TED Community » Naz Beykan

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• TEDCred score: +30.00 TEDCred reflects your contribution to the TED community.

• A reply on Conversation: Reviving corals -- how can your community maintain the living sea sculptures?

  Mar 9 2012: In Haiti, a group called Reef Check is working on coral monitoring and ecotourism capacity building. Maybe you'd like to check that out.
  I believe NOAA also has a coral reef program.

• A reply on Conversation: Reviving corals -- how can your community maintain the living sea sculptures?

  Mar 9 2012: Yes, I'm an architect by background, and I'm now doing my graduate degree in sustainable design. My focus is the impacts of urbanism coupled with climate change on fragile ecosystems such as coral reefs.
  Right now, as a course-related work, I'm trying to create a watershed protection and management process and plan to alleviate the urban impacts on coral reefs in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, while also focusing on issues like capacity building and job creation; trying to address both socio-economic and environmental problems within a single project. (it's just a project unfortunately.)

• A comment on Conversation: Reviving corals -- how can your community maintain the living sea sculptures?

  Mar 8 2012: For your title question, I'd suggest you to look at World Resources Institute's site (http://www.wri.org/), they have published very detailed reports on the state of the coral reefs all around the world, down to the specific stressors in each region.
  To protect the marine habitats, we have to go to the source of their degradation: the land. Watershed protection, urban planning and zoning as well as urban surface cover management to reduce runoffs, habitat restoration are just some approaches to address parts of this solution. Marine ecosystems cannot be considered as a separate entity. They are engulfed by the socio-economic and urban/rural characteristics of the human activities within their proximity. Therefore the whole cycles of production and waste should be tackled as a closed loop holistic system.

• A reply on Conversation: How can we help the sustainability community maintain its growth? *A TEDActive Sustainability Project question*

  Apr 29 2011: Cool!!! Sorry, if I took it out on UPS (:/).... I didn't mean to offend or anything... I was furious simply because the presenters (who had nothing to do with UPS so they actually don't know much about the process) were explaining things without any depth... I'm used to approach every company claiming to be "green" a bit skeptically because one source says something and another a completely different thing. In this overdlown of info one has to question before absorbing that info...
  I'm truly glad you enlightened me on that. I'm now sure to try this service.... Keep up the good work.

• A reply on Conversation: How can we help the sustainability community maintain its growth? *A TEDActive Sustainability Project question*

  Apr 26 2011: To me, sustainability must be something beyond the claws of money. It'll only be valid for companies and corporations... as long as they see profit, they are sure to join in. But this is definitely not a local level. Although, I don't deny the fact that their strong lobbying is requried to empower sustainability acts on a political level.
  
  However, to reach people... to have a bottom to top effect...I doubt you can "buy" anyone to care for sustainability... you have to gradually make them understand. Spreading socio-ecological projects adressing local problems are best opportunities to do so.

• A reply on Conversation: How can we help the sustainability community maintain its growth? *A TEDActive Sustainability Project question*

  Apr 24 2011: Thanks a lot for the link... they really simplified and clarified things. :)
  
  Wish I can make everyone read it.
• +4

  A comment on Talk: Joachim de Posada: Don't eat the marshmallow!

  Apr 24 2011: The experiments also seems to prove that some kids get high with marshmallow... :D
  
  (sorry I couldn't resist not pointing that out.)

• A comment on Talk: Graham Hill: Why I'm a weekday vegetarian

  Apr 24 2011: Just the answer to my never-ending dilemma... I'll definitely try this out!
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  A comment on Conversation: How can we help the sustainability community maintain its growth? *A TEDActive Sustainability Project question*

  Apr 20 2011: Today, I've faced an issue at a local conference I attended, that I'd really like to bring on this platform.
  The aim of the conference was to guide entrepreneurs and businessmen -I'm neither- on how to adopt green practices (hopefully without greenwashing), how to do sustainable marketing, how to create sustainable brands... (which all sounds like a joke to me, because the end wish is primarily profit, thus it is just greenwashing for the sake of looking good.)
  The speakers were giving "good" application examples from big companies... then came (I'm sorry if it's unappropriate but I'll mention the company name) the example of UPS. This company made up something called "carbon-neutral-shipping" in which their customers pay more to have this service, and this extra amount is to be transfered to support renewables.
  It sounds pretty cool at first, isn't it?
  But, think again!
  Doesn't it actually sound discouraging?
  We are trying to get more people into the sustainable community, and the companies are punishing their customers for choosing the more sustainable service. They are just after profit and the name-tag. Isn't this clearly greenwashing? (even the presenters have fallen into the trap until I warned them.)
  Shouldn't it be vice-versa?
  So that more people will prefer the "green" option and may drop the prejudice that "green" is expensive.
  I understand that it is not possible for every product or service, but in this specific example, the carbon-use-shippers can pay more to balance their effect. So that they will gradually start to join the sustainable community.
  I think this is one of the most serious challenges we have to face... changing this "business" mindset.

• A reply on Conversation: How can we help the sustainability community maintain its growth? *A TEDActive Sustainability Project question*

  Apr 20 2011: Not just TED, in any event -at least the ones- on sustainability the organizators should be more careful about the choices they make. For instance, just today I've been to a day-long conference of sustainability and carbon footprint, and the only water available was in plastic bottles... that aside there was no recycle bins or whatsoever... and the speakers while explaining how life cycle should be assessed used the example closest to them... yes, the plastic water bottle... pretty ironic, isn't it?!