TED 2016: Al Gore’s Optimism on Climate Change

With awareness increasing and actions underway, it's time to be inspired

At this year’s TED Talks in Vancouver, former Vice President Al Gore took to the stage, once again addressing climate change concerns. For the first half of the talk, Gore delivers impassioned, powerful and fact-driven points on the harm of global warming. The second half, however, focuses on the unexpected: optimism for the future and the positive change we have begun to make. Throughout, Gore …

2016 TED Prize Winner: Dr Sarah Parcak’s Crowdsourcing Space Archaeology

A pioneer in satellite mapping the world's undiscovered heritage sites has a big plan for the future

With millennia of developmental history behind us, much of which has been lost from maps and word of mouth, Dr Sarah Parcak understands the importance of searching for the missing pieces. The space archaeologist and winner of this year’s TED Prize, has pioneered a new way to uncover that which lays buried. Parcak employs infrared satellite imagery to see beneath and between plots of land—all …

KUON’s Contemporary Boro

Reusing textiles from articles of clothing between 50 and 150 years old

Debuting at the end of 2015 and now available in Hong Kong and Japan, Japanese fashion house KUON incorporates pieces of vintage textiles into their bohemian wares. While that’s not uncommon (from Japan or elsewhere), their choice of materials stands apart from the rest. KUON upcycles indigo-dyed cotton clothing as old as 150 years. Japanese Boro—which translates to old or tattered textiles with layers of …