Those Remarkable Men and Their Flying Machines. Some Faces Behind the Aspen Environment Forum

Aspen Meadows Campus, hosting Aspen Environment Forum 2010

Without even pretending to do justice to the 100+ very impressive names on the speakers’ list at the Aspen Environment Forum, I thought of sharing the work of some of the people I’ve listened to and/ or engaged with during the forum. Their creativity and intellectual profundity are an incredible source of inspiration for many.

It was only during the third day of the conference that I met probably the most charismatic and inspirational speaker of the forum, the Iraqi-born American urban planner T.H. Culhane, who runs the German – Egyptian NGO Solar CITIES. Maybe that happened for a reason, as the day’s title was “New Horizons: Building a Sustainable World”. T.H. brings tech-knowledge into the world’s poorest neighbourhoods, from Cairo to Guatemala, educating people on industrial ecology solutions for their communities. The results: “integrated solar water and kitchen-waste-to-cooking-fuel-and-electric-generator-fuel biogas systems”, composting systems, rooftop gardening systems and a bunch of other hyper cool innovations. I’ve asked T.H. whether he thinks his solutions are scalable given the unprecedented rate of migration from rural to urban areas. His solution: ask each and every newcomer to produce his/her own energy! I’m a bit skeptical on the feasibility of that one, but his solutions are nonetheless amazing.

The third day made me run into America’s first eco-friendly cowboy, Doug Fine. He has authored the bestseller “Farewell, My Subaru” (which sold out during the forum, without me being able to get my hands on a copy). He’s intensely funny and shows by example how people can live petroleum free in one year, without giving up any digital age comforts (his solutions include a sustainable diet, vegetable-oil powered autos and solar power). Without preaching that everybody should move to New Mexico and herd goats, he makes a pretty convincing case on small steps we can all take to reduce oil dependency. And he’s damn funny.

A puzzling presence at the summit was Sudanese Ambassador and chief negotiator of the G77 on climate change, Mr. Lumumba Di-Aping. The developed world has pretty much blamed and shamed his stubbornness for the Copenhagen negotiations failure. I’ve talked to him a bit about the responsibilities of developing countries in the face of climate change; his position is that developing countries have to factor in their development needs and that their only fundamental responsibility is to develop (albeit, following a different path). Still, he was saying that China can and should be brought to contribute by a universal cap on carbon emissions. Easier said than done, but then again, it’s valuable to try to really understand how G77 leaders think about these issues…

Great insights on sustainable food and agriculture came from sustainable chef Barton Seaver (his website is amazing, totally recommend it), from program director for Animal Welfare Approved Andrew Gunther (independent food labeling granted to small farmers across the US for raising their animals with highest welfare standards – despite talking to Andrew, still a dilemma for me how to get the political will to factor in negative externalities, like environmental costs, in the price of the food we buy, so that finally sustainable food became affordable for all), and from Melina Shannon-DiPietro (who’s managed to implement some really effective and creative marketing communication tools to implement sustainable dining in the Yale University campus).

So many, many more amazing speakers to highlight… TBC (on energy and the oil spill in particular).

Till then, to your emotional enjoyment, I give you some recommendations from the Aspen Environment Forum co-organizer, the National Geographic. A remarkable part of the speakers and participants were NG Explorers (check out more about their Emerging Explorer and Explorer-in-Residence programs). Each day of the forum was accompanied by photographic storytelling with photographers Joel Sartore (America’s most prominent photographer of rare and endangered species… check out this absolutely amazing short movie of his) and George Steinmetz (an expert in aerial landscapes).

PS: I was a Scholar at the Aspen Environment Forum, and I hope many more fellows of the Aspen Young Leaders Programme of the Aspen Institute Romania will attend future editions of the forum.