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First Move with Julia Chatterley
The Climate Summit Tries to Reach a Deal on Global Warming Targets; Rivian, the Electric Truck Maker's $66 Billion Market Debut; Beeple, the Digital Artist's Sculpture sells for Nearly $30 Million. Aired 9-10a ET
Aired November 10, 2021 - 09:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[09:00:16]
JULIA CHATTERLEY, CNN BUSINESS ANCHOR, FIRST MOVE: Live from New York, I'm Julia Chatterley. This is FIRST MOVE and here is your need-to-know.
A fair COP. The Climate Summit tries to reach a deal on global warming targets.
Rivian revs. The electric truck maker's $66 billion market debut.
And Beeple's blow out. The digital artist's sculpture sells for nearly $30 million. Hear his reaction to that news live. It's Wednesday. Let's make a
move.
A warm welcome once again to FIRST MOVE. Great to be with you on a landmark day here on CNN. It's our first Annual Call to Earth Day.
We're talking 24 hours of live coverage raising awareness about the environmental crisis facing our planet, and most importantly, the people
who are striving to address it. Plus, how you can help make a difference, too.
Later this hour, we will be joined by the CEO of the Rainforest Alliance, a nonprofit best known for its ethical food labels, and its work promoting
climate smart agriculture.
Also today, the Airbnb cofounder, Nathan Blecharczyk on the tourist torrent coming to America, and how the platform is adapting to cater to our
evolving post lockdown travel tastes.
A slightly bitter taste meanwhile, for investors booking profits after a remarkable record run and eight straight days of gains for the S&P 500.
More tasty perhaps, U.K. stocks, JPMorgan says they are trading at a quote "record discount."
Cue a rally, too, at Marks and Spencer, sparks flying at the U.K. retailer, up 15 percent after they raise their guidance.
And from sparks to poor inflation marks. The United States reporting within the past hour that consumer prices rose by almost one percent last month
and more than six percent year-over-year. That is a 30-year high for those numbers.
And over in China, fresh Chinese data showing CPI consumer price inflation doubling last month, while prices for goods leaving factories rose at the
fastest pace on record.
Inflation surprising, global temperatures still rising, the COP 26 Summit tops our drivers today. And the first draft of a potential agreement to COP
26 reinforces the resolve to limit global heating to one and a half degrees Celsius, that change obviously post-industrial levels, but there is no
detail yet on how governments plan to meet that goal.
Meanwhile, a pledge to end the sale of fossil fuel driven cars by 2040 is missing the signatures of some of the biggest players in the world,
including two of the world's biggest automakers.
Phil Black joins us on all of this. We'll circle back, Phil, and great to have you with us to the automakers. But this early draft to try and limit
temperatures on the temperature heating, the world's heating to one and a half percent, the signatories have got to come back by the end of 2022, to
say look, this is the action that we're going to take, but right now struggling to get everybody to sign, I see.
PHIL BLACK, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that language in particular, Julia, pointing to what happens next after COP 26 is really
important because we already knew at this conference, the individual commitments by countries, it is not enough to add up to keeping temperature
increase to 1.5 degrees.
We also know from the science that countries have got to act dramatically this decade to cut emissions by around half. This is detailed in the draft,
too. This is the crucial stuff, and what it means is we don't have time to wait another five years.
For countries that haven't detailed commitments this decade, to go away, think about it and then come back. It is pushing for action in the next few
years. Crucially, they've got to come back and revise their commitments next year, then there is talk have a high level ministerial meeting next
year followed by a meeting of world leaders the year after.
This is crucial because it provides the opportunity for countries to revisit, revamp, come back with commitments that still hold a chance of
hitting the necessary emission cut this decade, which will then keep that 1.5 dream alive.
So we will be looking to see what countries, if any, pushback on that. It is likely it is going to be countries that have not indicated they are
willing to make significant cuts this decade such as Russia, potentially China, Australia, and so forth.
But this is the language in the draft that is perhaps most key to ultimately determining whether or not this conference will be considered a
success when it closes -- Julia.
CHATTERLEY: And speaking of success, talk to us about the efforts by some of the car makers to limit emissions, too. I mean we've got some of the
biggest car makers in the world -- Volkswagen, Toyota, the Renault-Nissan Alliance, and Hyundai-Kia not signing up to this, and I mentioned them
specifically for a reason.
[09:05:15]
BLACK: Yes, this is a big disappointment, I think for the British government, which wanted this declaration to be widely adopted by big car
making countries and the companies that operate within them. Obviously, the end list is pretty paltry. The big car makers just simply aren't there.
The commitment was to largely or entirely working towards producing zero emissions cars by 2040 at the outset. It seems that this was just simply a
step too far for these countries and these companies to commit to, perhaps for domestic political reasons. But also, a one size fits all deadline was
always going to be a difficult, perhaps clunky push for an industry that is global, that operates in countries that are at very different stages of
green energy transition, where there are very different stages and advancement when it comes to installing the necessary infrastructure for
running huge fleets of electric vehicles and so forth.
So ultimately, this is -- it's not as substantial as the British government would have hoped. It had named cars as one of the key points that it had
hoped to make real progress on at this conference, and that's simply not going to be the case, even though within the industry, the direction of
travel is set, the commitment and the ambition is already quite significant. The growth within the market for these products is really big
and expected to continue going that way.
But for the entire industry to coalesce around a single deadline was just simply not possible at this conference.
CHATTERLEY: Yes, I was just looking at some of the details here, and obviously, we've heard on this show, the technology is not there yet. Some
of the carmakers are saying, we're not willing to make the commitment whether it's electric or hydrogen. We don't know what the future holds to
make a commitment this big today in order to be able to achieve it. But something's got to give.
Phil Black, great to have you with us. Thank you so much for that.
Speaking of electric, Rivian gearing up for a mammoth IPO. The Amazon- backed electric vehicle company is making what could be the biggest Stock Exchange debut in the US for nearly a decade. Paul La Monica joins us on
this story.
This is a whopping valuation, I think, for a company admittedly with some big backers, as I mentioned there that's expected to burn I believe $1.3
billion worth of cash in this quarter. And in the prospectus, I read, revenues ranging from zero to $1 million. Wow.
PAUL LA MONICA, CNN BUSINESS REPORTER: Yes, this is obviously a bet on the future, Julia, without question. You mentioned, Amazon is a big backer, but
of course, Ford is also an investor in Rivian.
Rivian, there's a lot of hype, and can they justify a valuation that could be around $70 billion or so based on where the stock begins trading today?
That remains to be seen. They lost nearly a billion dollars in just the first six months of this year. Preorders are coming in from consumers for
its SUVs and other vehicles. There's nearly 50,000. And you know, consumers can probably expect to start getting them delivered in 2023.
But obviously, this is a company that you have a very big bet from Amazon on their logistics side. They have an order in for 100,000 electric vans by
2025. Can Rivian deliver? They better.
CHATTERLEY: Yes. I mean, this is key, because what we need to understand is whether or not there is a firm commitment. Admittedly Amazon is an
investor, so it's your own investment that you're hurting if you're not committed to that order.
What are the fleet orders they can sign up to? And then the order book for their SUVs? If you look at the demand, the sheer scale of demand in the
United States alone for SUVs and pickup trucks, it is enormous. So just capturing even a tiny fraction of this market will allow them to fulfill,
if not more their manufacturing capacity, the question is if.
LA MONICA: Yes. They have currently only one manufacturing plant in Illinois. There have been reports that Rivian is looking to expand and have
a second plant here somewhere in the United States and that's probably going to be key because remember, Julia, it's not as if Rivian is the only
electric vehicle company out there. There's a little company named Tesla that's got a more than trillion dollar market valuation and a CEO who, I
believe, tends to go on Twitter every now and then. You know, rumor has it.
Obviously there is Lucid Motors, which has gone bonkers lately with its stock price, a reflection of the investor fervor for electric vehicles writ
large right now. So, you can't obviously rule out the major auto companies as well.
Ford and GM aren't going to lie down quietly and let the likes of Tesla and Elon Musk and Rivian and other EV startups eat their lunch.
CHATTERLEY: Yes, and therein lies the key. Everybody is looking for the next Tesla or the second player behind Tesla and that is what this
valuation is arguably saying. The question is can they achieve it? Paul La Monica, thank you so much for that.
[09:10:16]
CHATTERLEY: Okay, let me bring you up to speed now with some of the other stories making headlines around the world.
The Polish Prime Minister is blaming Moscow for his country's border crisis. He says the Eastern border is being quote, "brutally violated" by
the President of Belarus who the Prime Minister claims is controlled by the Kremlin. Poland says nearly 600 migrants tried to illegally cross on
Tuesday.
CNN's Fred Pleitgen is following the story from Berlin. Fred, just bring us up to speed with what we've seen over the weekend and into this early week
if people haven't been following this story and how the situation stands today.
FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, I mean, it has certainly escalated, especially into this week, when really the main
thing that is new in this crisis is the fact that it is not a smaller group now anymore, smaller groups anymore that are trying to cross that border
between Poland and Belarus, but essentially on Monday and then into Tuesday, there was a very large group that is now actually camped out at
that border and the Polish side says, continuously or time and again, tries to rush the border, tries to get across and also tries to destroy the
barbed wire fence of the Polish authorities have set up there.
In fact, just a couple of minutes ago, a press conference finished between the Polish Prime Minister and the head of the European Council, Charles
Michel where the Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said that the Pols consider this to be a political crisis rather than a migrant crisis,
and you mentioned that already, Poland, the European Union, and to a great extent the United States as well is accusing Belarusian strongman,
Alexander Lukashenko of essentially creating this crisis artificially of luring many people to Belarus, with the promise that they will be able to
enter the European Union, and of course, that simply is not the case.
Now, the Pols say they're not going to allow this to happen. And as of today, the Polish authorities say they have 15,000 troops and border
officers at that border to make sure that the border is hermetically sealed. On the other side, the Belarusian are accusing the Pols of spiking
the situation and making it worse.
So you can really see how the crisis at the Poland-Belarus border is turning into a much larger crisis that of course, could have a big
destabilizing effect, not just between Poland and Belarus, but of course, also between the European Union, NATO, Belarus, and Russia as well --
Julia.
CHATTERLEY: Yes. I mean, this is a great point, the German Foreign Minister today said it is appalling, the images that we're seeing, they are
appalling, and they are and whether it's a political crisis or a migrant crisis, you've still got migrants there who are in Belarus, they're trying
to cross over into Poland now and are stuck at the border. We were just showing those images there. What can the E.U. do potentially to intervene
here to protect people who are now stuck?
PLEITGEN: Yes, and I think one of things that we had to add to that as well, Julia, is that of course right now, I mean, we're sort of in the
middle of November, it's extremely cold there, especially in the night. I was keeping an eye on the temperatures there and they are well below
freezing in the night. And there's absolutely nothing there as far as any sort of sanitary facilities, as food and water are difficult to come by.
Medical facilities obviously, are something that basically are non-existent as well. So it is really a very dire situation.
Now, the European Union wants to try and not solve this, but it wants to try and put pressure not just an Alexander Lukashenko, they are talking
about new sanctions against the Belarusian regime, but they're also talking about pressure against the airlines who are flying people into Belarus and
that's also something that Charles Michel and Mateusz Morawiecki talked about. The Pols are calling for that. They say that airlines that knowingly
fly people who are going to try and cross that border to Belarus need to be sanctioned or blacklisted or put under pressure some other way, those seem
to be the tools that the European Union is working towards right now.
At the same time, you do hear a lot of talk in the E.U. as well, of trying to at least improve the situation of those who are caught there at the
border. But right now, it really is difficult to see how much help is going to be able to reach them since they are on the Belarusian side. Of course
there are some Belarusian aid groups that are helping at least to a certain extent -- Julia.
CHATTERLEY: Yes. But your point about the freezing cold and the lack of conditions, they are vital. Fred, thank you for that report there. Fred
Pleitgen.
Okay, still to come here on FIRST MOVE, the recovery super host Airbnb booking surge as U.S. borders reopen. I speak to the Chief Strategy
Officer.
And art of the age of the metaverse, NFT star Beeple sells a digital sculpture for $29 million.
We'll discuss, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[09:17:23]
CHATTERLEY: Welcome back to FIRST MOVE. Tourists are returning to the United States en masse after borders reopened on Monday. The one firm that
knows all about that, Airbnb.
U.S. bookings by overseas visitors jumped 44 percent in the week after the announcement. On Tuesday, it also announced a whole host of upgrades to
meet the demands of the post pandemic traveler including a translation tool and insurance against damage from things like pets.
Joining us is Nathan Blecharczyk, he is cofounder and Chief Strategy Officer at Airbnb.
Nathan, fantastic to have you on the show. Lots to discuss. Let's start by seeing what you're seeing in terms of booking for incoming visitors to the
United States, which I believe historically is the largest inbound travel market in the world.
NATHAN BLECHARCZYK, COFOUNDER AND CHIEF STRATEGY OFFICER, AIRBNB: Yes, we're seeing a lot of interest. There was a huge spike on September 20th
when it was announced that in November, the borders were going to be open. We saw a 50 percent spike overnight, and then again, in October, when they
announced the specific date of November 8th, we saw another 44 percent spike in demand. So there is definitely a lot of pent up demand in travel.
You know, this is a trend that's been playing out all year though, increasing cross border travel. In Q1, for example, it was 20 percent of
our business, by Q2, it is 27, and by Q3, it was 33 percent. So, we're seeing a steady rise as borders reopen all around the world.
CHATTERLEY: I mean, if you are looking at the update that you gave in earnings as well, I believe you said the cross border travel recovery
overall accelerated to around 80 percent of where we were back in in 2019. Where are we today? Are we still around 80 percent recovered?
BLECHARCZYK: Yes. Well, that's the latest number that we have, but I think what's more important is the trend, right? We've seen the steady trend over
the course of the year. So, I think, as around the world, restrictions continued to be loosened, there is just huge pent up demand to go abroad
and to travel. So I think you know, with that in mind, we can expect, you know, further increases.
CHATTERLEY: I mean, you described COVID as being a defining moment for the company where a lot of people were saying, look, is this going to break
you? Now, you're talking about, I think, in terms of the announcements today, sort of future proofing the business for what Airbnb is saying is a
travel revolution in a sense, and we've just changed the way we choose to travel, the length of time when we do travel and how we stay.
Just talk about the changes that you've made and how that ties to our changing behaviors as far as travel is concerned.
BLECHARCZYK: Right, so even though outbound and cross border travel is coming back, we think travel is forever changed, and that's because people
can really work and live from anywhere now, thanks to Zoom and being untethered from the desk.
You know, we've surveyed employees and 68 percent of them expect to have more flexibility in the future with their work setup.
[09:20:08]
BLECHARCZYK: So you know we do think this, what we've learned and experienced over this period of the pandemic is going to be available to
many in the future, and that's going to allow people to travel more flexibly. You know, we see a lot of interest in traveling, midweek --
Mondays and Tuesdays have been the fastest growing days for travel relative to years past. You know, we see 53 percent of people saying that, you know,
they think about traveling off peak now.
So, it allows you not just to take you know, big trips once a year, but to take lots of more spontaneous nearby stays, and to even work while you're
doing that, work from another home. And with the announcements yesterday that we made the new features, one of them is verified WiFi.
So we noticed this year that 288 million people used the WiFi amenity filter. They wanted to find a home with WiFi, but of course most homes have
WiFi these days. What they're really asking is how fast is the WiFi?
Well, now going forward, we will have the speed certified and rated on each listing. So you can have the confidence that the home you're booking will
support your digital work lifestyle.
CHATTERLEY: Yes, I mean, I saw in the July to September period, 20 percent of the nights booked with stays of one month or longer saying no one wants
to be buying a home to stay and potentially to work in if the WiFi is rubbish, and they are going to go insane while they stay there. So that's
sort of to attract and protect some of the consumers on the platform.
The other thing that you've introduced is AirCover, $1 million damage protection and $1 million liability coverage for those that are hosting
people in their homes. I mean, there's two crucial elements to your business. There is, one, attracting people to come and stay. There's the
hosts that provide their homes for people to come and stay in.
Is it harder at this moment to attract consumers or to attract hosts to your platform? Because you have pretty stiff competition out there, let's
be clear, in both aspects.
BLECHARCZYK: Well, with this resurgence of travel, there has never been a better time to become a host on Airbnb. So, we think now's a great time to
get started. And we know to get started, you need to have a peace of mind and that's where AirCover comes into play.
You know, in the rare and unlikely event of any kind of property damage, or any kind of personal liability, there's a million dollar coverage, included
free of charge in every reservation, and that's something that makes Airbnb very unique. Our competitors don't offer this. It's an original kind of
innovation that we first embarked on a decade ago, and we've been steadily improving.
And with yesterday's announcement, we make it even better by making it easier to submit claims, get paid out faster, coverage of things like pets,
and some of these, you know, unusual situations, but things that we have heard from hosts that happen from time to time, and we want to make sure
that hosts feel that they're well covered and taken care of on Airbnb.
CHATTERLEY: I guess, you call it free. There will be people watching the TV going, hang on a second, it will be covered in the cut that you take
from those hosts and the money that they get from someone staying.
What is your cut, if somebody is renting out or hosting, providing their apartment or their house for longer than a one-month period? What is the
take that you -- what's your commission on that? Just out of interest as a percent?
BLECHARCZYK: Yes, well, the take rate does vary based on the length of stay. So, it typically varies between six and 15 percent. For a long term
stay, it's going to be on the low end of that range. So probably closer to six percent from the guests, and then from the host, there's typically a
three percent fee. Again, it is based on a few different variables.
But these long term stays have been incredibly popular, even before the pandemic, but especially now. For example, over the holidays in December,
what we've seen is a 68 percent increase in month long stays during the December Holidays.
So, I think this is an exploding category. And again, a great opportunity for new hosts to come to the platform and participate in.
CHATTERLEY: Yes, it's hugely exciting. What are your predictions as we head into 2022? As you said, it's the momentum here in the recovery that is
important. At what point next year do you think will be recovered, if not, perhaps greater given our evolving travel tastes and our ability to move
around more? Will your business be bigger than it was in 2019 in 2022?
BLECHARCZYK: Well, there is, I think, great confidence in the future amongst consumers. We already see that. We see that bookings 12 months from
now. Some people are already booking their travel for next summer and beyond.
CHATTERLEY: Wow.
BLECHARCZYK: So bookings that are 12 months from now or even further are up 50 percent relative to years before. So there's a pretty big, you know,
confidence and pre-planning going on right now and I think that's a really strong indication of the fact that people want to travel next year and
they're going to have the confidence to do so because they're already making their plans.
[09:25:12]
BLECHARCZYK: As for Airbnb, you know, in our latest earnings, we've demonstrated already growth over 2019 numbers. So, you know, we're well on
our way, and I think that's thanks to the fact that we've been able to meet consumers' shifting demands, as consumers wanted to travel more nearby and
go to rural areas, we were well suited to help them with that. As consumers wanted to stay long term for month long or more, we were able to help them
with that.
And now with outbound coming back, of course, that is our bread and butter, too. And with our new feature that we announced today, the translation
engine which translates all the content on our site, including the reviews into 60 different languages and does so with increased accuracy, you know,
we're going to be well-positioned to help people travel wherever they want to go in the world.
CHATTERLEY: Yes. I like the flexible listing as well, discover new places, which helps consumers and hosts as well, like you can suggest to me where I
should be going and clearly after the pandemic, people are ready to start to get out there.
BLECHARCZYK: Absolutely. And that's been used 500 million times from the time that we launched it, yes.
CHATTERLEY: Really? Wow. Yes. People are eager to get back out there.
Nathan, great to have you on the show. Thank you so much. Cofounder and Chief Strategy Officer at Airbnb. Great to have you.
You're watching FIRST MOVE. More to come.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHATTERLEY: Welcome back to FIRST MOVE. Now, do you remember this iconic moment for the world of art earlier this year?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh my god. Fifty million.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: $69 million, I think it probably means digital art is here to stay. I'm going to Disneyworld.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHATTERLEY: That was the digital artist known as Beeple who sold his NFT, non-fungible token art called "Everydays: The first 5,000 days" for a
whopping $69 million.
Well, now Beeple is blending physical and digital.
[09:30:10]
CHATTERLEY: On Tuesday, his piece "Human one" was auctioned at Christie's for nearly $29 million, including fees. And I'm pleased to say Mike
Winkelmann, better known as Beeple and Christie's America's Director, Bonnie Brennan joins us now.
Congratulations to you both, but especially to you, Mike, also, Beeple. How does this moment feel like? I remember the last one -- how is this moment
for your life?
BEEPLE, DIGITAL ARTIST, GRAPHIC DESIGNER, ANIMATOR: It's been a year. It's been a year. I will say that. It has been a year. Yes, just very excited
and super happy with how everything turned out.
CHATTERLEY: What do we need to understand about this work? Because you and I talked about this when the first piece sold. We were talking about this
idea of blending physical art with digital art, and when the two markets ultimately come together. Is this that moment for you?
BEEPLE: I believe so. I believe this is a piece that feels very digital and also obviously is a physical object. So, I think this is really the
start of this merging of the physical and digital world that I think you're going to just continue to see.
CHATTERLEY: Bonnie, come in here, because it's a couple of things, I think for Christie's. It's the blending of the physical and the digital in terms
of the art, but it was also an important moment to see the auction room reestablished and blended with the experience that you've had throughout
the pandemic of digital auctions, too.
BONNIE BRENNAN, DIRECTOR, CHRISTIE'S AMERICAS: No, absolutely, Julia. We really had to take that. We had to recreate that live theater experience
using only digital tools during the lockdown, and we saw lots of great things come out of that.
We expanded our audience. Our digital fluency of our clients was greatly increased. Ninety percent of our buyers interface with Christie's now
online. And so we wanted to make sure last night that we brought the best of both worlds together, that learning from the virtual auctions, but also
the return to live theater that we've missed so much.
And in my opinion, Julia, it was the perfect stage. That was the first hybrid auction for Christie's, how perfect to bring to market the first
hybrid work by Mike, by Beeple.
CHATTERLEY: What do you think this means? Beeple/Mike, in terms of the art world, in terms of the digital art world? You know, you and I discussed the
first time you came on my show whether your purchase of your "5000 Days" represented a bubble for digital art. What do you feel now having, for the
second time had a really blowout sale piece at an auction at Christie's?
BEEPLE: Well, I think the bubble comment was taken a little out of context. And so, I think it's one of these things where this is an exciting
new sort of world. It's not going away. But people do need to be careful of, you know what they're buying. Because again, just like with the
beginning of the internet, there was a lot of excitement. And, you know, everything didn't turn out to be Amazon or Google.
And so I think that's where people do need to be careful, but this is not going away. This is very much here to stay. And with NFT's in general,
we're absolutely still at the very beginning of use cases for them, obviously, digital art is one of those, but there will be many, many more.
CHATTERLEY: I mean, we talk to people in the NFT, the non-fungible token space that are big buyers, and even they say to us look, 95 percent of
what's going on here might ultimately be very quickly worthless. What you're saying I think here is separate your artwork, and what you're doing
from perhaps what could be bubbalicious in the space.
BEEPLE: There are other, you know, there's definitely besides me a bunch of other artists who I believe their, you know, work will hold value long
term. But this is very similar to just, if you were to go to buy any sort of like art over a very long period of time, there is only a very, very
small percentage of art and artists that sort of retain value and this is no different.
CHATTERLEY: Bonnie, talk to us about this, too, because the winner on Twitter presented his winning bid. Mike, you also responded, and I would
love to share that tweet, but I can't because I'd have to blank most of it because it was one of your spectacular swear words on this. So, I can't
show you that. But look, this was the winning bid.
Bonnie, talk to us about the sort of melding of traditional art buyers. Those that come to you for the old masters, for the contemporary artists of
old as we call them, the Rothko's, for example versus what you're seeing in terms of interest for Beeple's work, for NFT's. Are you seeing a blending
of interest even if it still is -- it seems to be those that are more interested in the NFT space that are the guys that are coming up with the
goods here and the money?
BRENNAN: No, absolutely, Julia. We've really -- we've seen great interest particularly in Beeple's work this season. We've had more interest than
ever before in what were two really distinct audience, established collectors looking at more traditional art and NFT buyers and Mike, I give
him great credit for bringing those two audiences together.
[09:35:12]
BRENNAN: I stood in the galleries over the weekend, had a number of established clients and collectors come to me and say, "Show me the Beeple.
Take me to the Beeple." And that was reflected last night in the bidding.
So hats off to Mike for really bringing these two worlds together. NFTs have opened an entirely new audience for us, new collectors. Four hundred
new buyers have come to Christie's to participate in these NFT sales. They are averaging much younger than our traditional Christie's buyers. They're
38 -- thirteen years younger than our other buyers across categories and 50 percent, Julia of the NFT buyers are millennials, and so much of that is
due to the attraction that Mike has created.
CHATTERLEY: Mike, wants to stop you doing a Banksy with this? Because I know it's going to evolve over the coming years and you retain the
licensing rights, I believe, to change how the artistry of this evolves. What's to stop you going, you know what, I've had enough. Press the button
and the whole thing goes black. Do you promise you won't do that?
BEEPLE: I could do that. I could do that, I'm not. I am not going to do that.
CHATTERLEY: So, no Banksy Beeple moment.
BEEPLE: No, no. That's not going to --
CHATTERLEY: Okay, just checking.
BEEPLE: I think this is more -- this work, I believe is much more analogous to how art will be in the future. I believe art in the future
will be you have screens in your house, or you have physical sort of like, you know, video sculptures or things like this. It will continue to evolve
and will continue to change.
And I think that's one of the things that is much closer to the true potential of digital art that you just can't get with like a painting on a
canvas. That's it. It is what. It is never going to change. But digital art has the opportunity -- it presents us with the opportunity to do something
more than that.
CHATTERLEY: Bonnie, because that has huge implications for your business. And, you know, if I look at what you've done primarily in this space this
year, I mean, I was just doing the math there, I believe it's $94 million of it is Beeple.
You kind of need to diversify away from him as great as you are, Mike, no offense to you, but Bonnie, what's the game plan there? Because in order to
establish this, there needs to be more than this, and I know there are other artists out there, but he is a huge chunk of your business.
BRENNAN: Absolutely, and you're right. Mike represents a great percentage of it, but we've had almost $140 million in NFT sales since March. It's an
incredibly important new channel for us. Like I said, it's introduced new buyers. But you're right, we also have to diversify.
And we've tried to do that. We've had a number of firsts this year offering NFTs in different geographic regions, like Hong Kong and London, but also
across categories, Julia. Some more traditional categories have really embraced NFTs, photography, for example, also 20th Century design.
So we're excited and we will continue to invest in ways we can introduce NFTs across our business.
CHATTERLEY: Yes, and I came to see it yesterday and I was very excited. We did take lots of pictures. I'll be clear the side of this.
We have about 30 seconds. Mike/Beeple, how do you -- what do you have to do to ensure that we are still talking about your art in two years, in five
years, 10 years, in 50 years? What do you think you have to do?
BEEPLE: I think it's honestly no different than any other sort of like artist. You have to continue to sort of, you know, inspire people and make
work that is -- you know, sort of is provoking a strong emotional reaction. Anybody who is doing that will continue to be relevant. That's it.
CHATTERLEY: Congratulations. What a great year you've had.
BEEPLE: Thank you so much.
CHATTERLEY: Wow. Thank you so much for making time for us. Thank you. And Bonnie, great to chat with you. Bonnie Brennan, President of Christie's
Americas there and the digital and physical artist, Beeple.
Thank you, guys.
BRENNAN: Thank you, Julia.
CHATTERLEY: Coming up on FIRST MOVE, from the verdant vineyards to the precious rainforest, we're marking our First Quarter Earth Day by
celebrating our planet and the people who are working to protect it. That's next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[09:41:54]
CHATTERLEY: Welcome back to FIRST MOVE. Over the past 10 days, CNN has been covering the environmental challenges facing our planet. These issues
can sometimes feel vast and overwhelming, but there are solutions.
On Call to Earth Day, we are celebrating a planet worth protecting and the people creating a more sustainable future, those who are driving awareness
and also inspiring action.
Throughout the day, CNN correspondents across the world will be bringing new stories about extraordinary individuals protecting our planet.
And David McKenzie joins us live from an organic winery in South Africa.
David, I think you've got one of the best jobs. I hope that was tasting involved. Talk to us about how this winery is helping protect the planet.
DAVID MCKENZIE, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Julia, it's all about choices, and the winemaker here, Tyrrel Myburgh has been on this farm
and his family for hundreds of years. And you'll remember some three years ago here in the Western Cape in South Africa, they were dealing with the
ravages of a terrible drought even talking of day zero, this doomsday scenario where the water could actually run out.
And climate scientists say that this will become more frequent in places like Cape Town, and here where I'm standing, and that's obviously a big
problem for people who grow wine and just for humans in general. And what Myburgh is doing is getting back to basics. Their approach is counter
intuitive. It is simple, but it can make a big difference.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MCKENZIE: It's counter intuitive when you're dealing with climate change to stop irrigation. So why does it make sense to you?
TYRREL MYBURGH, ORGANIC WINE FARMER: Well, the irrigation water has to come from somewhere. And I just feel that, you know, farming with wine --
wine is a little bit of a luxury product. You know, although most of us or a lot of us drink it every day, it's always a luxury product.
But vines can survive without irrigation. So surely, we should then focus on those varieties that do well under dry land conditions.
And if I look back, you know, my grandfather, my great grandfather, and even my great, great grandfather, you know, they farmed without an
irrigation. So, it is possible. So I just think there is -- where you can do it, there's actually a duty to do it.
Come on.
MCKENZIE: Why do you send the sheep into the vineyards?
MYBURGH: Basically, we -- it's instead of using herbicide, so you know, they'll eat the grass, keep the weeds under control, and while they're
doing it, they will drop manure and that adds a little bit of fertilization to the soil. But the main thing is, it adds biological activity.
So, the biggest kind of key factor to making this conversion to kind of a greener or in our case, an organic way of farming is actually just to
change the way you look at things. So, you know back in the old days, I would look at the vines and say, ah, everything's got to be neatly mowed,
or it is going to be, you know I've got to see clean earth and every little piece of grass you know that's out of place, you know I've got to deal
with.
[09:45:07]
MYBURGH: You've actually got to look at and say, look, the crop is growing well. There is a little bit of a jungle in between, but that mimics nature.
We took a very radical look at the way we were farming, and especially the way we were managing our soil. In order to retain moisture in the soil,
we've packed straw on the strip around the vines, the soil is protected, you know, from the harsh effects of the hot sun, and we are now are seeing
we have better crops. We are actually making better wine. So I think it forced us into something pretty good actually.
MCKENZIE: That's delicious.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHATTERLEY: Wow. So there was wine tasting, David. That looks incredible. I have to admit not so long ago, I spent a wonderful weekend in
Stellenbosch. And I do remember it, so I clearly was abiding by the tasting rules and not drinking too much. Incredible to be there and incredible to
see what they're doing.
MCKENZIE: Well, it is incredible. And you know, what is important here is that obviously, agriculture globally contributes to climate change. So,
there is two things at play here. One is that farmers that I've met over the last year or so talking about the issues of climate change, they are
both trying to mitigate the effects and to contribute to the solutions. And this farm, Joostenberg Wines is doing a small part of that.
But here's another critical thing, this whole day on CNN is also about as you said, what can people do to make a difference? And the consumer has a
huge amount of power here.
Myburgh says that while people say they like organic wines and wines that are maybe better for the environment, they're not necessarily translating
that every time to how they spend, and the markets and agriculture is driven by market taste and consumer taste.
So if the public goes out there and makes choices based on what they feel, can have an impact on the environment, they should do it because that
actually has a significant effect overall on our fight against the climate crisis.
CHATTERLEY: It's such a great point. It comes down to choices for the farmers and how they run their farms, but also for us, as consumers, not
just to talk about this and then go home and buy any bottle. You have to look for the ones that are sustainable and are organic and are making the
best choices for our planet.
David, thank you so much for that. David McKenzie there.
Now one of the organization's protecting our planet is the Rainforest Alliance. It is best known for its food label, exactly what we were just
discussing, featuring a green frog.
More than two million farmers around the world have been certified by the Rainforest Alliance for following its sustainability standards. And you can
find products with the seal now in more than 100 countries.
And joining us now is the Rainforest Alliance CEO, Santiago Gowland. Santiago, great to have you with us. What do we need to understand about
what you do and what that green frog represents? Whether it's on the part of the retailers where we buy products, or for the farms that are producing
the materials, the raw materials.
SANTIAGO GOWLAND, CEO, RAINFOREST ALLIANCE: Hello, Julia, thanks so much for this. First of all, kudos for dedicating your channels to Call to
Earth. We need more of this initiatives to, you know, get into mainstream media.
And, you know, it's also very timely with the COP 26 happening right now in Glasgow, where nature based solutions, everything that has to do with the
role nature plays in mitigating climate change, which can add up to 37 percent of the climate mitigation is front and center of the COP
discussions.
So the Rainforest Alliance for more than 30 years has been working on this food and agriculture sectors, and forestry sectors in the tropical forests.
And as you know, tropical forests like the Mayan forest or the Amazon of the Congo Basin are crucial to climate biodiversity, but also livelihoods.
More than 1.5 billion people live in this tropical forest, one billion of which live in poverty. So what the Rainforest Alliance does is work at the
supply level with farmers, really supporting them on technical assistance to employ, you know, sustainability practices, like agroforestry or
regeneration.
But we also work at the demand level, giving people citizens an easy choice to support the work that's going on, on the ground. And we work also at the
market rules advocating to align policies and voluntary standards to the sustainability practices.
CHATTERLEY: And how do you verify that those standards are being kept, too, so if someone sees the green frog and says, okay, I know that this is
abiding by your standards, how did we know actually that you're going into these communities and that you're ensuring that the practices that you are
promising are being followed?
[09:50:00]
GOWLAND: Yes. The certification is not a silver bullet, of course.
CHATTERLEY: Yes.
GOWLAND: But it does kind of work with farmers through auditing systems and assurance or verification traceability to address these issues and
surface them, and then design interventions to solve them.
This could be, you know, deforestation issues, et cetera, and we use both auditors, but also technology like satellite technology to look at those
things.
Now, of course, some of those issues are deeply rooted, they are systemic in some of the countries and communities in which we work, which are high
risk. And so it's never perfect and that's why we need shared responsibility in all the actors in the supply chain, and working with
governments and multilaterals to address some of those root causes to some of the unsustainable practices.
CHATTERLEY: I was looking at your website, and two of the things that struck me not only as you've said, to help these farmers and these
communities mitigate the impact of climate change, but it's also to adapt for the impact of climate change, too. And I think we need to talk about
these as two separate things and understand -- understand what's going on. How well are we tackling the adaption part of the climate change situation?
And how do you do that?
GOWLAND: It's interesting, because right now, as you know, climate change is affecting many of these communities, from floods to fires, to you name
it, right? So, the Rainforest Alliance has in its standards technical assistance for adaptation -- climate adaptation -- that goes all the way
from agroforestry.
So for example, growing coffee or cocoa and the shade of trees, which not only increases carbon sequestration but also boosts biodiversity, and
increases productivity on those communities because those landscapes become more resilient to water, to rain control, water absorption and regulation,
to fighting fires, et cetera.
So it's a kind of a win-win right now to apply nature based solutions, to enhance productivity, which increases livelihoods, and in doing so, tackle
climate and biodiversity goals.
CHATTERLEY: Yes. I know you have so much going on. Come back and talk to us, please. We will continue the conversation. Great to have you on the
show today, the CEO of the Rainforest Alliance, Santiago Gowland. Thank you, sir.
And you can learn more about the environmental challenges facing our planet and what's been done to address some of them on our website. Head to
cnn.com/calltoearth.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHATTERLEY: Welcome back to FIRST MOVE and U.S. investors seeing red this Wednesday. A midweek retreat as U.S. consumer inflation numbers come in
scorching hot. Consumer prices rising to its highest level since 1990 last month.
[09:55:06]
CHATTERLEY: Food, gas, and used car costs all surging. The question, of course, will the Fed be forced to start raising rates sooner than expected?
We'll ask that several more times before they do.
Also today, wild swings for Tesla in early trade, too. Shares briefly falling below that $1,000.00 a share level before bouncing sharply in the
past few minutes. Tesla lost some of its charge on Tuesday, falling 12 percent as Musk mulls a stock sale for tax purposes.
But of course, context is everything. Tesla is still up more than 40 percent. There you see it, year-to-date.
And E.U. spelling trouble for Alphabet. The second highest E.U. Court upholding the Competition Commission's $2.8 billion fine against the
company for dominating web search. Alphabet can still appeal today's ruling. It says, it has already made changes to comply with E.U. demands.
And that's just about it for the show. If you have missed any of our interviews today, they will be on my Twitter and Instagram pages, search
for @jchatterleyCNN.
In the meantime, "Connect the World" with Becky Anderson is next and I'll see you tomorrow.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[10:00:00]
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