This is a spectacular talk… one of the best yet on TED so far.
Neuroanatomist Jill Bolte Taylor had an opportunity few brain scientists would wish for: One morning, she realized she was having a massive stroke. As it happened — as she felt her brain functions slip away one by one, speech, movement, understanding — she studied and remembered every moment. This is a powerful story about how our brains define us and connect us to the world and to one another.
1) Scale. How big is the global economy relative to the global ecosystem?
2) Stress development over growth. That is, make the economy better at satisfying human needs, not simply bigger.
3) Make prices tell the ecological truth.
4) Account for nature’s services.
5) The precautionary principle. This is just the age-old wisdom of “first, do no harm” and “look before you leap,” but applied to public policy toward new products (like chemicals) and technologies that could pose serious risk.
6) Commons management.
7) Value women.
Global X interviewed Caroline Casey, the founding CEO of The Aisling Foundation in Ireland (”aisling” is Gaelic for dream and vision)
Caroline is an Ashoka Fellow and a Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum. She was recently named an Eisenhower Fellow –which explains why she was in the U.S. for two months to meet other social entrepreneurs and expand her network.
Global X was mesmerized as Caroline told her personal story and how she was dealing with her own disability. Even though she is legally blind and can only see up to one meter, she managed to achieve, at age 34, the three dreams she had when she was a teenager: she was an elephant handler, she now works for herself, and she drove a race car at 185 km/h. As she puts it, “you don’t need eyes to have a vision!”
Global X loved what she said about disability: “It’s not about you!” Or about life: “We are all frightened, we all have obstacles, but we all have wonderful moments when we are heroes. We all have potential… It’s all about facing the demons and taking the risks.”
Her parting words as she was flying back to Europe: “It’s far better to be a dangerous dreamer than a day dreamer.”
Global X interviews Rahul Barkataky, founder of the Community Friendly Movement in New Delhi.
CFM creates a global market for handmade products made by artisan communities, thus creating employment opportunities for those who are dependent on handicrafts for their livelihood.
Rahul Barkataky describes a project they launched in Gujarat, an area that was devastated by earthquake in 2001. CFM was able to provide US$10,000 to a group of 375 women –a very significant impact.
Much more remains to be done, but Rahul Barkataky is optimistic: “Poverty may not be completely eradicated ten years from now, but there will be more positive stories with real impact. It will be a better place than now.”
Elizabeth Hausler explains to Global X that she was finishing her Ph.D. in engineering at Berkeley when an earthquake hit India and killed 20,000 people. That’s when she realized that “it’s not the earthquake that kills people, it’s the building collapsing.”
She looked for a solution and launched Build Change to build earthquake-resistant houses in developing countries and change construction practices permanently so that homeowners in seismically active developing countries can sleep at night.
What is happiness, and how can we all get some? Buddhist monk, photographer and author Matthieu Ricard has devoted his life to these questions, and his answer is influenced by his faith as well as by his scientific turn of mind: We can train our minds in habits of happiness. Interwoven with his talk are stunning photographs of the Himalayas and of his spiritual community.
Another thoughtful (and humorous) TED talk was the one given by Bob Thurman sometime ago. It is one of my favorite TED talks and I have blogged about it previously. But it is probably appropriate to include it once more:
TED has hosted a number of excellent speakers on the topic of climate change. However, I found 2 interesting almost opposite approaches to solving the issue.
In this talk, energy guru Amory Lovins lays out his plan for weaning the US off oil and revitalizing the economy in the process. It’s the subject of his book Winning the Oil Endgame, and he makes it sound fairly simple: On one hand, the deadly risks of continued dependency, and on the other, some win-win solutions.
Environmental scientist David Keith talks about a cheap, effective, shocking solution to climate change: What if we injected a huge cloud of ash into the atmosphere, to deflect sunlight and heat? As an emergency measure to slow a melting ice cap, it could work. Keith discusses why it’s a good idea, why it’s a terrible one — and who, despite the cost, might be tempted to use it.
Check out this very engaging talk (embedded below) by former President Bill Clinton. He was a keynote speaker at the 2007 U.S. Conference of Mayors Climate Protection Summit hosted by Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels. Worldchanging.org has good overview of his speech here.
UPDATE: Removed embedded video due to broken link.
The article here and its accompanying video describe this invention as, “…a taut membrane fitted with a pair of magnets that oscillate between metal coils. Prototypes have generated 40 milliwatts in 10-mph slivers of wind, making his device 10 to 30 times as efficient as the best microturbines…”
This is the breathtaking story of Daniel Tammet. A twenty-something with extraordinary mental abilities, Daniel is one of the world’s few … all » savants. He can do calculations to 100 decimal places in his head, and learn a language in a week. This documentary follows Daniel as he travels to America to meet the scientists who are convinced he may hold the key to unlocking similar abilities in everyone. He also meets the world’s most famous savant, the man who inspired Dustin Hoffman’s character in the Oscar winning film ‘Rain Man’. (2005)
A few weeks before he was assassinated, Gandhi the Mahatma had a conversation with his grandson Arun. He handed Arun a talisman upon which were engraved “Seven Blunders,” out of which, said Gandhi, grows the violence that plagues the world. The blunders were:
Wealth without work.
Pleasure without conscience.
Knowledge without character.
Commerce without morality.
Science without humanity.
Worship without sacrifice.
Politics without principles.
Gandhi called these disbalances “passive violence,” which fuels the active violence of crime, rebellion, and war. He said, “We could work ’til doomsday to achieve peace and would get nowhere as long as we ignore passive violence in our world.”
To his grandfather’s list of seven blunders Arun later added an eighth: Rights without responsibilities.
This is an unbelievably eye-opening story on the ancients doing terraforming-type activities on a massive scale. Maybe I am going a little over the top. But read this to find out more about this ‘carbon-negative’ agricultural practice … I think this has a tremendous potential for addressing some really critical global issues.
Amazonian Dark Earth, or terra preta do indio, has mystified science for the last hundred years. Three times richer in nitrogen and phosphorous, and twenty times the carbon of normal soils, terra preta is the legacy of ancient Amazonians who predate Western civilization. Scientists who long debated the capacity of ’savages’ to transform the virgin rainforest now agree that indigenous people transformed large regions of the Amazon into amazingly fertile black earth.
Check ‘The 11th Hour‘ the upcoming movie by Leonardo DiCaprio. The movie looks at some of the most critical man-made problems of the planet and seeks to find answers from some of the best scientific minds of our times. After the movie I ended up playing the PlanetGreenGame and even got this badge… I think I will catch the movie when it releases….
George Ayittey, the noted economist from Ghana gave a talk, which TED describes as a ‘grab-you-by-the-throat speech’.
…economist George Ayittey unleashes an almost breathtaking torrent of controlled anger toward corrupt leaders and the complacency that allows them to thrive. These “Hippos” (lazy, slow, ornery) have ruined postcolonial Africa, he says. Why, then, does he remain optimistic? Because of the young, agile “Cheetah Generation,” a “new breed of Africans” taking their futures into their own hands.
I am a MS (Information Science) graduate from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and work for a management consulting firm. When I am not travelling for work, I live in Pittsburgh. My hometown is Bangalore, India and did my college education from New Delhi, India and Chapel Hill, USA.
