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Will the ocean ever run out of fish? - Ayana Elizabeth Johnson and Jennifer Jacquet

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A Plastic Ocean is a new documentary that looks at the problems that are caused when plastic waste goes into the sea. Watch the trailer and find out more about how plastic can be dangerous to sea animals and human health.

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Every year, the world uses 35 billion barrels of oil. This massive scale of fossil fuel dependence pollutes the earth, and it won't last forever. On the other hand, we have abundant sun, water and wind, which are all renewable energy sources. So why don't we exchange our fossil fuel dependence for an existence based only on renewables? Federico Rosei and Renzo Rosei describe the challenges.

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Additional Resources for you to Explore

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Can 100% renewable energy power the world? - Federico Rosei and Renzo Rosei

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Every year, the world uses 35 billion barrels of oil. This massive scale of fossil fuel dependence pollutes the earth, and it won't last forever. On the other hand, we have abundant sun, water and wind, which are all renewable energy sources. So why don't we exchange our fossil fuel dependence for an existence based only on renewables?

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Are we running out of clean water? - Balsher Singh Sidhu

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Despite water covering 71% of the planet’s surface, more than half the world’s population endures extreme water scarcity for at least one month a year. Current estimates predict that by 2040, up to 20 more countries could be experiencing water shortages. These statistics raise a startling question:…

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The Coral Reef Alliance (CORAL) is the only international organization working exclusively to save coral reefs. CORAL provides education, tools, and inspiration to help local communities become passionate environmental stewards for the reefs. Together, CORAL and those communities of stewards develop managed marine protected areas and sustainable businesses to benefit coral reefs and people. http://www.coral.org/
Corals are related to sea anemones, and they all share the same simple structure, the polyp. The polyp is like a tin can open at just one end: the open end has a mouth surrounded by a ring of tentacles. The tentacles have stinging cells, called nematocysts, that allow the coral polyp to capture small organisms that swim too close. Inside the body of the polyp are digestive and reproductive tissues. Corals differ from sea anemones in their production of a mineral skeleton. http://ocean.si.edu/corals-and-coral-reefs
How are these incredible structures created? How can a single coral that is only 3 millimeters long (about the size of the word "is" on this page) become a reef that may stretch for miles and weigh hundreds of tons? In this article, you'll learn how coral reefs form, what kind of life they harbor, and why scientists say they may largely disappear in the coming century. http://science.howstuffworks.com/zoology/marine-life/coral-reef.htm
International Coral Reef Initiative: an informal partnership to preserve coral reefs around the world http://www.icriforum.org/
Coral reefs are among the largest, most beautiful living structures on Earth. These diverse ecosystems support a vast array of organisms that depend on coral reefs for habitat, food, and shelter. They provide physical barriers to coastal erosion and protection from storm waves and tsunamis. Reefs are also an important economic resource as well as homes for commercially and recreationally important species of fish and a recreational locale for diving and tourism activities. http://www.nova.edu/ocean/ncri/index.html
Here you can learn about coral reefs & how to protect them based on our 23 years of grassroots efforts. Download free images by Craig Quirolo. Study coral reef health via 10,000 images of changing reef health in the Coral Survey Image Archive. Learn, explore, act! http://reefrelieffounders.com/
A few research papers by Joshua Drew: http://www.mendeley.com/profiles/joshua-drew/
A great resource: http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0047710

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Conserving our spectacular, vulnerable coral reefs - Joshua Drew

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How do coral reef conservationists balance the environmental needs of the reefs with locals who need the reefs to survive? Joshua Drew draws on the islands of Fiji and their exemplary system of protection, called "connectivity," which also keep the needs of fishermen in mind.

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Britons will spend £2.7bn this summer on more than 50m summer outfits that will be worn only once, a poll reveals.

By far the biggest extravagance is new clothing for holidays, where consumers splash out more than £700m on 11m items bought for the trip which will never be worn again, according to research carried out by Censuswide for the charity Barnardo's.

Wedding guests spend an average of £79.76 on a new outfit - nearly 10m of which are expected to only be worn only once.

The children's charity warns this is another example of the huge environmental and financial impact of fast or throwaway fashion, amid growing concerns that the industry is wasting valuable resources and contributing to the climate crisis. It is urging shoppers to consider second-hand clothing rather than only buying new outfits.

Javed Khan, Barnardo's chief executive, said: "Choosing to buy 'pre-loved' clothes for a special occasion means you don't have to worry about bumping into someone wearing the same outfit.

"It is also kinder to the environment and your wallet, getting more wear out of clothes which might otherwise only be worn once and end up in landfill."

Despite troubles on the UK high street, the fashion sector has continued to grow and the globalised supply chain has triggered a proliferation of cheap clothing, with a quick turnover that encourages consumers to keep buying. The cut-price online retailer Missguided came under fire recently for launching a £1 bikini.

A quarter of those questioned for the poll said they would be embarrassed to wear an outfit to a special occasion such as a wedding more than once, rising to 37% of young people aged 16-24 but just 12% of those over 55.

More than half (51%) of those surveyed said buying new clothes for a festival or holiday added to the excitement of the build-up.

Following its year-long investigation into fast or throwaway fashion, the cross-party environmental audit committee recently called for a penny tax on every garment sold to fund recycling initiatives, plus a ban on incinerating unwanted clothes - demands rejected by the government.

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Fast fashion: Britons to buy 50m 'throwaway outfits' this summer

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Survey finds holiday clothing is biggest extravagance, with consumers set to spend £700m

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Emma Bryce: What really happens to the plastic you throw away?

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We've all been told that we should recycle plastic bottles and containers. But what actually happens to the plastic if we just throw it away? Emma Bryce traces the life cycles of three different plastic bottles, shedding light on the dangers these disposables present to our world.

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My editor recently asked: " Could you wear the same t-shirt for a week without washing it? " I told him "No thank you" and assumed I'd put the matter to rest. Yet there I was, almost a week later, still wearing the same white tee.

I managed five days on the trot and, apart from a small patch of something-or-other near the collar, it almost still looked respectable. My husband assured me that it passed the sniff test - though admittedly I finished the experiment just before the current heatwave took hold.

Even so, the weather had been muggy, and the garment was exposed to a colourful array of threats: a Friday night curry; my children's inexplicable decision to cover the garden with paint; the...

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Are we washing our clothes too much? I tried using the sniff test instead

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My editor recently asked: " Could you wear the same t-shirt for a week without washing it? " I told him "No thank you" and assumed I'd put the matter to rest. Yet there I was, almost a week later, still wearing the same white tee.

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The study is the first to coordinate such a broad global survey of the world's rivers, examining levels of 14 common antibiotics from 711 sites across 72 countries. John Wilkinson, one of the researchers coordinating this large project, suggests that alongside many regions never before monitored, this is the largest antibiotic survey ever conducted.

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Antibiotics found in world's rivers at levels up to 300 times about safe levels

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In a huge global study hundreds of rivers around the world have been tested for levels of common antibiotics. It found 65 percent of all samples contained some concentration of antibiotics, with the worst cases showing levels more than 300 times higher than the generally accepted safe threshold.

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We're all too aware of the consequences of plastics in the oceans and on land. However, beyond the visible pollution of our once pristine habitats, plastics are having a grave impact on the climate too.

Newly published research calculates that across their lifecycle, plastics account for 3.8% of global greenhouse gas emissions. That's almost double the emissions of the aviation sector. If it were a country, the "Plastic Kingdom" would be the fifth-highest emitter in the world.

Read more: Plastic is now part of our planet's fabric - a scientist and archaeologist discuss what happens next

Demand is set to rise, too. At 380m tonnes a year, we produce 190 times more plastic than we did in 1950. If the demand for plastic continues to grow at its current rate of 4% a year, emissions from plastic production will reach 15% of global emissions by 2050.

Plastic across the lifecycle

More than 99% of plastics are manufactured from petrochemicals, most commonly from petroleum and natural gas. These raw materials are refined to form ethylene, propylene, butene, and other basic plastic building blocks, before being transported to manufacturers.

The production and transport of these resins requires an awful lot of energy - and therefore fuel. Greenhouse gas emissions also occur during the refining process itself - the "cracking" of larger hydrocarbons from petrochemicals into smaller ones suitable for making plastic releases carbon dioxide and methane. According to the study, about 61% of total plastic greenhouse gas emissions comes from the resin production and transport stage.

A further 30% is emitted at the product manufacturing stage. The vast majority of these emissions come from the energy required to power the plants that turn raw plastic materials into the bottles, bin bags and bicycle helmets we use today. The remainder occurs as a result of chemical and manufacturing processes - for example, the production of plastic foams uses HFCs, particularly potent greenhouse gases.

The remaining carbon footprint occurs when plastics are thrown away. Incineration releases all of the stored carbon in the plastic into the atmosphere, as well as air pollutants such as dioxins, furans, mercury and polychlorinated biphenyls, which are toxic and damaging to human health.

As plastics take centuries to degrade, disposal in landfill makes only a small contribution to emissions in theory. However, as much as 40% of landfill waste is burnt in open skies, dramatically speeding up the release of otherwise locked-up carbon.

Making plastic climate-friendly

If we are to combat climate breakdown, reductions in plastic emissions are clearly needed. Thankfully, the solution with the biggest potential is already in motion, albeit slow. In showing that transitioning to a zero carbon energy system has the potential to reduce emissions from plastic by 51%, the study provides yet another reason to rapidly phase out fossil fuels.

Read more: New net zero emissions target won't end UK's contribution to global warming - here's why

However, beyond urgently required global decarbonisation, we need to reduce our seemingly insatiable demand for carbon-based plastic. Increasing recycling rates is one simple way of doing this. The highest-quality plastics can be recycled many times, and nearly all plastic can be recycled to some extent - but only 18% was actually recycled worldwide in 2015. Although each recycle process requires a small amount of new plastic, we can greatly increase the life cycle of the material by efficiently reusing what we make.

A more fundamental solution is to switch to making plastics from biodegradable sources such as wood, corn starch, and sugar cane. The materials themselves are carbon neutral, although renewable power is essential to eliminate the climate impact of energy costs during production, transport and waste processing.

However, a massive ramping up in the production of bioplastics - which currently make up less than 1% of total plastic production - would require vast swathes of agricultural land. With the population set to rise dramatically, increasingly coveted arable space may not be able to satisfy demand.

The bottom line, therefore, is that we will need to reduce our demand for plastic. According to the study, simply reducing the annual growth in plastics demand from 4% to 2% could result in 60% lower emissions from the sector in 2050. While a life without plastics may seem unimaginable, its worth remembering that their prevalence is a relativity recent phenomenon. The first artificial plastic, Bakelite, was developed in 1907, but it wasn't until the 1950s that the age of plastic began. If we show a genuine appetite to address plastic pollution, the world could change again just as quickly.

Governments, corporations, and individuals must make research into alternatives a priority, and support alternatives to needless plastic waste. Were most people to carry a reusable water bottle, for example, we could eliminate the need for the estimated 20,000 single-use bottles bought each second around the world.

Of course, any of these solutions alone will not be enough. As the recent study notes, only by combining reduction in demand, top-notch recycling, decarbonisation of energy, and large-scale adoption of bioplastics can we tackle plastic's contribution to the climate crisis. But if we manage to do all of this, then we can cut plastics emissions to just 7% of current levels.

Plastics need not be completely demonised as environmental scourges. Affordable, durable, and versatile, they bring a raft of societal benefits, and will undoubtedly serve an important role where replacements are unable to be found. But decades of unbridled use and a throw-away culture are having grave consequences that go far beyond the visible pollution of our land and water. It is essential that we drastically reduce our use of avoidable plastics, and eliminate the carbon footprint of the ones we need to use. Our relationship with plastic may be toxic, but it doesn't need to be forever.
Click here to subscribe to our climate action newsletter. Climate change is inevitable. Our response to it isn't.

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Plastic warms the planet twice as much as aviation - here's how to make it climate-friendly

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We're all too aware of the consequences of plastics in the oceans and on land. However, beyond the visible pollution of our once pristine habitats, plastics are having a grave impact on the climate too. Newly published research calculates that across their lifecycle, plastics account for 3.8% of global greenhouse gas emissions.

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Microplastics have been found in humans for the first time leading to fears they could be causing a raft of health and fertility problems.

Although previous studies have calculated that Europeans could be ingesting as many as 11,000 tiny pieces of plastic a year, by consuming seafood or accidentally eating bits of packaging, it has never been proven until now.

Scientists at the Austrian Environment Agency and the University of Vienna who analysed the stool samples of people from eight countries around the world, including Britain, found every one contained microplastics.

In some cases nine different types of plastic were found in just one sample. On average, the researchers found 20 microplastic...

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Microplastic found in humans for first time leading to health fears

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Microplastics have been found in humans for the first time leading to fears they could be causing a raft of health and fertility problems. Although previous studies have calculated that Europeans could be ingesting as many as 11,000 tiny pieces of plastic a year, by consuming seafood or accidentally eating bits of packaging, it has never been proven until now.

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The scrubland that was once the Aral Sea in Central Asia is dotted with camels

The bizarre sight of boats marooned hundreds of miles inland

The largest inland bodies of water on the flobe has shrunk by two thirds

Today, the scrubland that was once the Aral Sea in Central Asia is dotted with camels searching out sparse tufts of grass against a flat, sandy horizon. Only the bizarre sight of boats marooned hundreds of miles inland gives any clue to the area's history. In just four decades, what was once one of the largest inland bodies of water on the globe has shrunk by more than two thirds - an area the size of Ireland - leaving behind a poisonous dustbowl.

And the reason? Our insatiable appetite for cheap jeans - and the rapacious cotton farming that feeds it at almost any cost.

Tomorrow, in a devastating assault on an industry that dictates so much of our high street economy, investigative journalist Stacey Dooley will brand fashion one of the biggest environmental disasters to hit the planet.

With Britons buying twice as many clothes as a decade ago - last year we spent £50 billion - there is mounting concern about cheap, disposable fashion sometimes branded 'look and chuck'. Stacey's BBC documentary Fashion's Dirty Secrets will throw this into sharp relief. It reveals that, around the globe, millions of gallons of clean water have either been diverted to growing cotton, or have been hopelessly polluted by the toxic chemicals used for dyes and manufacture. The facts are stark: to grow enough cotton to make a single pair of jeans can take 3,400 gallons or 15,500 litres of water.

But that is only part of the issue - because the fashion industry's pollution problem is also out of control. Factories connected to high street brands have been dumping chemicals from clothes production into Indonesia's Citarum River, says Dooley, threatening the lives of millions.

Serious problems are already evident in the UK, too. The trend for cheap, disposable fashion means more than 300,000 tons of clothing are dumped in landfill in Britain alone each year, which last year worked out at 235 million items.

Meanwhile, microfibres from fleeces and sportswear are now a significant cause of plastic pollution in our rivers and oceans: 700,000 fibres are released in a single domestic wash.

Stacey, who is currently appearing on Strictly Come Dancing, says on the documentary: 'It's impossible to go down any high street without being bombarded by images luring us into buying cheap clothing. But the few pounds we spend on an item of clothing isn't the true cost.

'It's costing people their livelihoods. It's costing millions of people their health. In fact, it's costing us the earth. It's a situation that needs addressing and fast. There has to be a real sense of urgency now because to be totally honest with you we are running out of time.'

In fact, there is growing momentum on the issue, with many officials now recognising the need for urgent action. Last week, for example, Parliament's Environmental Audit Committee wrote to Britain's ten biggest clothing retailers asking them to reveal their environmental footprint.

They quoted evidence that British shoppers buy far more new clothes than any other European nation. The firms involved, all high street favourites and supermarkets, include Marks & Spencer, Primark, Next, Arcadia, Asda, T K Maxx, Tesco, J D Sports, Debenhams and Sports Direct International. Most churn out hundreds of new fashion lines a year, constantly updating their stock and fuelling trends.

MARY Creagh, chair of the Committee, said: 'Instagram is fuelling this as people are adopting a 'look and chuck' mentality - we've got a lot more fast fashion.

'If you look at Italy's fashion market, there's much more focus on high-end clothing and people tend to save up and buy just one or two garments, like Max Mara coats, which are timeless.

'Ours is much more trend-driven. This year it's yellow, last year it was pink, this autumn it's check - pretty soon you're exhausted. Everyone's doing it, it's Topshop, M&S, H&M, they're all fast-turnaround, high-turnaround, relatively cheap clothing.'

Dooley is clear in the documentary that such cheap fashion amounts to 'consumer catnip'. Its most dramatic illustration comes from Central Asia, a major hub for cotton production. Yet here, it has now become as dangerous to the environment as plastic.

Cotton producers in Uzbekistan - the world's sixth largest cotton producer - have diverted water away from the Aral Sea to giant cotton farms, profoundly impacting the livelihood of farmers and fishermen in neighbouring Kazakhstan. The sea has almost vanished and vast quantities of chemicals were left on the sea bed, poisoning millions of people and farmland.

The loss of water has had a profound impact on the region. Summers are now as hot as 45C, and winters dip to minus 30C. There are no longer trees or plants to stop the wind, and huge dust storms whip up in seconds. An entire ecosystem has died, the fishing industry has been annihilated and thousands have lost their jobs. Equally, it is much harder to grow crops and to farm animals.

In the documentary, Stacey and her guide drive across what was once the sea bed, where camels now roam the landscape. 'I feel like this portrays perfectly what's gone on here,' Stacey says. 'There used to be fish - tens of thousands of tons of fish - and now there's a camel.

'I don't think you understand the enormity of the situation until you're here. It's affected everything. It's affected unemployment. There's been a public health crisis. It's affected the weather. It's affected the seasons. We understand what plastic has done to the earth - we're fed that every day and rightly so - but did I know that cotton was capable of this? Of course I didn't. I had no idea.'

The health crisis has seen an increase in strokes, blood pressure and cancer in the local communities. It is believed to be linked to the toxic pesticides which were dumped in the water by cotton factories. As the water has receded, the pesticides have turned to sediment on the dusty ground, only to be spread into the air by the billowing winds.

'These sandstorms are so vast they can be seen from space,' adds Dooley. 'When the sea first vanished, they contained vast quantities of pesticides which had been washed in to the Aral from the cotton farms and left on the sea bed. They poisoned people and farmland. Millions across the region were affected and the impact is still felt today.'

Meanwhile, chemicals dumped into Indonesia's Citarum River, already one of the most polluted waterways in the world, are causing similar devastation. The local army has spent months trying to clear the sea of plastic floating down the river.

But just as toxic are the levels of mercury, cadmium, lead and arsenic now present in the waters.

As she travels along the Citarum, Dooley discovers that factories are going to extraordinary lengths to avoid detection, dumping their waste at night, or pumping it through underground pipes into the river. The result? Lurid-coloured water, frothy waves, and a lack of oxygen - causing a putrid stench, dead birds and rats and devastation to local families who rely on the water for drinking, bathing and washing their clothes. More than 28 million people have been affected by the polluted water.

'I've seen lots of devastation over the years,' continues Dooley. 'The problem here is the sheer enormity. The scale of what's going on is just breathtaking. It's hard to think the clothes I'm wearing could be causing so much damage. But I can now see how this industry has become such a threat to the planet.

'The documentary points out that where, in the past, there were autumn, winter, spring and summer collections of clothes, retailers now work with more than 50 collections a year.

'To tell people I'm never going to shop again would be completely dishonest,' says Dooley. 'Of course I am. But I do recognise how powerful I am as a consumer and I do want to go back to owning clothes and loving clothes and not consuming them in the way we do now.'

Environment Secretary Michael Gove turned down a request for an interview on the programme.

A spokesman for the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said: 'We are interested in any ideas to reduce the impact of waste on our oceans and wider environment. We have already cut waste from plastic bags and microbeads and we are also taking action on plastic bottles, straws, stirrers and cotton buds.

'We are funding research into new ways to deal with micro-plastics but there is more to do.'

Stacey Dooley Investigates: Fashion's Dirty Secrets will be shown on BBC1 at 9pm tomorrow.

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Fashion industry reveals how trend for disposabability is ruining life

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The scrubland that was once the Aral Sea in Central Asia is dotted with camels The bizarre sight of boats marooned hundreds of miles inland The largest inland bodies of water on the flobe has shrunk by two thirds Today, the scrubland that was once the Aral Sea in Central Asia is dotted with camels searching out sparse tufts of grass against a flat, sandy horizon.

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hellfish are the natural filter systems of our seas, mechanisms of purity. So, to discover in a report released on World Oceans Day that mussels bought from UK supermarkets were infested with microplastic seems like a final irony in the terrible story of the plasticisation of the sea. According to the study by the University of Hull and Brunel University London, 70 particles of microplastic were found in every 100 grams of mussels.

There's a vital disconnection here - highlighted by the bottled water you drink to wash down your moules-frites, and the fact that 89% of ocean trash comes from single-use plastic. No sea is immune from this plague, nor any ocean creature, from the modest mussel or zooplankton to the great whales.

I have just returned from Cape Cod, where, due to pollution and other anthropogenic effects, the North Atlantic right whale may be extinct by 2040 - a huge mammal about to vanish from the sight of the shores of the richest, most powerful nation on Earth.

On the pristine, remote Cisco Beach on Nantucket, I watched a grey seal watching me - only to realise the sleek pelage of its midriff was bound with an orange plastic bag.

Last month, off St Ives in Cornwall, I saw a cormorant tugging helplessly at a monofilament of fishing line that had trussed its bill to its arched neck. The underwater photographer Andrew Sutton sends a selfie from Costa Rica: he is holding miles of illegal plastic long line, tangled like a grotesque bouquet. From Sri Lanka to the Mediterranean, our summer holiday idylls become places of mortality.

That we cannot look underneath what Herman Melville called "the ocean's skin" is part of the problem. It is as if, defeated by the sea's mystery, we punish it for defying our dominion. And so, it wreaks its revenge, feeding our own rubbish back to us. Shakespeare's Ariel looked down into the ocean and saw "something rich and strange"; we look down and see our consuming society reflected back at us.

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Microplastics in our mussels: the sea is feeding human garbage back to us

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Shellfish are the natural filter systems of our seas, mechanisms of purity. So, to discover in a report released on World Oceans Day that mussels bought from UK supermarkets were infested with microplastic seems like a final irony in the terrible story of the plasticisation of the sea.

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Let's Begin...

When most people think of fishing, we imagine relaxing in a boat and patiently reeling in the day's catch. But modern industrial fishing -- the kind that stocks our grocery shelves -- looks more like warfare. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson and Jennifer Jacquet explain overfishing and its effects on ecosystems, food security, jobs, economies, and coastal cultures.

Create and share a new lesson based on this one.

About TED-Ed Animations

TED-Ed Animations feature the words and ideas of educators brought to life by professional animators. Are you an educator or animator interested in creating a TED-Ed Animation? Nominate yourself here "

Meet The Creators

Educator Jennifer Jacquet, Ayana Elizabeth Johnson

Director Anton Bogaty

Animator Anton Bogaty

Associate Producer Jessica Ruby

Content Producer Gerta Xhelo

Editorial Producer Alex Rosenthal

Narrator Pen-Pen Chen

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Will the ocean ever run out of fish? - Ayana Elizabeth Johnson and Jennifer Jacquet

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When most people think of fishing, we imagine relaxing in a boat and patiently reeling in the day's catch. But modern industrial fishing -- the kind that stocks our grocery shelves -- looks more like warfare. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson and Jennifer Jacquet explain overfishing and its effects on ecosystems, food security, jobs, economies, and coastal cultures.

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Copenhagenize your city: the case for urban cycling in 12 graphs

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Danish-Canadian urban designer Mikael Colville-Andersen busts some common myths and shows how the bicycle has the potential to transform cities around the world

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Use engaging videos on TED-Ed to create customized lessons. You can use, tweak, or completely redo any lesson featured on TED-Ed, or create lessons from scratch

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This book, The Unnatural World, discusses more about the impact humans have had on the Earth and the new Geologic age called the Anthropocene. Also, take some time to read this post: You have been living in a new geologic time all along, from Ideas.TED.com.

This video, The Anthropocene and the Near Future, discusses the Anthropocene and all of its implications. Elizabeth Kolbert's The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History argues that man is the cause of the latest mass extinction. Watch this video, which offers more insight into how man has impacted this current geological epoch.

What exactly is the evidence that supports the idea of five mass extinctions in Earth's history? Watch these two vides: How Many Mass Extinctions Have There Been? and Mass Extinctions.

What if we can mitigate some of our human impact on Earth, perhaps by de-extinction? Watch this TED Talk: The dawn of de-extinction. Are you ready? Find out more here from the American Museum of Natural History.

Love environmental and science topics? Here is a link to more articles from the educator.

Here are some links to TED-Ed lessons on the topics covered in this video:

When will the next mass extinction occur? - Matt Borths, Michael D'Emic, Adam Pritchard
What happens when continents collide? - Juan D. Carrillo
Can wildlife adapt to climate change? - Erin Eastwood

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How long will human impacts last? - David Biello

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Imagine aliens land on Earth a million years from now. What will these curious searchers find of us? They will find what geologists, scientists, and other experts are increasingly calling the Anthropocene, or new age of mankind. David Biello explains how the impacts that humans have made have become so pervasive, profound, and permanent that some geologists believe we merit our own epoch.

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Let's Begin...

Deep underground lie stores of once-inaccessible natural gas. There's a technology, called hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking," that can extract this natural gas, potentially powering us for decades to come. So how does fracking work and why is it a source of such heated controversy? Mia Nacamulli explains the ins and outs of fracking.

Create and share a new lesson based on this one.

About TED-Ed Animations

TED-Ed Animations feature the words and ideas of educators brought to life by professional animators. Are you an educator or animator interested in creating a TED-Ed Animation? Nominate yourself here "

Meet The Creators

Educator Mia Nacamulli

Director Sharon Colman

Composer Miguel d'Oliveira

Sound Designer Miguel d'Oliveira

Associate Producer Jessica Ruby

Content Producer Gerta Xhelo

Editorial Producer Alex Rosenthal

Narrator Addison Anderson

See more creators

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Deep underground lie stores of once-inaccessible natural gas. There's a technology, called hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking," that can extract this natural gas, potentially powering us for decades to come. So how does fracking work and why is it a source of such heated controversy? Mia Nacamulli explains the ins and outs of fracking.

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This week marked World Environment day and World Ocean day, both of which highlighted plastic global pollution as the most urgent problem facing our planet. So as a parody of our popular Week in wildlife gallery, from dead pelicans to trapped turtles and garbage-eating cows, we bring you ... the Week in plastic.

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This week marked World Environment day and World Ocean day, both of which highlighted plastic global pollution as the most urgent problem facing our planet. So as a parody of our popular Week in wildlife gallery, from dead pelicans to trapped turtles and garbage-eating cows, we bring you ...

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Watch NPR's: Planet Money Makes a T-Shirt to get another view on just what it takes to create that piece of clothing you just bought at the store. How Your T-Shirt Can Make a Difference from National Geographic is another great video perspective on this topic.

The Travels of a T-shirt in the Global Economy by Pietra Rivoli is a book that also follows the journey of a t-shirt across the world. Read it to learn more. What is the environmental footprint of a t-shirt? Click here to find out.

Want another look at all those machines work that make your clothing? Click here.

Wondering about the environmental impact of all those clothes you have in your closet or the dyes that may be on them? Check out this article on sustainable fashion. What should you do with those old clothes that you don't wear anymore? My Fashion Footprint: Is Your Wardrobe Bad For The Planet? will help answer those questions.

Worried about your carbon footprint? Read this and find out how to decrease your impact.

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The life cycle of a t-shirt - Angel Chang

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Consider the classic white t-shirt. Annually, we sell and buy 2 billion t-shirts globally, making it one of the most common garments in the world. But how and where is the average t-shirt made, and what's its environmental impact? Angel Chang traces the life cycle of a t-shirt.