electronic waste

Description

ABOUT THE SPEAKER 13 years old, and a middle school student, Miranda has been making films with environmental themes and underlays since she was nine. In conjunction with public speaking, she does what she can to convey and broadcast her messages on saving the very planet we all live on. Some of her films and speaking topics have included saving salmon habitats, saving the ocean's corals, reducing the use of plastics, the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, deforestation, electronic waste reduction/recycling and nature deficit disorder. As a result, she is the recipient of many local and international awards for her films. Miranda's passions revolve around saving the planet, with extra focus on the ocean waters and ensuring that others are educated on how they too, can help; a self-proclaimed educator, Miranda does not limit herself in her arts. She is also a competitive swimmer with aspirations to one day compete for Canada in the Summer Olympics. She has for the past four years volunteering at a local fish hatchery in the community and hopes to pursue her passion in combination with her love of the ocean and become a marine biologist at the University of Hawaii or in Australia and help save coral. --------------------------------- ABOUT THE TALK Nature deficit disorder is about the idea that people are becoming more and more disconnected from nature; the reality is that we need to reconnect to nature and all it has to offer. There are lots of consequences to being "nature deprived", both for the planet and the people on it. Kids especially, are spending more and more time with and on technology and although technology is a good thing, we need to find a balance to keep kids outdoors too. People tend to only care about what they know about; if we don't know about the parks and wilderness and our own backyards in our environment, then we won't protect it. Miranda hopes to inspire people to protect nature and cause them to take action and get outdoors. In January, Miranda travelled to California to meet and interview Richard Louv, the man who coined the phrase "nature deficit disorder". He has documented the research that tells us that both physical and mental health problems can result from the disconnect from nature. As a society, we need to get past the barriers to getting outdoors and enjoy the benefits nature has to offer. Having a lot of first hand expertise on this subject, Miranda has embraced nature and as a result hopes to make a career of it one day. Connecting and reconnecting to nature cannot only lead to people improving their world but it can improve their health being as well. --------------------------------- ABOUT TEDxKIDS@BC The mission of TEDxKids@BC is to help create a world in which the kids have been invited to explore their passions and to contribute in realizing such a world for the youth in our community. To accomplish this, we're trying to build platform for facilitating opportunities to empower kids and help them apply their passions. Find out more at http://www.tedxkidsbc.com --------------------------------- ABOUT TEDx In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized.* (*Subject to certain rules and regulations)