Ted Talks and The Four Principles of Sustainability
GEOG 130-004
Patrick Naughton
Professor Gibbons
Bridgewater State University
Introduction
There are 5 Ted Talks being examined here today, all of which address sustainability in some form or another. The first speaker we cover is Sylvia Earle, an oceanic researcher with a Ted Talk about the importance of our oceans followed by a short summary of discussion by William Kamkwamba, a Malawian inventor who defied all odds. Thirdly, we will take a look at the Ted Talk held by Penguin expert, Dylan deNapoli and her experiences with penguin rescues. Next we will examine Leyla Acaroglu’s Ted Talk about environmental folklore and finally, Satish Kumar, an Indian activist who tells
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Raised among an impoverished region of farmers, Kamkwamba sought an education with hopes of a brighter future. With insufficient funds for an education, he dropped out of school at first, left to face the harsh reality that was his father’s life; his own future. Still determined for a life other than the one he was born into, Kamkwamba discovered a library. Within the structure, books and stories vast with knowledge lay in wait of his attention. Stumbling upon the pages of both, Explaining Physics and Using Energy, he learned that a windmill held the capabilities of pumping water and generating electricity through harnessing the wind. With this knowledge, Kamkwamba searched the scrapyard for parts to this machine that, at the time, was only a concept to him. With time, the boy’s intelligence and ingenuity constructed this concept to a reality, which in turn, constructed his own reality. His creation and application of the machine gained renown, first in his village, and eventually spreading like wildfire. After several news stories and interviews, Kamkwamba was flown to The United States where he would live out his destiny; telling a story of true …show more content…
From an epiphany in a coffee shop, they decided to walk in protest of nuclear weapons from India to Moscow, to Paris, to London, and finally to Washington. With guidance from his guru, Kumar and his friend set off without money, only open hearts. They met many new people, friends, and shared many new experiences. They met an American while walking along the Khyber Pass in Pakistan who had offered a ride, which they respectfully declined, only to end up at his front door in Philadelphia years later for a talk of good times. They also met with Bertrand Russell, the philosopher who inspired their movement from the beginning and who then offered them passage to The United States. Through his travels, Kumar came to discover that trust is all one needs for without fear, one could die in
William kamkwamba essay William kamkwamba is a young entrepreneur type of person he made it to fame and being rich from being broke in a tribe in Malawi. He made a windmill to generate electricity. Everyone was envious of his fame and how wise william was, william was bullied and made fun of for digging through garbage for parts to spare for his windmill. Many people doubted William. Two traits William has is how intelligent, he is and his well set ego too never give up hope in making his windmill.
The Ted talk is by Michelle Alexander who is a lawyer, advocate and a scholar. She starts by speaking of criminals (poor people and people of color usually) that are locked up in cages and often treated worse than animals. They stripped of civil and human rights. She talks about the criminal justice system acting as a cast system. She tried to work to get rid of racial bias.
He used the resources that were provided to him to come up with a new idea of making energy. “All I needed was a windmill and I could have lights,” (Kamkwamba and Mealer, 2016). The Kamkwamaba family needed lights to see things past the government's time limit, but mostly they needed the energy to have fresh water. The book was able to help him rather than hurt him, as he was learning about the reality of
2017, January, 12). I was inspired Caleb through the way he uses his personal experiences as an indigenous person to help him fight for justice. As an activist I also use my story to create change. Through presentations to LGBTQA+ youth I speak about how I learned to accept my sexuality and let them know that they are not alone. Seeing how Caleb channeled his passion for activism into the study of law challenged me to think about how activism will be incorporated into my future. When Caleb was asked about the difference between renewable energy and extractions from an indigenous perspective I was expecting a supportive response due to the deep value indigenous culture has for the earth, however I was surprised with Caleb's reaction. He explained how the situation was difficult because many renewable companies greenwash products to make them seem more sustainable than they actually are, and how wind power companies have also wronged the indigenous community in land disputes. This reminded me of the video “The Story of Stuff” where we learned about how big companies used
Mallory Soldner, in her TED Talk “Your company’s data could end world hunger” given at a TED Institute event in 2016, successfully argues that if companies donate data, decision scientists, and technology to gather new sources of data to humanitarian organizations, that lives can be saved. Soldner is able to support her claims by sharing her experiences using data to drive efficiencies, save money, and feed more people while working for the World Food Program. In Soldner’s TED Talk, she uses ethos to build credibility and rapport with the audience. Solder also uses logos by detailing her experience at the World Food Program and demonstrating the value of the data, and explaining why it makes business sense. Soldner’s target audience is executives of large companies.
Who is Ted Cruz, a political machine that came from congress to become the next United State of America president, that’s who Ted Cruz is. From his very humble background to becoming a power house for the Republican Party, Cruz is the second in line in the GOP to be running for the 2016 presidential office. From his humble uprising to becoming a senator, Cruz could be the first Hispanic president of the United States.
In 2009 one young man changed the lives of thousands by telling his story of hardship, survival and innovation to the world. The book, "The Boy Who Harnessed The Wind" by William Kamkwamba reveals in great detail the complete blindness that our western society possesses regarding the truth of life on the continent of Africa. As citizens of the western world we have a tendency to see only the statistics and politics of the wars, famines and disasters that occur in developing countries while failing to even consider the human beings struck down by them. In this detachment we pass judgement upon the entire nation as a whole, forgetting the millions who do more in a single day with what little they have than we do with our abundance in a
The series concerns the adventures of Ted Mosby (played by Josh Radnor) and how he met the
He comes from a family of farmers who constantly struggle to pay to provide food and schooling for their children. In his small village outside of Wimbe, “[f]armers ...have always been poor, and not many can afford an education...From the time [they’re] born, [they’re] given a life with very few options. Because of this poverty and lack of knowledge, Malawians found help wherever [they] could ” (6). Throughout his life, William has only known this poverty and lack of options. When he was thirteen, he and his friend Geoffrey disassembled radios in order to discover how they functioned. William consistently relies on improvisation and recycling, such as when he “didn’t have a proper soldering iron to weld the metal pieces to the circuit boards [so] Instead…[he]...took a thick piece of wire and heated it over the kitchen fire until it was red hot, then quickly used it to fuse the metal joints together” (47-48). While pursuing this hobby, he reused materials from around his house for a new purpose and found this tactic to be even more useful in his quest to build a windmill. Moreover, William’s family did not have enough money to buy him the textbooks he needed for school, so his teachers could not be able to help him attain the knowledge of physics and engineering necessary to build the windmill. Instead, William derives the idea to build
Prior to this course, I never watched a ted talk. I did not know what topic to search for, so I was watching random ted talks such as inspirational, technology, religious, etc. Even though, some topics were very interesting for others, they did not mean anything to me. For that reason, I decided to search for a topic of my area of interest, which is math. I watched few ted talks about mathematics, but there was a particular one, “The Magic of Fibonacci Numbers” by Arthur Benjamin, which got my attention because it reminds me how I felt about mathematics when I was in elementary school. I started liking math because I found that it was fun, challenging and as the same time easy for me to understand. In other words, for me math is a game where
William Kamkwamba (the author of The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind) is a young African boy who took on the challenge and created a working windmill in a harsh environment, and little to no resources. Despite the hunger and poverty he took to the challenge and made his town enthusiastic to have new opportunities and goals due to their new achievement. This non-fiction survival story gives people a new perspective towards third world countries. William was a very independent thinker. He did something nobody else wanted to do, and for that, he gave the town a steady flow of electricity.
The ted talk “The Linguistic Genius of Babies” by Kuhl (2010) tells about babies are genius on language learning, and shows some results of research as proof of this idea. The article “Learning a Language as an Adult” by Pakenham, McEntire, and Williams (2013) shows an idea about the “critical period hypothesis”, children during this period learn much better than people older than this age, especially in pronunciation, because their brain activities are different than adults during this time. Personally, I totally believe the idea of children younger learn better, because the scientific research and data are shown to audiences, and they are persuasive enough. And I do see proof in my life, like four of my Korean friends who came China around
In “Why I keep speaking up, even when people mock my accent,” Safwat Saleem, shows his passion and his courageous side when speaking in his Ted Talk, describing the main idea of there not being such a thing of normalcy, as well as arguing that individuals should be confident and accept who they are from their special qualities. Agreeing with Saleem (2016), however to also consider it has become common in today’s society to want to be normal. Therefore many people would not agree with wanting to be exactly known as quote on quote ‘normal’ but they may want to assimilate to norms because that person is or may be in a unique way socially accepted.
When it comes to choice it always seems to be a love hate relationship: we hate making them, but we can’t live without them. Anyone can all look back to a time in our lives where they wish someone could just pick for us, or times when we wish there were more to choose from. All Americans have many choices, and it is such a part of our daily lives that we don’t even realize it. Barry Schwartz and Sheena Iyengar‘s TED talks bring up interesting ideas about choice, how people deal with them and their affects. They both state that although choice is good, it can also have negative effects. Schwartz explains what most people believe and experience with choice, while Iyengar shows cultural differences in choice making. Both Schwartz and Iyengar
In The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, William Kamkwamba is a truly remarkable person. He was able to teach himself how to do something that would have taken most people multiple classes and many well educated teachers. Furthermore, William was determined enough to continue building his windmill despite all the setbacks he faced. William was creative enough to be able to build his windmill without any proper supplies. All through his life, William was extremely curious. He uses his thirst for knowledge to help his family and his community.