TED Talks Daily An ode to living on Earth | Oliver Jeffers
Apr 22, 2020
Visual artist Oliver Jeffers, celebrated for his work on "The Day the Crayons Quit," shares heartfelt insights on what it means to be human in the 21st century. He humorously recounts how to explain Earth to a newborn, emphasizing its beauty and fragility. The conversation dives deep into the importance of personal and collective stories, highlighting how our narratives shape our existence and responsibilities. Through a poetic lens, Jeffers reflects on the delicate balance between ambition and the challenges facing our civilization.
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Limited Habitable Space
- People can only live on Earth, and even then, only in the dry bits.
- It's easy to forget how limited habitable space is when you're close to the ground.
Earth-Moon Model
- To show Earth's interconnectedness, Oliver Jeffers built a large-scale model of the Earth and Moon.
- He inscribed "people live here" on the Earth model and "no one lives here" on the Moon.
Perspective and Constellations
- Distance changes perspective, as astronauts have experienced.
- Earth is the only point in the cosmos present in all constellations; their stories only make sense from Earth.
