Hodson 110
As the world sees the impacts of climate change unfold, leaders continue to disagree on how to take collective action to address it. Join Van Jones, popular CNN commentator and founder of Green for All, and Benji Backer, founder of the American Conservation Coalition and author of the new book, The Conservative Environmentalist: Common Sense Solutions for a Sustainable Future, as they debate the best course forward.
Speakers:
Benji Backer is the Executive Chairman and Founder of the American Conservation Coalition (ACC), the largest right-of-center environmental organization in the country, and the author of The Conservative Environmentalist: Common Sense Solutions for a Sustainable Future. A proud graduate of the University of Washington, Benji has been awarded the Fortune 40 Under 40, Forbes 30 Under 30, GreenBiz 30 Under 30, and Grist 50. He serves as a Board member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences’ Climate Change Commission, the Wisconsin Conservative Energy Forum, and BridgeUSA. A frequent contributor to national media outlets, Benji is one of the leading youth environmental voices in the country. Above all, Backer is an avid outdoorsman who spends most of his free time in the mountains out West.
Van Jones is a CNN host, political commentator, Emmy Award-winning producer, and author of three New York Times best-selling books: The Green Collar Economy (2008), Rebuild the Dream (2012), and Beyond the Messy Truth: How We Came Apart, How we Come Together (2017). Van has also found success as a social entrepreneur, having founded and led many thriving enterprises including the REFORM Alliance, Color of Change, the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, and the Dream.org, which works to close prison doors and open doors of opportunity in the green and tech economies.
In 2009, as the Green Jobs Advisor to the Obama White House, Jones oversaw an $80 billion dollar investment in clean energy jobs. Jones was the main advocate for the Green Jobs Act. Signed into law by George W. Bush in 2007, the Green Jobs Act was the first piece of federal legislation to codify the term “green jobs.” During the Obama Administration, the legislation has resulted in $500 million in national funding for green jobs training.
Jones has stewarded several bipartisan legislative and advocacy efforts, racking up wins under the last four US Presidents: Clinton, Bush, Obama, and Trump. Jones’ most recent victory was advocating successfully for the passage of the FIRST STEP Act, which the New York Times calls the most substantial breakthrough in criminal justice in a generation.
A Yale-educated attorney, Jones has won numerous awards, including the World Economic Forum’s “Young Global Leader” designation, Rolling Stone’s 2012 “12 Leaders Who Get Things Done”, TIME’s 2009 “100 Most Influential People in The World”, the 2010 NAACP Image Award, a 2017 WEBBY Special Achievement Award, a 2019 Lumiere Award and a 2020 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Original Interactive Program.
Sherburne “Shere” Abbott is an internationally known expert in sustainability. Prior to joining Johns Hopkins, Shere served as vice president for sustainability initiatives and professor of sustainability science and policy at Syracuse University. She worked with faculty, staff, students, and the wider community to strengthen connections between scholarship and practice and forge new institutional collaborations to create integrated approaches to sustainability and advance the university’s commitment to leadership in sustainability in higher education. Abbott served as co-chair of SU’s steering committee for the American College & University Presidents’ Climate Commitment and provided oversight for the Center of Excellence in Environmental and Energy Systems.