New York is slowly but surely coming back to life after being battered by Hurricane Sandy. Nearly all of Manhattan has electricity, and subway lines are being restored. But not every area of the city is faring so well. As The New York Times noted on Saturday, many of the city’s public housing facilities — often located in low-lying neighborhoods that were hit worst by the storm — remain without power and may be without it for some time. The paper reports today that as many as 40,000 people from New York public housing complexes may be homeless, with their buildings in serious disrepair. TED’s Product Development Director, Thaniya Keereepart, shares what she saw:

On Thursday night, I went with some friends to the heart of the Red Hook Houses to volunteer for disaster recovery. Red Hook took a big blow of the flood from Hurricane Sandy. The water rose well above seven feet on the streets there and, compared to other neighborhoods, cleanup has been slow. I was expecting that I would just drop off food, clothing and supplies and help out at the center where I could. But I found something different there that compelled me to share with you. Below, the diary of my last few days.

Thursday

While a few of the buildings in Red Hook have power back on, overall, the neighborhood remains pitch dark. Because it is somewhat of a forgotten — or rather “de-prioritized” — neighborhood due to poverty level, the volunteer coordinator I spoke to expected that they will remain in darkness for the next 10 to 14 days to come. That is a long time to not have heat, water, working sanitation or light.

Upon entering the main office area of the volunteer center, a little girl rushed up to whoever she thought knew anything about anything. (Most people don’t. To my surprise, it was pure chaos.) She wanted insulin for her mother, who wasn’t able to come down 14 flights of stairs in darkness. There was none to give out. She took the last of the ice packs and was told that it will help keep whatever insulin left in the house cold (and I suppose longer lasting).

Rodents were also a big problem. The water had pushed critters up the building. Without light or power, raccoons, rats, the works would crawl everywhere. War broke out at the sight of a flashlight or batteries or blankets.

We were asked to go get water from Coffey Park by one of the coordinators. The National Guard had come by earlier and dumped a bunch there as a part of their “rescue effort,” so to speak, but why was the water left at the park? Five of us set foot into the night. The streets were dangerous. Teen boys howled at the sight of us. Crime is high here. The only light source around at this point was one mobile floodlight that shone on three cops who we spoke to briefly. Not a sign of care in the world as to what was going on around them. Their job was simply to stand in the light to emit presence.

We quickly realized that this volunteer center was not only immensely inefficient, but will likely not be able to continue to provide support to the community if the power stays out for two weeks without more help.

My friend JuAnne, a project manager at Google, and myself took it upon ourselves to analyze the workflow of the volunteer resources with the current heroic coordinator Kirby. Our hope is to build a lightweight system that helps improve volunteer process efficiency … in 36 hours. Turns out, the tool that the Red Hook team currently uses, and the one that I found them on, is from Recovers.org — and there’s a TEDTalk on it! This same platform is being deployed for the Lower East Side, Staten Island, and Astoria as well … all for Sandy.

Luckily, others are stepping in to help at the Red Hook Houses, and New York’s other out-of-power public housing facilities too. The folks from Occupy Wall Street — under the name to Occupy Sandy — are coordinating volunteers and resource distribution to areas still hurting from the storm. Through their website, you can volunteer to help in person and find out how to donate money as well as supplies like blankets, candles, flashlights, batteries, diapers, gloves, masks, rubber boots and, of course, nonperishable food.

Here’s hoping the power comes on far sooner than expected, and that cleanup efforts in this area are speedier than we fear.

Friday

It’s a weird feeling to hop back and forth between the warm and inviting Park Slope and the drastically not warm and inviting Red Hook.

Today was a shorter day at the volunteer center, but one of good progress. I am now able to access the admin panels of Occupy Sandy. Other areas seem to be utilizing the tool quite well, updating news to the general mass every few hours. Red Hook sort of goes with the minimalist approach of once every rarely. At the center, I was able to assess network needs. We’ll be placing WiFi repeaters on location once the shipment arrives (hopefully Monday) so people can share data entry responsibilities using a Google Doc. Logistics also improved tremendously with a few key coordinators in place and simple changes (like name tags!) were implemented. We also got one nurse. Yay. Most of the medical asks have been related to diabetes (no insulin, no fridge) and asthma.

We’re working towards placing orders for battery- and solar-powered lights to all of the Red Hook House buildings that are still in the dark. That’s about 63 building entrances, about 354 hallways, covering a few city blocks. More friends joined in, pledging batteries and blankets.

Back towards the edge of Park Slope, lines around the one and only gas station formed about five blocks long on all sides. One lady I talked to had been waiting more than four hours and, as rumor had it, the next gas drop wouldn’t be for an hour and a half. Yet no one budged. Every now and then, someone would scalp gas. Eight cop cars were lined up every side to break up the occasional fights from line cutters. There is a $50 per person spending limit at this station, so many people would bring the entire family over to wait. The price one pays for liquid gold. Of course 20 minutes later, a huge “rogue truck” swung into the parking lot of a hotel and started pumping gas straight from the truck for a “nonregulated sum.” I didn’t see this with my own eyes, but the chaos that ensued was probably as maddening as you can imagine.

Saturday

After much discussion on how to best improve logistic operation, we decided to abandon the custom-built software route. Trained volunteers worked in shifts digitizing requests and response (“canvasing”) over numerous Google Doc spreadsheets. That was enough to streamline the core necessities — search, sort, logging, etc. The team became so efficient that word got on the street that the Red Hook operation has a great working model. Teams from nearby operations came to get training in the afternoon.

My job for the day was to shuffle materials into the center and coordinate needs. Volunteer medical personnel arrived. That was a huge relief. Our friend Todd came through with 200 units of LED lights. We formed “project light path” at the center where teams of 3-4 volunteers visit the homes of known cases with medical, elderly, family to deliver light. I joined the last team out. Four of us — Vanessa, who biked from Bushwick, my friend Lander who coordinated all the need surveys across the entire project, and Andrew, a 16-year-old who lives in the neighborhood and had been helping out for many days.

Many grateful faces greeted us. Stories were shared. Neighbors helped each other. Andrew, more than anyone, gave me hope. We walked past one bus garage hiring drivers and he asked if we could write down the contact number for his brother. He goes to a magnet high school for environmental studies by Columbus Circle. He brought up the case of Nikola Tesla and asked if we knew it was a political assassination. Having him on the team to guide us through the labyrinth of dark streets with seemingly identical buildings made me feel safer. When we conversed with the elders visited, I could tell the kid has a great heart. I think he might find TEDYouth an engaging event. If I find him again I’ll ask.

The night ended late. I was exhausted. A long and thorough shower was in order. Overall I think the neighborhood is becoming more stable. With heat-pack delivery on Monday and continued food and medical units on the ground, these guys are on their way to better recovery.

On Friday, Oct. 5, the TED Conversations community hosted Vicki Arroyo for a one-hour live chat to talk about adapting to climate change — and to share more data behind the story. Read the whole chat — and see some highlights below:

Feyisayo Anjorin asked:

Recently Nigeria’s coastal states has been experiencing fatal floodings. With your experience and expertise; what do you think should be the focus of research institutions in Africa as it pertains to climate change?

Vicki Arroyo replied:

There’s a great deal of work that can be done to develop crops that will survive in new conditions, anticipating the problems of more water stress, for example — my friends Kris Ebi and Joel Smith are doing some of this work in Mali.

The slide I showed of Bangladesh regards a flood warning system that could give advance notice to move people, animals, and equipment out of harms’ way when flooding is anticipated. This was developed in part by our National Center on Atmospheric Research here in the US, but given satellites and other technologies, these techniques can be exported to help in Africa and elsewhere.

For coastal areas, hard questions are being raised about what areas to protect (with levees) or change (e.g.,bstilts) or relocate – and when we plan, we need to think about protecting the critical ecosystems (wetlands, mangroves, and beaches) along our coasts as well. If we just put up walls we will lose many vital ecosystems that we depend on for fishing,etc.

Our own Aja Bogdanoff asked:

I’m wondering if you could share any thoughts about what we could be doing to prepare our coastal airports. You mentioned this in your talk, but are there any real solutions for such massive infrastructure? Should we move the airports? Put runways on stilts?

Vicki Arroyo replied:

I like the runways on stilts idea — but it might be a bit scary to fly into one! Given the incredible economic value of airports, I do not doubt that we will find ways to protect or move some of that infrastructure.

It will not be cheap or easy, but it’s so central to trade, business, tourism, and more. The analysis will have to be site-specific to determine the best options over the long-term. And in the near-term, we should all be asking these questions as airports get renovated and expanded, as is happening now in New Orleans, ironically.

Watch Pavan Sukhdev’s talk on TED.com, where you can download it, rate it, comment on it and find other talks and performances from our archive of 1,000+ TEDTalks.

You’re an artist and designer primarily concerned with how our bodies interact with the world.

I’m concerned with finding alternatives that challenge the disconnect we have between our bodies and the environment, and the fear that we have of our own bodies. I think ultimately it speaks to our denial of death, our fear of death. Our bodies are essentially our primary reminders that we are mortal –- that we are physical beings. We eat, we defecate, we decay.

Can you tell me the idea behind the Infinity Burial Project?

I became very interested in the relationship between death denial and the fact that death has become harmful to the environment. I think death could provide an opportunity to reconcile all of our energy and resource consumption and pollution. Instead, in the West, at least, we fear death –- a fear which leads us to embalm the body with toxic chemicals.

I wanted to create a project and set of tools that would challenge this by promoting the actual process of and acceptance of decomposition.

But if you’re dead, why does it matter?

By simply living, eating and breathing, our bodies become storehouses of toxins, energy, and resources that are accumulated over a lifetime. Contemporary funeral practices both return those toxins to the environment and, in the case of a “traditional” funeral, increase the toxin load. In the practice of embalming, the body is drained of fluids and replaced with a formaldehyde-based fluid, which preserves the body so that it looks “alive” for open-casket viewing. Meanwhile, the body itself becomes a toxic site, which causes respiratory problems and cancer in funeral personnel.

When a body is cremated, it releases all those toxins into the atmosphere, not to mention the additional energy used –- about 5 kilowatt hours, a tremendous amount. There’s no control over how the toxins then get reintegrated back into the environment -– all the mercury goes into the air, which falls back into the water, which goes into the plant life and the oceans and the fish, and then cycles back into our bodies. And many people think cremation is the most green option. It may be better than some funeral practices, but it’s not really green at all.

Have you found a species of mushrooms that already breaks down human tissue, are you developing one?

I am in the process of training edible mushroom species to break down human tissue –- cultivating them on my own discarded body tissue –- because they are known to remediate some of our environmental toxins. Of course, there’s no single mushroom or cluster of mushrooms that remediates all the toxins involved, but it’s a start. Paul Stamets has proven you can train some mushrooms to grow on any organic material. He has trained them to eat petrochemicals.

How does one train a mushroom?

Although the mushrooms I’m using prefer wood-based food sources, mushrooms will pretty much eat anything. The training process involves introducing different food sources to the mushrooms and then slowly depriving the mushrooms of wood-based substances. One mycologist has even trained mushrooms to eat plastics like Bakelite.

Your spore-embroidered ninja suit, which is in development, is a prototype. So tell us how this works: the corpse will be dressed and buried in the suit? What’s it made of?

The suit is made of a cotton base layer that is overlaid with a crocheted cotton netting. The netting is embedded with mushroom mycelia and spores. The pattern of this crocheted netting is a visual representation of how mushroom mycelia grow.

I’m also working on other delivery mechanisms. One is a second skin made of a nutrient gel, embedded with bacteria and spore-filled capsules.

Are people donating their bodies to you already?

Yes, a number of people have offered to do so. My TED Talk has allowed me to reach a broader audience, and as a result more folks have signed up to become decompinauts. But no formal agreements have been made. I’m exploring what language and legal instruments are needed to allow donations.

What else are you working on now?

I’m planning a workshop on the ins and outs of choosing, then declaring — both legally and socially — one’s desired postmortem corpse-disposal method. The workshop is meant to be educational and facilitate the selection of alternative postmortem options such as the Infinity Burial System.

Do your ideas spring from doing art? Or do they originate from life experience, then find expression in art?

The ideas often develop initially out of a lived experience such as a specific event, physical condition, etc. But then each project expands to become a platform for inquiry about larger issues. The design or product is not the end goal, but rather the beginning of an intentional dialogue.

For example, the MIT FEMA Trailer Project grew out of my work with the City of New Orleans and its soil remediation efforts. We received a single surplus FEMATrailer and converted it into a mobile composting site with a vertical garden, rainwater recycling apparatus, and Permaculture library. We used the trailer transformation as an opportunity to understand and create dialogue about the history of the trailers (via a timeline), their part in the longstanding and entrenched environmental justice issues in the Gulf Coast, and government waste.

In the case of the Infinity Burial Project, the Mushroom Death Suit, the Decompiculture Society, and the alternative postmortem gear are tools in themselves, but are also ways to investigate and create a dialogue around our funeral practices, death denial, and the relationship between our postmortem practices and the environment.

Tell me about the art program at MIT, and how you came to this very interesting intersection of science and art.

The visual arts program at MIT (now called the Program in Art, Culture and Technology) grew out of the Center for Advanced Visual Studies that was founded by Gyorgy Kepes in the 1960s, then later directed by Otto Piene in the spirit of facilitating greater integration of art, technology, and science.

Today, the program is based in the Department of Architecture and directed by curator Ute Meta Bauer. Many of the students and faculty are involved in research-based, transdisciplinary practices that don’t necessarily fit into a typical art or design structure.

I studied psychology and was pre-med as an undergrad, and just prior to entering the program I was involved in social work and social policy research. So when I started to look at art programs, I wanted to be in a place where aesthetic, social, and scientific inquiry could work together.

How has being a TED Fellow changed the way you approach your work?

I’ve been truly inspired by meeting the other Fellows and joining a community of discipline-agnostic game changers. What’s been really illuminating is learning that our methodologies are often interchangeable or transferable -– such as the strategies used to build a community around one’s work. This has imparted a feeling that I no longer operate in an art ghetto, that the definition and reach of my work, the processes, and dialogue are much broader than I realized.

There are many aspiring social entrepreneurs out there who are trying to take their passion and ideas to the next level. What one piece of advice would you give them, based on your own experience and successes?

A friend of mine came up with the phrase “Input thinking, output feeling” — in other words, don’t take things personally, and treat others with sensitivity and empathy. Doris Kearns Goodwin writes about Abraham Lincoln’s legendary empathy, which he exercised both in political strategizing and in his personal interactions with soldiers and young children, among others. He denounced criticism of Southern slave owners, and instead tried to understand their motivations, which allowed him later to mold and shift attitudes.

Watch Justin Hall-Tipping’s talk on TED.com, where you can download it, rate it, comment on it and find other talks and performances from our archive of 1,000+ TEDTalks.

Watch Kate Hartman’s talk on TED.com, where you can download it, rate it, comment on it and find other talks and performances from our archive of 1,000+ TEDTalks.

“As the ocean gives us life, we must give back — an enduring gift from us to the future.” — Sylvia Earle

Today we celebrate 2009 TED Prize winner Sylvia Earle‘s birthday by celebrating the many successes in ocean protection that took place in 2011.

Sylvia recently told us the good news: “[This year there was] a significant increase in protection by the U.K. for the Chagos Archipelago, by Chile for the waters around Sal y Gomez, by Costa Rica for the Cocos Islands in addition to greater protection for sharks in Hawaii, the Republic of Palau, Honduras and the Maldives — and more! Pacific Island nations are collaborating in an effort to greatly increase the size and scope of safe havens for ocean wildlife. Awareness is growing about the need to reform fishing policies. Momentum is growing on many fronts, from the Sargasso Sea to the Ross Sea and beyond.”

But there is plenty more to do to build on this recent success. Recently Sylvia helped launch OceanElders, a group of leaders from around the world including Ted Turner and Sir Richard Branson, who have come together to shine a global spotlight on the need for ocean conservation.

We want to know how you are helping fulfill Sylvia’s wish. Join us in a new TED Conversation to discuss what steps you are taking to protect the ocean.

You can also follow Sylvia on Facebook and Twitter.

– Casson Rosenblatt

Watch Jessica Green’s talk on TED.com, where you can download it, rate it, comment on it and find other talks and performances from our archive of 1,000+ TEDTalks.

Watch Eben Bayer’s talk on TED.com where you can download it, rate it, comment on it and find other talks and performances from our archive of 700+ TEDTalks.

Burning oil on the surface of the Gulf of Mexico.

The first major oil slick we saw on the way to the Deepwater Horizon site.

Burning oil on the surface of the Gulf of Mexico.

The Deepwater Horizon accident site.

Oil on the surface of the Gulf of Mexico.

The Discoverer Enterprise at the Deepwater Explorer disaster site.

Gas is flared in a controlled burn at the Deepwater Horizon disaster site.

The Discoverer Enterprise at the Deepwater Explorer disaster site.

Gas is flared in a controlled burn at the Deepwater Horizon disaster site.

The Discoverer Enterprise at the Deepwater Explorer disaster site.

Deepwater Driller II at the Deepwater Horizon disaster site. This is one of two drilling rigs drilling the relief wells.

Oil on the surface of the Gulf of Mexico.

Burning oil on the surface of the Gulf of Mexico.

All photos in this set credit: James Duncan Davidson. June 17th, 2010.

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Static Photography heads down to the Gulf with TEDxOilSpill Expedition

TEDxOilSpill Expedition photos by Kris Krüg

TEDxOilSpill photos by Duncan Davidson

TEDxOilSpill photos by Pinar Ozger