Many of us don't want to talk about it or think about it, but extreme weather and a changing planet are a given for the 21st century. The phrase "climate fatigue" describes a public already saturated with bad news about our future.
It's a daunting problem, but there are success stories. Developing new techniques and technologies is at the heart of what Stanford and Silicon Valley do best. We are also bringing new people to the table to take a more active approach. Policy makers, geo-engineers, human behaviorists, business leaders, scientists and tech entrepreneurs are urgently working on how we can alter and adapt to the trajectory of climate change.
Join moderator Lesley Stahl, correspondent for 60 Minutes, for a Roundtable discussion that applies the expertise and perspective of Stanford's brain trust and the vision of global leaders to what may be the most compelling issue of our time.
Panelists
Lesley Stahl (moderator) has been a 60 MINUTES correspondent since March 1991. The 2013-14 season marks her 23rd on the broadcast. Prior to joining 60 MINUTES, Stahl served as CBS News White House correspondent. She has a collection of Emmy Awards for her interviews on FACE THE NATION and her 60 MINUTES reporting, including a Lifetime Achievement Emmy given in September 2003.
Chris Field is the founding director of the Carnegie Institution's Department of Global Ecology and holds two faculty positions at Stanford. He is co-chair of Working Group 2 of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which led the effort on the IPCC Special Report, "Managing the Risks of Extreme Events and Disasters to Advance Climate Change Adaptation." Field's research emphasizes impacts of climate change, from the molecular to the global scale.
George P. Shultz served as Secretary of State in the Reagan administration (1982-89). Since 1989, he has been a Distinguished Fellow at the Stanford University's Hoover Institution. He is Honorary Chairman of the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research, Advisory Council Chair of the Precourt Institute for Energy Efficiency at Stanford, Chair of the MIT Energy Initiative External Advisory Board, and Chair of the Shultz-Stephenson Task Force on Energy Policy at the Hoover Institution. His most recent book, Issues on My Mind: Strategies for the Future, was published in 2013.
Bina Venkataraman is Senior Advisor for Climate Change Innovation in the Executive Office of the President. As part of President Obama's Climate Action Plan, she leads efforts to stimulate innovation and entrepreneurship to address climate change. She has served as deputy for policy on the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology and as Director of Global Policy Initiatives at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard. She was previously a journalist at the New York Times and Boston Globe, covering science, the environment, energy and public health.
Alvaro Umana served as Costa Rica's first Minister of Energy and Environment and that country's ambassador at the Copenhagen Climate Change Conference, where Costa Rica introduced its carbon neutrality pledge to become the first climate neutral country by 2021. Currently, he is a senior research fellow at the Tropical Agricultural Research and Higher Education Center (CATIE). Umana holds a doctorate in environmental engineering and a master's degree in economics from Stanford University.
JB Straubel is a co-founder of Tesla, where he oversees technical and engineering design. Prior to Tesla, he was the CTO and co-founder of the aerospace firm, Volacom, where invented and patented a long-endurance hybrid electric propulsion concept. Straubel built an electric Porsche 944 that held a world EV racing record, a custom electric bicycle and a pioneering hybrid trailer system. He holds a bachelor's degree in energy systems engineering and a master's in energy engineering from Stanford University.
