With TEDGlobal well underway, we share the visionaries whose innovations have particularly inspired us on day 1: Greg Asner is revolutionizing how we perceive nature. He founded the Carnegie Airborne Observatory that uses laser scanning systems and image spectrometers to image the earth in 3D to expose what Asner calls “the building blocks of ecosystems.” Using this technology he helps park rangers in the Amazon all the way to the Savanna in sub-Saharan Africa determine which forested areas are concentrated with carbon or affected by deforestation. Armed with nothing but social media, Manal Alsharif منال الشريف challenged the rules of a society that withholds gender equality. By filming herself driving and posting it on YouTube she received hundreds of thousands of views on the first day, as well as threats of death and rape. Her relentless pursuit of women’s equality in Saudi Arabia has given a voice to women of oppressed societies, and her mantra: “I believe a society will not be free if women of that society are not free” echoing louder and louder all over the world. Andreas Raptopoulos wants to change the insufficient model of transport infrastructure on earth. And he is not intimidated by the fact that 1 billion people worldwide have no access to roads and are therefore cut off from critical medicines, supplies, and goods every day. Raptopoulos developed Matternet, a flying delivery system that can deliver goods to inaccessible regions such as Sub-Saharan Africa, where 85% of roads in sub-Saharan Africa are unusable in the rainy season, or in the aftermath of a natural disaster. To read more about these and other do-gooders working for social change click here: blog.ted/
Posted on: Wed, 12 Jun 2013 19:34:53 +0000
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