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Foreign Policy Virtual Dialogues in partnership with ASU’s Global Futures Laboratory

Global Lessons for a More Resilient Future: The Surprising Links Between the Coronavirus, Climate Change, and Inclusive Governance

This panel from June 30, 2020 included Earth League co-chairs Peter Schlosser and Johan Rockstrom who presented a diverse range of perspectives and fascinating insights on the urgent challenges we face — and key steps to address them:

  • The hope that we have to have now is that the investments that are being made on a massive scale [to combat COVID-19] will be used to drive a reemergence from that shock that is better than the starting point. From that perspective, there is a chance for us to pivot in a fairly short period of time. The key question is, will people make the right choices? -Peter Schlosser
  • Human pressures on the planet are rising to a point where we no longer can exclude crossing irreversible tipping points, like triggering collapse of forests, uncontrolled permafrost thawing and accelerated ice melt. The COVID19 pandemic is but a manifestation of this new reality. Building a resilient future to reduce risks of catastrophic shocks in the future requires that we take a systems approach of prosperity and equity within the safe operating space of a stable Earth. Science is today able to provide the targets for this space, to guide our ability to navigate the future. -Johan Rockström

Empowering Leaders for a Global Future: Transforming education to meet 21st century challenges & opportunities

This panel from Dec. 10, 2020 was a thought-provoking conversation about re-imagining education to harness today’s resources and meet tomorrow’s challenges, including EL’s Peter Schlosser:

  • “In the future, we’ll have a different way of looking at education in a globally connected context, because we do need to understand how the world works as a whole, where we have different cultures leading to different knowledge systems, how we have to combine these knowledge systems …so that we get the right outlook for understanding how we got to where we are, where we made choices that were not good for the planet, and how we can make better choices in the future.”