:10:32.900
Now, scientists told us

0:10:32.900,0:10:39.280
that we would dispose of[br]between 8 and 12 million tons of plastic

0:10:39.280,0:10:42.229
into the world's oceans every year.

0:10:42.838,0:10:45.920
How on earth did we allow that to happen?

0:10:46.748,0:10:52.190
Well, the answer's simple: We were[br]told plastic would make our lives easier.

0:10:52.639,0:10:55.060
We would no longer have to do[br]the washing up.

0:10:55.060,0:10:57.270
It would keep our food fresher.

0:10:57.270,0:11:01.174
It would protect our consumer products[br]like no other material before it.

0:11:01.174,0:11:03.524
And in many ways, it did just that.

0:11:05.369,0:11:10.189
But we were also told that plastic[br]could be used just once and thrown away.

0:11:10.970,0:11:12.331
Think about that.

0:11:13.301,0:11:16.485
Plastic is the most durable product[br]we have ever made.

0:11:16.485,0:11:20.956
How can the most durable product[br]we've ever made be considered disposable?

0:11:21.556,0:11:24.966
The answer is, "It can't. It isn't."

0:11:24.966,0:11:30.715
Every piece of plastic ever made is still[br]on the Earth unless it's been burned.

0:11:33.253,0:11:34.901
In the past decade,

0:11:35.241,0:11:39.892
we have produced more plastic[br]than the entire century before that.

0:11:40.352,0:11:41.371
Fifteen years ago,

0:11:41.371,0:11:44.261
the United States'[br]Center for Decease Control

0:11:44.261,0:11:50.082
released a study which showed[br]that more than 92% of all Americans

0:11:50.413,0:11:54.679
contain chemicals related to plastic[br]in their blood and their urine.

0:11:54.930,0:11:56.413
And more disturbing than that

0:11:56.413,0:12:01.763
was that children between the ages[br]of 6 and 11 have twice as much.

0:12:02.433,0:12:08.222
Now, plastic chemical like phthalates[br]and bisphenol As contain compounds

0:12:08.762,0:12:13.822
which have estrogenic activity,[br]which mimic and sometimes block

0:12:13.832,0:12:16.802
the natural hormonal[br]production of our bodies.

0:12:17.343,0:12:22.702
Recent research shows that these[br]can cause endocrine disruptive decease,

0:12:22.702,0:12:27.954
cancer, diabetes, fertility[br]and other reproductive issues.

0:12:29.102,0:12:32.790
But plastic has become[br]an integral part of our society.

0:12:32.790,0:12:34.122
It's a very useful tool.

0:12:34.122,0:12:39.812
My cameras, my car, my computers -[br]all contain plastic components.

0:12:39.812,0:12:44.170
But our habitual consumption[br]of single-use plastic

0:12:44.170,0:12:47.420
is destroying life-giving environments.

0:12:47.420,0:12:51.242
It's killing other species,[br]and it's polluting our food source.

0:12:51.672,0:12:55.402
So, what will happen[br]if we don't stop production of plastic?

0:12:55.402,0:12:59.582
Well, as of 2015,[br]we had produced, globally -

0:12:59.582,0:13:03.222
since plastic production[br]has begun in the '50s -

0:13:03.222,0:13:06.472
8.3 billion tons of plastic.

0:13:06.742,0:13:08.742
8.3 billion tons.

0:13:09.551,0:13:13.530
6.3 billion tons of that has become waste,

0:13:13.973,0:13:19.902
and of that 6.3 billion tons of waste,[br]only 9% has been recycled.

0:13:21.111,0:13:27.073
By 2050, our population will explode[br]to more than 9.8 billion people,

0:13:27.422,0:13:32.611
and by then, we will be sending[br]12 billion tons of plastic to landfill

0:13:32.611,0:13:34.142
and to the environment.

0:13:34.412,0:13:35.932
It's staggering.

0:13:36.172,0:13:37.742
So, what's the solution?

0:13:38.832,0:13:42.283
Well, we need to stop our addiction[br]to single-use plastic.

0:13:42.283,0:13:45.702
We need to move to a zero-waste society.

0:13:46.943,0:13:52.061
We need to change the very social[br]and financial paradigms

0:13:52.061,0:13:56.146
that consider single-use plastic[br]a useful resource.

0:13:56.615,0:14:00.496
We need a multifaceted approach[br]to this problem,

0:14:00.496,0:14:04.594
with input from governments, retailers,[br]manufacturers, consumers.

0:14:04.856,0:14:07.866
And we need to integrate new ideas,

0:14:07.866,0:14:12.086
like new legislation, circular economies

0:14:12.086,0:14:16.665
and cradle-to-grave responsibility[br]for manufacturers and retailers.

0:14:16.665,0:14:17.887
And as consumers,

0:14:17.887,0:14:22.097
each one of us needs to be smarter[br]about the choices we make.

0:14:22.097,0:14:24.938
We all need to rethink plastic.

0:14:25.207,0:14:27.027
So, how do we do that?

0:14:28.017,0:14:31.127
Well, we stop buying[br]single-use plastics, to start with.

0:14:32.036,0:14:35.537
When I'm at home, and I have a drink,[br]I don't need to use a straw.

0:14:35.548,0:14:38.248
So why do I need a straw[br]when I go to a restaurant?

0:14:38.467,0:14:39.696
I don't.

0:14:40.226,0:14:46.788
Why would I spend up to 2,000% more[br]buying water in a plastic bottle

0:14:46.788,0:14:51.526
when it costs me so much less[br]to refill a steel container from the tap,

0:14:51.526,0:14:53.518
and it's quite often healthier?

0:14:53.518,0:14:54.887
It makes no sense.

0:14:55.917,0:15:00.498
Take a bag with you, a reusable bag,[br]when you go shopping.

0:15:00.498,0:15:06.178
And when you get to the supermarket[br]or the market, call the manager over.

0:15:06.417,0:15:10.980
At the checkout, unwrap all the plastic[br]from all of those fruits and vegetables

0:15:10.980,0:15:13.880
that have been individually wrapped[br]with this plastic stuff,

0:15:13.880,0:15:15.236
and give it to the manager,

0:15:15.236,0:15:17.296
back to the supermarket,[br]back to the market,

0:15:17.296,0:15:19.157
and tell them to dispose of it properly

0:15:19.157,0:15:22.323
because you don't want to have[br]the responsibility of taking it home

0:15:22.323,0:15:24.543
and having to do that anyway.

0:15:26.829,0:15:29.966
But more importantly, we need to go back.

0:15:29.966,0:15:36.148
We need to understand the systems[br]that sustain life on planet Earth,

0:15:36.938,0:15:39.126
like the bird and the worm.

0:15:39.126,0:15:41.266
The bird wasn't committing murder.

0:15:41.266,0:15:45.485
They're part of a greater ecological,[br]environmental system

0:15:45.485,0:15:47.196
which sustains life on Earth.

0:15:47.196,0:15:48.378
I know that now.

0:15:48.378,0:15:50.938
I didn't when I was five years of age.

0:15:50.938,0:15:53.118
Just like eight years ago,

0:15:53.118,0:15:58.029
I had no idea that by throwing[br]my plastic products into the rubbish bin,

0:15:58.029,0:16:00.026
I was damaging the environment,

0:16:00.027,0:16:02.357
and I was polluting the food chain.

0:16:04.197,0:16:07.387
Awareness is a very powerful tool.

0:16:07.756,0:16:09.278
As I say in the film,

0:16:09.278,0:16:14.387
"With knowing comes caring,[br]and with caring comes change."

0:16:14.927,0:16:17.486
And I'd like to leave you[br]with this last thought:

0:16:18.638,0:16:22.198
Change starts with each[br]and every one of you.

0:16:23.536,0:16:29.017
There is a need to change,[br]and when that need arises, it's right now.

0:16:29.742,0:16:32.328
So, we all need to start change

0:16:32.328,0:16:36.598
for our future, for ourselves[br]and for our children.

0:16:36.847,0:16:38.386
Thank you very much.

0:16:38.386,0:16:40.064
(Applause)