logo
episode-header-image
Feb 2024
7m 29s

How poop turns into forests | Ludmila Ra...

TED
About this episode
Did you know the world's largest tropical forest is partly formed by seeds emerging from poop? Ecologist Ludmila Rattis reveals the surprisingly fruitful benefits of letting nature take care of its own business, sharing how the digestive habits of tapirs — pig-like creatures that roam Amazonia — spread seeds that help regenerate the forest and promote climate resilience worldwide. (Even nature's waste is put to good use!)

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Up next
Jul 10
A story of moral imagination and bold entrepreneurship | Sitoyo Lopokoiyit and Jacqueline Novogratz
In a conversation about visionary leadership, M-PESA CEO Sitoyo Lopokoiyit speaks with impact investor and Acumen CEO Jacqueline Novogratz about how he grew a nascent mobile payment service into Africa’s largest fintech platform — which now handles nearly 60 percent of Kenya's GD ... Show More
19m 36s
Jul 9
"Marigolds," a poem about wonder | Safiya Sinclair
Poet Safiya Sinclair performs "Marigolds: A Letter to Wonder," an original poem she created for TED that explores memory, beauty and the fragility of life. After the poem, she talks with TED's Helen Walters about her writing process — and what it feels like when the creative muse ... Show More
9m 2s
Jul 8
The miraculous device that saved my farm — and changed my life | Josephine Waweru
Exhausted from carrying water up a hill to keep her small farm in Kenya thriving, Josephine Waweru received an unexpected call that offered a nearly unbelievable solution. She shares how one simple device allowed her crops (and her dreams) to flourish — and offers a glimmer of ho ... Show More
10m 18s
Recommended Episodes
May 2021
Regrowing the rainforest
It has taken him 40 years, but Omar Tello has turned a patch of exhausted farmland in Ecuador back into rainforest. One of his biggest challenges was repairing the soil. His land was so degraded he had to make enough new soil - from unwanted wood shavings and chicken manure - to ... Show More
28m 10s
Jan 2012
Saving the Brazilian Amazon
The Amazon rainforest is perhaps the world's greatest single environmental asset. For years the accepted wisdom has been that the remorseless tide of destruction there is unstoppable. Justin Rowlatt travels to Brazil to question this conventional account and finds that over the l ... Show More
27m 58s
Oct 2021
Saving the Amazon with economics
The Amazon is the world's largest rainforest but this crucial carbon sink is facing increased deforestation. Land clearing for mining or agriculture has increased under Brazil's president Jair Bolsanaro. But the world needs the Amazon jungle to keep absorbing carbon if more ambit ... Show More
17m 29s
Apr 2022
Saving our species
Australia is famous for its unique wildlife and landscapes. But Australia also has the highest mammal extinction rate in the world, and there are big declines in frogs, reptiles, and birds caused by introduced predators and land clearing. Some species are hanging on in small numb ... Show More
27m 36s
Apr 2022
Turning Old Cell Phones into Forest Guardians
What happens when a tree falls in a forest and no one is listening? The sound starts with truck engines and chainsaws and ends with a small piece of forest being silenced. Illegal logging is slowly thinning out the world’s forests, paving the way for widespread deforestation. Wit ... Show More
27m 24s
Dec 2021
Les forêts tropicales se régénèrent plus vite que prévu ?
C'est peut-être la bonne nouvelle de cette fin d'année marquée par une COP26 sans relief, les forêts tropicales se régénéreraient beaucoup plus vite qu'on ne le pensait. C'est en tout cas le constat de chercheurs français et ivoiriens, d'après qui une forêt tropicale coupée pour ... Show More
2m 4s
Jan 2023
The Sunday Read: ‘Has the Amazon Reached Its “Tipping Point”?’
In the past half-century, 17 percent of the Amazon — an area larger than Texas — has been converted to croplands or cattle pasture. Less forest means less recycled rain, less vapor to cool the air, less of a canopy to shield against sunlight. Under drier, hotter conditions, even ... Show More
58m 17s