JANERA’s recent event, “Haiti’s Reconstruction & the Geopolitical Implications of a Permanent U.S. Presence,” buzzed with curiosity, invested interest, heartfelt concern and commitment to rebuilding the earthquake-devastated country.
Regardless of the fact that guests had to battle a rainy New York evening to get to the Tuesday event, the Wall & Water Lounge at the new Andaz filled with an eclectic group of philanthropists, journalists, entrepreneurs, poets, humanitarians, scholars and curious pedestrians all brought together by the desire to have their burning questions about Haiti answered.
After a captivating performance by Haitian-American slam-poet, Lenelle Moise, guests settled in while sipping on wine and rubbing shoulders with colleagues, friends and new faces to hear panelists Dr. Bob Maguire and Nikolas Kozloff tackle challenging questions like, “Why did the earthquake in Haiti, which was similar to the 1994 San Francisco earthquake, cause so much damage and destruction?” And, “How do you evaluate the role of the international community in Haiti? Do you think the US overpowered the other countries in the relief operations?”
While, Moderator François Pierre-Louis got to the heart of issues surrounding post-earthquake Haiti, it was the questions from the guests that drove home the far-reaching impact and the shared connectivity of loss.
Tonya Phillips of Global Nomads Group questioned the state of displaced Haitian youth asking, “how will they be educated? They want to be able to go to school, yet 80% of the schools have been impacted…the students make up a sizable portion of the population.”
While Fatimah Rolland, a woman who had just returned from Haiti, where her husband was volunteering his surgical skills, challenged the organization of volunteer forces asking, “Where is the coordination?”
John Rosser, a gamechanger preparing for his own conference called, Sustainable Haiti , curiously questioned the future of Haiti’s entrepreneurship. Clearly a big believer in innovation, Rosser talked of applying this belief to Haitian people while realizing that the key lies in supporting and assisting the creative spirit of Haitians. Rosser asked, “Where is the registration for NGO’s? How do we make it efficient? It needs to be bottom up meeting top down. It’s all about creativity either manifested in arts or business. It’s about people who passionately believe in an idea.”
All questions pointed to the over-arching theme of the evening: the insurmountable strength, compassion and ingenuity born out of collective effort.
To hear the answers to these questions and to expand your own knowledge of Haiti’s most pressing issues watch JANERA’s live streaming of the event on FORA.tv
At last night’s climate change debate (“Will Green Put us In the Red?”) Eric Roston, senior associate at the Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy at Duke University said that his goal for the evening was to show the audience that the issues of climate change are far more confusing than we thought they were.
First off, the 1400-page Waxman-Markey bill that’s now before Congress, the primary component of which is a “cap-and-trade” program that will (among other things) cap greenhouse gases by 80% by 2050. Second, comprehending why there is rising skepticism of climate change around the world (amongst both liberals and conservatives), despite there being plenty of science proving that the atmosphere is warming due to man-made C02 emissions. Finally, what exactly is geoengineering and why is it getting a lot of attention on both Capitol Hill and The Daily Show?
Though the four panelists agreed that climate change is real and that there’s scientific evidence to prove it, they all had different ideas on how to go about fixing things. (So did moderator Dennis Kneale, anchor of CNBC’s Power Lunch.)
Ralph Cavanagh, senior attorney and co-director of the Natural Resources Defense Council’s energy program, reminded the audience repeatedly that there’s evidence that we (and various industries) can actually save money by reducing energy. Cavanagh cited a McKinsey report that shows that we can achieve energy efficiency merely by changing the appliances and building materials we use from here on out. (The report, summarized here, estimates we would save $1.2 trillion as a nation by 2020 if we invested $520 billion in efficiency improvements.)
While this notion of energy reduction saving money did not seem like earth-shattering news to most of us, apparently it was for some on the panel.
Steve Hayward, the F.K. Weyerhaeuser Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research (and host of “An Inconvenient Truth…or Convenient Fiction?”), argued that developing countries such as India and China cannot afford to adopt the clean technologies that the U.S. and other western nations are already starting to use. (There is reason to be concerned about this as China has already overtaken the U.S. in carbon emissions, and India is soon to follow.)
This is no reason not to do what we can to stop climate change here in the U.S., as one member of the audience pointed out.
Ronald Bailey, author and science correspondent at Reason magazine agreed with Cavanagh that the entire fossil fuel infrastructure is going to be replaced in 40 years—“The question is, will it be cost effective or not?” asked Bailey. Bailey was the panelist most skeptical of government intervention and urged trusting the genius of the marketplace. Roston concurred, at least in regards to ethanol, which the government mistakenly espoused even though it doesn’t make environmental sense.
“Drinking it is the best idea!” Roston continued, promising he’d have a few glasses of ethanol as soon as the panel concluded.
Towards the end of the evening, we learned about vaporizing ocean water (to create white clouds that would deflect the sun, reducing global temperatures) and other controversial “geoengineering” projects that are gaining currency in Washington. (Controversial because some people, such as author Steven Levitt, argue that we should turn to geoengineering instead of, not in addition to, reducing man-made CO2 emissions.)
A smirking Hayward mentioned that Jon Stewart had Levitt, one of the authors of SuperFreakonomics, on his show a few weeks ago and seemed to side with his (apparently poorly researched) chapter on “Global Cooling.”
“Have you stepped on a secular religion?” Stewart asks Levitt at one point, referring to the controversy generated by his chapter. (For more on this controversy, see this excellent post by Brian Merchant of Treehugger.)
Cavanagh says there’s something to these technological solutions, such as painting roofs white to deflect the sun (and thereby reducing planetary warming), but he cautioned that we’ve got to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels for other reasons than reversing climate change. “This is also about energy security and public health, not just climate change,” Cavanagh said.
Suzanne Dawson, a public relations executive for energy companies including Duke Energy and PPL, said she was surprised by how much she enjoyed the rowdy debate. “I loved the intimate setting,” said Dawson, referring to the cozy bar on the 3rd floor of the Norwood Club.
Asked what he got out of the evening, entrepreneur Locke Raper said, “The issue is complicated in terms of underlying science, possible outcomes of future scenarios and underlying politics. But we do know enough at this point to be rationally concerned and to invoke the human ‘fight or flight’ response at a collective level, which given the limited options for ‘flight’ means we need to ‘fight’ by systematically and simultaneously incentivising energy conservation (both in consumption/production) and reorienting energy supplies with a goal of reducing CO2 and other greenhouse gasses.”
Our latest salon, held on the top floor of New York’s Norwood Club, was a veritable Who’s Who of New York City’s green leaders. Before Zipcar co-founder (and founder of the savvy new ride share site GoLoco) Robin Chase and the Economist’s Vijay Vaitheeswaran, author of Zoom: The Global Race to Fuel the Car of the Future, took to the stage, I had a beer and checked out the crowd.
I said hello to Parag Khanna, author of The Second World: How Emerging Powers Are Redefining Global Competition in the Twenty-First Century and Senior Research Fellow and Director of the Global Governance Initiative of the New America Foundation and caught site of his wife Ayesha, a partner at strategic consulting firm Fitzgerald Analytics.
Janera was deep in a conversation with Shayne Macquaid, owner of Voltaic, a solar energy company that makes laptop-charging bags and Marissa Feinberg, a partner the environmental PR firm Green Spaces. The place was getting crowded and I looked around to see Graham Hill, founder of Treehugger.com, as well as frequent New York Times contributors Liesl Schillinger and Katherine Zoepf. I began a conversation with architect Cassim Shephard, director of Urban Omnibus, and artist and new media teacher Rachel Stevens about urban design consultant Jan Gehl and how he is helping to make New York City a more bike-friendly place.
At 8 P.M., Janera welcomed everyone and invited Tonya Muro Phillips, director of programs at the Global Nomads Group, to say a word. The Global Nomads Group, our sponsor for the evening, is an international NGO that creates interactive educational programs for students about global issues. Though our audiences are different, the subjects we cover are not—and we’re very excited about this collaboration. Phillips said the children GNG works with in developing countries will watch our Green Transportation salon later this week, as soon as FORA.tv posts it. (Check back on our home page—we will post it soon.)
Robin and Vijay had an illuminating dialogue. They talked about the great global challenge to curb environmental degradation, balance the collective good against individual mobility and why Robin is, in her words,“the queen of hypocrites.” My favorite moment was when Vijay asked Robin why we couldn’t have a melange of solutions to the oil-powered car problem? Why couldn’t we do a mix of car-sharing and carpooling, electric cars, hybrid vehicles, and a gas tax (for those stubborn or wealthy individuals who simply cannot give up their gas powered car)? Robin paused a minute, as if she had no answer. “Wow. I’d never thought of that before!” she said, looking bewildered.
And then: “Sure, why not? I’m a big fan of diversity.”
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, on his show a few weeks ago and seemed to side with his (apparently