WEBVTT - Curing Concrete 0:00:00.360 --> 0:00:04.920 Curing concrete. Concrete makes up half of all man made 0:00:04.960 --> 0:00:08.239 stuff on our planet, and its use will double in 0:00:08.320 --> 0:00:11.080 part to battle climate threats created by the production of 0:00:11.200 --> 0:00:16.080 concrete itself. Industry can deliver cleaner versions, but how soon 0:00:16.800 --> 0:00:19.840 the answer might lie? With four Indonesians from a tiny 0:00:20.040 --> 0:00:25.720 disappearing island by Ted C. Fishman read aloud by Markleidorf, 0:00:27.000 --> 0:00:30.120 People just don't realize we're still in the Stone Age, 0:00:30.560 --> 0:00:33.880 or that humans will always live in the Stone Age. 0:00:34.560 --> 0:00:39.600 Donald mccoolidge, retired senior paleontologist, University of Illinois at Urbana 0:00:39.720 --> 0:00:43.720 Champaign I first learned about the legal challenge that would 0:00:43.760 --> 0:00:47.720 become as Mania at All versus Wholesome in twenty twenty two. 0:00:47.960 --> 0:00:51.560 I'd been reporting on Wholesome Limited at the company's headquarters 0:00:51.560 --> 0:00:56.000 in Zoog, Switzerland. Wholesome, one of the world's biggest cement makers, 0:00:56.400 --> 0:00:59.040 is both an industry innovator and a major emitter of 0:00:59.080 --> 0:01:03.520 atmospheric carbon dioxide, the gas responsible for roughly two thirds 0:01:03.520 --> 0:01:07.560 of human caused climate change. It had been facing aggressive 0:01:07.560 --> 0:01:12.720 confrontations with climate activists. Protesters had occupied a quarry, blocked 0:01:12.760 --> 0:01:18.320 company trucks, commandeered cement silos, vandalized plants and hurled molotov 0:01:18.400 --> 0:01:22.400 cocktails at police. When I asked Wholesom's head of corporate 0:01:22.400 --> 0:01:26.600 communications who the culprits were, she winced. Rather than uttering 0:01:26.640 --> 0:01:29.039 the names of the bomb throwers, she steered me to 0:01:29.120 --> 0:01:33.600 a group called h e Ks or HEX. It was 0:01:33.640 --> 0:01:36.600 in the tidy, quiet Zurich office of HEX that I 0:01:36.640 --> 0:01:38.560 heard about the suit that would soon be filed in 0:01:38.600 --> 0:01:44.000 Switzerland by four struggling Indonesians, fishers, farmers and hostile operators 0:01:44.200 --> 0:01:48.600 from tiny Piri Island. HEX, despite the witchy ring to 0:01:48.680 --> 0:01:52.080 its name, is a church based, decidedly non violent aid 0:01:52.200 --> 0:01:57.160 organization funded largely by Swiss taxpayers. It's a crucial partner 0:01:57.200 --> 0:02:00.480 in the international coalition that conceived and backed the LA lawsuit. 0:02:01.160 --> 0:02:04.279 Pari Island sits low in the Java Sea, about twenty 0:02:04.280 --> 0:02:08.720 four miles from Jakarta, the overstuffed sinking capital of Indonesia. 0:02:09.400 --> 0:02:12.320 Home to a single rural village, the island is three 0:02:12.360 --> 0:02:15.600 miles long and a third is wide. Small though it is, 0:02:15.840 --> 0:02:18.160 it's one of the biggest islets among the cluster of 0:02:18.200 --> 0:02:22.880 three hundred and forty two constituting Indonesia's thousand islands. The 0:02:22.960 --> 0:02:25.800 islanders argue wholesome played a part in warming the air 0:02:25.880 --> 0:02:29.600 and water around their homes, and thus in stirring storms, 0:02:29.800 --> 0:02:33.160 shifting currents that once routed fish to their nets, killing 0:02:33.240 --> 0:02:36.720 sea crops they once farmed, flooding homes, and robbing their 0:02:36.840 --> 0:02:39.960 children of a future on the island. The changes, they 0:02:40.000 --> 0:02:43.680 say are driving them to desperation. About eleven percent of 0:02:43.720 --> 0:02:47.160 Parri Island has disappeared in recent years. Most of the 0:02:47.200 --> 0:02:49.639 rest is no more than five feet above sea level 0:02:49.880 --> 0:02:53.440 and will likely be gone by twenty sixty. The islander's 0:02:53.520 --> 0:02:56.160 case involves what might be called a perversion of the 0:02:56.240 --> 0:03:00.320 natural carbon cycle around the globe. Carbon is true apped 0:03:00.320 --> 0:03:04.200 in carbonate rock, particularly limestone, which is by far the 0:03:04.240 --> 0:03:08.440 planet's single greatest store of the element. Absent human intervention, 0:03:08.639 --> 0:03:13.200 this carbon is released slowly over geological time. This process 0:03:13.240 --> 0:03:16.720 regulates the distribution of atmospheric carbon and in turn, the 0:03:16.760 --> 0:03:21.080 temperature of the Earth. The industrialized economy has sped this up. 0:03:21.440 --> 0:03:23.920 In the past one hundred and fifty years, hundreds of 0:03:23.919 --> 0:03:26.840 thousands of years worth of atmospheric carbon has been released. 0:03:27.320 --> 0:03:31.280 Cement manufacture isn't the most heat intensive industrial practice, but 0:03:31.320 --> 0:03:34.760 it's one of them. It uses primarily fossil fuels to 0:03:34.800 --> 0:03:38.680 heat giant furnaces to twenty seven hundred degrees fahrenheit, hot 0:03:38.760 --> 0:03:40.960 enough to cook the carbon out of four point five 0:03:41.040 --> 0:03:45.000 billion tons of limestone annually. About forty percent of the 0:03:45.040 --> 0:03:48.400 cement industry's emissions result from its prodigious use of fuels. 0:03:48.800 --> 0:03:51.960 The bigger share comes from the fugitive carbon released by 0:03:51.960 --> 0:03:55.760 the chemical change that transforms limestone into the main ingredient 0:03:55.880 --> 0:03:59.600 in cement. The cement industry produces seven to eight percent 0:03:59.640 --> 0:04:03.760 of all human caused carbon emissions. So far, six of 0:04:03.800 --> 0:04:07.480 the thousand islands are no more twenty will likely drown 0:04:07.560 --> 0:04:13.480 over the next few years. Two. The legal climate as 0:04:13.560 --> 0:04:16.680 Mania at Ol versus Wholesome was filed in twenty twenty three, 0:04:17.120 --> 0:04:20.680 and on December seventeenth, twenty twenty five, a cantonal court 0:04:20.800 --> 0:04:23.360 ruled that the bold legal theories behind the case were 0:04:23.440 --> 0:04:26.960 sound and that a trial was warranted. The ruling was 0:04:27.000 --> 0:04:30.640 a bombshell for a number of reasons. Most significantly, the 0:04:30.680 --> 0:04:35.160 Swiss court accepted that individuals harmed by climate change deserve compensation. 0:04:35.800 --> 0:04:39.560 Defendants in similar cases have in the past argued successfully 0:04:39.600 --> 0:04:42.800 that individuals who suffer harm from climate change don't warrant 0:04:42.839 --> 0:04:46.240 special consideration because everyone in the world deals with the 0:04:46.279 --> 0:04:49.520 same climate reality, so it's a political issue at best. 0:04:50.160 --> 0:04:53.760 The court, however, ruled that because Swiss law protects individual's 0:04:53.839 --> 0:04:58.600 physical integrity, health and personal freedom, the islanders deserved compensation 0:04:58.760 --> 0:05:02.240 for any direct harm they suffered. The court accepted that 0:05:02.320 --> 0:05:05.440 climate policy is a matter for politics, but it ruled 0:05:05.480 --> 0:05:10.160 that private lawsuits complement legislation, and though Wholesome hasn't operated 0:05:10.200 --> 0:05:13.760 in Indonesia since twenty nineteen, the court is allowing the 0:05:13.880 --> 0:05:17.640 argument that the harms of Wholesom's cumulative worldwide emissions were 0:05:17.720 --> 0:05:21.719 unbounded by geography, and that even distant sufferers were entitled 0:05:21.720 --> 0:05:25.760 to compensation from the company. When the case is finally heard, 0:05:25.880 --> 0:05:29.000 the court will weigh the science that connects Wholesom's omissions 0:05:29.040 --> 0:05:32.719 to climate change around Pari Island. At that stage, things 0:05:32.839 --> 0:05:36.080 may not go the islander's way, but the progress already 0:05:36.080 --> 0:05:39.360 made suggests the court's may ring changes from industry where 0:05:39.400 --> 0:05:43.680 political action has faltered. Following the December ruling, thirty nine 0:05:43.720 --> 0:05:47.279 Pakistani farmers filed a lawsuit in Germany against two companies, 0:05:47.720 --> 0:05:53.080 including Wholesom's chief European rival, Heidelberg Materials, seeking partial compensation 0:05:53.279 --> 0:05:56.919 for the loss of homes and livelihoods caused by devastating floods. 0:05:57.480 --> 0:06:00.480 The wholesome case in effect puts the whole world production 0:06:00.600 --> 0:06:04.520 and use of cement and concrete on trial. The vast 0:06:04.600 --> 0:06:08.360 majority of the world's cement is Portland cement, a manufactured 0:06:08.440 --> 0:06:12.680 chemical powder that's the crucial binding ingredient in most modern concrete. 0:06:13.000 --> 0:06:15.839 Cement usually makes up ten percent to fifteen percent of 0:06:15.880 --> 0:06:19.279 the volume in a basic concrete mix. The rest includes 0:06:19.400 --> 0:06:23.920 hard bits called aggregate, usually stones of various sizes, and sand, 0:06:24.520 --> 0:06:26.880 and the ingredient that kicks off the binding of it 0:06:26.960 --> 0:06:31.720 all together. Water. Portland's cement was patented by Joseph Aspden 0:06:31.800 --> 0:06:35.960 in England in eighteen twenty four. Aspden took dubious credit 0:06:36.040 --> 0:06:38.960 for its invention, but he gave the smoky gray material 0:06:39.000 --> 0:06:42.640 its durable name, meant to invoke a posh similarly colored 0:06:42.680 --> 0:06:46.240 stone quarried on the isle of Portland. Today, cement and 0:06:46.320 --> 0:06:48.719 the concrete made with it are the world's most widely 0:06:48.839 --> 0:06:52.080 used human made materials, amounting to a one point four 0:06:52.160 --> 0:06:56.760 trillion dollar global market. They enable modern living. They're deployed 0:06:56.760 --> 0:07:00.159 to address almost every major human and natural challenge and 0:07:00.240 --> 0:07:04.159 deliver immeasurable benefits, including a healthier, longer life for people 0:07:04.240 --> 0:07:08.000 almost everywhere. But this progress has come at a cost 0:07:08.040 --> 0:07:11.800 to the climate. At Wholesom's peak, the company has bought, sold, 0:07:11.840 --> 0:07:15.480 and merged divisions often. It operated in ninety countries and 0:07:15.640 --> 0:07:19.000 was the market leader in forty. The Pyre Islanders and 0:07:19.040 --> 0:07:22.080 their backers assert that the company has produced point forty 0:07:22.120 --> 0:07:26.320 two percent of all industrial CO two emissions since seventeen fifty, 0:07:26.880 --> 0:07:29.400 so they're asking it to pay point forty two percent 0:07:29.440 --> 0:07:32.440 of the damages caused to them and their families. The 0:07:32.560 --> 0:07:36.400 requested sum, around twenty thousand dollars, would be a pittance 0:07:36.440 --> 0:07:39.000 to a company with a market capitalization of fifty one 0:07:39.000 --> 0:07:43.240 billion dollars, but Wholesom's lawyers have argued, using an apt metaphor, 0:07:43.560 --> 0:07:46.200 that a ruling in favor of the plaintiffs would open 0:07:46.240 --> 0:07:50.320 the floodgates to an endless queue of claimants. The islander's 0:07:50.440 --> 0:07:53.560 non financial demands could be far more onerous for Wholesome. 0:07:54.000 --> 0:07:56.600 The suit asks the court to require the company, which 0:07:56.600 --> 0:07:59.800 has committed to eliminating all its carbon emissions by twenty fifty, 0:08:00.120 --> 0:08:03.680 to roughly double the speed of its decarbonization by cutting 0:08:03.680 --> 0:08:07.160 emissions forty three percent by twenty thirty and sixty nine 0:08:07.200 --> 0:08:10.960 percent by twenty forty. Those figures matched the global reduction 0:08:11.040 --> 0:08:15.400 targets established by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. 0:08:15.960 --> 0:08:18.720 It also asks the court to compel Wholesome to cap 0:08:18.840 --> 0:08:23.600 not only per volume emissions but also overall emissions. Wholesome, 0:08:23.840 --> 0:08:27.040 like other cement makers, measures its success at cutting emissions 0:08:27.040 --> 0:08:29.920 by counting the CO two released for a given volume 0:08:29.960 --> 0:08:33.840 of cement produced. That leaves room for overall emissions to climb. 0:08:33.840 --> 0:08:37.240 If sales of cement outpaced the per volume reductions, the 0:08:37.320 --> 0:08:40.040 suit could impede the company's efforts to sell more cement 0:08:40.120 --> 0:08:44.800 and grab market share amid its industry's ongoing consolidation. Prior 0:08:44.840 --> 0:08:48.160 to the December ruling, Wholesom argued that mandating limits on 0:08:48.200 --> 0:08:50.800 its output would be meaningless for the islanders and the 0:08:50.800 --> 0:08:53.760 climate because other companies would provide the market with what 0:08:53.840 --> 0:08:58.040 Wholesome couldn't. The Court reasoned that the opposite would be true. Rather, 0:08:58.160 --> 0:09:01.640 it said, other co two would probably also have to 0:09:01.720 --> 0:09:04.760 expect to be held accountable for their emissions. The threat 0:09:04.760 --> 0:09:07.400 of an injunction may cause other actors in the cement 0:09:07.480 --> 0:09:11.680 and concrete industry to reduce their emissions. Wholesome is a 0:09:11.720 --> 0:09:15.280 bell weather in its industry. It wields formidable influence in 0:09:15.320 --> 0:09:18.560 the trade associations and with governmental and other bodies that 0:09:18.600 --> 0:09:22.560 set standards for cementing concrete. A final judgment in favor 0:09:22.600 --> 0:09:25.120 of the Islanders would likely set in motion a test 0:09:25.160 --> 0:09:28.400 of whether the cement industry can decarbonize far faster than 0:09:28.400 --> 0:09:31.640 it claims as possible. Some of this could be accomplished 0:09:31.640 --> 0:09:35.040 through new methods of building with less material Some could 0:09:35.160 --> 0:09:39.439 entail accelerating the development of carbon negative materials which absorb 0:09:39.559 --> 0:09:42.920 or sequester co too rather than emit it. That would 0:09:43.000 --> 0:09:46.520 change how the world uses its favorite material. Because of 0:09:46.559 --> 0:09:49.000 the unrivaled scale of its use and the pace of 0:09:49.000 --> 0:09:52.040 innovation in the sector, concrete may prove to be the 0:09:52.040 --> 0:09:55.600 most essential material for dialing back carbon dioxide emissions of 0:09:55.640 --> 0:09:59.679 all kinds. In a twist, the Pari Islanders are suing 0:09:59.720 --> 0:10:02.080 one of the the cement companies that's pushed the hardest 0:10:02.080 --> 0:10:05.640 to decarbonize and spoken the loudest about the economic sense 0:10:05.679 --> 0:10:08.960 of doing so. Over the past five years, Wholesome has 0:10:09.000 --> 0:10:12.240 been remaking its business in service of governmental and corporate 0:10:12.240 --> 0:10:15.880 sustainability goals. The optimistic case for the climate is that, 0:10:16.280 --> 0:10:20.120 rather than handcuffing the company, the four Indonesian Islanders could 0:10:20.160 --> 0:10:23.160 end up propelling its business into a new phase and 0:10:23.200 --> 0:10:28.480 igniting a profound change for the planet. Three tropical Swiss 0:10:29.320 --> 0:10:33.880 Hexa's office is in Cyric's quiet leafy Untustras neighborhood, set 0:10:33.920 --> 0:10:36.800 among a mix of late nineteenth century Art Nouveaux homes, 0:10:37.080 --> 0:10:40.840 mid century apartment houses, and university halls. It's hard to 0:10:40.840 --> 0:10:43.240 walk the streets of a Swiss city and not marvel 0:10:43.280 --> 0:10:46.760 at the country's use of concrete. Its engineers pioneered new 0:10:46.760 --> 0:10:50.360 applications for the material throughout the twentieth century, and modern 0:10:50.480 --> 0:10:54.360 concrete architecture took root there too, including the unfinished or 0:10:54.520 --> 0:10:58.600 brute concrete that Le Corbusier championed, which spurred the rise 0:10:58.640 --> 0:11:02.840 of brutalism. There's nothing brutish about it. Swiss workers are 0:11:02.880 --> 0:11:06.240 among the world's best finishers of concrete, and the surfaces 0:11:06.280 --> 0:11:10.079 on modern homes, schools, and offices are exquisite. The city 0:11:10.080 --> 0:11:14.440 blocks around HEX are dotted with fine examples. HEX is 0:11:14.480 --> 0:11:17.520 headquartered in a linear, blue and white office building circa 0:11:17.559 --> 0:11:21.400 nineteen sixty three, with cargo bicycles at the door. I 0:11:21.520 --> 0:11:24.000 arrived from my first visit back in twenty twenty two 0:11:24.200 --> 0:11:27.200 during a coffee break and was led through angular modern 0:11:27.240 --> 0:11:30.959 offices to a sitting area. There, casually dressed workers sat 0:11:31.000 --> 0:11:33.800 around a low table, quietly enjoying drinks and a bowl 0:11:33.840 --> 0:11:37.160 of pears and grapes. We don't talk about work during 0:11:37.200 --> 0:11:40.040 these breaks, I was told, as the bowl came my way, 0:11:40.840 --> 0:11:43.920 no evidence of bomb throwers here. Had the staff not 0:11:43.960 --> 0:11:46.880 been speaking Swiss German, the office might have been mistaken 0:11:46.920 --> 0:11:49.720 for the city hall of an affluent, progressive town somewhere 0:11:49.720 --> 0:11:53.760 in say, the Pacific Northwest. Following the break, the workers 0:11:53.800 --> 0:11:57.640 headed uninterrupted to their desks. Part of hex's mission is 0:11:57.679 --> 0:12:01.000 to redress inequities between the affluent glos global North and 0:12:01.040 --> 0:12:04.720 the poorer global South. On the office shelves were report 0:12:04.760 --> 0:12:08.720 covers showing people stooping in fields to harvest crops, squatting 0:12:08.760 --> 0:12:12.960 next to wells, wading through floods, carrying food to refugee tents, 0:12:13.320 --> 0:12:16.640 or cupping seeds and beans in their hands. Good works, 0:12:17.120 --> 0:12:20.960 God's work. I was there to discuss hex's views of 0:12:21.000 --> 0:12:24.560 Switzerland's cement industry. I didn't yet know about the Pari 0:12:24.600 --> 0:12:27.920 Island case, and it might have gone unmentioned. Following a 0:12:27.920 --> 0:12:31.240 general overview on the dangers of carbon emissions, I was 0:12:31.280 --> 0:12:35.000 told that HEX viewed Wholesome's green strategies as suspect and 0:12:35.040 --> 0:12:38.240 that the company's public messaging masked a go slow approach. 0:12:38.800 --> 0:12:40.920 On the way out, I noticed a poster of a 0:12:40.960 --> 0:12:44.559 group in Indonesia. They wore the distinctive prints and headscarves 0:12:44.600 --> 0:12:46.880 I knew from living and working in that country on 0:12:47.000 --> 0:12:49.880 and off since the nineteen eighties. I asked about this 0:12:49.960 --> 0:12:52.560 group and heard for the first time the story of 0:12:52.600 --> 0:12:56.079 the Pari Islanders. Last summer, as I prepared for a 0:12:56.160 --> 0:12:59.240 visit to Jakarta, I called Hex to see if anything 0:12:59.320 --> 0:13:02.560 was stirring. My timing was good. I was told a 0:13:02.600 --> 0:13:06.600 hearing was scheduled in soog for September. The Indonesians would 0:13:06.640 --> 0:13:09.080 be coming to Switzerland to face Wholesome in person for 0:13:09.120 --> 0:13:12.120 the first time. I told Hex, I'd like to interview 0:13:12.160 --> 0:13:14.559 the plaintiffs there, but first I'd like to see them 0:13:14.600 --> 0:13:17.640 on Pari Island. I could even speak to them in Indonesian, 0:13:17.880 --> 0:13:20.360 especially if I had a translator for back up. We 0:13:20.480 --> 0:13:26.200 had a deal four David and Goliath, Daoud and Jalout. 0:13:27.080 --> 0:13:30.880 Parid Ridwanoudon was one of my first contacts. Parid is 0:13:30.920 --> 0:13:33.760 a stout, energetic activist with a history of fighting for 0:13:33.840 --> 0:13:37.960 small island fishers whose catches are threatened by mass excavations 0:13:38.000 --> 0:13:41.760 by sand miners feeding the regions in satiable appetites for concrete, 0:13:41.760 --> 0:13:45.480 aggregate and landfill material. There are no hard and fast 0:13:45.559 --> 0:13:49.000 rules for citing Indonesian names in the press. I've adopted 0:13:49.000 --> 0:13:52.520 the names the people themselves prefer. He lives in Jakarta 0:13:52.800 --> 0:13:55.920 and works with the Indonesian Forum for Living Environment or 0:13:55.960 --> 0:13:59.400 While He an environmental organization affiliated with Friends of the 0:13:59.440 --> 0:14:03.360 Earth Internet. When the Swiss case first took shape, he 0:14:03.440 --> 0:14:05.679 was enlisted to work with the Pari Islanders and their 0:14:05.720 --> 0:14:09.880 European backers, organizing a public campaign and acting as an 0:14:09.920 --> 0:14:13.200 English language interpreter for the plaintiffs. The main point of 0:14:13.240 --> 0:14:16.400 the lawsuit is to focus on major carbon emitters, Piede 0:14:16.440 --> 0:14:18.720 told me this is to send a message to the 0:14:18.720 --> 0:14:22.000 global community that the fate of the Pari Islanders has 0:14:22.040 --> 0:14:24.960 a connection to the global climate movement and is linked 0:14:25.000 --> 0:14:28.480 to previous climate lawsuits. For while he Hex and the 0:14:28.520 --> 0:14:32.760 European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights in Berlin, another backer. 0:14:32.920 --> 0:14:35.280 The suit against Wholesome is part of a larger effort 0:14:35.400 --> 0:14:39.360 by global non governmental organizations to hold to account big 0:14:39.400 --> 0:14:43.160 emitters and the governments that failed to sufficiently curb them. 0:14:43.520 --> 0:14:46.520 The case was brought in Switzerland in part because Indonesian 0:14:46.600 --> 0:14:50.360 law leaves little room for climate lawsuits. Targeting a Swiss 0:14:50.400 --> 0:14:53.800 company that no longer does business in Indonesia also allowed 0:14:53.800 --> 0:14:59.120 the activists to sidestep some especially challenging political issues. Indonesia's 0:14:59.120 --> 0:15:02.880 biggest carbon ima, including in the cement sector, are deeply 0:15:02.880 --> 0:15:07.760 connected to the government. Among national legal systems, Indonesia's notoriously 0:15:07.800 --> 0:15:10.720 corrupt courts rank a low sixty ninth in heeding the 0:15:10.840 --> 0:15:14.480 rule of law. According to the World Justice Project. Swiss 0:15:14.560 --> 0:15:17.080 courts might be half a world away, but they rank 0:15:17.120 --> 0:15:20.960 among the least corrupt. When while he and Hex started 0:15:21.000 --> 0:15:25.840 recruiting plaintiffs, many Pari Islanders came forward to volunteer, Slowly, 0:15:26.000 --> 0:15:30.160 most dropped out, and only the four persevered. The story 0:15:30.240 --> 0:15:33.840 is very good with the Daoud and Jalut element, says Pared, 0:15:34.280 --> 0:15:37.720 invoking the Quran's version of David and Goliath. His role 0:15:37.760 --> 0:15:39.360 in the case is to make the most of the 0:15:39.480 --> 0:15:42.640 archetype with a bit of ayoub, the Islamic counterpart to 0:15:42.720 --> 0:15:49.480 job thrown in five. How concrete disappears. Natives of concrete 0:15:49.480 --> 0:15:53.120 places often don't notice how pervasive the stuff is. One 0:15:53.160 --> 0:15:57.040 reason may be that humans are cognitive misers. We're wired 0:15:57.040 --> 0:16:00.440 to edit out complications. We edit out conos crete from 0:16:00.440 --> 0:16:03.040 our view the way we edit out our noses, though 0:16:03.040 --> 0:16:06.480 they're both nearly always in our field of vision. Almost 0:16:06.560 --> 0:16:09.400 every building erected in the past seventy five years in 0:16:09.440 --> 0:16:13.160 an industrialized country has at the least a concrete foundation 0:16:13.640 --> 0:16:18.040 and very likely concrete floors. Concrete can seem the dead 0:16:18.120 --> 0:16:22.320 opposite of sexy architecture. Critic John Goodman notes that in 0:16:22.360 --> 0:16:26.680 its raw form, it presents as primitive, even scatological, oozing 0:16:26.720 --> 0:16:29.600 down the shoot of a mixer truck. Frank Lloyd Wright, 0:16:29.680 --> 0:16:34.080 who used concrete beautifully the Guggenheim, wrestled with the material's 0:16:34.160 --> 0:16:39.280 earth and blandness, calling cement characterless and concrete artificial stone 0:16:39.280 --> 0:16:43.320 at best and a petrified sand heap at worst. Concrete 0:16:43.360 --> 0:16:48.720 can be dull, hard, inert. Paradoxically, these very qualities have 0:16:48.840 --> 0:16:51.920 made it one of the most transformative materials ever created. 0:16:52.560 --> 0:16:56.080 The world has been remade with it. Measured by mass, 0:16:56.160 --> 0:16:58.800 About half of the world's more than one trillion tons 0:16:58.840 --> 0:17:02.280 of human made stuff is concrete. Most of that has 0:17:02.320 --> 0:17:06.080 appeared in the past fifty years. In the late nineteenth century, 0:17:06.240 --> 0:17:10.040 concrete was a niche product compared with other materials. It 0:17:10.119 --> 0:17:13.520 was too expensive and inconsistent for most jobs in a 0:17:13.600 --> 0:17:16.879 largely wood and masonry world. It was reserved mainly for 0:17:16.960 --> 0:17:21.000 infrastructure projects, sewer systems, canals, the base of the Statue 0:17:21.000 --> 0:17:25.439 of Liberty, and kept out of building architecture. Thomas Edison 0:17:25.480 --> 0:17:29.120 helped change that. In nineteen o two, he applied lessons 0:17:29.119 --> 0:17:31.919 from a failed iron milling business to the creation of 0:17:31.960 --> 0:17:34.920 one hundred and fifty foot long rotary kilns that could 0:17:34.920 --> 0:17:39.240 produce cement in large volumes continuously. He then created one 0:17:39.240 --> 0:17:42.399 of the largest cement plants in the world in New Village, 0:17:42.440 --> 0:17:45.960 New Jersey. The Edison Portland Cement Company's new method of 0:17:46.000 --> 0:17:50.440 mass production turned Portland cement from an expensive, uncommon material 0:17:50.760 --> 0:17:55.800 into an industrialized, abundant, affordable one. Edison tried unsuccessfully to 0:17:55.880 --> 0:17:59.600 market single family concrete homes made by pouring the material 0:17:59.640 --> 0:18:03.399 into a house size mold, but the equipment proved too expensive. 0:18:03.920 --> 0:18:07.040 His cement company also failed, in part because a rash 0:18:07.080 --> 0:18:11.040 of cement makers quickly adopted the technology he pioneered, creating 0:18:11.040 --> 0:18:15.320 an oversupply that drove down prices. But the urbanizing, motorized, 0:18:15.400 --> 0:18:19.480 electric and fossil fuel powered economy Edison helped create was 0:18:19.640 --> 0:18:23.439 ripe for concrete. Last year, the world used close to 0:18:23.520 --> 0:18:26.919 four billion tons of cement to produce about thirty billion 0:18:26.960 --> 0:18:30.320 tons of concrete, three to four tons for everyone on 0:18:30.400 --> 0:18:34.320 the planet. If Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, both eighty 0:18:34.320 --> 0:18:37.920 two together were delivered there, per capita allotments, it would 0:18:37.960 --> 0:18:42.120 take thirty four concrete trucks Portland. Cement is produced by 0:18:42.160 --> 0:18:45.440 more than twelve hundred companies and thirty five hundred plants 0:18:45.440 --> 0:18:48.280 in one hundred and sixty three countries, though ten of 0:18:48.280 --> 0:18:51.919 the biggest producers, some state owned in China, account for 0:18:51.920 --> 0:18:54.800 forty percent of the global supply. At the time the 0:18:54.880 --> 0:18:59.960 lawsuit was filed, Wholesome was the biggest non Chinese producer. 0:19:00.080 --> 0:19:03.720 Of most big challenges humankind faces, and you'll find we're 0:19:03.840 --> 0:19:07.480 likely to face them with concrete habitation, of course, as 0:19:07.520 --> 0:19:09.639 more than ninety percent of the world's new homes are 0:19:09.640 --> 0:19:12.800 made with it. Most every office building and factory is 0:19:12.920 --> 0:19:16.440 two pick up. Almost anything that was mass produced mechanically 0:19:16.720 --> 0:19:19.720 a pen, a spoon, a circuit board, a motor, and 0:19:19.880 --> 0:19:23.280 concrete was under the machine that made it. The gargantuan 0:19:23.359 --> 0:19:26.679 machinery in steel mills must be anchored to concrete foundations 0:19:26.680 --> 0:19:29.919 to hold it steady. Reciprocally, about one fifth of the 0:19:29.920 --> 0:19:34.720 world's steel is used to reinforce concrete, and modern transportation 0:19:34.960 --> 0:19:38.400 happens on concrete. There are three hundred and forty thousand 0:19:38.480 --> 0:19:41.480 concrete bridges in the US and more than eight hundred 0:19:41.520 --> 0:19:45.080 thousand in China. Canals, ports and airports are among the 0:19:45.119 --> 0:19:49.560 most concrete intensive structures of all. Concrete is an almost 0:19:49.600 --> 0:19:53.400 miraculous contributor to public health. It enabled the build out 0:19:53.480 --> 0:19:56.840 of municipal systems that deliver safe drinking water and remove 0:19:56.880 --> 0:20:01.439 and process waste. Concrete pipes and storm basins detain rushing 0:20:01.480 --> 0:20:05.879 waters that would otherwise flood streets and homes with road grime, toxins, trash, 0:20:05.920 --> 0:20:09.359 and sewer rats. When in poor neighborhoods and crowded Latin 0:20:09.400 --> 0:20:14.880 American cities, Concrete replaces dirt floors, Parasitic infestations and anemia 0:20:14.960 --> 0:20:18.560 in children both drop by around eighty percent, and cases 0:20:18.600 --> 0:20:23.080 of diarrhea nearly have. A programme in Mexico called Piezoferme 0:20:23.440 --> 0:20:26.760 Solid Floor installed concrete floors in the homes of more 0:20:26.800 --> 0:20:30.280 than two point seven million families. It did more for 0:20:30.400 --> 0:20:35.160 children's overall health than food aid or nutritional supplements. Concrete 0:20:35.200 --> 0:20:40.240 isn't necessary for human reproduction. Indonesian readers kindly resist puns 0:20:40.280 --> 0:20:43.399 with semen your word for cement, but its use in 0:20:43.520 --> 0:20:48.520 hygienic maternity wards lowers infections and infant mortality. The world's 0:20:48.600 --> 0:20:54.200 energy infrastructure, including dams, nuclear plants, and renewables, is heavily concrete. 0:20:54.560 --> 0:20:57.440 It's the only affordable material with enough mass to hold 0:20:57.440 --> 0:21:01.119 the towers of big wind turbines steady against gravity, torque, 0:21:01.160 --> 0:21:05.080 and wind shear. Smaller turbine towers, the kind that dot 0:21:05.160 --> 0:21:09.000 cornfields in the American Midwest each stand in one thousand 0:21:09.080 --> 0:21:13.360 to two thousand tons of concrete. Newer nuclear plants use 0:21:13.440 --> 0:21:18.359 seven hundred thousand tons of concrete. China's Midog hydropower station 0:21:18.640 --> 0:21:22.480 and related infrastructure in Tibet is slated to begin operating 0:21:22.520 --> 0:21:25.760 in twenty thirty three, it will be by far the 0:21:25.800 --> 0:21:30.080 world's largest power plant, generating enough daily power for three 0:21:30.200 --> 0:21:33.680 hundred million people. It will also be the world's most 0:21:33.720 --> 0:21:38.000 massive concrete structure, built with an estimated three hundred million 0:21:38.160 --> 0:21:42.960 tons worth. The security and defense industries depend on concrete. Two. 0:21:43.520 --> 0:21:46.639 In twenty sixteen, the Modern War Institute at West Point 0:21:46.960 --> 0:21:51.399 identified concrete, not weapons or vehicles or computers, as the U. S. 0:21:51.520 --> 0:21:56.399 Army's most important strategic battle asset. The overarching fact about 0:21:56.440 --> 0:21:59.919 concrete is that it's unavoidable, and the more it's used, 0:22:00.119 --> 0:22:03.679 the more its use expands. Concrete is the material that 0:22:03.800 --> 0:22:10.840 networks almost every other built network. Six. Escaping Jakarta. My 0:22:10.960 --> 0:22:13.320 trip to the boat for Pari Island began with an 0:22:13.320 --> 0:22:16.760 early morning taxi ride across Jakarta through a cityscape of 0:22:16.840 --> 0:22:21.159 concrete and little els. Jakarta anchors the world's most populous 0:22:21.200 --> 0:22:25.679 metro region, with forty two million people. Its surpassed Tokyos. 0:22:26.359 --> 0:22:29.000 Although it sits in the tropics, it's wofully short of 0:22:29.040 --> 0:22:32.320 green spaces. Ninety percent of its surface is paved or 0:22:32.400 --> 0:22:37.359 otherwise concretised. Jakarta is the fastest sinking large city in 0:22:37.400 --> 0:22:40.680 the world. It drops ten to thirty centimeters a year, 0:22:40.840 --> 0:22:44.080 depending on the neighborhood. Two thirds of the city's water 0:22:44.200 --> 0:22:48.200 is drawn from the ground below. Draining the groundwater compacts 0:22:48.200 --> 0:22:52.200 the soil. The weight of Jakarta's buildings compacts it even more. 0:22:53.080 --> 0:22:58.159 My car crawled through infamously choked city streets. Jakartans stuck 0:22:58.160 --> 0:23:01.920 in traffic like to say they're study patients. The pace 0:23:02.000 --> 0:23:04.760 finally accelerated as the car climbed a ramp to one 0:23:04.760 --> 0:23:08.360 of the city's elevated highways. Above were the upper floors 0:23:08.359 --> 0:23:12.080 of huge apartment towers, clustered into complexes that house tens 0:23:12.080 --> 0:23:15.320 of thousands of people. Below lay a street level city 0:23:15.560 --> 0:23:19.720 that's a perennially half built crush of homes, shops, mosques, 0:23:19.720 --> 0:23:23.000 big and small food stalls, and the largest collection of 0:23:23.040 --> 0:23:26.560 indoor malls of any city in the world. Across from 0:23:26.560 --> 0:23:29.640 ankoal Port and the boat to the island were both 0:23:29.760 --> 0:23:34.080 soaring modern buildings and the abandoned concrete skeletons of unfinished 0:23:34.119 --> 0:23:38.440 apartment towers. The spongy land beneath couldn't support their weight. 0:23:39.040 --> 0:23:41.879 The city is a hodgepodge of concrete done well and 0:23:41.960 --> 0:23:47.960 concrete squandered locals sometimes crave an escape from the concrete everywhere, 0:23:48.240 --> 0:23:51.480 and Pari Island makes for a quaint time out the boat. 0:23:51.520 --> 0:23:54.600 Trip to the island can take one, two or three hours, 0:23:54.640 --> 0:23:57.280 depending on whether you travel by a small bouncy boat 0:23:57.280 --> 0:23:59.920 with a modest engine, a medium sized boat that makes 0:24:00.119 --> 0:24:02.720 stop at a mall, or a fast boat that crashes 0:24:02.760 --> 0:24:06.080 through the waves, soaks the passengers and is crushingly. Loud 0:24:06.800 --> 0:24:09.879 I took the two hour trip the boat past the 0:24:09.960 --> 0:24:13.600 remains of centuries old derelict Dutch forts that still dominate 0:24:13.680 --> 0:24:16.600 several of the small islands in the chain. From such 0:24:16.760 --> 0:24:20.880 hulking structures, some with walls twelve feet thick, the Netherlands 0:24:20.920 --> 0:24:24.000 subdued its Indonesian colonies for more than three hundred and 0:24:24.040 --> 0:24:27.880 fifty years. The Dutch fashioned a concrete like substance by 0:24:27.920 --> 0:24:31.600 grinding up seashells to make quicklime, similar to that produced 0:24:31.600 --> 0:24:34.840 from limestone in the making of Portland cement today. The 0:24:34.960 --> 0:24:39.600 Dutch also used Indonesia's abundant volcanic ash, a functional double 0:24:39.640 --> 0:24:43.359 of modern cement, and as with modern concrete, combined it 0:24:43.440 --> 0:24:46.560 with sand and rock to make an almost indestructible mass. 0:24:47.480 --> 0:24:50.399 The scenes along the sandy paths that thread through Pirie 0:24:50.480 --> 0:24:53.360 Island appear like a throwback in time to the kind 0:24:53.359 --> 0:24:56.600 of village life ja Cartan families often left behind the 0:24:56.680 --> 0:25:00.800