我們要留給下一代什麼樣的星球？What Kind of Planet Will We Leave Behind?｜舒夢蘭 | Meng-Lan Shu | TEDxTaipei

Quick Overview

Documentarian Meng-Lan Shu shares her transformative journey from being a financial news anchor to an environmental documentary filmmaker, detailing her travels to endangered ecosystems across the globe—from the African savanna to the Antarctic ice—to document threatened wildlife and advocate for conservation, urging the audience to take action to ensure a habitable future planet.

Key Points: Meng-Lan Shu transitioned from a financial news anchor to a documentary director focusing on environmental and wildlife documentation. Over 15 years, she filmed in over 60 countries across seven continents, traveling 90,000 kilometers, documenting endangered species and ecosystems. She documented severe threats to wildlife, including cheetah populations dropping from over 100,000 in 1900 to about 7,000 today, and the plight of mountain gorillas, now numbering only 880. Her fieldwork included documenting the harsh reality of miners collecting sulfur at an Indonesian volcano and witnessing the devastating impact of Typhoon Haima on solar farms in Southern Taiwan. In the Arctic, she documented shrinking sea ice, noting that Arctic sea ice decreases by 12.6% every 10 years, potentially disappearing entirely by 2030. She interviewed Gro Harlem Brundtland, former Norwegian Prime Minister and environmental advocate, who authored the 1987 report "Our Common Future," emphasizing the need for sustainable development. Shu concludes that awareness leads to care, care leads to action, and only action offers hope for the future of the planet.

Context: This TEDxTaipei talk by Meng-Lan Shu chronicles her radical career shift from a successful financial news anchor to a dedicated documentary filmmaker focused on environmental conservation and endangered wildlife. She uses personal anecdotes from her extensive travels across diverse and often extreme environments—including Africa, Indonesia, Antarctica, and the Arctic—to illustrate the severe threats facing the planet's ecosystems and species due to human activity.