TED Talks

A love story for the coral reef crisis | Ayana Elizabeth Johnson

Visit to get our entire library of TED Talks, transcripts, translations, personalized Talk recommendations and more. Over the course of hundreds of scuba dives, marine biologist Ayana Elizabeth Johnson fell in love — with a fish. In this ode to parrotfish, she shares five reasons why these creatures are simply amazing (from their ability to…

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Over the course of hundreds of scuba dives, marine biologist Ayana Elizabeth Johnson fell in love — with a fish. In this ode to parrotfish, she shares five reasons why these creatures are simply amazing (from their ability to poop white sand to make colorful “wardrobe changes”) and shows what’s at stake — for us and them — as climate change threatens the future of coral reefs.

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29 Comments

  1. Nigel Palmer

    November 7, 2019 at 12:06 am

    I wonder what th kids will look like?

  2. Brent Dowland

    November 7, 2019 at 12:09 am

    Good luck

  3. Mick7sp

    November 7, 2019 at 12:23 am

    All that effort and they wanted to Greta the snot nosed brat a Nobel…

  4. MD SABIR

    November 7, 2019 at 12:25 am

    Rococo

  5. tiffsaver

    November 7, 2019 at 12:44 am

    As the coral reefs go, so goes the earth.

  6. Ava Zyskowski

    November 7, 2019 at 2:01 am

    Thank you VIP’s!! I love white sandy beaches! 🥰🐠🐠🐠

  7. Minh Doan

    November 7, 2019 at 2:27 am

    Watch Peter Ridd for the other side of the argument. Look beyond the pretty.

  8. Mr. faisaL

    November 7, 2019 at 4:25 am

    HUMANS should stop Destyoing the EARTH..
    For even Benefit of Themselves##

  9. Horsingabout

    November 7, 2019 at 4:36 am

  10. Dodged a Bullet

    November 7, 2019 at 7:49 am

    Nothing like a political agenda when giving a “TED talk”>

  11. 山本ジョセフィーヌ

    November 7, 2019 at 7:57 am

    日本人いますか?

    • あいうえお

      November 7, 2019 at 1:47 pm

      高校生ですが、英語の勉強も兼ねて見てますw

  12. siegfried greding

    November 7, 2019 at 8:32 am

    Until I get rid of the profit motivation to destroy the environment AKA capitalism. The destruction will not

  13. Charles Ringling

    November 7, 2019 at 8:45 am

    She is speaking the wrong language. She should be speaking chinese and Indonesian dialects. Parrotfish and others are aggressively hunted. Chinese boats go into protected waters and reefs. Chinese ships now dump dirt on reefs, call it an island and claim fishing for 10 miles around it. But she is speaking to people that aleady try to protect the fishing not the ones causing the problem. I guess we could nuke china.

  14. MrPlasticduck

    November 7, 2019 at 9:12 am

    Doing fine off the coast of Australia 👍🍻

  15. Matt Angiono

    November 7, 2019 at 9:29 am

    Reefs have more value than just what humans get out of exploring them… she knows this, but unfortunately most people don’t give a hoot

  16. Blingdream

    November 7, 2019 at 9:56 am

    “Reverse climate change”. Yea we’ll get right on that and the rest of your inDoctrinated liberal views.

  17. Jacob Opstad

    November 7, 2019 at 10:39 am

    Beautiful talk! Very inspirational!

  18. Alianger

    November 7, 2019 at 12:55 pm

    “some people are causing this and it’s everyone else’s fault”

  19. xchopp

    November 7, 2019 at 1:59 pm

    1000%

  20. Dave Anderson

    November 7, 2019 at 4:08 pm

    we need more peeps like her

  21. Soli ProdigalCreators

    November 7, 2019 at 4:24 pm

    PAINFUL TRUTH

  22. Soli ProdigalCreators

    November 7, 2019 at 4:25 pm

    WHO IS RESPONSIBLE???

  23. Soli ProdigalCreators

    November 7, 2019 at 4:26 pm

    DO YOU WANT 🌍 RIP?

  24. Michael Wallace

    November 7, 2019 at 5:11 pm

    I see why she’s a single person

  25. Ricochet reefing

    November 7, 2019 at 10:42 pm

    Global warming is a hoax.

  26. Invox

    November 8, 2019 at 11:06 pm

    If people changed gender (or even race) halfway thru their life, I think people would treat each other VERY diferently.

  27. Mkinfknsndwyches!

    November 9, 2019 at 1:01 am

    Everyone needs to hear talks like this and learn the harsh reality of our environmental status. I’m not judging but logically people should be very hesitant to have children. What kind of future will they have? Our resources are limited but most of the world’s population keeps increasing. Most people are not vegan or vegetarian. Most people don’t know, aren’t able to or don’t care to be eco-conscious/friendly. I want to be positive but the future seems pretty bleak to me.

  28. Gladys Farmer Kitchen 8GladysWorld8

    November 10, 2019 at 6:03 am

    Thanks for talking about reef crisis. Showing and talking different types of fishes deeply.

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