Big Picture TV › Video › What can past cultures teach us about the dangers of overconsumption?

What can past cultures teach us about the dangers of overconsumption?

A photo of Terry Tamminen

Terry Tamminen

US Energy and Environmental Strategist

  • Downloads

  • Downloads disabled
  • Downloads disabled

In order to view the videos online at Big Picture TV, you need to install the Macromedia Flash Player 8 (or later) and have Javascript enabled in your browser.

Get Flash Player from macromedia

About the video: ‘What can past cultures teach us about the dangers of overconsumption?’

Tamminen looks to history to dramatize the choices we now face. He points out how the Easter Island civlization destroyed itself by a reckless consumption of the material sources of its livlihood. By contrast he describes how the far-sighted Hopi indians have survived in adverse conditions for many thousands of years. We need to change from the path of the Easter Islanders on which we now seem set. Can we do so in time?

Total views: 1,852

Filmed: Los Angeles, CA on 10 March 2007

Credits: Interviewer - Stephon Litwinczuk, Camera - Stephon Litwinczuk, Editor - Marcus Morrell

Copyright © 2007 Big Picture TV/ Stephon Litwinczuk

About Terry Tamminen

Terry Tamminen was California State Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Chief Environmental Policy Advisor from 2003-2007. During his tenure Tamminen helped launch some of the most successful sustainable energy initiatives in US history. He is a former director of the Environment Now Foundation in Santa Monica, and is founder of the Santa Monica BayKeeper. He also co-founded the Frank G. Wells Environmental Law Clinic at the UCLA’s School of Law.
In 2009 Terry Tamminen and Bonnie Reiss received the Policy Design Award for their work guiding the state of California’s environmental and renewable energy policies.

Other videos with Terry Tamminen

Terry Tamminen

What’s the true cost of oil?

Terry Tamminen talks about his book Lives per Gallon, which examines the true cost of America’s addiction to oil. The price of gasoline does not reflect substantial external…

Recorded: 10 March 2007

Related videos

Jane Goodall

What can we learn from Africa?

Speaking at the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, September 2002, Dr. Goodall talks about the effects commercial logging in Africa has on the environment…

Recorded: 1 September 2002

Jane Goodall

Case Study: The TACARE Project

Primatologist Dr. Jane Goodall talks about TACARE – a pilot project she set up in Tanzania to…

Recorded: 1 September 2002

Vandana Shiva

Why does biodiversity loss matter?

Dr. Shiva talks about the damaging ecological effects of agricultural monoculture – the large-scale production of single crops. She goes on to warn that the loss of biodiversity…

Recorded: 12 September 2004

Tony Juniper

What are the benefits of looking after nature?

Tony Juniper talks about the enormous benefits humanity derives from developing our understanding of nature. He asks how we can progress if we are destroying nature at such a rapid…

Recorded: 8 December 2004

Julia Butterfly Hill

What is wrong with our attitude towards indigenous cultures?

Julia Butterfly Hill talks about her work with indigenous groups globally. She describes the charity-based approach many ‘westerners’ take when responding to the plight…

Recorded: 22 April 2005

John Perkins

Does the US have an empire? (part 2)

Former economic hitman John Perkins sees positive change emerging from different quarters. He believes the social movements that have emerged in recent years point to real progress.…

Recorded: 28 January 2005

Forgotten password?

or Register