TED Talks
TED: Climate action needs new frontline leadership | Ozawa Bineshi Albert
We can't rely on those who created climate change to fix it, says climate justice organizer Ozawa Bineshi Albert. An Indigenous woman living in the heart of oil and gas country in the US, she's observed an alarming disconnect between...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: The most colorful gemstones on Earth | Jeff Dekofsky
In November 1986, Australian miners climbed Lunatic Hill and bored 20 meters into the Earth. They were rewarded with a fist-sized, record breaking gemstone, which they named the Hailey's Comet opal. Thanks to a characteristic called...
TED-Ed
The world's largest organism | Alex Rosenthal
The largest animal in the world is the blue whale, which weighs a massive 150 metric tons. Even so, it's not remotely close to being the largest organism by weight. That title goes to an organism so huge that it's estimated to weigh the...
TED-Ed
How do wind turbines work? | Rebecca J. Barthelmie and Sara C. Pryor
Every 24 hours, wind generates enough kinetic energy to produce roughly 35 times more electricity than humanity uses each day. And unlike coal or oil, this resource is totally renewed each day. So how can we harness this incredible...
SciShow
TMT: The World’s Most Controversial Telescope
What exactly is the Thirty Meter Telescope, and why is the proposed location in Hawai'i such a conflict?
TED Talks
TED: A new economic model for protecting tropical forests | Nat Keohane
To solve the climate crisis, we need to make tropical forests worth more alive than dead, says environmental economist Nat Keohane. Highlighting the urgent need to stop deforestation and the carbon pollution it brings, he details the...
TED Talks
TED: The unexpected, underwater plant fighting climate change | Carlos M. Duarte
Once considered the ugly duckling of environmental conservation, seagrass is emerging as a powerful tool for climate action. From drawing down carbon to filtering plastic pollution, marine scientist Carlos M. Duarte details the...
TED Talks
TED: How is your city tackling the climate crisis? | Marvin Rees
If we can unlock the full potential of our cities, we can minimize the price the planet pays for hosting us in our growing numbers, says Marvin Rees, the Mayor of Bristol, UK, who understands deeply how cities can help (or hurt) the...
SciShow
SPACE MINING
Hank summarizes the exciting news about Planetary Resources, a company with plans to mine near-earth asteroids for precious metals and water, and what these plans might mean for humanity's future in space.
TED Talks
Bilal Bomani: Plant fuels that could power a jet
Algae plus salt water equals ... fuel? At TEDxNASA@SiliconValley, Bilal Bomani reveals a self-sustaining ecosystem that produces biofuels -- without wasting arable land or fresh water.
TED Talks
TED: How Africa can keep rising | Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala
African growth is a trend, not a fluke, says economist and former Finance Minister of Nigeria Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala. In this refreshingly candid and straightforward talk, Okonjo-Iweala describes the positive progress on the continent and...
Crash Course Kids
Big Changes in the Big Forest
What do beavers, termites, and prairie dogs have in common? They all change their environments! Last time we talked about how humans change their environments, but humans are animals and all animals change their environments just by...
SciShow
Bone Cities, Ash Towers, and 4 Other Futuristic Buildings
Right now, the construction industry heavily relies on concrete, but it isn't great for the earth. Many scientists are looking for ways to replace it in the future, and some of their ideas are so off the wall that they just might work.
TED Talks
TED: Nature is everywhere -- we just need to learn to see it | emma Marris
How do you define "nature?" If we define it as that which is untouched by humans, then we won't have any left, says environmental writer emma Marris. She urges us to consider a new definition of nature -- one that includes not only...
TED Talks
Ken Robinson: Bring on the learning revolution!
In this poignant, funny follow-up to his fabled 2006 talk, Sir Ken Robinson makes the case for a radical shift from standardized schools to personalized learning -- creating conditions where kids' natural talents can flourish.
TED Talks
TED: The taboo secret to better health | Molly Winter
Our poop and pee have superpowers, but for the most part we don't harness them. Molly Winter faces down our squeamishness and asks us to see what goes down the toilet as a resource, one that can help fight climate change, spur innovation...
Crash Course
Theories of Global Stratification: Crash Course Sociology
Today we’ll discuss two theories of global stratification. First, we’ll go over modernization theory and Walt Rostow’s Four Stages of Modernization. Next, we’ll explain dependency theory, the legacy of colonialism, and Immanuel...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: How do we create a better economy? | TED-Ed
Can we call any economy "healthy" in the face of dwindling resources and growing inequality? What if we cut off our addiction to endless growth, and used a new compass for modern prosperity? One such compass is known as "doughnut...
Bozeman Science
LS4D - Humans and Biodiversity
In this video Paul Andersen defines biodiversity and explains the impacts humans are having on the planet's biodiversity. Humans are impacting the variety of life on our planet through habitat destruction, invasive species, pollution,...
Crash Course Kids
Big Changes in the Big Apple
Did you know that all living things change their environments? It's true. Beavers, deer, worms, and humans all change their environments. It just so happens that humans change our environments in big, obvious ways. In this episode,...
TED Talks
Noah Wilson-Rich: Every city needs healthy honey bees
Bees have been rapidly and mysteriously disappearing from rural areas, with grave implications for agriculture. But bees seem to flourish in urban environments -- and cities need their help, too. Noah Wilson-Rich suggests that urban...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Valentin Hammoudi: How tall can a tree grow?
Reaching heights of over 100 meters, Californian sequoias tower over Earth's other 60,000 tree species. But even these behemoths seem to have their limits: no sequoia on record has been able to grow taller than 130 meters. So what...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: What does the world's largest machine do? | Henry Richardson
In 1967, Homer Loutzenheuser flipped a switch and connected the power grids of the United States, forming one interconnected machine. Today, the US power grid is the world's largest machine, containing more than 7,300...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Can the economy grow forever? | TED-Ed
Many economists think that an eternally growing economy is necessary to keep improving people's lives, and that if the global economy stops growing, people would fight more over the fixed amount of value that exists, rather than working...