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Concrete is all around us: we use it to build our roads, buildings, bridges and much more. Yet over the last 2,000 years, the art of mixing cement and using it to bind concrete hasn't changed very much — and it remains one of the world's biggest emitters of carbon. Entrepreneur Tom Schuler previews an innovative way to create concrete, potentially turning it into a carbon sink that traps CO2 from the atmosphere — while producing a viable building material.
This talk was part of the Countdown Global Launch on 10.10.2020. (Watch the full event here: .) Countdown is TED's global initiative to accelerate solutions to the climate crisis. The goal: to build a better future by cutting greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2030, in the race to a zero-carbon world. Get involved at
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Negative comment
Thanks Tom
If you are looking for a way to help the environment you can use ecosia they are a search engine that plants trees with their profits
No, trees are going to use up all the co2 we need for concrete….
Sounds awesome. If big concrete users can save money you have a market, but you didn’t mention the money.
At this point, I don’t think there are any solutions to climate change that won’t cost some extra money.
If climate change were profitable to prevent, the market might have found a solution by now.
@RalphInRalphWorld a lot of it is overcoming the initial hurdle of cost, with significant long term cost reductions.
I’d be much more convinced if I was listening to a scientist who has no vested interest in concrete.
@The DJ I see your point but I’m not sure I’m convinced of it. TED gets plenty of speakers who are independent scientists funded by academic institutions. But regardless, it’s this guy’s job to convince us that his product is good. He is literally the CEO of the company that he’s talking about. So this is just a sales pitch for him.
@Rachel Nelson Yes it’s marketing but that doesn’t make a product bad.
Pretty sure those independent scientists and academic institutions do the same thing. Promote their ideas and findings for gains, especially when it comes to economics. In economics theories have no lab or experiments to confirm or debunk them, so it’s based on how many people you can get to believe in your theory. It’s a sort of monopoly.
True. We’ll just have to see how their product holds up in the real world
@RalphInRalphWorld Agreed.
@The DJ Scientists and institutions are not perfect. When private interests get involved, like tobacco or say concrete companies, this can cause findings to get promoted that are later found to be unsopported. And certain types of research is more easily published. But most research scientists do not get paid much, and though they may sometimes get misled their main motivation is to uncover the truth. The benefit of having independent scientists talk about the environmental impacts of products is that they are not being paid by private companies, so they don’t benefit if one or another compay/product succeeds or fails. They only benefit if they are able to provide accurate findings. This guy only benefits if his product succeeds. He doesn’t benefit if his product fails. He is not a trustworthy source, because he has a product to sell. He has a vested interest in what he’s saying.
It’s a good idea to protect water but think it depends lot of energy doesn’t it ??
Thank you so much for teaching me. 🙂
Is it 3d printable?
It’s mind-blowing ! I hope your solution will be highly successful around the world !
lifespan and durability!?!?!
Yes… They’re not the same thing.
@N7Mith not what i asked, i asked about the 2 things as i didn’t notice he said anything about it but only a longwinded irrelevant pep talk, not asking about the difference
I just wanted to comment on how stupid and mind boggling this is!!!
this is the best news of 2021!
That’s great! But what’s the price?
Let’s turn to God He wants our love Let’s repent and ask for forgiveness and pray to Him for whatever we need and study His word Shepherdschapelcom Theseasonorg explains the whole Bible God bless
Sounds good on paper. Is it true? Caveats?
Merci pour la traduction . c’est un sujet important.
Thank you so much for this information. Hope this solusion make impact