The Aspen Institute

Contacts:
Jennifer Myers
The Aspen Institute
 (202) 736-2906
jennifer.myers@aspeninstitute.org

Beth Foster
National Geographic magazine
(202) 857-7543
befoster@ngs.org

Interviews with E.O. Wilson, Lester Brown, Majora Carter, and Others Available Online from Inaugural Aspen Environment Forum
Aspen Institute and National Geographic magazine websites offer insight from Forum participants

Washington, DC, April 9, 2008––The Aspen Institute and National Geographic magazine are pleased to announce that video and audio clips from the first-ever Aspen Environment Forum are now available online. A powerful, four-day gathering of more than 350 thought leaders that began on March 26, 2008, in Aspen, CO, the Aspen Environment Forum was designed to stimulate open-minded dialogue about the future of our shared environment and how we, as citizens, corporations and countries, can be responsible stewards.

“The Aspen Institute places significance on discussion, on dialogue, on spirited debate around any number of issues,” says David Monsma, the executive director of the Institute’s Energy and Environment program. “And the Aspen Environment Forum is no different.”

“National Geographic magazine has a long history of reporting on the environment, and we are delighted to have brought together so many voices around the issues,” said Chris Johns, editor in chief of the magazine.

Clips available to the public already include urban environmental activist Majora Carter; Earth Policy Institute Founder Lester Brown; J. Carl Ganter of Circle of Blue; David Malakoff of NPR; Colorado Gov. William Ritter; and Tim Appenzeller, executive editor of National Geographic, interviewing Harvard University’s E.O. Wilson. Clips will continue to be added to the site at http://www.aspenenvironment.org/live-from-the-forum.  The Aspen Institute’s YouTube channel is rich with video at www.youtube.com/aspeninstitute, and podcasts are available on iTunes.

National Geographic magazine’s online coverage of the Forum is at http://ngm.typepad.com/aspen_forum. It features interviews of key speakers, including E.O.Wilson, Canadian Inuit activist and Nobel Prize nominee Sheila Watt-Cloutier, and National Geographic Emerging Explorer Alexandra Cousteau.

Visit these sites to hear E.O. Wilson caution that we need to save the “living environment” because “if we only try to save the physical environment, we’ll lose both,” and watch Majora Carter call out to “make the invisible places visible.”

Sponsors for the Aspen Environment Forum, presented by the Aspen Institute and National Geographic magazine, include Camco, Duke Energy, General Motors, Goldman Sachs and Shell.

The Aspen Institute, founded in 1950, is an international nonprofit organization dedicated to fostering enlightened leadership and open-minded dialogue. Through seminars, policy programs, conferences and leadership development initiatives, the Institute and its international partners seek to promote nonpartisan inquiry and an appreciation for timeless values. The Institute is headquartered in Washington, DC, and has campuses in Aspen, CO, and on the Wye River near the shores of the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland. Its international network includes partner Aspen Institutes in Berlin, Rome, Lyon, Tokyo, New Delhi and Bucharest, and leadership initiatives in Africa, Central America and India.

National Geographic magazine is the official journal of the National Geographic Society, one of the world’s largest nonprofit educational and scientific organizations. Published in English and 31 local-language editions, the magazine has a global circulation of around 8 million. It is sent each month to National Geographic members and is available on newsstands for $4.95 a copy. Single copies can be ordered by calling (800) NGS-LINE, also the number to call to apply for membership in the Society. The magazine’s Web site is at www.ngm.com.