Hi, it's Forrest Whitaker, guest hosting today.

Climate change has been on a lot of our minds lately, so I want to invite you to join Countdown,

Ted's new global initiative to accelerate solutions to the climate crisis.

Countdown is a place to explore ideas and actions.

We cannot hope to change the world we live in without both thinking and acting.

Here's a talk from the Countdown Global Launch event

given by energy researcher Rose M. Mutizo.

Rose is an engineer

with a truly global perspective

on energy equality and climate justice.

To learn more, check out countdown. ted.com

and subscribe to the countdown podcast,

wherever you're listening to this.

Think about this. Californians use more electricity playing video games than the entire

country of Senegal uses overall. Also, before gyms were shut down due to COVID, New Yorkers could work out in a 10-degree

Celsius gym, because the cold apparently burns more calories.

And yet, only 3% of Nigerians have air conditioners.

There's a mind-blowing gap between the energy halves and the energy have-nots.

And across the globe, we have incredible energy inequality. Billions of

people simply lack enough energy to build a better life. Affordable, abundant, and reliable energy

to run their businesses without daily blackouts, to preserve their crops from rotting, to power

life-saving medical equipment, to work from home and do Zoom calls with their colleagues,

...