The spiritual wisdom we need for a planet in crisis | Tariq Al-Olaimy
TED Talks Daily
TED
4.1 • 11.9K Ratings
🗓️ 25 December 2025
⏱️ 16 minutes
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Summary
As cascading climate challenges reshape our world, the most resilient systems are ones we often overlook. Ecological futurist Tariq Al-Olaimy has seen this firsthand in disaster-stricken communities, where church basements, mosque yards and temple networks form a "spiritual infrastructure" that sustains people long before formal aid arrives. Drawing on a decade of work with global faith coalitions, Al-Olaimy explores why spiritual traditions are uniquely equipped to navigate moments of collapse — and how aligning our inner values, economies and ecosystems may be essential to restoring life on a changing planet.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | You're listening to TED Talks Daily, where we bring you new ideas to spark your curiosity every day. |
| 0:12.3 | I'm your host, Elise Hume. |
| 0:14.0 | Regardless of your faith, it feels safe to say we need systemic change at all levels to work towards a better future for ourselves, |
| 0:21.3 | our communities, and this planet. |
| 0:23.9 | In this beautiful talk, ecological futurist Tariq al-Olaimi shares how he helps people |
| 0:30.0 | rise to their best selves by turning to spiritual wisdom. |
| 0:33.9 | He explores how faith communities, often overlooked in the climate movement, |
| 0:38.3 | offer powerful tools for navigating environmental collapse with moral courage, resilience, and a spiritual compass. |
| 0:49.3 | There is a sound the planet makes when it asks a species to grow up. |
| 1:00.0 | Can you hear it inside of you? |
| 1:03.0 | Many faith traditions teach that at thresholds, two paths appear, |
| 1:10.0 | one of contraction and one of evolution. |
| 1:14.3 | Today, eight billion of us stand at humanity's most consequential threshold yet. |
| 1:20.8 | And these movements arrive in many different forms. |
| 1:24.1 | It's the families forced to abandon coastal homes because of sea level rise. It's communities watching decades of memories reduced to ash. |
| 1:31.3 | It's elderly couples choosing, which in cooling or eating, because of rising bills. |
| 1:37.3 | These are real experiences I've witnessed in the past year. |
| 1:41.3 | And as political leaders make climate decisions |
| 1:46.0 | that arbitrarily mark billions of lives as disposable, |
| 1:49.6 | perhaps you've also felt that catch in your chest when wondering, |
| 1:54.6 | will the future still want me? |
| 1:57.3 | This is what thresholds can feel like, loss resonating on one side, yet luminous possibility on the other. |
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