DR. JOERI ROGELJ

DR. JOERI ROGELJ

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Director of Research at Grantham Institute, Imperial College
Author on UN Environment Programme & Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

A key part of how I go about doing my research is being involved in policy discussions, policy conversations, and also by following the international climate negotiations very closely. Actually, I started my research career as a part of the Presidency of the International Climate Negotiations in 2009. After that I remained an advisor to country delegations in the international negotiations, particularly small island development states or least developed countries. That really helped me to get a sense of what the real questions are that they are struggling with.

LORENDA RAMOU

LORENDA RAMOU

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Pianist, Musicologist & Concert Curator for Contemporary Music · Onassis Cultural Centre, Athens

As a child, music felt very natural for me. I didn’t feel I needed to put any effort into learning the piano. I wanted to find all the musical information that was there. What was the purpose of studying the piano? Suddenly the whole thing became so creative. I felt that the sound is something malleable and you can have an infinite number of possibilities and ways of phrasing and expressing, so that opened a whole new area of possibilities and I found this just fascinating.

ANTONELLA WILBY

ANTONELLA WILBY

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National Geographic Explorer
National Science Foundation Research Fellow · Contextual Robotics Institute, UCSD

I’m grateful for the fact that through my work I’ve had a lot of opportunities to go to places that a lot of people just simply won’t ever get a chance to go. I like having those opportunities to try to share with people what that’s like. I honestly had no idea I would ever be here. I’m from a working-class background, didn’t have a huge amount of opportunities but now I can and that’s one thing that I particularly enjoy.

McKENZIE FUNK

McKENZIE FUNK

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Journalist & PEN Literary Award-Winning Author of Windfall

As a parent and especially through all this reporting, what I’ve tried to do is think through these solutions and these fixes we have for everything and make sure that we’re not forgetting…that we’re thinking about other people. Capitalism won’t do it. Self-interest isn’t going to do this for us. As silly as it is to think that empathy will do or caring about your fellow humans will do it, I don’t know what else there is to hope for. I don’t believe that people do stuff purely out of rational self-interest, this libertarian idea that I was quietly pushing against the entire time in Windfall. That we do things just for ourselves or just to make money–that’s not been the reality of my lifetime.

MARILYN MINTER

MARILYN MINTER

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Artist

That's what my work is about. Women owning agency. Any kind. And that's what makes you really excited. Having agency. Sexual agency. Owning sexuality not being the object of it.

I don't really look for inspiration. I just let it come to me, but I don't stop working. So work comes from work. So when I'm stuck I just keep working and make terrible looking things until something else comes out of it. That's the creative process. Work comes from work. You can't think yourself out a right action. You have to act yourself into right thinking. You can't sit there and smoke cigarettes and look at the wall waiting for inspiration.

VIET THANH NGUYEN

VIET THANH NGUYEN

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Pulitzer-Prize Winning Author

Ever since I was a kid, I see this sign in a window near my parents' store. 'Another American Driven Out of Business by the Vietnamese.' And I thought, That's a story. At ten or twelve or whatever, I knew that was a story. And it didn't include me and my parents. But there's a direct connection between that story and Make America Great Again. That's been my life project to say, 'No, we didn't drive you out of your own country.' You know, there's a much more complicated story here about America, about Vietnam, about me, about my people and as American people and Vietnamese people that needs to be told through the arts and the humanities, right? It's a crucial terrain, which is why we keep fighting about it, whether we're Democrats or Republicans, conservatives or liberals. We know that culture is an important place where we define who we are.

KATHLEEN ROGERS

KATHLEEN ROGERS

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President · EARTHDAY.ORG


On the Importance of Climate Literacy & Training Programs
Not a single country in the world makes–probably one of the most important skills you’ll ever have–which is understanding the planet, a requirement. Nobody graduates from our high schools having those skills.