Watch Edward Burtynsky’s talk on TED.com, where you can download this TEDTalk, rate it, comment on it and find other talks and performances from our archive of 500+ TEDTalks.

+ In 2007, biologist E.O. Wilson wished that we would help him build a comprehensive catalog of life on Earth. The Encyclopedia of Life launched this spring and is growing — with many ways for both scientists and non-scientists to contribute. Create an account on the site to hear about the latest updates and opportunities — including the debut of a tool for uploading your own photos. Find out more about The Encyclopedia of Life and EOL.org>>

+ In 2005, photographer Edward Burtynsky wished for new ways to teach kids about environmental stewardship. Working with WGBH in Boston, his web cartoon show, The Greens, just celebrated its first anniversary and seventh episode. Watch shows online and download art and music, take a movie quiz and share the site with kids you know. Find out more about The Greens >>

+ At TED2008, physicist Neil Turok wished for the TED community’s help in developing math and sciences talent all over Africa, though the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences (AIMS). Our next Einstein, he says, could be African. At NextEinstein.org, learn more about AIMS, watch video interviews with students, and find many ways to help in this drive to open 15 math and sciences academies in Africa and fund scholarships for the best and the brightest on the continent. Find out more about NextEinstein.org >>

+ in 2008, writer and activist Dave Eggers gave a hilarious TED Prize talk about his wish: that we will all become personally involved in our local schools, and tell a story about it. Whether you volunteer with a chapter of Dave’s 826 National foundation, or on your own, sign in at OnceUponASchool.org and share your story. Find out more about OnceUponASchool.org >>

+ In 2006, filmmaker Jehane Noujaim made an audacious wish: to connect the world for one day through the power of film. Last weekend’s Pangea Day was a moving 4-hour festival — and you can replay the day on PangeaDay.org. Watch the films, speakers and music you missed, find ways to take action, and discuss each film on the site (click on “Comments” to expand the discussion). Find out more about PangeaDay.org >>

+ In 2006, Cameron Sinclair asked TED to help him build an open-source platform to help architects connect with communities in need of designs. The result was the Open Architecture Network — a successful website that acts as both a clearinghouse for building plans and a vibrant social network, allows its users to sample, remix and customize design work for their needs. To help Sinclair’s wish come true, join the community at the Open Architecture Network’s website.

+ In 2006, Dr. Larry Brilliant wished to start a global early warning system to prevent the spread of infectious disease. The organization that grew out of this wish, Innovative Support To Emergencies Diseases and Disasters (InSTEDD) is a venue for humanitarian collaboration with a focus on those involved in disease tracking and disaster response. You can help Dr. Brilliant now by test-driving an alpha version of their crisis assistance directory.

When photographer Edward Burtynsky won the 2005 TED Prize, he wished that the TED community would help him teach kids how to live green. This month, his web cartoon series for kids, The Greens, turns 1 year old — and celebrates 3 million page views! Written and produced by WGBH in Boston (with partners including PBS, TV Ontario, National Geographic, Zerofootprint, Earthwatch Institute, Climate Cartoons, and many grassroots organizations), the site is full of great ways to help kids learn about caring for our planet. This month, a clip from The Greens will be distributed to movie theaters across the US. It’s a great message and it’s fun to share. The Greens’ producer Bill Shribman asks:

If you blog, twitter or otherwise inhabit the Interweb, please grab buttons, blurbs or embeddable video from http://www.meetthegreens.org/share/ to help this great kids’ project reach an even wider audience. For more information, you can reach the project’s producer Bill Shribman at the_greens@meetthegreens.org

Watch Edward Burtynsky make his TED Prize wish >>

Watch the promo for The Greens >>

"Manufactured landscapes" is based on the work of photographer — and 2005 TED Prize winner (watch his speech) — Ed Burtynsky, whose camera has captured stunning images of man-transformed landscapes around the world.

Burtynsky is not much interested in micro: his focus is on vastness, on the scale of the environmental scars and transformations brought forth by industry, energy production and transportation. The documentary (trailer) is a hybrid: it’s a meditation that makes very little use of words, leaving it to images and
situational sounds and noises to tell the story, and at the same time a
convincing illustration of the monstrosity of today’s global trade.
Although Baichwal shows images from Canada, California and Bangladesh
– and makes generous use of Burtynsky’s TEDPrize speech — the movie’s
main character is China, the "manufacture to the world": there,
Burtynsky, followed by Baichwal’s cameras, has shot factories, huge
container ports, quarries, the Three Gorges Dam, electronics
graveyards, the rapid urbanization of Shanghai. (Another great movie, recently, has shown some of this within a fictional frame: Gianni Amelio’s "The Missing Star").

Burtynsky’s work (see his books) can be unsettling. He extracts beautiful, sometimes poetic images from outrageous alterations and destructions of the environment. He calls himself an artist — not a reporter — and refrains from judging what he photographs or from politicizing it,
wanting, as he said at TED, to "make people think harder about our
planet’s future" without suggesting them a direction. As the film goes
I find myself thinking of painters: Jackson Pollock, Piet Mondrian,
Salvador Dalì because, respectively, Burtynsky’s photos of a computer
components dump, the stacks of containers in the port of Tianjin, and
the lunar shipbreaking beach of Chittagong (Bangladesh) oddly remind of
their artworks.

The photographer has a rationale for aestheticizing this devastation: that’s a way to gain access.
Most of what Burtynsky photographs is on private land: "My work is
mostly negotiation, with some photography thrown in", he said half-jokingly at the
premiere in San Francisco. There is a scene in the movie where he is
shown with his assistants and an interpreter trying to talk Chinese
officials into opening the gates to a neverending coal yard, and the
key sentence is "we will make it beautiful". Asked how he convinced
factory managers to gather all their thousands of employees on a street
for the picture that makes the poster of the movie (see image),
Burtynsky explained that what Westerners see as a robotization of
workers, the Chinese proudly consider an organizational and industrial
achievement.

This discrepancy echoes throughout the documentary. It powerfully reminds us
that "stuff" doesn’t just happen, that it comes from somewhere,
although we tend to forget or ignore it (thought of the impact of the
extraction industry lately?) And it illustrates how, as we transform
nature, we redefine who we are and our relationship to the planet.

Watch Ed Burtynsky’s 2005 TED Prize acceptance speech here; WIRED.com has posted a portfolio of photographs here. And check out one result of Burtynsky’s TED Prize wishes: Meet the Greens, a site and show that teach kids about the environment.