TED Talks
Jared Diamond: Why do societies collapse?
Why do societies fail? With lessons from the Norse of Iron Age Greenland, deforested Easter Island and present-day Montana, Jared Diamond talks about the signs that collapse is near, and how -- if we see it in time -- we can prevent it.
SciShow
How To Fly More Fuel-Efficiently
Airplanes use a lot of fuel, which means a lot of CO2 emissions. So, to help reduce the impact of aviation, engineers are looking to animals (like sharks) for some ways they can make airliners more efficient.
TED Talks
TED: 4 ways we can avoid a catastrophic drought | David Sedlak
As the world's climate patterns continue to shift unpredictably, places where drinking water was once abundant may soon find reservoirs dry and groundwater aquifers depleted. In this talk, civil and environmental engineer David Sedlak...
TED Talks
Doris Kim Sung: Metal that breathes
Modern buildings with floor-to-ceiling windows give spectacular views, but they require a lot of energy to cool. Doris Kim Sung works with thermo-bimetals, smart materials that act more like human skin, dynamically and responsively, and...
Crash Course
Market Failures, Taxes, and Subsidies: Crash Course Economics
This week on Crash Course Econ, Jacob and Adriene are talking about failure. Specifically, we're talking about market failures. When markets don't provide a good or service efficiently, that's a market failure. When markets fail, often...
TED Talks
TED: Activism needs introverts | Sarah Corbett
For the introverts among us, traditional forms activism like marches, protests and door-to-door canvassing can be intimidating and stressful. Take it from Sarah Corbett, a former professional campaigner and self-proclaimed introvert. She...
Crash Course
Sustainable Cities: Crash Course Geography
From towering skyscrapers covered in trees to zero carbon smart cities, there are so many ways to imagine what a sustainable city of the future might look like. But what does it really mean to be sustainable anyway? Today, we’re going to...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: The ingredient in almost everything you eat | Francesca Bot
Soybeans have been cultivated in Asia for thousands of years, and have since spread across the globe. Today, soy is in so many foods that most people consume it every day without even knowing it. So, what makes soybeans so versatile? And...
SciShow
The Carbon Impact of the World’s Largest Mass Migration
The Carbon Impact of the World’s Largest Mass Migration
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: The last living members of an extinct species | Jan Stejskal
In the savannahs of Kenya, two female northern white rhinos, Nájin and Fatu, munch contentedly on grass. They are the last two known northern white rhinos left on Earth. Their species is functionally extinct— without a male, they can't...
SciShow
From Old-School Gardening to the Future of Food
From the starter plants in your window to giant agriculture, there's a lot of science to cover before dinner.
TED Talks
TED: Africa's path to clean mobility -- driven by motorcycles | Adetayo Bamiduro
A lack of infrastructure in parts of Africa has made unregulated, gas-powered motorcycle taxis widespread -- a system that gets people where they need to be, but heavily pollutes the air and excludes drivers from the formal economy. TED...
SciShow
Is the Power Grid Ready for Green Energy?
Despite the rise of renewable energy, the backbone of the power grid is fossil fuels. Adapting the grid to green energy sources is more complicated than flipping a switch.
TED Talks
TED: Climate change isn't a distant threat -- it's our reality | Selina Neirok Leem
Every year, ocean levels rise and high tides flood the low-lying Marshall Islands in the Pacific, destroying homes, salinating water supplies and disrupting livelihoods. In a stirring poem and talk, youth climate warrior Selina Neirok...
TED Talks
Al Gore: What comes after An Inconvenient Truth?
At TED2009, Al Gore presents updated slides from around the globe to make the case that worrying climate trends are even worse than scientists predicted, and to make clear his stance on "clean coal."
Bozeman Science
ESS3D - Global Climate Change
In this video Paul Andersen explains how the global climate is changing as a result of natural phenomenon and human actions. Changes in the solar radiation due to variations in the Earth's tilt and orbit have caused the ice ages....
SciShow
How Antarctica Froze Over
Antarctica wasn't always covered in kilometer thick ice sheets, in fact, scientists have spent years figuring out what turned this once lush continent into its current icy state.
TED Talks
TED: How we could make carbon-negative concrete | Tom Schuler
Concrete is all around us: we use it to build our roads, buildings, bridges and much more. Yet over the last 2,000 years, the art of mixing cement and using it to bind concrete hasn't changed very much -- and it remains one of the...
TED Talks
TED: The tragedy of air pollution -- and an urgent demand for clean air | Rosamund Adoo-Kissi-Debrah
Breathing clean air is every child's human right, says grassroots campaigner Rosamund Adoo-Kissi-Debrah, sharing the heartbreaking story of her seven-year-old daughter, Ella Roberta, whose asthma was triggered to a fatal point by air...
TED Talks
TED: What can save the rainforest? Your used cell phone | Topher White
The sounds of the rainforest include: the chirps of birds, the buzz of cicadas, the banter of gibbons. But in the background is the almost-always present sound of a chainsaw, from illegal loggers. Engineer Topher White shares a simple,...
TED Talks
TED: Kids are speaking up for the environment. Let's listen | Olafur Eliasson
Known for big, attention-grabbing installations -- like his four towering waterfalls in New York's East River -- Olafur Eliasson has scaled down his latest project, Earth Speakr: an art platform for kids designed to spur budding climate...
TED Talks
TED: An interactive map to track (and end) pollution in China | Ma Jun
China has pledged to be carbon neutral by 2060 -- and its citizens are helping industries across the country reach that goal. Environmentalist Ma Jun introduces the Blue Map, an app that empowers people to report pollution violations in...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Vultures: The acid-puking, plague-busting heroes of the ecosystem | Kenny Coogan
In the African grasslands, a gazelle suffering from tuberculosis takes its last breath. The animal's corpse threatens to infect the water, but for the vulture, this isn't a problem: it's a feast. With a stomach of steel that can digest...
TED Talks
TED: The future of the food ecosystem -- and the power of your plate | Ndidi Okonkwo Nwuneli
Many people across the world don't have access to healthy food -- while in other places tons of food go to waste. Social entrepreneur Ndidi Okonkwo Nwuneli thinks we can take bold steps to fix this problem. She lays out what it would...