Green Options » TED Talks

TED Talks: Architecture in the Future that Repairs Itself?

Lucille Chi — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 06:00:30 +0000

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This short Technology and Entertainment Design Conference clip is by Rachel Armstrong who states :

“Scientists need to work outside their own areas of expertise to make new technologies that are pertinent to the 21st century and to collaborate, both with other scientific disciplines and the arts and humanities.”

“Metabolic materials” - is what TED Fellow Rachel Armstrong researches - construction materials that possess some of the properties of living systems, and can be manipulated to “grow” architecture.

Rachel thinks of this as we think about awesome parks or gardens because “metabolic materials” are made from terrestrial chemistry…

Saving Seeds, Saving Our Future

Becky Striepe — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 07:00:32 +0000

A few weeks ago, we talked about the future of food and what you can do about it. With the rise of genetic modification and its threat to biodiversity, saving seeds is more important now than it has ever been. Not only do we need plants for food, we rely on them for everything from clothing to medicines to the air we breathe. We couldn’t live without plants, and the Kew Milennium Seed Bank is working to archive 10% of the world’s most threatened flora by 2010.

Ten percent may not sound like much, but it’s actually a huge undertaking. The project costs around £10 million per year to stay up and running, and they’ve saved over three billion seeds since they launched. The seed bank is currently having a hard time getting sufficient funds because of tough economic times and the London Olympics. They’ve received a £2 million bailout from the British government, but the Millennium Seed Bank needs more support. If you’re able, you can help out the Seed Bank by making a donation.

To learn a little more about the seed bank, what they do, and why it’s so important, check out this amazing TED Talk from Jonathon Drori:

Cities as the Solution, Not the Problem

Becky Striepe — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 12:00:16 +0000

Jaime Lerner is obsessed with cities. Specifically, he is obsessed with improving their sustainability through urban planning.

[Curitiba, where Jaime Lerner served three terms as mayor. Creative Commons photo by Felipe Freeze]

He transformed the city of Curitiba, Brazil while he was mayor there and now helps urban planners across the world build and improve cities.