Inspired Ideas For a Sustainable Future

Have you heard about the website TED yet? It is an awesome place to learn a lot of great stuff in small increments. Each video will never take up more than 20 minutes of your time. There are many great topics from which to choose. You can sign up for a free account and save your favorites and share them with friends and colleagues. Search for your favorite topics by themes or keywords. There are videos of live music and spectacular performances. Some of the themes include technology, design, business, science, culture, arts, and global issues.

This particular video by Alex Steffen is only 17 minutes long where Alex offers a fast-paced round-up of radical (but possible) answers to our planet's greatest challenges, ranging from green cities and buildings, to digital collaboration tools, to ingenious tools for the developing world (flowers that detect landmines; straws that purify water as you drink; merry-go-rounds that pump water using the energy expended by children at play). As Western-style consumerism spreads to developing countries, we must re-imagine our world.

Alex Steffen on TED

Alex Steffen is cofounder and executive editor of WorldChanging.com. Part blog and part eco-activist street team, WorldChanging.com serves as a clearinghouse of information and inspiration dedicated to increasing sustainability and livability into the 21st century, emphasizing solutions over problems.

Steffen was an environmental journalist in Seattle when he realized that the tools and methods for improving society's ecological profile by and large already exist -- they just need better PR.

Steffen and friend Jamais Cascio co-founded WorldChanging.com to provide that PR, linking to and posting stories by dozens of contributors around the world on everything from consumer activism and sustainable farming to alternative energy and green building projects, to technology, globalization, and human rights. World Changing, a sprawling 600-page collection of content from the website combined with new material, was published in 2006 to wide acclaim.

"His vision of the future isn't granola and porridge. It's what he calls 'bright green:' creating and buying products and systems that are smart, sexy, sleek, and sustainable." Living on Earth

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