How to Do Less & Achieve More for Climate Change | Karen McFarlane Holman, Ph.D. | TEDxLenoxVillage

Reversing climate change feels like pushing a boulder up a hill, and the obvious solution is to
push harder. But could that approach be hindering us from reaching our goals of zero emissions? In this galvanizing talk, chemist Karen McFarlane Holman, Ph.D. challenges the status quo in how consumer products are made and lessons that we can learn from chemistry. Karen McFarlane Holman, Ph.D. is a chemistry professor at Willamette University and is a recipient of the Carnegie Foundation Professor of the Year award. Karen has spent the last 30 years delving deeply into the unique roles of metals at catalysts and drugs. During her Ph.D. work at UC Santa Barbara, she investigated iron as a catalyst for synthetic fuels, and in her postdoctoral research at Berkeley National Lab she focused on the manganese cluster that is crucial in photosynthesis. Karen’s current research team studies ruthenium anti-cancer agents, the topic of her first TEDx talk in 2017.

In addition to her research on metals, Karen is passionate about science communication. Over the years she has impacted millions of people globally through her classroom and online teaching, science camps for girls in Saudi Arabia, laboratory research mentorship, two previous

[themarybasse]

Supporting young people will have such a wonderful long-term impact. I really appreciated this suggestion

[annerossiter]

7:45! This is how!! Great advice to make meaningful change happen

[cesarcervantes]

Love it! We should be talking more about this. I had no idea this was even a thing.

[kobetclark]

Karen, you're doing a massive service to the stigma that follows your name these days - this talk is easily one of the most spot on and informative things I've come across in a while.

[samanthakatzalay]

I know she isn’t talking about what we can do as individuals, but this definitely made me want to do more on a day to day basis as well.

[juicystar]

The personal perspective she opened with is so very striking and puts it in perspective.

[edty]

I recently saw the film 'don't look up' which came out before the pandemic and was an allegory for climate change... it is so eerily accurate in terms of how people respond to very real problems and it really got me down. Seeing talks like this lifts me back up though, thank you.

[iamacatslave]

Very clear and easy to understand explanations here. Great talk

[buckpauley]

Is it just me or is her giving this in the stair way of a lecture hall make it feel like she is even more legit? Like she’s got important stuff going, took 30 minutes to give this message and then went back to do the actual work she advocating for? Love it

[swoss]

This is so informative! Thanks Ma'am for this..❤️

[elizabethbernard]

She made some of these very complex concepts easy to understand. Wonderful.

[paigelpatterson]

How good is this! Sharing! I love how simplified Karen has made the actions we can take. Brilliance!

[mike-good-ames]

Her passion for this shines through every part of this!

[jessettucker]

This is really fascinating; I never knew about the catalyst element of energy. Surely this is cost effective as well as great for the environment. Why is this not being utilised??

[piamirra]

This is so incredibly fascinating, hard to believe no one has sought this kind of thing as a solution before!

[eirajansta]

Sharing this for all my friends, my self included, who have felt overwhelmed by the personal responsibility required.... Thank You Karen!

[jhonusalazar]

Heck yes! How informative AND practical! I am sharing this right away!!

[mariannemortimer]

What is sad is that ‘we would need 5 earths’ example is one that so many of us have heard before, yet it still doesn’t seem to be enough to get people to change

[The-Secret-Garden]

Definitely sharing this! It's something everyone needs to see.

[superduperthedoug]

How did she fit so much great info into such a small talk?