Days before this talk, journalist Naomi Klein was on a boat in the Gulf of Mexico, looking at the catastrophic results of BP's risky pursuit of oil.
Our societies have become addicted to extreme risk in finding new energy, new financial instruments and more ... and too often, we're left to clean up a mess afterward. Klein's question: What's the backup plan?
Sharon L. Butler, an artist and writer, maintains an award-winning art blog, Two Coats of Paint, blogs for The Huffington Post, and is a contributing writer at The Brooklyn Rail.
She has received several grants, residencies and awards, including a Pollock-Krasner Foundation grant, Pocket Utopia artist residencies, Connecticut Commission on Culture artist fellowship, Blue Mountain Center Artists' fellowship, and Connecticut State University research grants.
In addition, her art work is included in private collections in New York, Los Angeles, Boston, Baltimore, Tampa, Philadelphia, Providence, Berlin, London and Kyoto.
Butler is an art professor at Eastern Connecticut State University.
Technology is evolving us, says Amber Case, as we become a screen-staring, button-clicking new version of homo sapiens.
We now rely on "external brains" (cell phones and computers) to communicate, remember, even live out secondary lives. But will these machines ultimately connect or conquer us? Case offers surprising insight into our cyborg selves.
Amber Case studies the symbiotic interactions between humans and machines -- and considers how our values and culture are being shaped by living lives increasingly mediated by high technology.
Amber Case is a cyborg anthropologist, examining the way humans and technology interact and evolve together.
In this short talk, Arianna Huffington shares a small idea that can awaken much bigger ones: the power of a good night's sleep.
Instead of bragging about our sleep deficits, she urges us to shut our eyes and see the big picture: We can sleep our way to increased productivity and happiness -- and smarter decision-making.
Arianna Huffington is the co-founder and editor-in-chief of The Huffington Post, a nationally syndicated columnist, and author of many books.
She is also co-host of "Left, Right & Center," public radio’s popular political roundtable program, as well as "Both Sides Now," a weekly syndicated radio show with Mary Matalin moderated by Mark Green.
The future of green is local -- and entrepreneurial. At TEDxMidwest, Majora Carter brings us the stories of three people who are saving their own communities while saving the planet. Call it "hometown security."
Majora Carter redefined the field of environmental equality, starting in the South Bronx at the turn of the century. Now she is leading the local economic development movement across the USA.
Majora Carter is a visionary voice in city planning who views urban renewal through an environmental lens. The South Bronx native draws a direct connection between ecological, economic and social degradation. Hence her motto: "Green the ghetto!"
With her inspired ideas and fierce persistence, Carter managed to bring the South Bronx its first open-waterfront park in 60 years, Hunts Point Riverside Park. Here she is on EcoActivism, more about her after the talk: