Through the forest restoration initiative Restore Local, Wanjira Mathai is working to catalyze the flourishing of both Africa's people and its landscapes.
Why aren't more people investing in Africa's green energy? Environmental researcher Rebekah Shirley outlines the continent's immense potential for renewable power and calls for collaborative international investment -- and partnership -- in Africa's climate future. "Let's cut past the talk and focus on unleashing the avalanche of a clean energy ...
Novelist, writer, culture critic and playwright Monica Byrne thinks that there's an infinite number of stories to tell, and she intends to tell as many as she can.
Investing in green energy, holding large corporations accountable for their pollution, stopping pipeline and oil extraction initiatives -- these are non-negotiable actions to protect the planet, but they are still just the bare minimum, say climate activists Xiye Bastida and Shiv Soin. In conversation with radio researcher Latif Nasser, Bastida ...
"I don't think we're going to make it," John Doerr says in an emotional talk about climate change and investment. To create a world fit for his daughter to live in, he says, we need to invest now in clean, green energy.
As we reboot the world's economy, Geoff Mulgan poses a question: Instead of sending bailout money to doomed old industries, why not use stimulus funds to bootstrap some new, socially responsible companies -- and make the world a little bit better?
What if we could solve the climate and housing crises at the same time? Financial institutions have pledged trillions to transform the economy and accelerate climate action -- but right now, that money is not flowing at the speed it needs to, says sustainable investing expert Veronica Chau. Illuminating the links between climate change and affor...
Architect Norman Foster discusses his own work to show how computers can help architects design buildings that are green, beautiful and "basically pollution-free." From the 2007 DLD Conference, Munich; www.dld-conference.com
Money is pollution's biggest driving force -- particularly, the cash invested in dirty energy projects, says financial responsibility campaigner Lucie Pinson. She shares a three-pronged approach to stop banks from funding fossil fuel companies, including what she calls "collaborative blackmailing" (it's more ethical than it sounds). By demanding...
Imagine seeking safety abroad and instead being detained and forced to defend yourself in a high-stakes legal battle — alone. Law professor César Cuauhtémoc García Hernández explains how the asylum process in the US became warped into what we know today and poses a question that could lead the country out of its labyrinthian policies: In place o...
Air travel opens our eyes to the world, but it also comes at a high cost to the environment. Piloting us into a future of green aviation, innovator Ryah Whalen shares three ways to lower the industry's carbon footprint through smarter designs, eco-friendly fuel and new technology -- so we can continue to explore the planet without hurting it.
Climate action has historically had a gender-neutral lens, but this lack of intentionality allows underlying biases to sneak in and negatively impact women, says gender and climate researcher Zineb Sqalli. Using Vienna, Austria's gender-equal urban planning program as a model for how women can be included in every step of building a green econom...
The world needs clean power, but decarbonization calls for a massive increase in the mining and extraction of minerals like lithium, graphite and cobalt. Environmental peacemaking expert Olivia Lazard sheds light on the scramble for these precious mineral resources -- and how the countries that control their supply chains (including China and Ru...
How do you get the environment to the top of everyone's priority list? You can't, says climate advocate Angela Francis -- but you can get them to care about improving their lives. In this pragmatic talk, she shares her playbook for helping even the most skeptical among us see the benefits of a greener economy on their health, wealth and well-being.
The single most important thing for avoiding a climate disaster is cutting carbon pollution from the current 51 billion tons per year to zero, says philanthropist and technologist Bill Gates. Introducing the concept of the "green premium" -- the higher price of zero-emission products like electric cars, artificial meat or sustainable aviation fu...
About this event: The theme for TEDxGoodShepherdIntlSchool 2023 is ‘Sustainability.’ Beyond just being “green,” sustainability entails meeting the current generation’s needs while preserving the ability of future generations to meet their own needs in terms of society, urbanization, and the economy. It also encompasses sustainable personal, educational, and caree...
Event details: Ootacamund, Tamil Nadu, India · September 22, 2023
The financial sector often talks of decarbonizing investment portfolios as a way to fight climate change. But portfolios can be "cleaned" without having any real impact on the problem, says investment expert Nili Gilbert. Bringing science to finance, she unpacks how investors can actually help decarbonize the world -- a costly endeavor, estimate...
We each want to live a life of purpose, but where to start? In this luminous, wide-ranging talk, Jacqueline Novogratz introduces us to people she's met in her work in "patient capital" -- people who have immersed themselves in a cause, a community, a passion for justice. These human stories carry powerful moments of inspiration.
Mathematicians Hannah Fry and Thomas Oléron Evans have crunched the numbers. Forget utilities -- these are the properties you really should be investing in.
To our minds, there is nothing more magical than a full-blown family argument caused by a good old-fashioned game of Monopoly. Officially, Monopoly ends when all players but one go bankrupt...
Why doesn't the government just get out of the way and let the private sector -- the "real revolutionaries" -- innovate? It's rhetoric you hear everywhere, and Mariana Mazzucato wants to dispel it. In an energetic talk, she shows how the state -- which many see as a slow, hunkering behemoth -- is really one of our most exciting risk-takers and m...
In a talk that's equal parts funny and urgent, consultant Vinay Shandal shares stories of the world's top activist investors, showing how individuals and institutions can take a page from their playbook and put pressure on companies to drive positive change. "It's your right to have your money managed in line with your values," Shandal says. "Us...
While some world leaders resist global cooperation, city leaders are working across borders to tackle big issues like global warming, immigration and terrorism, says urban expert Robert Muggah.
Amid the relentlessly grim news on climate change, there is a glimmer of hope -- and it’s coming from our cities. Even as the US is pulling out from its...
At "We the Future," a day of talks from TED, the Skoll Foundation and the United Nations Foundation at the TED World Theater in New York City, 18 speakers and performers shared daring ideas, deep analysis, cautionary tales and behavior-changing strategies aimed at meeting the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the global goals created ...
Sara Menker quit a career in commodities trading to figure out how the global value chain of agriculture works. Her discoveries have led to some startling predictions: "We could have a tipping point in global food and agriculture if surging demand surpasses the agricultural system's structural capacity to produce food," she says. "People could s...
Countdown is a global initiative, powered by TED and Future Stewards, to accelerate solutions to the climate crisis. The goal: to build a better future by cutting greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2030 towards reaching net zero by 2050. It was launched October 10, 2020 with the Countdown Global Launch, a virtual event featuring five curated se...
Countdown is a global initiative to accelerate solutions to the climate crisis. Watch the talks, interviews and performances from the Countdown Global Launch at ted.com/countdown.
It's time to take action. This closing session of the Countdown Global Launch explored the road ahead: How to think urgently and long-term about climate change....
The coronavirus pandemic won't be the last crisis to test public health systems worldwide, says physician and health policy leader Georges C. Benjamin. He details what's needed to lead us out of the pandemic and prevent future ones -- including a robust governmental health entity equipped with updated technology and well-trained staff -- and exp...
Do we have the vision and the energy to confront seemingly impossible problems -- like predatory corporations, political deadlock, the wasted potential of millions of refugees? Session 5 rounded up people who are jumping right in.
A call to action on fossil fuels. Costa Rica, climate advocate Monica Araya’s native country, gets almost 100 perce...