Countdown to city’s carbon neutral goal with TEDxExeter
PEOPLE in Exeter will be able to join an international response to the climate crisis when TEDxExeter Countdown launches on Tuesday, October 13.
The year-long initiative kicks off with a virtual event featuring talks from leading thinkers and doers in the campaign for climate action, who will share examples of the progress communities around the world are making towards a zero-emission future. Places are free and can be booked via tedxexeter.com/tedxexeter-countdown.
Exeter’s independently organised programme of events will be part of TED Countdown, a global initiative to champion and accelerate solutions to the climate crisis, turning ideas into action.
Claire Kennedy, director and curator of TEDxExeter, said: “Exeter is home to some of the world’s top climate scientists, and the city council has set an ambitious goal of becoming a carbon neutral city by 2030.
“Countdown is a year-long focus on climate change led by TED and a coalition of leaders, activists, scientists and businesses around the world. So TEDxExeter is ideally placed to connect our community’s response to the climate emergency with global thinking to inform Exeter’s journey to net zero.
“With many of us taking stock and re-evaluating what’s important during the pandemic, this is a great opportunity for people who have not engaged with TED talks or the climate change issue before to try something new and broaden their horizons.
“To make progress on climate action we need to collaborate on a global scale with local impact, and our TEDxExeter community has an important role to play.”
The launch of TED Countdown comes as Dexter Dias QC’s talk at a recent virtual TEDxExeter event reaches a global audience after being selected to feature on the main TED.com site – a rare honour, which only a tiny number of the thousands of TEDx talks every year are given.
In ‘Racism thrives on silence – speak up!’, the leading human rights barrister and author, who first spoke at TEDxExeter in 2018, confronts racism in the justice system and challenges the notion of race. Within 48 hours of appearing on TED.com, Dexter’s talk had been viewed around 500,000 times.
Claire said: “This summer we held a series of online conversations focusing on racism and racial justice in the UK. In the wake of the death of George Floyd in Minnesota, Dexter spoke powerfully about these issues, drawing on his three decades of experience representing the families of people of colour in the UK who have been killed in state custody.
“We’re thrilled that Dexter’s talk has been selected by TED to be featured on TED.com, which is testament to the importance of his insights to solving urgent problems the world is confronting right now.”
To find out more and register for the launch of TEDxExeter Countdown, visit tedxexeter.com/tedxexeter-countdown
