Today is Earth Day, a celebration in sustaining the environment and producing clean energy. From the inventor of Nest, the innovative thermostat that allows users to manage energy consumption from virtually anywhere, to learning how to deal with natural disasters, the Institute has welcomed energy and environment experts and leaders to discuss these issues at length. Watch below for some of these conversations.
Controlled from anywhere (including an iPhone), the Nest Learning Thermostat allows you to manage daily energy consumption, save real money, and importantly, diminish greenhouse gas emissions. In this 2013 Aspen Ideas Festival video, Nest creator Tony Fadell and co-founder and retired managing director of Insight Venture Partners, Jerry Murdock, discuss how a simple idea can change the world…again.
In this 2013 Aspen Ideas Festival discussion, New York Times columnist Tom Friedman and TV and documentary producer Solly Granatstein explore why the effects of drought have so much to do with the revolutionary inclinations of a frustrated populace, and whether climate issues were a contributing factor in bringing about the Arab Spring.
No scientist alive today has done more than Harvard biologist E.O. Wilson to promote the understanding of biodiversity and its conservation. In this 2012 Aspen Environment Forum video, Wilson talks about ants, sociobiology, “group” vs. kin selection, and his book, “The Social Conquest of Earth,” with Aspen Institute Executive Vice President Elliot Gerson.
How can we prepare for calamity, such as the 2011 tsunami in Japan, and other natural disasters? The opening session of the 2011 Aspen Environment Forum delved into this topic, featuring panelists biologist and professor Thomas Lovejoy, author and environmentalist Bill McKibben, “Whole Earth Catalog” editor and environmentalist Stewart Brand, and Science magazine Editor-in-Chief Marcia McNutt.
