Dianna Cohen: Tough truths about plastic pollution

http://www.ted.com Artist Dianna Cohen shares some tough truths about plastic pollution in the ocean and in our lives -- and some thoughts on how to free ourselves from the plastic gyre.

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

[jjjonse]

you don´t deserve to be on this planet.

[dingai]

She's passionate but she's wrong. We did not create this problem as consumers. Designers working for corporations trying to find cheap and efficient containers did. As with every other societal problem, this cannot be solved by common citizens as individuals.  It must be solved by laws and regulations changing the rules of business, forbidding the creation of these containers in the first place -> which will force designers and manufacturers to find new or old solutions.

[RATCHRIST]

are u brainwashed or what? since u dont control ur own actions?

[Jason Mahoney]

die a slow and painfull death

[Isabella DellaBaviera]

Diesen interessanten Vortrag über Plastik & Kunststoffe von Dianna Cohen kann man auf Ted.com auch mit deutschen Untertiteln ansehen. Sehr empfehlenswert!

[Isabella DellaBaviera]

Thank you so much for this wake-up call, Dianna!

You can also watch my videos here on Youtube (available in English) and find out which health risks are meanwhile being linked to plastics and other synthetic materials.

Sending my sincerest regards to you for your engagement in these important matters! Hugs, Isabella

[dingai]

yes of course. every bit helps. but the scale is so big and the stakes are so high that i don't believe societies should have a "laissez faire" attitude and rely on individual choices. we have many precedents for this kind of collective action --> for example: banning CFCs. If we had instead focused on individual actions there would still be more and more CFCs released year after year and we might have no Ozone layer left... Large scale problems require international regulatory solutions.

[Nikka S]

Consumers should do their part and minimize the use of packaging and recycling. This affect all of us in the long run and our children and childrens children will eat foods with plastic and associated toxins in it.

[Valentine Bonnaire]

Thank you for making this! <3

[dingai]

you're not seriously advocating for a world without government, are you? maybe you should visit a country without a government first... i'm sure happy that i've got a municipal water supply and electrical grid, that someone is inspecting restaurants to make sure they don't give me food poisoning, and that school teachers aren't allowed to beat children anymore... all of this comes from laws, taxation, budgets, institutions...

[dingai]

that video is amazing!! thank you for talking about it and sharing it with teens. what a creative and clever way to focus on the importance of democratic action!