When I was a kid, my parents would tell me, "You can make a mess, but you have to clean up after yourself." So freedom came with responsibility. But my imagination would take me to all these wonderful places, where everything was possible. So I grew up in a bubble of innocence -- or a bubble of ignorance, I should say, because adults would lie to us to protect us from the ugly truth. And growing up, I found out that adults make a mess, and they're not very good at cleaning up after themselves.
Kada sam bio dete, roditelji su mi govorili: "Možeš da praviš nered, ali moraš da počistiš za sobom." Dakle, uz slobodu je išla odgovornost. Ali mašta me je vodila na sva ta divna mesta, gde je sve bilo moguće. Pa sam odrastao pod zlatnim zvonom nevinosti - ili, rekao bih, pod zlatnim zvonom neznanja jer su nas odrasli lagali kako bi nas zaštitili od neprijatne istine. A odrastajući sam otkrio da odrasli prave nered i da nisu naročito dobri u čišćenju za sobom.
Fast forward, I am an adult now, and I teach citizen science and invention at the Hong Kong Harbour School. And it doesn't take too long before my students walk on a beach and stumble upon piles of trash. So as good citizens, we clean up the beaches -- and no, he is not drinking alcohol, and if he is, I did not give it to him.
Premotaćemo, i ja sam sad odrastao i predajem građansku nauku i izume u školi "Harbor" u Hong Kongu. I ne prođe mnogo vremena pre nego što moji đaci, šetajući po plaži, nalete na hrpe smeća. Pa, kao uzorni građani, čistimo plaže - i ne, on ne pije alkohol, a ako pije, ja mu to nisam dao.
(Laughter)
(Smeh)
And so it's sad to say, but today more than 80 percent of the oceans have plastic in them. It's a horrifying fact. And in past decades, we've been taking those big ships out and those big nets, and we collect those plastic bits that we look at under a microscope, and we sort them, and then we put this data onto a map. But that takes forever, it's very expensive, and so it's quite risky to take those big boats out.
I tužno je to reći, ali danas više od 80 procenata okeana sadrži plastiku. To je jeziva činjenica. A proteklih decenija, isplovljavali smo velikim brodovima i tim velikim mrežama smo sakupljali te plastične deliće koje smo posmatrali pod mikroskopom i sortirali, a onda smo podatke upisivali na kartu. Ali to traje večnost, veoma je skupo i prilično je rizično isplovljavati tim velikim brodovima.
So with my students, ages six to 15, we've been dreaming of inventing a better way. So we've transformed our tiny Hong Kong classroom into a workshop. And so we started building this small workbench, with different heights, so even really short kids can participate. And let me tell you, kids with power tools are awesome and safe.
Pa sam sa svojim đacima, uzrasta od šest do 15 godina, sanjao o nalaženju boljeg načina. Zato smo pretvorili našu malenu učionicu u Hong Kongu u radionicu. I počeli smo da pravimo ovu malu radnu tezgu, sa raznim nivoima, da čak i veoma niska deca mogu da učestvuju. I dozvolite da vam kažem, deca sa električnim alatima su strava i bezbedna.
(Laughter)
(Smeh)
Not really. And so, back to plastic. We collect this plastic and we grind it to the size we find it in the ocean, which is very small because it breaks down. And so this is how we work. I let the imaginations of my students run wild. And my job is to try to collect the best of each kid's idea and try to combine it into something that hopefully would work. And so we have agreed that instead of collecting plastic bits, we are going to collect only the data. So we're going to get an image of the plastic with a robot -- so robots, kids get very excited. And the next thing we do -- we do what we call "rapid prototyping." We are so rapid at prototyping that the lunch is still in the lunchbox when we're hacking it.
Baš i nisu. Vratimo se plastici. Sakupljamo plastiku i meljemo je do razmera koje nalazimo u okeanu, a to je veoma sitno zbog razlaganja. Dakle, evo kako radimo. Puštam da mašta mojih đaka podivlja. A moj je posao da pokušam da sakupim najbolje iz svake dečje ideje i da pokušam to da uklopim u nešto što će, nadam se, da funkcioniše. Pa smo se složili da ćemo umesto sakupljanja plastičnih komadića, samo sakupljati podatke. Robot će nam napraviti slike plastike - zbog robota su deca veoma uzbuđena. A sledeće što radimo - nazivamo to "brzim prototipom". Toliko brzo pravimo prototipe da je ručak još uvek u kutiji dok ga sastavljamo.
(Laughter)
(Smeh)
And we hack table lamps and webcams, into plumbing fixtures and we assemble that into a floating robot that will be slowly moving through water and through the plastic that we have there -- and this is the image that we get in the robot. So we see the plastic pieces floating slowly through the sensor, and the computer on board will process this image, and measure the size of each particle, so we have a rough estimate of how much plastic there is in the water.
A mi prekucavamo stone lampe, vebkamere u vodovodno instalacijska učvršćenja i to sklapamo u plutajućeg robota koji će se sporo kretati po vodi i po plastici koja se tamo nalazi - a ovo je slika koju je napravio robot. Vidimo plastične delove kako sporo plutaju kroz senzor, a kompjuter na brodu će da obradi ovu sliku i da izmeri veličinu svake čestice, pa ćemo imati grubu procenu o količini plastike u vodi.
So we documented this invention step by step on a website for inventors called Instructables, in the hope that somebody would make it even better.
Pa smo svaki korak izrade ovog izuma dokumentovali na vebsajtu za pronalazače, koji se zove Instructables, u nadi da će ga neko čak i unaprediti.
What was really cool about this project was that the students saw a local problem, and boom -- they are trying to immediately address it.
Sjajna stvar kod ovog projekta je to što su đaci prepoznali lokalni problem i, hop! - odmah su pokušali da ga reše.
[I can investigate my local problem]
[Mogu da istražim lokalni problem]
But my students in Hong Kong are hyperconnected kids. And they watch the news, they watch the Internet, and they came across this image. This was a child, probably under 10, cleaning up an oil spill bare-handed, in the Sundarbans, which is the world's largest mangrove forest in Bangladesh. So they were very shocked, because this is the water they drink, this is the water they bathe in, this is the water they fish in -- this is the place where they live. And also you can see the water is brown, the mud is brown and oil is brown, so when everything is mixed up, it's really hard to see what's in the water. But, there's a technology that's rather simple, that's called spectrometry, that allows you see what's in the water. So we built a rough prototype of a spectrometer, and you can shine light through different substances that produce different spectrums, so that can help you identify what's in the water. So we packed this prototype of a sensor, and we shipped it to Bangladesh. So what was cool about this project was that beyond addressing a local problem, or looking at a local problem, my students used their empathy and their sense of being creative to help, remotely, other kids.
Ali moji đaci u Hong Kongu su izuzetno umrežena deca. Posmatraju vesti, prate internet sadržaje i naleteli su na ovaj prizor. Ovo dete, verovatno mlađe od 10 god, čisti naftnu mrlju, golih ruku, u Sundarbansu, u Bangladešu u kome se nalazi najveća šuma mangrovine na svetu. Pa su bili izuzetno potreseni, jer je ovo voda koju piju, voda u kojoj se kupaju, ovo je voda u kojoj pecaju - ovo je mesto na kome žive. Takođe, možete da vidite da je voda smeđa, mulj je smeđ i nafta je smeđa, kada je sve izmešano, veoma je teško videti šta je u vodi. Ali, postoji veoma jednostavna tehnologija, koja se zove spektometrija i omogućuje vam da vidite šta je u vodi. Pa smo napravili grubi prototip spektometra, možete da obasjavate različite supstance i tako proizvodite različite spektre, i to vam može pomoći da otkrijete šta je u vodi. Pa smo spakovali ovaj prototip senzora i poslali smo ga u Bangladeš. Kod ovog projekta je sjajno to što su mimo bavljenja lokalnim problemom ili posmatranja lokalnog problema, moji đaci, vođeni svojom empatijom i osećajem kreativnosti, pomogli drugoj udaljenoj deci.
[I can investigate a remote problem]
[Mogu da istražujem udaljeni problem]
So I was very compelled by doing the second experiments, and I wanted to take it even further -- maybe addressing an even harder problem, and it's also closer to my heart.
Pa sam bio primoran da izvodim nove eksperimente i želeo sam da odem još dalje - da se bavimo čak i težim problemom, koji je pritom meni blizak.
So I'm half Japanese and half French, and maybe you remember in 2011 there was a massive earthquake in Japan. It was so violent that it triggered several giant waves -- they are called tsunami -- and those tsunami destroyed many cities on the eastern coast of Japan. More than 14,000 people died in an instant. Also, it damaged the nuclear power plant of Fukushima, the nuclear power plant just by the water. And today, I read the reports and an average of 300 tons are leaking from the nuclear power plant into the Pacific Ocean. And today the whole Pacific Ocean has traces of contamination of cesium-137. If you go outside on the West Coast, you can measure Fukushima everywhere. But if you look at the map, it can look like most of the radioactivity has been washed away from the Japanese coast, and most of it is now -- it looks like it's safe, it's blue. Well, reality is a bit more complicated than this.
Ja sam polu-Japanac i polu-Francuz i možda se sećate da se 2011. desio razoran zemljotres u Japanu. Toliko je bio žestok da je pokrenuo nekoliko ogromnih talasa - koji se nazivaju cunamijima - a ti cunamiji su uništili mnoge gradove na istočnoj obali Japana. Preko 14 000 ljudi je stradalo u momentu. Takođe je oštetilo nuklearnu elektranu u Fukušimi, nuklearnu elektranu tik pored vode. I danas čitam izveštaje da prosečno 300 tona curi iz nuklearne elektrane u Tihi okean. A danas u čitavom Tihom okeanu imamo tragove zagađenosti cezijumom-137. Ako izađete na Zapadnu obalu, možete svuda da izmerite Fukušimu. No, ako posmatrate kartu, može se činiti da je radioaktivnost uglavnom sprana sa japanske obale i uglavnom i jeste - izgleda bezbedno, plavo. Pa, stvarnost je malčice složenija od toga.
So I've been going to Fukushima every year since the accident, and I measure independently and with other scientists, on land, in the river -- and this time we wanted to take the kids. So of course we didn't take the kids, the parents wouldn't allow that to happen.
Ja posećujem Fukušimu svake godine od nesreće i merim nezavisno i sa drugim naučnicima, na kopnu, u rekama - a ovaj put smo želeli da povedemo decu. Naravno da nismo poveli decu, roditelji to ne bi dozvolili.
(Laughter)
(Smeh)
But every night we would report to "Mission Control" -- different masks they're wearing. It could look like they didn't take the work seriously, but they really did because they're going to have to live with radioactivity their whole life. And so what we did with them is that we'd discuss the data we collected that day, and talk about where we should be going next -- strategy, itinerary, etc... And to do this, we built a very rough topographical map of the region around the nuclear power plant. And so we built the elevation map, we sprinkled pigments to represent real-time data for radioactivity, and we sprayed water to simulate the rainfall. And with this we could see that the radioactive dust was washing from the top of the mountain into the river system, and leaking into the ocean. So it was a rough estimate.
Ali svako veče smo slali izveštaj "Kontrolnoj misiji" - nose različite maske. Može vam se činiti da nisu ozbiljno shvatili posao, ali zaista jesu jer će morati da žive s radioaktivnošću čitav svoj život. A sa njima smo raspravljali podatke koje smo tog dana sakupili i razgovarali smo o sledećim koracima - strategijama, maršrutama itd... A kako bismo to uradili, napravili smo grubu topografsku kartu područja oko nuklearne elektrane. Pa smo napravili kartu nadmorske visine, naprskali je pigmentima koji predstavljaju realne podatke o radioaktivnosti i poprskali smo je vodom da bi simulirali kišu. Tako smo mogli da vidimo kako se radioaktivna prašina spira s vrha planine u rečni sistem i curi u okean. Dakle, to je bila gruba procena.
But with this in mind, we organized this expedition, which was the closest civilians have been to the nuclear power plant. We are sailing 1.5 kilometers away from the nuclear power plant, and with the help of the local fisherman, we are collecting sediment from the seabed with a custom sediment sampler we've invented and built. We pack the sediment into small bags, we then dispatch them to hundreds of small bags that we send to different universities, and we produce the map of the seabed radioactivity, especially in estuaries where the fish will reproduce, and I will hope that we will have improved the safety of the local fishermen and of your favorite sushi.
Ali imajući ovo na umu, organizovali smo ekspediciju, koja se primakla nuklearnoj elektrani najbliže što je ijedan civil ikad bio. Plovimo 1,5 km daleko od nuklearne elektrane i uz pomoć lokalnih ribolovaca, sakupljamo talog sa morskog dna prilagođenim priborom za uzorke koji smo izumili i sagradili. Popakovali smo talog u male kese, potom smo ih otpremili u stotine kesica koje smo poslali različitim fakultetima i tako smo napravili mapu radioaktivnosti morskog dna, naročito u estuarima gde se ribe razmnožavaju i nadam se da smo unapredili bezbednost lokalnih ribolovaca i vašeg omiljenog sušija.
(Laughter)
(Smeh)
You can see a progression here -- we've gone from a local problem to a remote problem to a global problem. And it's been super exciting to work at these different scales, with also very simple, open-source technologies. But at the same time, it's been increasingly frustrating because we have only started to measure the damage that we have done. We haven't even started to try to solve the problems. And so I wonder if we should just take a leap and try to invent better ways to do all these things.
Ovde vidite napredak - krenuli smo od lokalnog problema, preko udaljenog problema do globalnog. I bilo je veoma uzbudljivo raditi na ovim različitim razmerama, takođe, uz pomoć jednostavne tehnologije dostupne svima. Ali istovremeno nas je sve više uznemiravalo to što smo tek počeli da merimo štetu koju smo uzrokovali. Nismo još ni počeli da pokušavamo da rešimo probleme. Pa se pitam da li bismo prosto trebali da se hitnemo i pokušamo da pronađemo bolje načine da radimo sve ovo.
And so the classroom started to feel a little bit small, so we found an industrial site in Hong Kong, and we turned it into the largest mega-space focused on social and environmental impact. It's in central Hong Kong, and it's a place we can work with wood, metal, chemistry, a bit of biology, a bit of optics, basically you can build pretty much everything there. And its a place where adults and kids can play together. It's a place where kids' dreams can come true, with the help of adults, and where adults can be kids again.
Stoga nam je učionica postajala sve tešnja, pa smo pronašli industrijsko gradilište u Hong Kongu i pretvorili smo ga u najveći mega prostor usredsređen na društveni i ekološki uticaj. U centru je Hong Konga i to je mesto na kom možemo da radimo s drvetom, metalom, hemijom, nešto biologije, nešto optike, u suštini, ovde možete da napravite skoro sve. I to je mesto na kom se odrasli i deca mogu zajedno da igraju. To je mesto na kom se dečji snovi ostvaruju, uz pomoć odraslih i gde odrasli mogu opet da budu deca.
Student: Acceleration! Acceleration!
Đak: Ubrzanje! Ubrzanje!
Cesar Harada: We're asking questions such as, can we invent the future of mobility with renewable energy? For example. Or, can we help the mobility of the aging population by transforming very standard wheelchairs into cool, electric vehicles?
Cezar Harada: Postavljamo pitanja, poput: možemo li da izumimo prevoz budućnosti na obnovljivu energiju? Na primer. Ili: možemo li da pospešimo kretanje starijih ljudi, pretvarajući standardna kolica u strava, električna vozila?
So plastic, oil and radioactivity are horrible, horrible legacies, but the very worst legacy that we can leave our children is lies. We can no longer afford to shield the kids from the ugly truth because we need their imagination to invent the solutions.
Dakle, plastika, nafta i radioaktivnost su grozna, grozna zaveštanja, ali najgore zaveštanje koje možemo da ostavimo našoj deci su laži. Ne možemo više priuštiti sebi da štitimo decu od neprijatne istine jer nam je potrebna njihova mašta da izumimo rešenja.
So citizen scientists, makers, dreamers -- we must prepare the next generation that cares about the environment and people, and that can actually do something about it.
Zato, građani naučnici, tvorci, sanjari, moramo pripremiti nove generacije koje brinu za okolinu i za ljude i koje zapravo mogu da nešto urade povodom toga.
Thank you.
Hvala vam.
(Applause)
(Aplauz)