Digest for 1/9/2026

Physicist Amory Lovins lays out a plan for weaning the US off oil and revitalizing the economy by focusing on energy efficiency and renewable sources.

What's the key to using alternative energy, like solar and wind? Storage -- so we can have power on tap even when the sun's not out and the wind's not blowing. In this accessible talk, Donald Sadoway takes to the blackboard to show us the future of large-scale batteries.

What would happen if we could generate power from our windowpanes? In this moving talk, entrepreneur Justin Hall-Tipping shows the materials that could make that possible, and how questioning our notion of 'normal' can lead to extraordinary breakthroughs.

Biologist E.O. Wilson shares his TED Prize wish: to create an online encyclopedia of all life on Earth to aid in conservation efforts and combat biodiversity loss.

What if we could save the fishing industry and protect the ocean at the same time? Marine ecologist Enric Sala shares his bold plan to safeguard the high seas -- some of the last wild places on earth, which fall outside the jurisdiction of any single country -- by creating a giant marine reserve that covers a third of the ocean.

Boyan Slat shares his bold plan to clean up the Great Pacific Garbage Patch using innovative technology to harness ocean currents.

Artist Dianna Cohen shares alarming facts about plastic pollution in the oceans and calls for action to reduce single-use plastics.

Can we end hunger and poverty, halt climate change and achieve gender equality in the next 15 years? The governments of the world think we can. Meeting at the UN in September 2015, they agreed to a new set of Global Goals for the development of the world to 2030, including addressing ocean plastic issues.

Earth, humanity's only home, is in crisis. Conservationist Kristine Tompkins has spent the past three decades working to protect and rewild large stretches of land in South America, safeguarding habitats and restoring balance to the natural world.