Entries from TED Blog tagged with 'climate change'
05 June 2009
Q&A with Yann Arthus-Bertrand: The environmentalist behind the camera
Today, photographer Yann Arthus-Bertrand launched his movie Home, an environmentally conscious tour of our planet through panoramic vistas that focuses on human impact -- our mistakes and possibilities for improvement. Yann took some time out of this busy day to answer a few questions for the TEDBlog by email, going beyond his recent TEDTalk to give us insight on his attempts to document and save our home and humanity.
How was your experience at TED? Did you enjoy giving a TEDTalk?
Wonderful experience, especially the audience and the people I met during the sessions. It would be great if we did something similar to TED in France.
As you can see and hear, even with a lot of rehearsals, I’m not a great speaker. I guess that’s why I take pictures and made a movie.
Have you seen your TEDTalk online? What did you think of it?
Not yet. The last few days have been hectic.
Today is Home’s world premiere. It’s happening in more than 100 countries, in 33 languages and on 65 TV channels from Nepal to Burkina Faso, from Russia to Argentina, and of course in the United States.
Is there anything you would have liked to say in your TEDTalk, but didn’t have time to?
Don’t tempt me. I never lose an opportunity to speak about my obsession: humankind and the environment.
Why the aerial photography? How did you come to decide that this was the perspective for you? Not scared of heights, we take it?
I learned to be a hot-air balloon pilot to take tourists over the Masaï Mara Reserve, in order to earn some money and finance the work I was doing with my wife Anne. We were studying the life of a family of lions for more than two years. Taking pictures was a way to capture information we could not put in words.
What are the mechanics behind getting your aerial shots? Your website says that helicopters are best, but what do use when one isn’t available? Do you use harnesses for safety?
I have the impression that I'm photographing life, not landscapes. For me an aerial picture is no different than a close-up portrait. It’s a question of framing and angle. Helicopters are great for that. But I’ve also used planes. Of course, I always have a harness.
Any close calls when leaning out of an aircraft to capture an amazing shot? Would you like to share the story?
After Hurricane Katrina, over New Orleans, my helicopter crashed and the pilot and I were only saved because we fell on the roof of a flooded house that absorbed the shock. When the helicopter was spiraling downward out of control, I didn’t expect to survive at all.
You’re a photographer, but also an environmentalist in many ways. Was there a particular experience or time in your life, maybe in your childhood, that sparked your commitment to building awareness of our environment and your fascination with nature?
My fondness for nature goes back to childhood, but it was as an adult that I became an advocate. Like a lot of people, it was in 1992, during the Earth Summit in Rio, that for the first time I heard expressions like climate change, biodiversity, sustainable development. I felt like an urgency to act -- or to put it in another way, to use my work for this cause.
08 April 2008
New thinking on climate change: Al Gore's new slideshow premieres on TED.com
In Al Gore's brand-new slideshow (premiering exclusively on TED.com), he presents evidence that the pace of climate change may be even worse than scientists were recently predicting, and challenges us to act with a sense of "generational mission" -- the kind of feeling that brought forth the civil rights movement -- to set it right. Gore's stirring presentation is followed by a Q&A in which he is asked for his verdict on the current political candidates' climate policies and on what role he himself might play in future. (Recorded March 2008 in Monterey, California. Duration: 27:54.)
Watch Al Gore's talk on TED.com, where you can download it, rate it, comment on it and find other talks and performances.
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13 November 2007
Geo-engineering to slow global warming: David Keith on TED.com
Environmental scientist David Keith talks about a cheap, effective, shocking solution to climate change: What if we injected a huge cloud of particles into the atmosphere, to deflect sunlight and heat? As an emergency measure to slow a melting ice cap, it could work. Keith discusses why geo-engineering like this is a good idea, why it's a terrible one -- and who, despite the cost, might be tempted to use it. (Recorded September 2007 in New York City. Duration: 16:04.)
Watch David Keith's talk on TED.com, where you can download it, rate it, comment on it and find other talks and performances.
Read more about David Keith on TED.com.
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01 October 2007
Gore's call for a carbon/jobs Marshall plan
Al Gore (TED2006 speech) at last week's Clinton Global Initiative:
"The key to fighting global poverty is to have the wealthy nations and the developing nations join together to reduce global warming ... What we need is a global Marshall plan to make the creation of jobs around the reduction of carbon the central principle for how we develop this." (From the FT)
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
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
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
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.
12 August 2007
Wired's Anderson on Lomborg's "Cool It"
Wired editor Chris Anderson got an advance copy of Bjorn Lomborg's upcoming book Cool It: The Skeptical Environmentalist's Guide to Global Warming, and his summary is: read it, but don't follow his advice.
Lomborg (watch his TED2005 speech) argues that although global warming is clearly happening and is human-caused, the debate over what to do about it has been polluted by way too much bad science, non-science, inflamed rhetoric and outright fibs.
In the book, the Danish political scientist offers numerous examples of how much of the rhetoric over the effects of climate change doesn't stand up to scrutiny (for example: the most likely effect of climate change would be to increase, not decrease, the amount of ice in Antarctica).
"It's time to put the debate over whether human-driven climate change is happening behind us and instead focus on technologies to decarbonize the economy," writes Anderson. But climate change is only one of three strong reasons to do this, he adds: the others are economics (rising direct and indirect costs of oil and carbon fuels) and geopolitics (oil revenues prop up bad governments around the world).
There is a fourth reason that Anderson forgets, and which has been convincingly put forth by Al Gore in his TED2006 speech: it's a moral imperative.
16 February 2007
Gore's SOS -- Save Our Selves
Along the social absorption route, there is always a point where complex issues and inconvenient messages percolate into the pop-culture sphere and start being considered self-evident, possibly triggering changes in behavior and other individual or collective responses.
For the climate crisis that point may be nearing. It may even have a precise date: this year's 7th of July (7/7/7). A group of environmental activists surrounding former US vice-president Al Gore (see his speech at TED2006) has just announced plans for a worldwide event, called LiveEarth, featuring big live concerts in cities on seven continents (another "7") broadcast on television, radio, online (by sponsor MSN)
and on cell phones (yes, one of the concerts will be broadcast from
Antarctica, that will be a first) to mobilize global action to face the
climate crisis.
The initiative will use as its identifier the international SOS Morse code (three dots, three dashes, three dots - see logo at right), re-interpreting it as a continuous distress call where SOS stands for "Save Our Selves".
"The climate crisis will only be stopped by an unprecedented and
sustained global movement", Gore said announcing the initiative (watch the video), which he called "a mass persuasion campaign" that will also outline (through the websites) ways in which individuals, companies and politicians can take action.
LiveEarth is of course modeled on the 1985 LiveAid (to raise funds for famine relief) and the 2005 Live8 (to
raise pressure for debt relief and eliminating poverty) international
concerts. It was imagined by Kevin Wall, who produced Live8. More than 100 artists will appear - including Sheryl Crow, Bon Jovi, Red Hot Chili Peppers, local acts (to attract local audiences), etc.
For Gore, LiveEarth will be a spectacular way to extend the message of his film "An Inconvenient Truth" (which is nominated for an Oscar later this month) and of his Climate Project (training volunteers to give his slide show). But of course it won't go without controversies
-- starting with the question of whether he's just building up a run
for US President in 2008 (which he dismisses: "I have no intentions of
running"). The other focus of criticism will be the environmental impact of the multicontinental concert (air travel, mass audiences producing mass waste, energy consumption, etc). Wall and Gore say they're using LiveEarth to design a "Green event standard" that could become a "model for carbon-neutral concerts and other live entertainment events".
(Cross-posted on LunchOverIP)
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