3 Videos about Global Society, Diversity, and Inequities

A picture is worth a thousand words; a video is worth a thousand pictures. As sustainability champions, it’s helpful to have a few short, crisp videos up our sleeves to help audiences understand whatever point we are making about sustainability strategies.

Here are three that remind us of the challenges we have with the social justice dimension of sustainability. Click on the arrow icon on the bottom right of each video to expand it to full screen.

1. The Miniature Earth (3:15)In May 1990, Donella Meadows published an article called State of the Village Report.   Both describe world demographics by equating the global population to a village of 100 people. Since 1990, there have been many  updates to the article and  videos created to graphically illustrate the statistics. Despite its slow and sombre background music, this humbling video reminds us of the startling social inequities in our global village. For example, only 25% of us keep our food in a refrigerator, keep our clothes in a closet, sleep in a bed, and have a roof over our head.

2. If the World Were a Village of 100 People (5:51)As its title implies, this short video made in 2008 also shrinks the world into a village of 100 diverse people. Some of its facts differ from those presented in “The Miniature Earth,” perhaps because this one was made two years earlier. Some of the photos may be questionable to some, there are some typos, and one mistake says that Hindu is a language. Its overall message is the same though: what we think of as “normal” is not so for most.

In this village of 100, only …

• 7 speak English
• 1 has a college degree
• 7 have a computer and access to the Internet
• 56 have no sanitation
• 20 consume 80% of the energy
• 6 (Americans) own 59% of the wealth

The video implies the question: How long can such inequities be sustained?

3. Shift Happens / Did You Know? (7:38)Like the above two videos, this American-perspective video can improve our global societal perspective. It starts with demographical information about China, India, and the United States. It draws implications for jobs and education, and then gets into the explosion of information and technology in our society. What do these “exponential times” have to do with sustainability? The changes outlined in the video will have a profound effect on our global society. How do we make them work for us?

The three videos can be used as walk-in visual backdrops as people gather for a workshop or as thought-provokers during breaks. They might also be used to prompt a discussion about how organizations’ sustainability strategies can help address the growing chasm between the haves and the have-nots in the world. Even if you decide not to use them, as sustainability champions it might be helpful to at least be aware of them and their content in case others ask.

I expect there are other good videos with a global society perspective that you would recommend to others. I would love to hear about them.

Bob