Countdown: Understanding climate change

We still have a lot to learn about climate change, about why it's happening and what that means. But one thing is clear: It's real, alright. These talks provide a primer on the issue of our times.

TED Studies, created in collaboration with Wiley, are curated video collections — supplemented by rich educational materials — for students, educators and self-guided learners. In Climate Change, speakers give talks that boldly illuminate the nature and scale of current-day climate science, policy and ethics. They explore the economics and psych...

In the scope of Countdown, TED's initiative to accelerate solutions to climate change, the TED team collaborated with scientists and the creative studio Giant Ant to prepare five short animations explaining concepts and answering important questions related to the climate. They are narrated by Kristen Bell. Learn more about Countdown at countdow...

Learn about the ways climate change is deeply altering how we live, where we live and the foods we eat -- ultimately threatening some of our most basic human rights.

Tim Kruger researches geoengineering: techniques to counteract climate change by deliberate, large-scale intervention in the earth system -- either by reflecting sunlight back into space or by reducing the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

A selection of potentially planet-saving TED Talks from Countdown, TED's initiative to champion and accelerate solutions to the climate crisis

You can't understand climate change in pieces, says climate scientist Gavin Schmidt. It's the whole, or it's nothing. In this illuminating talk, he explains how he studies the big picture of climate change with mesmerizing models that illustrate the endlessly complex interactions of small-scale environmental events.

Lord Nicholas Stern studies the economics of climate change. He is a co-author of the position paper presented to the UN's 2014 Climate Summit, called "The New Climate Economy."

When it comes to climate solutions, "now is better than new, and time is more important than tech," says scientist Jonathan Foley. He presents a six-part framework to more efficiently address climate change, from better aligning capital with carbon to utilizing affordable solutions that are ready to go now. Learn more about what the data says to...

For billions of people, seafood provides a significant source of protein and nutrition, but over half the seafood we eat isn't caught in the wild, it's grown through aquaculture. Farmed seafood is one of the fastest-growing food industries, but the farming methods echo the problems we've seen in industrial agriculture. Is there a way to sustaina...

"For all that's ever been said about climate change, we haven't heard nearly enough about the psychological impacts of living in a warming world," says science writer Britt Wray. In this quick talk, she explores how climate change is threatening our well-being -- mental, social and spiritual -- and offers a starting point for what we can do abou...

Climate change feels like a distant, abstract problem to those who are not directly affected. Artist Peggy Weil visualizes the phenomenon by mapping climate change across time and space through images and video that dive deep into places such as the vertical landscape of Greenland's ice cores and the changing mass of water inside Earth.

In March 2023, 17 speakers from across the world gathered in Doha for the inaugural TEDinArabic Summit. From climate change and politics to sports and fashion, enjoy this sweeping selection of talks.

Robert Swan is the first person in history to walk to both the North and South Poles. Now he wants to make sure that Antarctica, the world's last great wilderness, is never exploited.

Antonio Donato Nobre researches the “ingenious systems” of the Amazon. His work illustrates the beautiful complexity of this region, as well as its fragility against a backdrop of climate change.

Robert Lee Hotz is the science columnist for the Wall Street Journal, where he writes about cutting-edge research on climate change, cosmology, molecular medicine, the human brain and much more ... He has traveled three times to the South Pole.

From AI and technological innovation to climate change, social dynamics and global transformations, the most popular TED Talks of 2024 offer insights into the issues shaping the future.

Military leaders have known for millennia that the time to prepare for a challenge is before it hits you, says scientist and retired US Navy officer David Titley. He takes us from the humanitarian catastrophe in Syria to the icy shores of Svalbard to show how the military approaches the threat of climate change, in a refreshingly practical, nonp...

Conflict is the biggest barrier to tackling climate change, says youth advocate Victor Ochen. Having seen firsthand how war undermined Uganda's economic and environmental potential, he explains the need to address the shared root causes of conflict and climate issues — starting by empowering African youth.

"If we want to avoid a climate disaster, we need much more radical leadership," says Jim Snabe, who knows a thing or two about leadership as chairman of the world's largest maritime shipping company. In a stirring talk, he encourages companies to take big, bold actions to tackle climate change — and invites anyone to join the TED Future Forum, a...

Top climate scientist James Hansen tells the story of his involvement in the science of and debate over global climate change. In doing so he outlines the overwhelming evidence that change is happening and why that makes him deeply worried about the future.

Ocean waters are constantly on the move, traveling far distances in complex currents that regulate Earth's climate and weather patterns. How might climate change impact this critical system? Oceanographer Susan Lozier dives into the data, which suggests that ocean overturning may slow as our climate warms — and takes us on board the internationa...

Hope isn’t just a feeling, but a skill you can practice, explains climate activist Xiye Bastida. Taking cues from the resilience of nature, she shows why trusting Indigenous leaders who’ve protected the planet for generations can help turn despair about the climate into the momentum needed to ignite meaningful change. A powerful reminder that th...

The developing world is most affected by climate change but has contributed the least to the problem. Meanwhile, rich countries historically exacerbated the environmental crisis and grew wealthy as a result -- but aren't helping developing countries build climate resilience, which is now more crucial than ever to slowing climate change everywher...

Investor Yossi Vardi is godfather to more than 40 startups, mostly in the jumping Israeli high-tech sector. He's a legendary community-builder, connector and prankster.

Deeply affected by devastating floods in his family's home state of Kerala, India, high school student Sarvesh Subramanian decided to dive headfirst into the fight against climate change. In this passionate talk, Subramanian explains how he developed an app that can predict the impact of climate change on human health.

We can blame capitalism for worsening the climate crisis, says journalist Akshat Rathi, but we can also use it to create the solutions we need for the mess we're in. He details how “climate capitalism” — the strategic use of market forces and government policies to make polluting the planet cost more than advancing climate solutions — can flip t...

Plants are amazing machines -- for millions of years, they've taken carbon dioxide out of the air and stored it underground, keeping a crucial check on the global climate. Plant geneticist Joanne Chory is working to amplify this special ability: with her colleagues at the Salk Plant Molecular and Cellular Biology Laboratory, she's creating plant...

Given $50 billion to spend, which would you solve first, AIDS or global warming? Danish political scientist Bjorn Lomborg comes up with surprising answers.