ENVIRONMENT

PROTECTING HALF-EARTH: OPPORTUNITIES AND OBSTACLES

The second, follow-up ClassACT HR73 Forum will again bring together a variety of expertise and perspectives to address how Half-Earth will unfold in the future, focusing on the challenges of conserving the planet. Assuming that 50% protection is imperative, panelists will address questions such as: What are the drivers of environmental change? How do we define a protected landscape? What are the pathways to achieve this goal in order to overcome local, subnational, and global hurdles? How do we harness the forces at work in the world today to achieve Half-Earth? What do we do with the 50% of the planet that will not be protected? Answers to these topics are at the core to realizing Half-Earth.

The panel of experts include Kiani Akina, Class of 2025 and an Environmental Science and Public Policy Major at Harvard College; Jason Clay ‘73, Ph.D., Senior Vice President, Markets and Food, and Executive Director, Markets Institute for the World Wildlife Fund; David Foster, Ph.D., Director Emeritus, Harvard Forest, Harvard University; and Cristián Samper, PhD., Managing Director and Leader for Nature Solutions at the Bezos Earth Fund. W. John Kress ’73, Ph.D., Distinguished Scientist and Curator Emeritus, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, who moderated the first ClassACT HR73 “Half-Earth” panel last fall, will lead the discussion of the second panel on April 17 as well.

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HALF-EARTH: CONSERVING BIODIVERSITY FROM THE DEEP SEA TO MT. EVEREST

Moderators Jesse H. Ausubel ‘73, Director of the Program for Human Environment at the Rockefeller University, and Dr. W. John Kress ‘73, Distinguished Scientist and Curator Emeritus at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, led a powerful discussion with three fellow classmates about the existential threats to biodiversity and the possible ways to preserve species and their habitats. The distinguished panel included Broughton Coburn '73, a Visiting Assistant Professor for Colorado College and an author and environmental conservationist who has helped to protect plants and wildlife on the Himalayan plain and in the valleys and mountains of Wyoming; Sharon S. Tisher '73, who for 27 years has taught environmental law and policy courses at the University of Maine while chairing boards for environmental non-profits like the National Resources Council of Maine and compiling a climate chronology; and Dr. Dean Wang '73, Associate Professor Emeritus at the University of Vermont, who has researched biogeochemistry and nutrient cycling as well as teaching about sustainability. Drawing inspiration from the late biologist E.O. Wilson’s concept of “Half Earth,” they explored ways to realize Wilson’s vision of protecting half of the Earth’s land and oceans in order to prevent the extinction of more species, champion biodiversity and save the planet.

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CAN 21ST CENTURY CAPITALISM SOLVE SCHOOL FAILURE, CLIMATE CHANGE, AND INCOME INEQUALITY?

Moderator Leigh Hafrey ’73, Senior Lecturer at the MIT Sloan School of Management, and former co-Master of Mather House, led a stirring discussion about imaginative ways that impact investing and partnerships between public and private investors can help remedy poverty, failing schools and the climate crisis. The distinguished panel included Roger W. Ferguson, Jr. ’73, the former Vice Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System and the former President and CEO of TIAA; Natasha Lamb, Managing Partner and Co-Founder of Arjuna Capital; and Tracy Palandjian, CEO and Co-Founder of Social Finance and former Vice-Chair of the Harvard Board of Overseers. 

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CLIMATE CHANGE AND WATER CRISES: DROUGHT, FLOOD, CONTAMINATION...AND WHAT WE CAN DO ABOUT IT

We bought together a panel of experts, moderated by Erum Sattar, Program Director of the Sustainable Water Management Program (SWM) at Tufts University, and including Andy Sawyer HR’73, Assistant Chief Counsel of the California State Water Resources Control Board, Jeff Hébert, President of HR&A, Kelsey Leonard, water scientist, legal scholar, policy expert, writer, and enrolled citizen of the Shinnecock Nation, and William Moomaw, Emeritus Professor of international environmental policy at Tufts University, to discuss these disparate and interrelated problems. Together, we aimed to attain greater understanding of the immense challenges to global and local water security and to begin to chart future actions.

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