Are we the last generation -- or the first sustainable one? | Hannah Ritchie

TED Talks Daily

TED

Creativity, Ted Podcast, Ted Talks Daily, Business, Design, Inspiration, Society & Culture, Science, Technology, Education, Tech Demo, Ted Talks, Ted, Entertainment, Tedtalks

4.1 • 11.9K Ratings

🗓️ 22 September 2023

⏱️ 21 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The word "sustainability" gets thrown around a lot these days. But what does it actually mean for humanity to be sustainable? Environmental data scientist Hannah Ritchie digs into the numbers behind human progress across centuries, unpacking why the conventional understanding of sustainability is misleading and showing how we can be the first generation of humans to actually achieve it.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	I'm Elise Hugh, it's Ted Talks Daily.
0:13.2	Here's something really promising.
0:14.8	We might be the first generation of humans to be truly sustainable.
0:20.4	Environmental data scientist Hannah Richie says it's in the numbers.
0:24.0	In her Ted 2023 talk, she unpacks how the conventional notion of sustainability can
0:29.6	be misleading and the opportunities for the environment that she sees in the data.
0:35.3	Stick around after her talk where Hannah will talk with me to expand on some of her big
0:39.3	ideas after the break.
0:44.1	It's become strangely normal to tell our kids that they're going to die from climate change.
0:48.5	See how it rises and get them, then a wildfire will, or a global famine, or crop failures,
0:54.4	maybe a fatal heat wave, the insect apocalypse, or the fishless oceans.
0:59.5	These are the headlines we've all been told will be the end of humanity.
1:03.8	So we shouldn't be surprised in that young people today feel crippled with anxiety.
1:08.2	A large international survey asked 10,000 young people about their attitudes to climate
1:12.4	change.
1:13.4	More than half said the faint humanity's doomed, three quarters find a future frightening,
1:19.3	and more than one in three are hesitant to have children of their own.
1:23.5	Young people today truly feel that it could be the last generation.
1:27.2	In fact, prominent activist groups actually take on this very name.
1:31.4	Now I get this feeling, I've been there.
1:34.6	I used to feel like humanity was doomed, despite if having multiple environmental degrees
1:39.9	felt completely helpless to do anything about it.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from TED, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of TED and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.