ad-free
Channel / Source:
TEDx Talks
Published: 2015-04-22
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xM-9Hl_SL-A
what's the most important thing that you do with your father also email Facebook getting a higher score on candy crush you are what if you could do something even more important like solve some of the world's biggest problems and if you could solve any of the world's biggest problems what would it be for me the problem that I itself is climate change why well for starters
I'm a scientist at Stanford University and I'm compelled by the overwhelming amount scientific evidence that says this is our current fossil fuel use is endangering every ecosystem and the existence of human civilization as we know it but the deeper reason that I care about climate change actually much more personal I grew up on a small farm in California and I've seen the seed become unpredictable first
hand record floods in record drought have become the new normal my family is seen summer heat so intense let ancient oak trees and we've seen our neighbors devastated by hundreds of wildfire we've also lived through our own home in the lives of two fantastic dogs a wonderful cat five generations of re with it so I care about climate change because I love my family and I
want to protect my home and I care about climate change because there are literally billions of other homes and lives in danger I have the extraordinary opportunity to work around the world for fifteen years and I've made many great friends along the way friends whose homes lives and livelihoods %HESITATION often need even greater danger than most of us here because of the interconnections between climate poverty
hunger disease crime and violence so how can we solve crime well for starters for the rest of the world to live and thrive the fossil fuel industry must die we also need to stop unsustainable manufacturing and food production these are monumental challenges to be sure but the good news is that we already have all the clean energy technologies and sustainability technologies we to solve the problem
what's missing is public engagement that sufficient put these solutions in action fast enough to avoid disaster so the biggest missing piece of our climate puzzle is really and by you I mean all of us myself included we like to blame corporations and governments %HESITATION and climate in action but their decisions all trace back to our votes our lifestyle choice how we spend and invest our money
the climate problem is really are pro most of us already know that climate change is a huge problem but the big challenge is bridging the gap between how much we say we care about climate change and actually what we do on an everyday basis to do this we need tools it put information and incentives in the right places change your everyday actions fortunately you guys already
have an amazing device that can do this it brings me back to where I began that's right you call this a phone but it's really a hyper connected supercomputer they can inform all your decisions incentivize you to change and connect you to pretty much anyone else anywhere in the world I'm now working with an extraordinary team of scientists and engineers to launch a service connect the
power of this amazing device as a tool to solve climate change we've launched a service called or eco that makes it fun easy and rewarding for everyone to part of the collective climate salute started with the goal to create the world's most powerful carbon footprint cat then we that it personalized tips for what you can do to improve your climate footprint while saving money at the
same time and to encourage assault to move from saying we care about climate to actually doing something about it we got it then points prizes and real world reports this week the deal early goes climate number crunching has led us to some surprising conclusion for one we found that many people who really say they care about climate change actually have a personal carbon footprint that substantially
worse than average Stephanie true for myself and the reason for this is that a lot of us who care about climate change also tend to fly we want to be multicultural and go around the world and connect with their families to and just one cross country flight can easily outweigh everything else we're doing to be more sustainable another surprise for many or a week of users
is how big the carbon footprint is from our dietary choices and that actually matters a whole lot more for climate change the less red meat that it matters to eat everything local where everything organic because it's not just how we spend our money but also how we invest our money that makes a difference we've started to use or we goes data to create low carbon investment
products here we found an even bigger and quite frankly much better surprise investment funds that are fully divested fossil fuels we invested in climate leaders and other other industry actually perform better they make more money conventional we're now working to launch the strategy into the market we think in mainstream low carbon investing and really spell this myth that we have the dirty energy companies are necessary
for healthy investment of course there are many of other great services out there beyond were eco that help us align our personal values with our everyday actions there's good god which makes it easy to see the sustainability for Brenda virtually everything we can buy at the supermarket there's by corrupt and bipartisan show us how we're spending decisions connect money in politics their slavery footprint it shows
a sobering information about how our lifestyle choices are connected to forced labor modern day slavery of course there's that bit and my fitness pal apps that are encouraging us all to lead healthier happier lives these apps all have in common is there taking previously invisible information about our MP and making that both visible action and it's not just about information it's about motivation our phones can
be a tireless coach is always with us giving us just the right information and incentives the motivation to act and change your everyday actions also when apps like early go connect up to services connect us socially so we can compare with our friends and family in our social network a tap into something much more fundamental we as humans one of the post powerful motivating forces we
have to earn respect from people we care about and we all like to see that we're doing at least as well as the average but of course is is never actually possible for all of us to always be better than average but that's actually a good thing because when out show us that we're not actually better than average they encourage us to improve and when enough
of us really try to be better than average then the average improve creating a virtuous cycle of continuous improvement that benefits everyone last but certainly not least our phones can inspire us through the power of storytelling it's really what Ted is all about and we've already been talking about this today this is charging a Chinese journalist who just released a low budget documentary on how air
pollution is affecting her daughter's health her story thanks to the power of social networks and mobile labs Steve to over two hundred million views in just forty eight hours about one third of China's urban population in a week it stories that are both inspirational and important can now race around the world and the pace Twitter and Facebook it's the stay at the speed of like I
care about climate change because of how it connects to my own story and my own lots and I care about climate change because of how it connects stories people and places I love around the world I'm sure you all have your own planet stories to share stories that can inspire you and many others into action action is exactly what we need because climate change is a
massive collective action problem they're requires a collective action solution we now have the tools we need act together with this we are empowered reinvent our future and align it with our values with this magic wands we have the power to change your own lives then spread that changed everyone around us changing companies and governments in the process with this we are no longer drops in a
