full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Saleem Ali: The fight over minerals for green energy — and a better way forward


Unscramble the Blue Letters


Now I know there are still friends who will be skeptics, especially in the dsnefee establishment. And they'll say, like, this guy coming from academia, rolling their eyes, basically saying, you know, this floelw is just singing some mineral kumbaya in la la land. He has no idea about realpolitik and, you know, the high politics of war and peace. Well I would respectfully submit to them that I have actually looked at war and peace issues. I come originally from Pakistan, which is a country that has endured much conflict. So I am sensitive to those issues. And you'd be siusrerpd, actually, to find that it is pclerisey over planetary issues where humanity has cooperated in unlikely ways. The only treaty in the United Nations sstyem where we have ratification from all UN member states is a treaty on environmental protection. It's the treaty to protect the onoze laeyr, alright? Now you'd say that was in 1987, it was a time of relative pecae. Well go back to the 1950s. We have the attirncac Treaty, where you had multiple claimants on this msavise continent. And those claimants, for the greater good of science, set aside their claims, and they signed the Antarctic Treaty, including the former Soviet Union. Have a look at this photograph as well. It shows scientists from the former svoeit Union and the United States of America chtaitng quite amiably at the International iittuntse for Applied Systems Analysis, IIASA. That's a mouthful, just remember iasia. IIASA was established at the height of the Cold War, in the year I was born, incidentally. But that organization is still around today. Why was it established even then? Because during the Cold War, too, the former Soviet uinon, the United saetts and many other countries realized that global environmental data has to be shared. And it is this institution which devploes many of the social protection models around climate change as well, in temrs of doing scenario analysis. And so IIASA shows us that we can cooperate over these kinds of iessus as well.

Open Cloze


Now I know there are still friends who will be skeptics, especially in the _______ establishment. And they'll say, like, this guy coming from academia, rolling their eyes, basically saying, you know, this ______ is just singing some mineral kumbaya in la la land. He has no idea about realpolitik and, you know, the high politics of war and peace. Well I would respectfully submit to them that I have actually looked at war and peace issues. I come originally from Pakistan, which is a country that has endured much conflict. So I am sensitive to those issues. And you'd be _________, actually, to find that it is _________ over planetary issues where humanity has cooperated in unlikely ways. The only treaty in the United Nations ______ where we have ratification from all UN member states is a treaty on environmental protection. It's the treaty to protect the _____ _____, alright? Now you'd say that was in 1987, it was a time of relative _____. Well go back to the 1950s. We have the _________ Treaty, where you had multiple claimants on this _______ continent. And those claimants, for the greater good of science, set aside their claims, and they signed the Antarctic Treaty, including the former Soviet Union. Have a look at this photograph as well. It shows scientists from the former ______ Union and the United States of America ________ quite amiably at the International _________ for Applied Systems Analysis, IIASA. That's a mouthful, just remember _____. IIASA was established at the height of the Cold War, in the year I was born, incidentally. But that organization is still around today. Why was it established even then? Because during the Cold War, too, the former Soviet _____, the United ______ and many other countries realized that global environmental data has to be shared. And it is this institution which ________ many of the social protection models around climate change as well, in _____ of doing scenario analysis. And so IIASA shows us that we can cooperate over these kinds of ______ as well.

Solution


  1. terms
  2. layer
  3. issues
  4. iiasa
  5. institute
  6. ozone
  7. states
  8. union
  9. soviet
  10. precisely
  11. peace
  12. chatting
  13. antarctic
  14. fellow
  15. surprised
  16. system
  17. massive
  18. develops
  19. defense

Original Text


Now I know there are still friends who will be skeptics, especially in the defense establishment. And they'll say, like, this guy coming from academia, rolling their eyes, basically saying, you know, this fellow is just singing some mineral kumbaya in la la land. He has no idea about realpolitik and, you know, the high politics of war and peace. Well I would respectfully submit to them that I have actually looked at war and peace issues. I come originally from Pakistan, which is a country that has endured much conflict. So I am sensitive to those issues. And you'd be surprised, actually, to find that it is precisely over planetary issues where humanity has cooperated in unlikely ways. The only treaty in the United Nations system where we have ratification from all UN member states is a treaty on environmental protection. It's the treaty to protect the ozone layer, alright? Now you'd say that was in 1987, it was a time of relative peace. Well go back to the 1950s. We have the Antarctic Treaty, where you had multiple claimants on this massive continent. And those claimants, for the greater good of science, set aside their claims, and they signed the Antarctic Treaty, including the former Soviet Union. Have a look at this photograph as well. It shows scientists from the former Soviet Union and the United States of America chatting quite amiably at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, IIASA. That's a mouthful, just remember IIASA. IIASA was established at the height of the Cold War, in the year I was born, incidentally. But that organization is still around today. Why was it established even then? Because during the Cold War, too, the former Soviet Union, the United States and many other countries realized that global environmental data has to be shared. And it is this institution which develops many of the social protection models around climate change as well, in terms of doing scenario analysis. And so IIASA shows us that we can cooperate over these kinds of issues as well.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
united nations 4
united states 3
mineral trust 3
south africa 2
environmentalist community 2
sweet spot 2
electric car 2
good news 2
soviet union 2
climate change 2



Important Words


  1. academia
  2. alright
  3. america
  4. amiably
  5. analysis
  6. antarctic
  7. applied
  8. basically
  9. born
  10. change
  11. chatting
  12. claimants
  13. claims
  14. climate
  15. cold
  16. coming
  17. conflict
  18. continent
  19. cooperate
  20. cooperated
  21. countries
  22. country
  23. data
  24. defense
  25. develops
  26. endured
  27. environmental
  28. established
  29. establishment
  30. eyes
  31. fellow
  32. find
  33. friends
  34. global
  35. good
  36. greater
  37. guy
  38. height
  39. high
  40. humanity
  41. idea
  42. iiasa
  43. incidentally
  44. including
  45. institute
  46. institution
  47. international
  48. issues
  49. kinds
  50. kumbaya
  51. la
  52. land
  53. layer
  54. looked
  55. massive
  56. member
  57. mineral
  58. models
  59. mouthful
  60. multiple
  61. nations
  62. organization
  63. originally
  64. ozone
  65. pakistan
  66. peace
  67. photograph
  68. planetary
  69. politics
  70. precisely
  71. protect
  72. protection
  73. ratification
  74. realized
  75. realpolitik
  76. relative
  77. remember
  78. respectfully
  79. rolling
  80. scenario
  81. science
  82. scientists
  83. sensitive
  84. set
  85. shared
  86. shows
  87. signed
  88. singing
  89. skeptics
  90. social
  91. soviet
  92. states
  93. submit
  94. surprised
  95. system
  96. systems
  97. terms
  98. time
  99. today
  100. treaty
  101. union
  102. united
  103. war
  104. ways
  105. year