3 TED Videos on a Greener Future

We all hear about the inspiring and brilliant TED videos where inventors, thought leaders and social activists give a scintillating 18-20 minutes speech about their own topic of interest. While the talks about social media, politics, economics, language, design, architecture and many more gave us much food for thought, there are interesting TED demo videos which give us a glimpse of future technologies and what is going to come. For this week, we look to 3 TED videos on a Greener Future for social entrepreneurship and sustainable development from Al Gore’s update on the environment, Shai Agassi’s initiative on how we can transition to an electric car economy and finally Yann Arthus-Bertrand’s new project “Home”.

• Video 1 – Al Gore warns on latest climate trends: At TED2009, Al Gore presents updated slides from around the globe to make the case that worrying climate trends are even worse than scientists predicted, and to make clear his stance on “clean coal.”

Why it is interesting: We have all read or watched the movie “An Inconvenient Truth” two years back. So, what’s the status of climate change two years later? Al Gore provided more data and information to back up on how we need to start and take action to ensure that our children will live in a better world.

• Video 2 – Shai Agassi’s bold plan for electric cars: Forget about the hybrid auto — Shai Agassi says it’s electric cars or bust if we want to impact emissions. His company, Better Place, has a radical plan to take entire countries oil-free by 2020.

Why it is interesting: Electric cars are a great alternative to hybrid cars which still requires the use of petroleum. Shai Agassi’s initiative give us a plan in how to set up a transition towards a electric car economy. Actually, in the context of Singapore, it will be cool to see a Tesla car in our neighbourhood soon.

• Video 3 – Yann Arthus-Bertrand captures fragile Earth in wide-angle: In this image-filled talk, Yann Arthus-Bertrand displays his three most recent projects on humanity and our habitat — stunning aerial photographs in his series “The Earth From Above,” personal interviews from around the globe featured in his web project “6 billion Others,” and his soon-to-be-released movie, “Home,” which documents human impact on the environment through breathtaking video.

Why it is interesting: I like Yann Arthus-Bertrand‘s famous photo work in “The Earth from Above” when I saw the photographs outside a museum in London. In order to help the climate change advocates to tell their side of the story, he embarked on an interesting project to show the imperative need for each one of us to combat climate change.