This is a great story of human innovation – hands down our climate change weapon with the most potential.

William Kamkwamba, teenage boy in Malawi. After dropping out of school due to poverty and famine, Kamkwamba took to the library, where he learned about electricity and magnetism from studying diagrams in books. He used the diagrams to build a windmill and circuit breaker on his property to supply electricity to his home and farm, using, among other things, his father’s broken bike.

The pictures of the windmill are incredible – the circuit breaker is a work of art. And really, if you think about it, electricity and magnets are incredible works of art as well!

The world found Kamkwamba, and he’s been able to share his knowledge and views with influential people at TED conferences. Now he has a book out, The Boy Who Harvested the Wind, and he’s in the U.S. on a book tour, simultaneously studying for his SATs to get into college.

One good point of globalization is the sharing of inspiration in this way – there are people all over the world teaching themselves technical ideas, building windmills out of broken bicycles, and changing the world with their stories.