Johan Rockstrom: Let the environment guide our development

http://www.ted.com Human growth has strained the Earth's resources, but as Johan Rockstrom reminds us, our advances also give us the science to recognize this and change behavior. His research has found nine "planetary boundaries" that can guide us in protecting our planet's many overlapping ecosystems.

TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes. Featured speakers have included Al Gore on climate change, Philippe Starck on design, Jill Bolte Taylor on observing her own stroke, Nicholas Negroponte on One Laptop per Child, Jane Goodall on chimpanzees, Bill Gates on malaria and mosquitoes, Pattie Maes on the "Sixth Sense" wearable tech, and "Lost" producer JJ Abrams on the allure of mystery. TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design, and TEDTalks cover these topics as well as science, business, development and the arts. Closed captions and translated subtitles in a variety of languages are now available on TED.com, at http://www.ted.com/translate. Watch a highlight reel of the Top 10 TEDTalks at http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/top10

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  Science & Technology

[Trickndel]

Very very important talk! It's so many variables people dont think of when it comes to system changes. If we continue like we do, endlessly consuming and creating masses of waste without thinking about stability, sustainablity and efficency: the ecosystems resilience will shut down completely.

Hence one of the many reasons my support the Venus project and the zeitgeist movement.

[dookiecheez]

This is depressing...If only the world was not dominated by irrationality.

[samala51]

Agreed great talk

[Alex Lee]

What a wonderful speech. No hyperbole, no hard-sell, what more do you want than pictures of the horrendous changes that are happening? How much more motivation than we need to act now? The "leave things alone and they will be fine" mentality hasn't worked for 20+ years. Why do people think it would work now? I hope people like Johan will continue to bring innovations to people everywhere!

[James Bond]

And the thing about ecosystem is they are dynamic. You pull out the wrong blocks and the whole thing can fall down. Ecosystems involve everything interconnected, it's kinda like janga I guess haha.

[Yuri Radavchuk]

Let's make a plan, to have technical decisions, not doing propaganda.

[Imperatore Caligula]

I'm really afraid for the loss of biodiversity. Think about it, it went from 0-60 (so to speak) faster than any other problem.

[rockyinchester]

Ok fair point. But then - what about twins, religious views on contraception, un-planned pregnancies etc. ? I'm afraid your nice idea is just a bit too simple. Unfortunately, if the human race's population is cut in half, it'll most likely be due to climate change/ sea level rise.

[tim n]

except that not every one of those 6 billion people are able or willing to have children

[BauTreffTeam]

@molapft

Yes, seems to be so!