Health, inequality, technology, climate change and the future of democracy dominated discussions at The World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland in January.
In the wake of these discussions, we revisit these bold and brilliant TED and TEDx talks on some of the most pressing global issues facing us in 2015.
Al Gore: New Thinking on the Climate Crisis
Al Gore never fails to inspire and educate TED audiences. In this 2008 talk, he makes the case that real political action and an active democracy are what we need to seriously tackle climate change.
Tasso Azevedo: Hopeful Lessons from the Battle to Save the Rainforests
By making governments, businesses and consumers accountable for their role in deforestation, Brazil has managed to dramatically curb the rate of the destruction of the Amazon. Can we use these lessons learnt in Brazil to curb global warming? Forester Tasso Azevedo asks in his 2014 TED talk.
Paul Pholeros: How Design Can Help Fight Poverty
Paul Pholeros of HealthHabitiat is dedicated to improving the living environments of poor communities in Australia and overseas. In this TEDxSydney 2013 talk, he tells the story of how focused design makes all the difference to the health and wealth of these communities, and how there are still plenty of showers to fix.
Pia Mancini: How to Upgrade Democracy for the Internet Era
How will democracy work in the 21st century? Pia Mancini gives us a hint with her 2014 TED talk on how the internet can not only engage citizens, but also enliven democratic institutions and processes, and how her operating system DemocracyOS is starting to make this happen in Argentina.
Bart Knois: Cheese, Dogs and Pills to End Malaria
Mosquito savant and scientist Bart Knols shares with us his deceptively simple ways to throw mosquitoes off their game and potentially eradicate malaria, a disease which threatens more than half the world’s population.
Photo: Jean-Jacques Halans