It's time for planetary-scale interventions to combat climate change -- and environmentalist Tim Flannery thinks seaweed can help. In a bold talk, he shares the epic carbon-capturing potential of seaweed, explaining how oceangoing...

From London to Tokyo, climate change is causing cities to sink -- and our modern concrete infrastructure is making us even more vulnerable to severe flooding, says landscape architect and TED Fellow Kotchakorn Voraakhom. But what if we...

In a talk about how we can build a robust future without wrecking the planet, sustainability expert Johan Rockstrom debuts the Earth3 model -- a new methodology that combines the UN Sustainable Development Goals with the nine planetary...

Capt. Charles Moore of the Algalita Marine Research Foundation first discovered the Great Pacific Garbage Patch -- an endless floating waste of plastic trash. Now he's drawing attention to the growing, choking problem of plastic debris...

Honeybees have thrived for 50 million years, each colony 40 to 50,000 individuals coordinated in amazing harmony. So why, seven years ago, did colonies start dying en masse? Marla Spivak reveals four reasons which are interacting with...

The first pairs of jeans were designed for durability; denim was constructed as a sturdy weave worn by sailors and miners. But over the course of the 20th century, as the demand for jeans has gone up, their durability has gone down....

Scientists predict climate change will displace more than 180 million people by 2100 -- a crisis of "climate migration" the world isn't ready for, says disaster recovery lawyer and Louisiana native Colette Pichon Battle. In this...

Medical ethicist Harvey Fineberg shows us three paths forward for the ever-evolving human species: to stop evolving completely, to evolve naturally -- or to control the next steps of human evolution, using genetic modification, to make...

Taking cues from soft robotics and the natural world, conceptual artist Anicka Yi builds lighter-than-air machines that roam and react like autonomous life forms. Her floating "aerobes" inspire us to think about new ways of living with...

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...

Trinidad's Pitch Lake is a huge, oily, and filled with millions of tons of asphalt. It may not sound like a great place to live, but the lake is teeming with microscopic life! And learning more about these organisms could give us insight...

* Viewer discretion advised. This video includes discussion of mature topics and may be inappropriate for some audiences. Theaster Gates, a potter by training and a social activist by calling, wanted to do something about the sorry state...

China is the world's biggest polluter -- and now one of its largest producers of clean energy. Which way will China go in the future, and how will it affect the global environment? Data scientist Angel Hsu describes how the most populous...

Under the leadership of Lisa Jackson, Apple's environment and social VP and former head of the EPA, the company is already carbon neutral within their own corporate and retail boundaries. By 2030, Apple hopes to extend carbon neutrality...

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...

Unlike lots of other animals, there’s no such thing as the “mating season” for humans, and it might have to do with how we raise our kids.

In 2002, investigative journalist and TED Fellow Will Potter took a break from his regular beat, writing about shootings and murders for the Chicago Tribune. He went to help a local group campaigning against animal testing: "I thought it...

Venice is sinking. To save it, Rachel Armstrong says we need to outgrow architecture made of inert materials and, well, make architecture that grows itself. She proposes a not-quite-alive material that does its own repairs and sequesters...

How do we build a society without fossil fuels? using her native Costa Rica as an example of positive action on environmental protection and renewables, climate advocate Monica Araya outlines a bold vision for a world committed to clean...

Deep in the Himalayas, on the border between China and India, lies the Kingdom of Bhutan, which has pledged to remain carbon neutral for all time. In this illuminating talk, Bhutan's Prime Minister Tshering Tobgay shares his country's...

For four billion years, what lived and died on earth depended on two principles: natural selection and random mutation. Then humans came along and changed everything - hybridizing plants, breeding animals, altering the environment and...

Some of the biggest evolution questions finally answered.

At age 81, actor and activist Jane Fonda is putting herself on the line for the planet -- literally. In a video interview with TEDWomen curator Pat Mitchell, Fonda speaks about getting arrested multiple times during Fire Drill Fridays,...

Reid Reimers explains one of the often-overlooked technologies that humans need to live in, and explore, space: space suits. Learn about the hundred-year history of the pressurized suit, and see what the future of space couture might...