TED is a conference that features short but powerful talks from scientists, entertainers, teachers, and other thought leaders. Those giving TED talks have included luminaries such as Bill and Melinda Gates, Madeleine Albright, Bono, and many notable speakers.
Countdown is a new global initiative from TED to accelerate solutions to the climate crisis. The Countdown talks were originally live streamed back on October 10th, but you can still watch the talks for free at https://www.ted.com/series/countdown.
The Countdown talks are loosely arranged into five areas or topics: urgency, leadership, transformation, breakthroughs, and action. Under urgency, you will find talks like “Why is the world warming up?”, “The state of the climate crisis”, and “The case for stubborn optimism on climate”, among others. Leadership features “Kids are speaking up for the environment. Let’s listen”, “Europe’s plan to become the first carbon-neutral continent”, and “The city planting a million trees in two years”.
Transformation includes “Where does all the carbon we release go?”, “Fossil fuel companies know how to stop global warming. Why don’t they?”, and “24 hours on Earth — in one image”. Under Breakthroughs, you will find “The global movement to restore nature’s biodiversity”, “Community-powered solutions to the climate crisis”, and “How we could make carbon-negative concrete”. Finally, action features “Why act now?”, “The race to net-zero emissions by 2050 is on. Can we count you in?” and a talk entitled “Our moral imperative to act on climate change — and 3 steps we can take” by none other than Pope Francis.
The Countdown talks I have already watched have been both inspiring and educational and I am planning to dig in and watch them all. In fact, I am hosting a series of virtual meetings to watch and discuss the Countdown talks in the coming weeks. The first TED Countdown discussion meetup will be held Sunday, November 29th from 3-4:30 pm. Please consider joining us by RSVPing at https://www.meetup.com/SeattleClimateChange/events/274682032.
Working together, we can help take care of our common home.
Paul Litwin
The Whole Geek 