Alex Steffen

For millennia, the human race has been building upon the face of the Earth, carving out more and more environments in which to live, chiseling away the mountains and chopping down the forests to build cities, using technology not to sustain our lives but to improve them—to make our lives more comfortable and convenient. The Earth has been nothing more than the ground beneath our feet and the foundation for our building, sustaining us while we abuse it.

But then, each April, comes Earth Day, a yearly opportunity to slow down for just a moment, take a deep breath and reassess our relationship with the giant rock floating in space that we call home. With the announcement of the City 2.0 as this year’s TED Prize, the TED community has been presented with a unique opportunity to closely examine the largest of human environments—the city—and to develop sustainable measures to stop the city from being no more than blight on the face of the Earth. Instead, we have been drafted to create a true partnership between the Earth and the man-made environments we live in; to be the stewards of the Earth we were always intended to be.

With this goal in mind, it is worth revisiting Worldchanging.org founder Alex Steffen’s TED Talk from 2005 in which he gazes into the future—today, in essence—and sees a vast potential for sustainability and tools as beautiful as the planet they are meant to fix.

But first, Steffen provides a very brief history of Earth and the human race.

“Picture a little Earth, circling around the sun,” he said. “You know, about a million years ago, a bunch of monkeys fell out of trees, got a little clever, harnessed fire, invented the printing press, made, you know, luggage with wheels on it. And, you know, built the society that we now live in.”

Sadly, all that luggage we’ve made has contributed to an entirely unsustainable ecological footprint, Steffen said. At the rate we are burning through our natural resources, it would require five planets to sustain us. And that’s mostly due to Western culture. If everyone on the planet behaved the way we in the West do, it would take as many as 10 planets. Of course, we only have one Earth. With more and more developing nations learning from our example, something’s got to give.

Steffen, anticipating the City 2.0 idea in 2005, says cities are the best tool we have for fixing how we live on this planet. With so many of us living in cities, especially in the developed world, a small change can have a very large impact.

So what can we do? To start with, Steffen says, we must build denser cities. Defining the borders of a city permanently and then growing the city up instead of out allows for the development of truly effective transit systems, reduces the need for cars and provides a commute that is reasonably comfortable.

Vancouver, he says, is doing density better than any other city on the planet.

“They’re actually managing to talk North Americans out of driving cars, which is a pretty great thing,” he said.

Another tool: change what you build inside the city.

“We’re able to now build buildings that generate all their own electricity, that recycle much of their water, that are much more comfortable than standard buildings, use all-natural light, etc., and, over time, cost less,” Steffen said.

Even the population density becomes a catalyst as information technologies develop, making sharing easier.

“You can start to know where things are,” he said. “When you know where things are, it becomes easier to share them. When you share them, you end up using less.”

We are capable of creating another world here on Earth, Steffen said. In fact, it may not be just a possibility. Another world may already be here.

“[I]t’s not just that we have to sort of imagine there being a different, vague possibility out there,” he said, “but we need to start acting a little bit more on that possibility.”

Written by Ryan Schill / Contributor

Ryan Schill is a journalist, writer and photographer with an eye toward the public interest. A graduate of Kennesaw State University, Ryan holds a BS in Communication with a concentration in Media Studies and he is currently pursuing an MA in Professional Writing at KSU. He tweets occasionally  at @rpschill.

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That headline sounds like a come on because, well, it is.

This year’s TED Prize winner was City 2.0, a collaborative global effort to come up with ideas to improve cities via crowd-sourcing methodology. By consolidating and integrating best practices, the hope is to shape cities for the 21st century and beyond.

TED will be giving out ten grants of $10,000 each, which will be given out at TED Global in June, 2012 to ten local projects that can help achieve this noble, conceptual City 2.0.

Visit theCity2.Org to join in or put in your ideas. Times are a-wastin’. Deadline is May 15.

In addition to the application, each member of the project group must create a profile on thecity2.org and one member must add the project as an idea. You are encouraged to invite more members of your community to create profiles and to join the idea.

On the site, there is also a video with the following aspiration:

I am the crucible of the future.

I am where humanity will either flourish or fade.

I am being built and rebuilt every day.

I am inevitable. But I am not yet determined.

I wish to be inclusive, innovative, healthy, soulful, thriving. But my potential can only be reached through you.

You can forge a new urban outlook. Begin by connecting. Imagine a platform that brings you together, locally and globally. Combine the reach of the cloud with the power of the crowd. Connect leaders, experts, companies, organizations and citizens. Share your tools, data, designs, successes, and ideas. Turn them into action.

Together you can:
Bridge the gap between poor and rich communities.
Spectacularly reduce your carbon footprint.
Make nature part of daily life.
Empower entrepreneurship.
Re-imagine education.
Nurture health.

I am the City 2.0. Dream me. Build me. Make me real.

Rodney Ho is an entertainment blogger for the Atlanta Journal Constitution at blogs.ajc.com/radio-tv-talk.

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The earlier an autistic child is diagnosed and treated, the better.

That’s the message Dr. Ami Klin, the first chief of autism and related disorders at the Marcus Autism Center in Atlanta, sent last year to the TEDxPeachtree stage with his inspiring talk entitled “Autism: Disruptions in early human social adaptation mechanisms.” In honor of National Autism Awareness Month, we’re drawn to this presentation.

In just 20 minutes, he shattered perceptions and misconceptions of this disorder, creating a stream of Twitter dialogue around autism.

“We always think about autism as something that happens later in life,” said Dr. Klin. “It doesn’t. It begins at the beginning of life.” One in 88 children are born with the disorder, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Dr. Klin said honing skills in early stages will impact children with autism. Early detection means early treatment. “The brain determines who we are going to be, but the brain also becomes who we are.”

In his talk, he said early-targeted social engagement with autistic children can be an investment in their future productivity and development. Isolation is not the most nurturing environment for individuals with autism.

He brought the condition into context: “We learn a great deal by sharing experiences,” he said as he told the story about a young girl who doesn’t see a clear division between inanimate objects and people. “Her path of learning is divergent, moment by moment, as she’s isolating herself further and further.”

“The idea is not to cure autism,” he said. “What we want is to make sure that those individuals with autism can be free from those devastating consequences that come with [the disorder: the profound intellectual disabilities, the lack of language and the profound isolation.”

“We feel that individuals with autism in fact have a very special perspective on the world — and we need diversity,” he noted.

Dr. Klin spoke of his methodology and research at the Marcus Autism Center. “If we measure things that are evolutionary, highly conserved and developmentally very early emerging…. We could push the detection to those early months of life.”

Do you know a powerful speaker who can present on an interesting topic? We are now accepting nominations for TEDxPeachtree 2012.

Written by Maria Stephens/ Contributor

Maria Stephens is a marketing professional at a leading integrated marketing and PR firm working in energy and oil/gas – She’s merged her interests in science and communications into a career in B2B consulting. Maria is an award-winning photographer and writer, and a nationally recognized print & web designer. She was born in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky and speaks fluent Russian.

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