Playlist

Lifesavers: Saturday TEDTalks Playlist

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As a 7.0 magnitude earthquake strikes New Zealand, and millions of people are being displaced by the monsoon flooding in Pakistan, we are reminded of Mother Nature’s powerful force and our lack of control over her moods. However, today’s playlist presents lifesavers: three speakers who have found ingenious solutions to the consequences of disaster.

Some of these solutions are being used to help the flood victims of rural Pakistan, with the help of Jacqueline Novogratz of the Acumen Fund and TED’s Chris Anderson. Chris shares these stories on his own blog: http://tedchris.posterous.com/.

With his Lifesaver filter, Michael Pritchard demonstrates his solution to finding clean drinking water in desperate situations, in what appears to be a wine-into-water-type miracle.

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  • Lalitesh Katragadda invites us all to be cartographers through his demo of Google’s Map Maker, a tool which helped saved thousands of lives during the aftermath of the 2008 cyclone that ravaged Myanmar.

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  • Erik Hersman and his team knew two things when violence broke out in Kenya three years ago: lives were in danger and everyone had a cell phone. They used this to build Ushahidi, a tool that allows the fast dissemination of information and updates in crises and disasters.

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  • We’d love to hear more of your favorite TEDTalks about lifesaving solutions. Add your suggestions to the comments below, join the conversation on Facebook, or email contact@ted.com with the subject PLAYLIST: LIFESAVERS. (Jog your memory with the TEDTalks spreadsheet.)

    Curator of this playlist: Rachel Tobias