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Meet three disruptive business leaders — all part of the Aspen Global Leadership Network — who drive significant economic value by leveraging emerging technologies to create sustainable, inclusive, and efficient business models in drug delivery, banking, and community-focused finance. Putting values-based leadership first, they address societal needs and drive economic gro...
Last year the State of Washington, one of the most progressive in the country, voted against a carbon tax. Why? Do we face major resistance as climate policies land on ballots across the country, even though awareness and concern for the issue is at a historical high? Can we avoid hurting middle-class Americans and focus instead on corporations? What is working in other co...
How fast can the world really move off hydrocarbons, and are we underestimating deep macroeconomic analyses of the energy transition in our policymaking? Two financiers delve into the complex dynamics surrounding the global shift toward more sustainable energy, including why Middle East economies that invest in renewable energy continue to depend on a robust oil trade, and...
What is the role of design in addressing climate change and social fragmentation? Landscape architect Kate Orff of SCAPE explores how to generate new forms of ecological citizenship through participation, engagement, and stewardship. Projects such as the Venice Biennale Lagoon installation, Living Breakwaters in New York’s Harbor, Detroit’s Open Spaces, and Town Branch Par...
In times of financial crisis, we turn to national treasuries and central banks for solutions. The true power of these institutions, however, lies in their ability to prevent crises, not only economic, but also social and environmental. This panel will explore how financial leaders are leveraging the power of the national purse to address climate change and food security, l...
Imagine a world in which every kid in every city can go outside and explore the natural world. Urban ecology centers model outdoor play and promote connection, while restoring natural beauty to cities. How can urban leaders transform blighted parks into catalysts for social and environmental change? How can we spread this big idea to cities around the world? An expert pres...
Aspen Ideas: Health Engaging Local Issues Series: In Roaring Fork Valley, the realities of climate change are never far from our lives. Pests and invasive plants are altering our ecology, warming trends are likely to ignite ever-larger fires, and an economy built around outdoor activities could be transformed. The term “climate anxiety” has been coined to suggest the inten...
Even if we stopped emitting carbon tomorrow, trillions of tons would remain in our atmosphere, causing climate change for generations. While natural, agricultural drawdown techniques are being deployed, high-tech carbon capture tools are getting major buzz in the environmental movement. From direct air capture to retrofitting power plants, what are the most promising solut...
China is the world’s biggest energy consumer and carbon emitter. It needs more energy, and it wants it cleaner. So it’s pursuing the biggest push for low-carbon energy the world has ever seen. But China’s green drive is messy and uncertain – full of geopolitical fighting, technological uncertainty, and investor risk. What’s happening? Who’s profiting? And will it do much f...
As secretariat of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, Costa Rican diplomat Christiana Figueres led the global adoption of the Paris Agreement in 2015. But she was not always so hopeful, and recalls a turning point as she consciously shifted her attitude from despair to stubborn optimism. Jeff Goodell, author of The Water Will Come sits down with Figueres to reve...
The word city is not exactly synonymous with nature. Yet increasingly, urban landscapes offer innovative canvases for designers and artists who use ecology and horticulture as their medium. As the bustling field of landscape architecture makes its way into everything from infrastructure projects like the High Line to commercial stores lining Fifth Avenue, how are these des...
On the evening of Wednesday, March 8 – International Women’s Day – the Vice President participates in moderated conversation with iconic singer and songwriter Gloria Estefan at Aspen Ideas: Climate. They discuss the Biden-Harris Administration’s approach to climate change as a priority issue, including the potential for climate solutions and a new clean energy economy made...
Two US Department of Agriculture Secretaries, one past, one present, come together to talk about American food policies. Agricultural supports and other decisions made on US soil, and the trade agreements we negotiate around the world, have powerful effects on the global food supply; land conservation; the use of water, nitrogen, and pesticides; and animal and plant diseas...
If we imagine the future we want, instead of the future we fear, can we inspire action? It’s the year 2100. After a push in the early part of the century by students, grassroots advocates, and policymakers, nations came together and ended greenhouse gas pollution once and for all. While we couldn’t stop all of the negative impacts of climate change, the worst were avoide...
As scientists have slowly come to grasp the seriousness of climate change, many have begun to doubt that humans can transition away from fossil fuels fast enough to avoid serious ecological collapse on land and in the oceans. Some researchers have suggested that we should take unusual measures to prevent these outcomes. Among the more familiar of these “moonshots” is the p...
As our country's natural resources are squeezed, communities are finding that conservation solutions that make economic sense rule the road. Bike and trail systems are finding support through unexpected partnerships among conservationists, business, and community interests. The Walton Family Foundation has worked with partners to build over 250 miles of multi-use and natur...
The impacts of the climate emergency are felt by populations worldwide, and they increasingly shape whether, where, and how people migrate. Mayors, city governments, non-profits, and local businesses are learning to confront the challenges at the intersection of climate change, migration, and displacement—along with the interconnected economic, social, and climatic element...
A clean energy revolution is underway here, and across the globe. And it’s high time, considering electricity and heat are responsible for a staggering one-third of global emissions. Coal plants are shutting down, the costs of solar and wind technologies are rapidly falling, and a recent bipartisan bill looks to reestablish the United States as a leader in nuclear energy....
Coastal Louisiana is in crisis. Since the 1930s, the state has lost more than 2,000 square miles of land. Every 100 minutes, a football field of coastal land disappears into open water. That adds up to an area the size of Delaware being swallowed, in small and steady gulps, by the Gulf of Mexico. Can the state’s bold, $50 billion restoration plan save the residents, wildli...
It is no longer possible to separate the health of the planet from the health of its people. Disease patterns are changing as the climate does, and human health is at risk from loss of biodiversity, depleted water supplies, environmental toxins, and collapsing food systems. As the Rockefeller Foundation-Lancet Commission on Planetary Health states: “The continuing degradat...