TedTest

From the Ted Talk by Yannick Roudaut: How today's truths shape tomorrow's possibilities

Unscramble the Blue Letters

Indeed, for 20 years, I worked in fninace. I knew everything about finance, for sure. I knew the global economy because it was my life. All the topics that you could bring up about ecology, the end of the world, etc., that I knew like the back of my hand I didn't really believe in them. In 2007, an extremely uuuansl event occurred, you may remember, the subprime crisis, the clsalpoe of big American banks. It was an electric shock. I had a fair few stormy conversations with my wife about the mtetar, about my job, on the lmtiis of the model. Besides the crisis, I realized that I was completely wrong, that we were heading for disaster. The whole cotecnoipn I had of the world, all the certainties that I had until then, were all flelan apart within a few mohnts. That's why I'm here tonight, I've realized that, finally, it wasn't all so bad, and that it was an opportunity because we have the exicpaoentl opportunity of living in an exceptional period of human history: we are going to change the world. But before changing the world, we have to do something, we have to do some grieving, we have to turn the page - tnirnug the page of the world we live in today. To do so, I need some help from an American who goes by the name of Jared Diamond and who published "Collapse," and soon you will see that the 5 factors of the collapse of civilizations are reunited today. Jared damonid has identified 5 factors in which we find the collapse of the Mayas, the Vikings, and all of the great maapoeimston civilizations. And every time, those 5 ftraocs were reuntied. The bad news is that the 5 factors are reunited only at the beginning of the 21st century, but this time not only a sgnlie civilization is threatened but the global village, humanity, all of us. It's extremely important to be arawe of this. The first factor of the collapse is the environmental factor. For two cieertuns, especially the last 50 years, we have done environmental damage, sometimes irreversible. The second factor is climate change. All the great civilizations did face those changes in ciatmle. This weakens the ecosystems, that weakening also results in shortage of rsecuores, dzsiieaobltiatn of a society economical, geopolitical, social consequences, you name it. Third factor, still reunited today, the revival of military conflicts. These two first factors result in: when the ecosystems are destabilized and there is a shortage of resources, we continue having conflicts, we make war. And let me remind you, at the mnmeot France is at war in Mali; let's not forget that. Fourth factor, equally important than the last one, the cancellation of diplomatic and cmrcoeaiml alliances. Things look bad, and the alliances concluded yesterday are undermined. Today, we are all aware of the fact that the future of Europe is unknown, we don't know what will come. And the fifth factor, not the least worrisome: the blindness of our elites. In this whole collapse of the civilization, the elites are not able to evaluate the fall of their world. They are incapable of cgahnnig their prism for the analysis. And the rulest? The result is simple: we will have a political caste system which emphasizes, which accelerates the collapse of a world. After everything I just told you, you have to know that the end of a world is not the same as the end of the world. If I told you that we live in an extraordinary time, extraordinary in the sense of etymology, there is no doubt, we live in a transition period, between two worlds. In the world of today, we are about to turn the page. And the world of tomorrow, the world to come, the sibntsalaue world, about which I am talking today, starts to slighty assume its shape but there is still nothing precise. How do we live? We live in a historical period inspiring enough that we have to reinvent things. The nearest time period, in which man reinvented everything, is the Renaissance. The question which comes up in the 21st century is, "Do we experience a new Renaissance?" Let's see if the factors of a renaissance are reunited. First factor of a renaissance is a new understanding of the world. In the 15th ctenury, Columbus discovered the Americas, man discovered the immensity of planet Earth, we discovered the immensity of the world. What happens at the moment, for some decades, for some years? We discover the finiteness of the world. The planet is very small in terms of resources, capacity, if we look at the current economic model. New understanding. Second factor: The Renaissance is a pioerd of very much creativity. We all know Leonardo da Vinci, the Flemish painters. 2012, 2013, what has happened? Very much creativity. 3D printing is only one example. There are lots of others. Third factor of the Renaissance: Contrary to common beliefs, the Renaissance was not only a period of ctartieivy, but also of much violence: religious wars, civil wars, extermination of the Native aamnrecis, slavery. And how is it in 2012, 2013? Violence on a daily bisas, and children which get killed in school by automatic weapons. Fourth factor of a renaissance: The whole world knows Gutenberg the inventor of the printing press who fundamentally changed the distribution of knowledge in Europe, and later in the rest of the world. Imagine, taody, there is a new toocnehcglail tool which allows us to distribute knowledge in a whole new way. This tool, which we have in our hands, provides instantaneous irtofanomin. We hold the knwdegole of the world in our hands. Soon, we will see how this is going to change. And finally, a rnaseiscnae - that brings me to the subject of today - it's the fact that all the certainties of hnuitmay have fallen apart. Let me reinmd you, from aeirltotses through plomety in the 2nd century to the Renaissance, the Earth was flat, man was the center of the wolrd, and the stars turned around us. And those who dared to question this uuqine thought, those who dared to dispute this received, non-negotiable truth, - you know what came next - had to deal with the Inquisition. At the stkae, they had to answer the question. Copernicus and Galilee had nearly paid with their lives because they dared to say that the Earth was not flat and it was not the center of the universe. So today, the question presenting itself to us in the 21st century is: "Are we committing the same mistake as our ancestors? Are we, also in making the mtksaie, or in our cineeraitts, the ones who will fall apart over the next few years?" The next question which follows is: "What are those certainties which are of riceeved and non-negotiable value, which could fall apart in 10, 15, 20, or 50 years?" There are a lot of them. As a former economist, there are at least three certainties in economy. At first, there is the turth that growth is the only motor of the economy. Let me remind you what the word 'economy' means in Greek. Economy means ruorcsee management, domain and household management. So it doesn't necessarily mean growth. It's not a synonym. Second truth which could fall apart is that growth is infinite. That's our consumption model in a finite and increasingly shrinking world as the pptoaliuon grows more and more but with less resources. And we don't question this dogma. Third dogma, third received truth is the necessary sacrifice of the living in favor of this gwtorh. But still, we have authorized the right to pollute, to right to poison, the right to intoxicate. Why? Because growth demands it. The question that we are confronted with today is: If we continue like this, if we cunionte to sacrify the living, do we challenge this, will we authorize this doilgaue? The answer is also not that evident because we can ask ourselves if the people who question these dogmas of growth as motor of the encmooy, and of the myth of infinite growth are today maybe still seen like yesterday's heretics. I must say that I am not sure, that at this time, in the 21st century, we show a great wisdom to those who dare to question a system which we all binefet from. It should be extremely ipoatmnrt for us to keep an open mind. And yet, we become more and more people. All here, I think, are convinced of the fact that we know that the road we have taken for two centuries leads us directly to - how did the philosopher Jonas say? To a tragic impasse. The economic development on which we base our model leads us to a tragic impasse. Hans joans adds a very beautiful expression: "Nature will eventually make its ultimate veto, anyway, and it will be over." After what I just said, another question airses I am concerned with personally: "What will our children and descendants think of our behavior, our stubbornness of our obsession of a destructive economic model?" It is very likely that they will call us perhaps barbarians of the living world, and maybe they will feel the same contempt, the same indignation which we can feel today about those who developed slavery two or three centuries ago. Our biahvoer today is not any better than that of those we dspiese today. Why? Because three centuries ago, sevalry was non-negotiable. The euopraen and arcmiean eoincomc model was based on slavery. And today, in 2013, what happens? Our entire economic mdoel, our entire society is based on what? On exploitation, on the sacrifice of the living. The question, which, of course, arises is, "What are we going to do?" But before we know what we will do we have to know why we got there in order not to commit the same mistake in tomorrow's world. And how did we get there? The answer is simple and can be said in a few words. The philosopher Descartes already said it four centuries ago: "Man is the only mtesar and owner of nature." Period. We dominate nature, we shape and form it. We do what we want. But what has happened since this Cartesian thought? We consider nature as a bottomless pit, as a mine where we draw from and thorw things. And that's the problem. We consider this kind of nature as what? Finally, that puts man outside of nature. And this eixtrtoirey is our pbrleom. In 1990, Michel Serres had an extremely truthful thought, like always, he said: "But flnaliy, the notion of nature is a problem for us because nature assumes that man is put into, surrounded by a living world. We are disconnected from nature. As long as we haven't solved that problem, as long as we haven't reconciled with nature, it won't work. It's not about sacralizing nature, or ptntiug it on an aaltr like a sacred gdoesds, it's just about including ntuare and not acting against or without it." Well, how are we going to do that? The conclusion of my talk is we'll have to oiznagre it, really spmlie. It's extremely simple, we need a new controversy. What is a cotosrrnevy? It's a dispute, a global debate. What happened in Valladolid in the 16th century, in 1550? A dispute took place in spian as to whether Native Americans are living beings or not. Because if we eepxliotd this tame wrokcfore for free, we would develop the New World. If they were human beings we couldn't make them slaves. That would be itlarelbone. So, we dssiucsed about the humanity of Native Americans. In the 21st century, we need to organize a new controversy. But this time it will be about determining where are the tolerance limits towards nature compared to human activity. What can nature bear? What kind of economic model can it bear? Do we have the right to pollute, the right to destroy the future of our children and their common heritage? This new controversy allows us to draft the uinaesrvl Declaration on the Duties of Man towards Nature. Yes, I said duties. Why? The daateicroln on Human Rights has been the corner stone of the mredon world, of today's world. The Universal Declaration on the dteuis of Man will be the cornerstone of the new tomorrow. The declaration will fix the limits of our activity. But how to launch this new controversy? It needs to be organized. But before organizing and launching it, you will tell me: "Roudaut has taken drugs. He's a utopian. He leivs in an ivory tower. it's all in his fantasy." Once more, I go back to history. Who would have tohghut before Constantin and Theodosius I that the Romans would see their empire destroyed by a handful of ppeole from inside called Christians? Who would have thought before the French Revolution and the end of the monarchy that a handful of men would write the Universal Declaration on hmuan Rights? Today, those who reflect about another world, who strive for new values, are perhaps - perhaps you and I are - the first Christians of the Roman Empire. We may be about to change the things from inside through the only aspiration of our values to another world. How to organize this new controversy? That's very simple because of an unprecedented challenge, we have a new tool in our hands, and that's connection. We are all connected, and that will change everything. The fact that we are cneecntod allows us to launch a controversy to consider the world of tooromrw. I finish my talk with this connection, as from tonight on, I suggest to launch the first tweet about the new controversy. Here and now in Nantes, here we go, sent. I ivnite you to continue the debate without me, after or with me. Thank you. (Applause)

Open Cloze

Indeed, for 20 years, I worked in _______. I knew everything about finance, for sure. I knew the global economy because it was my life. All the topics that you could bring up about ecology, the end of the world, etc., that I knew like the back of my hand I didn't really believe in them. In 2007, an extremely _______ event occurred, you may remember, the subprime crisis, the ________ of big American banks. It was an electric shock. I had a fair few stormy conversations with my wife about the ______, about my job, on the ______ of the model. Besides the crisis, I realized that I was completely wrong, that we were heading for disaster. The whole __________ I had of the world, all the certainties that I had until then, were all ______ apart within a few ______. That's why I'm here tonight, I've realized that, finally, it wasn't all so bad, and that it was an opportunity because we have the ___________ opportunity of living in an exceptional period of human history: we are going to change the world. But before changing the world, we have to do something, we have to do some grieving, we have to turn the page - _______ the page of the world we live in today. To do so, I need some help from an American who goes by the name of Jared Diamond and who published "Collapse," and soon you will see that the 5 factors of the collapse of civilizations are reunited today. Jared _______ has identified 5 factors in which we find the collapse of the Mayas, the Vikings, and all of the great ____________ civilizations. And every time, those 5 _______ were ________. The bad news is that the 5 factors are reunited only at the beginning of the 21st century, but this time not only a ______ civilization is threatened but the global village, humanity, all of us. It's extremely important to be _____ of this. The first factor of the collapse is the environmental factor. For two _________, especially the last 50 years, we have done environmental damage, sometimes irreversible. The second factor is climate change. All the great civilizations did face those changes in _______. This weakens the ecosystems, that weakening also results in shortage of _________, _______________ of a society economical, geopolitical, social consequences, you name it. Third factor, still reunited today, the revival of military conflicts. These two first factors result in: when the ecosystems are destabilized and there is a shortage of resources, we continue having conflicts, we make war. And let me remind you, at the ______ France is at war in Mali; let's not forget that. Fourth factor, equally important than the last one, the cancellation of diplomatic and __________ alliances. Things look bad, and the alliances concluded yesterday are undermined. Today, we are all aware of the fact that the future of Europe is unknown, we don't know what will come. And the fifth factor, not the least worrisome: the blindness of our elites. In this whole collapse of the civilization, the elites are not able to evaluate the fall of their world. They are incapable of ________ their prism for the analysis. And the ______? The result is simple: we will have a political caste system which emphasizes, which accelerates the collapse of a world. After everything I just told you, you have to know that the end of a world is not the same as the end of the world. If I told you that we live in an extraordinary time, extraordinary in the sense of etymology, there is no doubt, we live in a transition period, between two worlds. In the world of today, we are about to turn the page. And the world of tomorrow, the world to come, the ___________ world, about which I am talking today, starts to slighty assume its shape but there is still nothing precise. How do we live? We live in a historical period inspiring enough that we have to reinvent things. The nearest time period, in which man reinvented everything, is the Renaissance. The question which comes up in the 21st century is, "Do we experience a new Renaissance?" Let's see if the factors of a renaissance are reunited. First factor of a renaissance is a new understanding of the world. In the 15th _______, Columbus discovered the Americas, man discovered the immensity of planet Earth, we discovered the immensity of the world. What happens at the moment, for some decades, for some years? We discover the finiteness of the world. The planet is very small in terms of resources, capacity, if we look at the current economic model. New understanding. Second factor: The Renaissance is a ______ of very much creativity. We all know Leonardo da Vinci, the Flemish painters. 2012, 2013, what has happened? Very much creativity. 3D printing is only one example. There are lots of others. Third factor of the Renaissance: Contrary to common beliefs, the Renaissance was not only a period of __________, but also of much violence: religious wars, civil wars, extermination of the Native _________, slavery. And how is it in 2012, 2013? Violence on a daily _____, and children which get killed in school by automatic weapons. Fourth factor of a renaissance: The whole world knows Gutenberg the inventor of the printing press who fundamentally changed the distribution of knowledge in Europe, and later in the rest of the world. Imagine, _____, there is a new _____________ tool which allows us to distribute knowledge in a whole new way. This tool, which we have in our hands, provides instantaneous ___________. We hold the _________ of the world in our hands. Soon, we will see how this is going to change. And finally, a ___________ - that brings me to the subject of today - it's the fact that all the certainties of ________ have fallen apart. Let me ______ you, from ___________ through _______ in the 2nd century to the Renaissance, the Earth was flat, man was the center of the _____, and the stars turned around us. And those who dared to question this ______ thought, those who dared to dispute this received, non-negotiable truth, - you know what came next - had to deal with the Inquisition. At the _____, they had to answer the question. Copernicus and Galilee had nearly paid with their lives because they dared to say that the Earth was not flat and it was not the center of the universe. So today, the question presenting itself to us in the 21st century is: "Are we committing the same mistake as our ancestors? Are we, also in making the _______, or in our ___________, the ones who will fall apart over the next few years?" The next question which follows is: "What are those certainties which are of ________ and non-negotiable value, which could fall apart in 10, 15, 20, or 50 years?" There are a lot of them. As a former economist, there are at least three certainties in economy. At first, there is the _____ that growth is the only motor of the economy. Let me remind you what the word 'economy' means in Greek. Economy means ________ management, domain and household management. So it doesn't necessarily mean growth. It's not a synonym. Second truth which could fall apart is that growth is infinite. That's our consumption model in a finite and increasingly shrinking world as the __________ grows more and more but with less resources. And we don't question this dogma. Third dogma, third received truth is the necessary sacrifice of the living in favor of this ______. But still, we have authorized the right to pollute, to right to poison, the right to intoxicate. Why? Because growth demands it. The question that we are confronted with today is: If we continue like this, if we ________ to sacrify the living, do we challenge this, will we authorize this ________? The answer is also not that evident because we can ask ourselves if the people who question these dogmas of growth as motor of the _______, and of the myth of infinite growth are today maybe still seen like yesterday's heretics. I must say that I am not sure, that at this time, in the 21st century, we show a great wisdom to those who dare to question a system which we all _______ from. It should be extremely _________ for us to keep an open mind. And yet, we become more and more people. All here, I think, are convinced of the fact that we know that the road we have taken for two centuries leads us directly to - how did the philosopher Jonas say? To a tragic impasse. The economic development on which we base our model leads us to a tragic impasse. Hans _____ adds a very beautiful expression: "Nature will eventually make its ultimate veto, anyway, and it will be over." After what I just said, another question ______ I am concerned with personally: "What will our children and descendants think of our behavior, our stubbornness of our obsession of a destructive economic model?" It is very likely that they will call us perhaps barbarians of the living world, and maybe they will feel the same contempt, the same indignation which we can feel today about those who developed slavery two or three centuries ago. Our ________ today is not any better than that of those we _______ today. Why? Because three centuries ago, _______ was non-negotiable. The ________ and ________ ________ model was based on slavery. And today, in 2013, what happens? Our entire economic _____, our entire society is based on what? On exploitation, on the sacrifice of the living. The question, which, of course, arises is, "What are we going to do?" But before we know what we will do we have to know why we got there in order not to commit the same mistake in tomorrow's world. And how did we get there? The answer is simple and can be said in a few words. The philosopher Descartes already said it four centuries ago: "Man is the only ______ and owner of nature." Period. We dominate nature, we shape and form it. We do what we want. But what has happened since this Cartesian thought? We consider nature as a bottomless pit, as a mine where we draw from and _____ things. And that's the problem. We consider this kind of nature as what? Finally, that puts man outside of nature. And this ___________ is our _______. In 1990, Michel Serres had an extremely truthful thought, like always, he said: "But _______, the notion of nature is a problem for us because nature assumes that man is put into, surrounded by a living world. We are disconnected from nature. As long as we haven't solved that problem, as long as we haven't reconciled with nature, it won't work. It's not about sacralizing nature, or _______ it on an _____ like a sacred _______, it's just about including ______ and not acting against or without it." Well, how are we going to do that? The conclusion of my talk is we'll have to ________ it, really ______. It's extremely simple, we need a new controversy. What is a ___________? It's a dispute, a global debate. What happened in Valladolid in the 16th century, in 1550? A dispute took place in _____ as to whether Native Americans are living beings or not. Because if we _________ this tame _________ for free, we would develop the New World. If they were human beings we couldn't make them slaves. That would be ___________. So, we _________ about the humanity of Native Americans. In the 21st century, we need to organize a new controversy. But this time it will be about determining where are the tolerance limits towards nature compared to human activity. What can nature bear? What kind of economic model can it bear? Do we have the right to pollute, the right to destroy the future of our children and their common heritage? This new controversy allows us to draft the _________ Declaration on the Duties of Man towards Nature. Yes, I said duties. Why? The ___________ on Human Rights has been the corner stone of the ______ world, of today's world. The Universal Declaration on the ______ of Man will be the cornerstone of the new tomorrow. The declaration will fix the limits of our activity. But how to launch this new controversy? It needs to be organized. But before organizing and launching it, you will tell me: "Roudaut has taken drugs. He's a utopian. He _____ in an ivory tower. it's all in his fantasy." Once more, I go back to history. Who would have _______ before Constantin and Theodosius I that the Romans would see their empire destroyed by a handful of ______ from inside called Christians? Who would have thought before the French Revolution and the end of the monarchy that a handful of men would write the Universal Declaration on _____ Rights? Today, those who reflect about another world, who strive for new values, are perhaps - perhaps you and I are - the first Christians of the Roman Empire. We may be about to change the things from inside through the only aspiration of our values to another world. How to organize this new controversy? That's very simple because of an unprecedented challenge, we have a new tool in our hands, and that's connection. We are all connected, and that will change everything. The fact that we are _________ allows us to launch a controversy to consider the world of ________. I finish my talk with this connection, as from tonight on, I suggest to launch the first tweet about the new controversy. Here and now in Nantes, here we go, sent. I ______ you to continue the debate without me, after or with me. Thank you. (Applause)

Solution

months
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nature
result
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goddess
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universal
human
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modern
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american

Original Text

Indeed, for 20 years, I worked in finance. I knew everything about finance, for sure. I knew the global economy because it was my life. All the topics that you could bring up about ecology, the end of the world, etc., that I knew like the back of my hand I didn't really believe in them. In 2007, an extremely unusual event occurred, you may remember, the subprime crisis, the collapse of big American banks. It was an electric shock. I had a fair few stormy conversations with my wife about the matter, about my job, on the limits of the model. Besides the crisis, I realized that I was completely wrong, that we were heading for disaster. The whole conception I had of the world, all the certainties that I had until then, were all fallen apart within a few months. That's why I'm here tonight, I've realized that, finally, it wasn't all so bad, and that it was an opportunity because we have the exceptional opportunity of living in an exceptional period of human history: we are going to change the world. But before changing the world, we have to do something, we have to do some grieving, we have to turn the page - turning the page of the world we live in today. To do so, I need some help from an American who goes by the name of Jared Diamond and who published "Collapse," and soon you will see that the 5 factors of the collapse of civilizations are reunited today. Jared Diamond has identified 5 factors in which we find the collapse of the Mayas, the Vikings, and all of the great Mesopotamian civilizations. And every time, those 5 factors were reunited. The bad news is that the 5 factors are reunited only at the beginning of the 21st century, but this time not only a single civilization is threatened but the global village, humanity, all of us. It's extremely important to be aware of this. The first factor of the collapse is the environmental factor. For two centuries, especially the last 50 years, we have done environmental damage, sometimes irreversible. The second factor is climate change. All the great civilizations did face those changes in climate. This weakens the ecosystems, that weakening also results in shortage of resources, destabilization of a society economical, geopolitical, social consequences, you name it. Third factor, still reunited today, the revival of military conflicts. These two first factors result in: when the ecosystems are destabilized and there is a shortage of resources, we continue having conflicts, we make war. And let me remind you, at the moment France is at war in Mali; let's not forget that. Fourth factor, equally important than the last one, the cancellation of diplomatic and commercial alliances. Things look bad, and the alliances concluded yesterday are undermined. Today, we are all aware of the fact that the future of Europe is unknown, we don't know what will come. And the fifth factor, not the least worrisome: the blindness of our elites. In this whole collapse of the civilization, the elites are not able to evaluate the fall of their world. They are incapable of changing their prism for the analysis. And the result? The result is simple: we will have a political caste system which emphasizes, which accelerates the collapse of a world. After everything I just told you, you have to know that the end of a world is not the same as the end of the world. If I told you that we live in an extraordinary time, extraordinary in the sense of etymology, there is no doubt, we live in a transition period, between two worlds. In the world of today, we are about to turn the page. And the world of tomorrow, the world to come, the sustainable world, about which I am talking today, starts to slighty assume its shape but there is still nothing precise. How do we live? We live in a historical period inspiring enough that we have to reinvent things. The nearest time period, in which man reinvented everything, is the Renaissance. The question which comes up in the 21st century is, "Do we experience a new Renaissance?" Let's see if the factors of a renaissance are reunited. First factor of a renaissance is a new understanding of the world. In the 15th century, Columbus discovered the Americas, man discovered the immensity of planet Earth, we discovered the immensity of the world. What happens at the moment, for some decades, for some years? We discover the finiteness of the world. The planet is very small in terms of resources, capacity, if we look at the current economic model. New understanding. Second factor: The Renaissance is a period of very much creativity. We all know Leonardo da Vinci, the Flemish painters. 2012, 2013, what has happened? Very much creativity. 3D printing is only one example. There are lots of others. Third factor of the Renaissance: Contrary to common beliefs, the Renaissance was not only a period of creativity, but also of much violence: religious wars, civil wars, extermination of the Native Americans, slavery. And how is it in 2012, 2013? Violence on a daily basis, and children which get killed in school by automatic weapons. Fourth factor of a renaissance: The whole world knows Gutenberg the inventor of the printing press who fundamentally changed the distribution of knowledge in Europe, and later in the rest of the world. Imagine, today, there is a new technological tool which allows us to distribute knowledge in a whole new way. This tool, which we have in our hands, provides instantaneous information. We hold the knowledge of the world in our hands. Soon, we will see how this is going to change. And finally, a renaissance - that brings me to the subject of today - it's the fact that all the certainties of humanity have fallen apart. Let me remind you, from Aristoteles through Ptolemy in the 2nd century to the Renaissance, the Earth was flat, man was the center of the world, and the stars turned around us. And those who dared to question this unique thought, those who dared to dispute this received, non-negotiable truth, - you know what came next - had to deal with the Inquisition. At the stake, they had to answer the question. Copernicus and Galilee had nearly paid with their lives because they dared to say that the Earth was not flat and it was not the center of the universe. So today, the question presenting itself to us in the 21st century is: "Are we committing the same mistake as our ancestors? Are we, also in making the mistake, or in our certainties, the ones who will fall apart over the next few years?" The next question which follows is: "What are those certainties which are of received and non-negotiable value, which could fall apart in 10, 15, 20, or 50 years?" There are a lot of them. As a former economist, there are at least three certainties in economy. At first, there is the truth that growth is the only motor of the economy. Let me remind you what the word 'economy' means in Greek. Economy means resource management, domain and household management. So it doesn't necessarily mean growth. It's not a synonym. Second truth which could fall apart is that growth is infinite. That's our consumption model in a finite and increasingly shrinking world as the population grows more and more but with less resources. And we don't question this dogma. Third dogma, third received truth is the necessary sacrifice of the living in favor of this growth. But still, we have authorized the right to pollute, to right to poison, the right to intoxicate. Why? Because growth demands it. The question that we are confronted with today is: If we continue like this, if we continue to sacrify the living, do we challenge this, will we authorize this dialogue? The answer is also not that evident because we can ask ourselves if the people who question these dogmas of growth as motor of the economy, and of the myth of infinite growth are today maybe still seen like yesterday's heretics. I must say that I am not sure, that at this time, in the 21st century, we show a great wisdom to those who dare to question a system which we all benefit from. It should be extremely important for us to keep an open mind. And yet, we become more and more people. All here, I think, are convinced of the fact that we know that the road we have taken for two centuries leads us directly to - how did the philosopher Jonas say? To a tragic impasse. The economic development on which we base our model leads us to a tragic impasse. Hans Jonas adds a very beautiful expression: "Nature will eventually make its ultimate veto, anyway, and it will be over." After what I just said, another question arises I am concerned with personally: "What will our children and descendants think of our behavior, our stubbornness of our obsession of a destructive economic model?" It is very likely that they will call us perhaps barbarians of the living world, and maybe they will feel the same contempt, the same indignation which we can feel today about those who developed slavery two or three centuries ago. Our behavior today is not any better than that of those we despise today. Why? Because three centuries ago, slavery was non-negotiable. The European and American economic model was based on slavery. And today, in 2013, what happens? Our entire economic model, our entire society is based on what? On exploitation, on the sacrifice of the living. The question, which, of course, arises is, "What are we going to do?" But before we know what we will do we have to know why we got there in order not to commit the same mistake in tomorrow's world. And how did we get there? The answer is simple and can be said in a few words. The philosopher Descartes already said it four centuries ago: "Man is the only master and owner of nature." Period. We dominate nature, we shape and form it. We do what we want. But what has happened since this Cartesian thought? We consider nature as a bottomless pit, as a mine where we draw from and throw things. And that's the problem. We consider this kind of nature as what? Finally, that puts man outside of nature. And this exteriority is our problem. In 1990, Michel Serres had an extremely truthful thought, like always, he said: "But finally, the notion of nature is a problem for us because nature assumes that man is put into, surrounded by a living world. We are disconnected from nature. As long as we haven't solved that problem, as long as we haven't reconciled with nature, it won't work. It's not about sacralizing nature, or putting it on an altar like a sacred goddess, it's just about including nature and not acting against or without it." Well, how are we going to do that? The conclusion of my talk is we'll have to organize it, really simple. It's extremely simple, we need a new controversy. What is a controversy? It's a dispute, a global debate. What happened in Valladolid in the 16th century, in 1550? A dispute took place in Spain as to whether Native Americans are living beings or not. Because if we exploited this tame workforce for free, we would develop the New World. If they were human beings we couldn't make them slaves. That would be intolerable. So, we discussed about the humanity of Native Americans. In the 21st century, we need to organize a new controversy. But this time it will be about determining where are the tolerance limits towards nature compared to human activity. What can nature bear? What kind of economic model can it bear? Do we have the right to pollute, the right to destroy the future of our children and their common heritage? This new controversy allows us to draft the Universal Declaration on the Duties of Man towards Nature. Yes, I said duties. Why? The Declaration on Human Rights has been the corner stone of the modern world, of today's world. The Universal Declaration on the Duties of Man will be the cornerstone of the new tomorrow. The declaration will fix the limits of our activity. But how to launch this new controversy? It needs to be organized. But before organizing and launching it, you will tell me: "Roudaut has taken drugs. He's a utopian. He lives in an ivory tower. it's all in his fantasy." Once more, I go back to history. Who would have thought before Constantin and Theodosius I that the Romans would see their empire destroyed by a handful of people from inside called Christians? Who would have thought before the French Revolution and the end of the monarchy that a handful of men would write the Universal Declaration on Human Rights? Today, those who reflect about another world, who strive for new values, are perhaps - perhaps you and I are - the first Christians of the Roman Empire. We may be about to change the things from inside through the only aspiration of our values to another world. How to organize this new controversy? That's very simple because of an unprecedented challenge, we have a new tool in our hands, and that's connection. We are all connected, and that will change everything. The fact that we are connected allows us to launch a controversy to consider the world of tomorrow. I finish my talk with this connection, as from tonight on, I suggest to launch the first tweet about the new controversy. Here and now in Nantes, here we go, sent. I invite you to continue the debate without me, after or with me. Thank you. (Applause)

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations

ngrams of length 2

collocation	frequency
economic model	3
universal declaration	3
jared diamond	2
extremely important	2
tragic impasse	2
native americans	2

Important Words

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