Moving Mountains Symposium

MOVING MOUNTAINS SYMPOSIUM: Climate Solutions

Friday, May 24, 2013 • 9:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. (Includes Lunch)

SCHEDULE DETAILS:

Morning Session: 9:00 a.m. - 12:15 p.m.

Lunch: 12:15 p.m. - 1:30 p.m.

Afternoon Session: 1:30 a.m. - 3:30 p.m.

“The only thing we have to do to be sure we will leave a ruined world for our children and our grandchildren is to do exactly what we are doing now.”

—Gus Speth, co-founder of the Natural Resources Defense Council

Climate news is grim, permeated with reports of epic droughts, staggering dust storms and melting glaciers. While this stream of bad news is likely to continue, a lot can still be done to stem the rise in temperatures and sea levels.

The philosopher Holmes Rolston III argues that we are at “a hinge point in history.” Essentially, he’s saying that we have a choice: continue business as usual and let earth temperatures rise or make changes to try to preserve a livable future.

If that hinge is going to swing toward the livable future option, we need solutions to climate change, which largely involve reducing the use of fossil fuels. The good news is that many of these solutions already exist, but they have to be adopted as a whole — with scientists, policymakers, entrepreneurs, activists and artists all working to reduce CO2 in the atmosphere.

This year’s Moving Mountains Symposium brings together deeply committed people who are on the front lines of the climate battle. While they are not naïve to the challenge, they are hopeful that by using our hearts and heads, we can find a way to alter the dire situation.

As one of our speakers, philosopher Kathleen Dean Moore, says,

“We are at a critical point. We have a very narrow window of opportunity to get it right, and to get it right, we first have to imagine a new world, story by story.”

EMCEE

Helping us tell this story is John Hockenberry, the renowned journalist who also co-wrote and narrated the “Frontline” documentary called Climate of Doubt, which explores the shift in public opinion on climate change. Hockenberry knows how difficult it will be to change the current paradigm. As he says, “In many ways, Climate of Doubt is the story of how difficult it is for a democracy to act in a crisis until the fire is in the stairwell. Circumstance will move us forward if people on their own, can’t.”

(The symposium is included with some passes. No individual tickets will be sold.)

Past Moving Mountains Symposia have focused on energy, water, food, extinction and population.

See who has joined us at previous symposia: