Maria Medem The winters, springs, summers and autumns, the rainy and dry seasons that we remember will not be those that our children and their children will enjoy. It’s rare today to find someone over 50 who isn’t conscious that the weather patterns that defined their childhoods are being quickly and drastically altered. Glaciers and lakes are rapidly retreating, and …

Angus Greig This post is part of TED’s “How to Be a Better Human” series, each of which contains a piece of helpful advice from people in the TED community; browse through all the posts here.  When you think about your past work week and all the meetings you had, what was the thing that you found most frustrating? As a meetings …

Unsplash When the World Health Organization officially declared a pandemic on March 11 2020, the planet had already warmed by around 1.2℃ since pre-industrial times. However, the pandemic began a sudden and unprecedented drop in human activity, as much of the world went into lockdown and factories stopped operating, cars kept off the roads and planes were grounded. There have …

Historically, science has been a male-dominated field. Despite dramatic increases in representation over the last 40 years, globally fewer than 30 percent of researchers today in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) careers are women. Women scientists are also paid less for entry level jobs; they tend to have shorter careers with less progression and growth; and only make up …

Unsplash Most people know bees for two things: their sweetness (in the form of honey) or their stings. But they’re so much more than that. Honeybees, for example, live in highly structured social groups where each bee has a role to play. Some bees are solitary and can chew holes in wood. Others can be blue or white or green. …

Alejandro Chaskielberg What would you do if every photo you owned just disappeared? Would you panic? Cry? Would you feel like a part of you went missing? What if you lost your home or your hometown in the process too? Our focus in the aftermath of natural disasters is on the immediate: the loss of life, of buildings and of …

Pete Ryan This post is part of TED’s “How to Be a Better Human” series, each of which contains a piece of helpful advice from people in the TED community; browse through all the posts here.  Slumped shoulders, downcast eyes, avoiding your texts — it’s not hard to recognize when one of your friends, family members or colleagues is having a rough …

Alamy What does a better world look like? Is it one where people have decent-paying jobs, the air and water are clean and natural ecosystems flourish? Well, we can make that kind of future a reality if we start transitioning more people away from carbon-emitting fossil fuels and towards renewable energy. But a transition to a greener, cleaner planet will …

DENNIS SCHROEDER / NREL (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0) There are two numbers you need to know about climate change. The first is 51 billion. The other is zero. Fifty-one billion is how many tons of greenhouse gases the world typically adds to the atmosphere every year. Although the figure may go up or down a bit from year to year, it’s …

Unsplash Thousands of years ago, the Maya people of Central America believed that chocolate was the food of the gods. The Maya — who helped pioneer cultivation of the cocoa tree, along with the Toltec and Aztec peoples — even used cocoa beans as a form of currency. Fast forward to today, and chocolate is considered less of a rarity …