I recently checked out an excellent TED talk from Alex Steffen of Worldchanging.com. In the clip below, Alex addresses the subject of a sustainable future (and what it will take to achieve one). This wide-reaching presentation touches on numerous issues, from the emergence of megacities to patterns of technology adoption and brilliant inventions built to empower the poor. In short, he’s hitting on some heavy stuff. He’s also chock-full of sobering statistics, such as the idea that Earth is adding a city the size of Seattle every seven days.

Some of these innovations, such as landmine-detecting flowers, seem simple enough to implement in the near future. Others, such as changing the global distribution of resources, seem nearly impossible.

As much as I love this big-picture, scattershot approach, I can’t help but wonder about the priority of these endeavors. Can we fix the world’s current problems simultaneously, or should we focus on some problems before others? And, on the off chance that the entire world could ever agree to focus on one group of issues before moving to another, what should we try to fix first? Education? The environment?

I’m still not sure. Take a look at the video below and let me know what you think.