In May of last year, I posted a blog about Earth Day’s upcoming 50th anniversary, highlighting one planned celebration of that landmark event, EarthX, which last year drew a crowd of 175,000 visitors in Dallas and which this year was anticipating over 200,000 attendees. But the world is a different place today than it was a year ago and EarthX organizers, under the leadership of the environmentalist Trammell S. Crow, developed a Plan B, transforming the event into a virtual, online experience, featuring a series of high profile thought leaders, sharing the objective of EarthX and its founder—to inspire people and organizations to take action towards a more sustainable future worldwide. Among this year’s virtual programs is its Law and Policy Symposium.
The Symposium had been planned to be a full-day event with sessions on water, public and private lands, the challenges of climate change, and the future of environmental law--with speakers representing a diverse range of perspectives. Fingers crossed, EarthX is planning to hold that same event on October 22, “Half Earth Day.” But to celebrate Earth Day on its true birthday, EarthX will be presenting instead a 90-minute virtual program on April 22 at 12 PM Central time/1 PM Eastern Time.
This condensed program includes an EPA Update, from EPA Region 6 Regional Administrator Ken McQueen, and a series of conversations:
- Between Seth Seigel, NY Times bestselling author of “Troubled Water: What’s Wrong with What we Drink,” and Brent Fewell, Founder, Earth and Water Law Group, on the topic of our water;
- Between Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (RI) and Pam Giblin of the Climate Leadership Council, on the challenges of climate change; and
- Between Yale Professor Dan Esty, editor of A Better Planet: Forty Big Ideas for a Sustainable Future, and John C. Cruden, Principal, Beveridge & Diamond and former Assistant Attorney General for the Environment and Natural Resources Division, Department of Justice.
There will be a special chat room for virtual attendees to ask questions during the presentations and perhaps provision for ongoing online discussions after the Symposium is over.
To register and to see the complete agenda, go to https://earthx.org/earthxlaw/
The Symposium organizers hope that this year’s virtual program—and the full program in October-- will foster a dialog among diverse perspectives that results in the identification of points on which there might be consensus, and identification of a range of paths forward to inspire people and organizations to take action towards a more sustainable future worldwide. In these times particularly, a dialog among diverse perspectives seeking a common objective would be something to crow about.
