Ideas change everything

The surprising thing I learned sailing solo around the world

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Dame Ellen MacArthur |

TED2015

• March 2015

What do you learn when you sail around the world on your own? When solo sailor Ellen MacArthur circled the globe – carrying everything she needed with her – she came back with new insight into the way the world works, as a place of interlocking cycles and finite resources, where the decisions we make today affect what's left for tomorrow. She proposes a bold new way to see the world's economic systems: not as linear, but as circular, where everything comes around.

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What do you learn when you sail around the world on your own? When solo sailor Ellen MacArthur circled the globe – carrying everything she needed with her – she came back with new insight into the way the world works, as a place of interlocking cycles and finite resources, where the decisions we make today affect what's left for tomorrow. She proposes a bold new way to see the world's economic systems: not as linear, but as circular, where everything comes around.

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This talk was presented at an official TED conference.

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About the speaker

Dame Ellen MacArthur

Circular economy advocate

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After setting a record for sailing around the world, Dame Ellen MacArthur has turned her attention toward creating a more "circular" economy -- where resources and power recirculate and regenerate.

This talk was presented at an official TED conference.

Read our curation guidelines.

Dame Ellen MacArthur: The surprising thing I learned sailing solo around the world | TED Talk