29 September 2007
TED Salon: Further reading
Some selected source material and references from Wednesday night's TED Salon:
David Keith (pictured, left) showed a New York Times editorial on the coming climate change -- from May 24, 1953:
How Industry May Change Climate
The amount of carbon dioxide in the air will double by the year 2080 and raise the temperature an average of at least 4 per cent. The burning of about two billion tons of coal and oil a year keeps the average ground temperature somewhat higher than it would otherwise be. ...
Within the NYTimes archive, we found a related story from 1953:
The Weather Is Really Changing
Studies confirm that feeling you've had that summers are getting warmer. So are our winters. But atmosphere, not atoms, is to blame.
A few other historical sources Keith referred to:
+ Changing Climate, by the Carbon Dioxide Assessment Committee, U.S. National Research Council, 1983
+ Restoring the Quality of Our Environment, Report of the Environmental Pollution Panel, President’s Science Advisory Committee, The White House, December 1965
Martin Hoffert discussed the Kardashev scale -- a ranking of civilizations based on the kinds of energy they use. Earth is still at the bottom of this scale -- we're just using whatever we find lying around on the planet. More advanced civilizations in the universe, Kardashev theorizes, will begin to harvest and grow power using all the resources of their star system and of the universe. Hoffert shows us one step toward star power: solar energy via satellite.
Juan Enriquez talked about two scientists whose work could point the way to a new future of energy. As an inspiration, he points to Norman Borlaug, called "the Father of the Green Revolution." Borlaug developed optimized strains of wheat that, quite literally, now feed the world. He brought a biological, a scientific approach to agriculture that allowed it to leap beyond the boundaries of traditional "brute force" farming -- to become efficient, dependable and more productive by orders of magnitude. Enriquez' next scientist-hero is Hamilton Smith, who shared the 1978 Nobel Prize in Medicine for his work in manipulating DNA. Is Smith, or someone like him, the person who will help energy make the great leap forward that farming has?
Photo of David Keith by Myrna Suarez, Condé Nast Portfolio
28 September 2007
Bono, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, local heroes honored
Last night at Philadelphia's National Constitution Center, Bono (watch his 2005 TEDTalk) and Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala (watch her TEDTalks) accepted the Liberty Medal, honoring Bono and DATA for their work in Africa. One of the local papers put together a fascinating section to go along with the event: "Philadelphia's Team Africa," profiling 10 locals in diverse fields -- teaching, health, entrepreneurial philanthropy -- working to build a stronger continent:
We have a 79-year-old nun who saves babies in Malawi and Uganda ... a middle-aged married couple from the Main Line whose day job is HIV/AIDS prevention in South Africa ... a 27-year-old Drexel MBA who's her own personal Small Business Administration, with microloans out to 18 small businesses in Kenya, Uganda, Togo and Ghana ....
It's an inspiring reminder of the thousands of ways to be involved. Doing business in Africa is a big part of that equation: Also mentioned is "City Hall's own division of international trade (who knew?) who helped broker $6 billion in imports from Africa last year."
27 September 2007
Notes from the TED Salon: "Hot Science: Radical Ideas to Combat the Climate Crisis"
Last night in New York City, 250 TEDsters gathered to hear some radical proposals for outsmarting climate change. It's a fact: Atmospheric carbon dioxide levels are rising, and with them the possibility of severe climate change within our lifetimes. Increasingly, scientists are considering extreme measures that can quickly suck CO2 out of the atmosphere to reverse the heat buildup that could cause global warming.
And so, with our sponsors, BMW and Conde Nast Portfolio magazine, TED hosted a salon on climate change. The goal: Inspire a debate that goes beyond conventional rhetoric, and explore some radical scientific solutions that just might be ideas worth spreading ...
Guest host Stephen Petranek began the night with a spirit of discovery. Seen from one angle, "global warming is a very simple chemistry problem," he said, and removing CO2 from the air shouldn't actually be that hard. In exploring the problem of climate change, his search for solutions (and speakers) turned up a wide range of unconventional thinkers and remarkable ideas -- all of which are within the realm of near-term possibility.
First up: Michael Oppenheimer (pictured above), former chief scientist at the Environmental Defense Fund, who was one of first to sound the warning about global warming. "I'm the depressing and immobilizing part of the program," he joked. "I don't propose any solutions .... So pop your Prozac and let's go." Oppenheimer set up the evening by demonstrating the overwhelming evidence that "pervasive climate change is already under way" and "further warming is physically inevitable." (For a refresher on the causes of climate change, and the role of carbon dioxide, there's no better primer than Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth).
Physicist Martin Hoffert took the stage next. A staunch advocate for getting off fossil fuels, Hoffert takes what might fairly be called an expansive approach to alternative energy, urging the systematic use of all our planet's available energy sources: not only the wind and the sun, but ultimately all the star-power in our galaxy. Viewed from this angle, our singular focus on earth-bound fossil fuels seems not just misguided, but small-minded: "We're relying on sources that represent only an infinitesimal portion of available energy," Hoffert said.
His proposals -- which range from wind farms (like the one atop the original Freedom Tower design) to a global power grid for collecting and distributing solar power, to an idea ("usually considered pretty far out ... but maybe not for this audience") for collecting solar power from space -- all push the limits on conventional thinking and urged us, essentially, to think bigger.
Now, just as the evening's speakers are all testing the edge of science, performer Sxip Shirey is pushing the edge of music. A circus composer and all-round showman, Shirey uses bowls and marbles, music boxes, bells and whistles to create beautiful, otherworldly sounds unlike anything you've heard. His short piece, "Pandora" -- beautiful, haunting, eerie, sexy, mind-bending in its own right -- provided a bit of mental cross-training, mid-evening. Murmurs of "How does he do that?" could be heard through the crowd ...
Next, environmental scientist David Keith put forth another controversial solution: What if we injected levitated particles (likely sulfurous) into the middle atmosphere, to deflect sunlight and heat? The method is "absurdly cheap," mimics a natural process that occurs when volcanoes erupt, and could be deployed in a localized fashion above the poles, as an emergency measure to slow a melting ice cap.
Now, this might may not be a GOOD idea, Keith warns. But it's crucial that it enters the realm of public discourse. The idea has been around since the Johnson administration, but public debate has been squelched for a number of reasons, including this central problem: The knowledge that geo-engineering is possible makes climate change less fearsome, and reduces the political will to cut emissions (which we must do). "This is what economists cause a moral hazard," Keith concludes. But it's no reason to avoid a discussion: "We don't make good policy decisions by hiding things in a drawer."
The next speaker, Russ George, brought our focus down from the stratosphere and into the oceans, where climate change and rising CO2 levels have caused a dramatic loss of ocean productivity, particularly in the southern hemisphere. George focused on the disappearance of plankton blooms along the water's surface (think of them as ocean forests). His proposal: the controlled release of iron filings in the Pacific to stimulate a plankton bloom, and therefore increase uptake of atmospheric carbon dioxide. George's firm, Planktos, would then sell carbon offsets, based on the productivity of the "iron bloom." Like Keith's solution (injecting particles into the atmosphere), this approach mimics a natural process caused when dust storms swirl out over the sea. And it similarly (let's face it) triggers serious concern about unintended consequences.
The evening's final speaker, TED veteran Juan Enriquez, offered us a glimpse at some ground-breaking research to explore the potential of bioenergy. He looked at the way our current energy sources -- coal, oil, gas -- are ultimately derived from ancient plants, and are in some way "concentrated sunlight." Can we learn from that process and accelerate it? Can we apply biological principles to the problem of fuel creation? Can we get to the point where we grow our own energy as efficiently as we grow wheat? Looking at a photo of a pile of surplus grain, he notes, "That would probably be a good outcome for energy."
After five provocative speakers, and many more mind-bending proposals, Stephen Petranek neatly summed up the thoughts swirling through all of our minds: "Humans are at a place in their history when we can actually engineer our own planet and fool mother nature," he reflected. And while we must be absolutely mindful of the unintended consequences (they inevitably occur), "It's incredibly uplifting to know we can control our own destiny."
The talks from this Salon will be made available on TED.com over the months to come.
Photo of Michael Oppenheimer by Myrna Suarez, Condé Nast Portfolio
27 September 2007
Flying on solar wings: Paul MacCready on TED.com
Paul MacCready -- aircraft designer, environmentalist, and lifelong lover of flight -- talks about his long career. After his record-breaking work on human-powered aircraft in the 1970s, with the Gossamer Condor and Gossamer Albatross, MacCready's attention turned to addressing a problem he calls "Nature vs. Humans." The result: a pioneering electric car, refined alternative energy sources, and (bringing his enthusiasms full circle) a breathtaking solar plane. (Recorded February 2003 in Monterey, California. Duration: 21:32.)
Watch Paul MacCready's talk on TED.com, where you can download it, rate it, comment on it and find other talks and performances.
Read more about Paul MacCready on TED.com.
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27 September 2007
Quotes from the TED Salon
Last night in Manhattan, TED hosted its 2007 Salon, called "Hot Science: Radical Ideas to Combat the Climate Crisis." A detailed roundup is coming later today -- but first, a few quotes from last night:
The first speaker, Michael Oppenheimer, began by saying: "I'm the depressing, immobilizing part of the talk." He went on to make this point: While Hurricane Katrina can't be directly tied to climate change, it did teach us one thing:
You can't count on the government to save you from global warming. They're still inept to this day, and half an American city is gone, and how the hell are we going to deal with this? And what are we doing instead?
He puts up a devastating slide of the hyperdevelopment on the beach at Atlantic City -- which would lose 100 feet of beachfront if global sea levels rise 1 foot, as they will.
Alternative energy expert Martin Hoffert is a staunch advocate for getting off fossil fuels altogether. He spun out one scenario:
Let me say a few words about space solar power. The advantage of putting solar collectors in orbit: The sun is basically shining 24/7. We already have thousands of satellites up there -- suppose you could build a transmitting antenna in orbit that would beam energy down to collectors, beaming energy using lasers (not microwaves) from geostationary orbit? We could send it up in one launch vehicle, and power a village, maybe in Africa, to demonstrate the viability of solar power. We could do this in 3 to 5 years.
Environmental scientist David Keith talked about geoengineering -- dramatic, cheap solutions to a warming atmosphere, such as blowing a Mt. Pinatubo-size cloud of sulfur into the sky to bring the global temperature down. Such ideas seem overly dramatic, and even immoral, but they are out there, and he argues:
We should move this out of the shadows and talk about this seriously, because sooner or later we will be confronted with a decision on this. We would do [geoengineering] instead of cutting emissions, instead of mitigation, because it's cheaper. It's very cheap. It's not a GOOD idea, but that's how big the [incentive] is. That is not in dispute, though we might argue over the sanity of it ...
Russ George, the chief scientist of Planktos, offered a way to think about all the factors contributing to the larger issue of climate change:
We have a bunch of aberrant applications in this planet, jamming a lot of errors against that primary operating system, and it's threatening to reboot and give us that blue screen of death, threatening a reboot back to 16 million years ago.
Juan Enriquez (pictured above) talked about how much of our energy, such as coal and oil -- made from ancient plants -- is simply "concentrated sunlight." How can we get to the point where we grow our own energy as efficiently as we grow wheat? Looking at a photo of a pile of surplus grain, Enriquez notes:
That would probably be a good outcome for energy.
Photo of Juan Enriquez by Myrna Suarez, Condé Nast Portfolio
27 September 2007
One night only: Stew reprises excerpts from his hit musical, "Passing Strange"
Last spring, singer-songwriter Stew (whose playful, provocative performance was a highlight of TED2006) rewrote the book on musicals with "Passing Strange," a groundbreaking show that won rave reviews during its limited, sold-out run. Developed with the Public Theater as part of an ongoing effort to bring non-traditional voices into musical theater, Passing Strange was non-traditional, for sure. Part musical, part rock show, part satire, part travelogue... the rather dazzling show was the most exciting piece of theater I've seen in years.
If you missed the original run, and you're in New York, you're in luck. Stew and his partner Heidi Rodewald and members of the cast will perform songs from the show this Sunday, 30 September in Central Park's Delacorte Theater. Even better: It's free.
25 September 2007
10 ways the world could end: Stephen Petranek on TED.com
Stephen Petranek reveals the question that occupies scientists at the end of the day (and the beginning of happy hour): How might the world end? He lays out the challenges that face us in the drive to preserve the human race. Will we be wiped out by an asteroid? Eco-collapse? How about a particle accelerator gone wild? (Recorded February 2002 in Monterey, California. Duration: 29:10.)
Watch Stephen Petranek's talk on TED.com, where you can download it, rate it, comment on it and find other talks and performances.
Read more about Stephen Petranek on TED.com.
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25 September 2007
MacArthur "genius" grant to TEDster Saul Griffith
Saul Griffith (watch his TEDTalk) has been awarded a 2007 MacArthur "genius" grant.
Griffith is one of the brains behind Instructables, a community website that lets users share directions for ... almost anything, from building your own home lathe to "How to Kiss." His think-tank design firm, Squid Labs, has invented an array of new devices and materials -- such as a "smart" rope that senses its load, or a machine for making low-cost eyeglass lenses through a process inspired by a water droplet -- and has now spun off several separate companies to dig deeper into some of the technologies it has pioneered, including Potenco, which makes the groovy pull-string power source for the XO laptop.
Look for other talks on TED.com from MacArthur grantees, including Majora Carter (2005), Anna Deavere Smith (1996) and Amy Smith (2004). With more to come ...
21 September 2007
StAR: Helping poor countries get their money back
This week, the UN and the World Bank launched the Stolen Asset Recovery initiative, or StAR -- a plan to help poor countries recover funds stolen by corrupt leaders and stashed overseas. According to Reuters:
World Bank estimates that cross-border flow of global proceeds from criminal activities, corruption and tax evasion is between $1 trillion and $1.6 trillion.
Meanwhile, 25 percent of the gross domestic product of African states is lost to corruption every year at the cost of about $148 billion.
In her talk at TED2007 in Monterey, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala talks about such stolen national assets, and why recovering them has significance far beyond the money involved. Okonjo-Iweala knows the problem from the inside out: When she was the Finance Minister of Nigeria, she launched an unprecedented suit to recover funds that the dictator Sani Abacha had stashed overseas. After 5 years in court, the suit recovered $500 million from Swiss banks -- just a fraction of the estimated $3 billion to $5 billion that Abacha is believed to have stolen, according to AllAfrica.com.
20 September 2007
Jill Sobule and Ethel: Together in Central Park
Wednesday night, Jill Sobule (watch her TEDTalk performance) and the modern string ensemble Ethel (watch their TEDTalk performance) paired up to play a charming set together in Central Park, a preview of the upcoming album from this partnership that began at TED2006. Backed by Ethel's wall of sound, Jill's sweet, funny, wise pop songs -- including a knockout version of "I Kissed a Girl" -- take on a new richness. The bill, which also included the New Standards from Minneapolis and the evening's star, Lesley Gore, was assembled by Bill Bragin of Joe's Pub, who works with the TED team to help choose some of the musicians for each TED. At the show: Rives (watch his TEDTalks) and Majora Carter (watch her TEDTalk).
Photo: Jill Sobule and Ethel's Cornelius Dufallo. Courtesy Marla Mitchnick
20 September 2007
Simply John Maeda, on TED.com
The MIT Media Lab's John Maeda lives at the intersection of technology and art -- a place that can get very complicated. Here, he talks about paring down to basics, and how he creates clean, elegant art, websites and web tools. In his book Laws of Simplicity, he offers 10 rules and 3 keys for simple living and working -- but in this talk, he boils it down to one simply delightful way to be. (Recorded March 2007 in Monterey, California. Duration: 16:10.)
Watch John Maeda's talk on TED.com, where you can download it, rate it, comment on it and find other talks and performances.
Read more about John Maeda on TED.com.
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18 September 2007
Searching for humanity's roots: Zeresenay Alemseged on TED.com
Zeresenay "Zeray" Alemseged has been digging the badlands of Ethiopia, looking for clues to humanity's origins. Here he talks about one of his most exciting finds: the 3.3-million-year-old bones of Selam, a 3-year-old hominid child, from the species Australopithecus afarensis. In studying Selam's tiny bones, Alemseged is searching for the points at which we humans became human. (Recorded June 2007 in Arusha, Tanzania. Duration: 16:08.)
Watch Zeresenay Alemseged's talk on TED.com, where you can download it, rate it, comment on it and find other talks and performances.
Read more about Zeresenay Alemseged on TED.com.
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14 September 2007
10 May 2008: Pangea Day
When she was awarded the 2006 TED Prize, filmmaker Jehane Noujaim expressed a wish: a global acceptance of diversity, mediated through the power of film. (Watch her speech.)
The project is taking off, and its ambition level is spectacular. On May 10, 2008, Pangea Day, sites in New York City, Rio, London, Dharamsala, Cairo, Jerusalem, and Kigali will be video-conferenced live to produce a 4-hour program of powerful films, supplemented by visionary speakers, and global musicians.
The purpose: to use the power of film to promote better understanding of our common humanity. A global audience will watch through the Internet, television, digital cinemas, and mobile phones. Yes, of course, movies alone can’t change the world. But the people who watch them can.
To start the process, a short Pangea Day trailer (2:30 min) has just been given front-page exposure on YouTube, inviting anyone to submit their films. Pangea is seeking films "that provoke, entertain and inspire". "Images are powerful to divide, but also to unite", says the trailer. Here it is:
13 September 2007
Scenes from "The War Tapes": Deborah Scranton on TED.com
The director of the award-winning documentary The War Tapes, Deborah Scranton makes films that help people tell their own stories. She talks about making The War Tapes, her 2006 doc that put videocameras in the hands of Charlie Company, a unit of the National Guard stationed in Iraq, for one year. Their raw footage and diaries tell a powerful, unsettling story. (Recorded March 2007 in Monterey, California. Duration: 17:49.)
Watch Deborah Scranton's talk on TED.com, where you can download it, rate it, comment on it and find other talks and performances.
Read more about Deborah Scranton on TED.com.
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12 September 2007
Reading the books of Craig and Jim
A few days ago TED2005 speaker Craig Venter (watch his talk) announced that his lab has finished sequencing a single human's genome -- his own. At his old company, Celera, Venter worked on sequencing his genome and four other genomes all mixed together, creating an anonymous composite. He told Newsweek:
What we got this time was a diploid genome—a genome that includes both sets of chromosomes from both my parents. We were surprised at how much variation between individuals there was.
You mean there's more genetic difference between one person and the next than we previously thought?
Absolutely. It's quite comforting to me as an individualist that we're not very close to being clones of one other. (...)
Why did you choose to decode your own genome?
It goes back to the government's notion that genetics has to be secret and anonymous. But there's really nothing anonymous with your genetic sequence—it's the ultimate identifier. I thought it was showing proper leadership—to show that I don't think there's any risk in it. I don't know if there's any scientist in this field that wouldn't want to have his own genome known.
(Read the full interview)
Nobel laureate (for co-discovering the double-helix structure of DNA), and fellow TED2005 speaker (watch his talk), James Watson couldn't probably agree more: he also had his genome fully sequenced three months ago. "Project Jim", as it was called, took 67 days of sequencing time and cost around USD 1 million. (More in this Newsweek story from June.)
The raw sequencing data of both Watson and Venter are publicly available in the US National Center for Biotechnology Information's Trace Archive.
11 September 2007
The stuff of thought, the myth of violence: Steven Pinker on TED.com
This week, Steven Pinker releases his latest book, The Stuff of Thought, about language as a window onto human nature. We present two TEDTalks from Steve Pinker: his 2005 talk at Oxford, in which he offers the TEDGlobal audience an exclusive preview of the book, and his most recent talk, at TED2007, where he previews his next topic: violence.
From TEDGlobal 2005: The stuff of thought. In an exclusive preview of his latest book, Steven Pinker looks at language as a window onto human nature. In both what we say and how we say it, we're communicating much more than we realize. (Recorded July 2005 in Oxford, England. Duration: 17:41.)
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From TED2007: A brief history of violence. In a preview of his next book, Steven Pinker takes on violence and the ways we perceive it. We live in violent times, an era of heightened warfare, genocide and senseless crime. Or so we've come to believe. Pinker charts a history of violence from Biblical times through the present, and says modern society has a little less to feel guilty about. (Recorded March 2007 in Monterey, California. Duration: 19:27.)
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Watch Steven Pinker's talks on TED.com, where you can download them, rate them, comment and find other talks and performances.
Read more about Steven Pinker on TED.com.
06 September 2007
EO Wilson on the Encyclopedia of Life
2007 TED Prize winner EO Wilson wished to create the key tool that we need to inspire preservation of Earth's biodiversity: the Encyclopedia of Life. On May 9th of this year, it was announced that a consortium of institutions were starting the work to make it happen. (Check out the video that Avenue A/Razorfish made for the launch.) In a piece in today's NY Times, Dr. Wilson explains why the creation of this encylopedia is crucial.
06 September 2007
Creatures on the beach: Theo Jansen on TED.com
Dutch sculptor Theo Jansen shares the story of his "Strandbeests," eerily lifelike kinetic sculptures that he has built from plastic tubes, old lemonade bottles and plastic ties. He hopes that these artificial life forms, as he calls them, will one day survive on their own, crawling the beaches of Holland. (Recorded March 2007 in Monterey, California. Duration: 8:25.)
Watch Theo Jansen's talk on TED.com, where you can download it, rate it, comment on it and find other talks and performances.
Read more about Theo Jansen on TED.com.
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06 September 2007
First look at Branson/Rutan's space terminal
Making private space travel possible and accessible to everyone has been a recurring topic at recent TED conferences, discussed by speakers such as Burt Rutan at TED 2006 (watch his speech), Peter Diamandis at TEDGLOBAL 2005, Richard Branson at TED 2007 and others. This week the first images of the central terminal and hangar facility at New Mexico's future private spaceport have been released:
Designed by engineering firm URS Corp and by architect Norman Foster, the structure, called Spaceport America, will serve as the operating basis for Branson's Virgin Galactic suborbital spaceliners, which are being built at Scaled Composites in California, founded by Rutan. Construction of the spaceport should begin in 2008.
Details in this story by Space.com.
05 September 2007
Paul Farmer on Rwanda
This year at TED, TED Prize winner Bill Clinton wished for us to partner with his foundation, the Rwandan government, and Partners in Health to build a sustainable, high-quality rural health system for the whole country. The pilot clinic in the Rwandan district of Rwinkwavu has been a proven success and there is a lot of TED energy going into scaling the system out to the next four districts. There's a great piece in Forbes today where Paul Farmer, founder of Partners in Health, explains a bit about the project and what led them to Rwanda.
04 September 2007
Taking a new look at Africa: Andrew Mwenda on TED.com
Andrew Mwenda is a journalist from Uganda and an active critic of many forms of Western aid to Africa. In this provocative talk, he asks us to reframe the "African question" -- to look beyond the media's stories of poverty, civil war and helplessness and see the opportunities for creating wealth and happiness throughout the continent. Most important, he says, the solution to Africa's problems is not more aid. (Recorded June 2007 in Arusha, Tanzania. Duration: 17:19.)
Watch Andrew Mwenda's talk on TED.com, where you can download it, rate it, comment on it and find other talks and performances.
Read more about Andrew Mwenda on TED.com.
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