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...
TED Talks
TED: The African swamp protecting Earth's environment | Vera Songwe
The peatlands of Africa's Congo Basin are a vast expanse of swamp and greenery that act as one of the world's most effective carbon sinks -- and they're under threat of environmental destruction. Economist Vera Songwe explains how...
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 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."
Crash Course
Productivity and Growth: Crash Course Economics
Why are some countries rich? Why are some countries poor? In the end it comes down to Productivity. This week on Crash Course Econ, Adriene and Jacob investigate just why some economies are more productive than others, and what happens...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Jean-Baptiste P. Koehl: Why are earthquakes so hard to predict?
In 132 CE, Zhang Heng presented his latest invention: a large vase he claimed could tell them whenever an earthquake occurred for hundreds of miles. Today, we no longer rely on pots as warning systems, but earthquakes still offer...
Crash Course Kids
Water Fight!
So, what happens when there's not enough water? Well... not good things. Do we let homes have more water for showering and cooking? Or do we let farms have the water for growing crops? There aren't any easy solutions, but today Sabrina...
Crash Course Kids
A Fresh Future
So, how are people fixing their water problems? In this episode of Crash Course Kids, Sabrina talks about a few different examples how some freshwater sources were good, then bad, then made good again. Also, Sabrina talks about...