Please join Demos and the Rockefeller Brothers Fund for a forum with nationally-recognized environmental advocate and lawyer James Gustave Speth, Dean of the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, about his new book, The Bridge at the Edge of the World: Capitalism, the Environment, and Crossing from Crisis to Sustainability.

It comes as no surprise to progressive policymakers and environmental advocates that the US environmental movement faces grave challenges. In addition to severe deforestation, the extinction of thousands of species of plants and animals, and the depletion of the earth's stratospheric ozone layer, human activities have contributed to planetary warming and climate disruption. The United States is undoubtedly complicit in these global trends.

Contemporary capitalism, Speth asserts, has wreaked havoc not only on America's financial system, but also on the well-being of our planet. In a stern but hopeful tone, The Bridge at the End of the World emphasizes that in order to produce transformative change in green policy, we must re-examine the root causes of the global environmental crisis and determine what we can do as a community, as a nation, and as a global society to protect our natural environment for future generations.

Moderator: Stephen B. Heintz, President, Rockefeller Brothers Fund

James Gustave Speth is an environmental lawyer and prominent advocate for environmental issues in the US. He currently serves as Dean and Professor in the Practice of Environmental Policy at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. He is a co-founder of the Natural Resources Defense Council and founder of the World Resources Institute. Speth advised the administrations of Presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton, helping to coordinate their respective environmental programs. He has served as Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme, Chair of the United Nations Development Group, and Member of the National Commission on the Environment. Speth graduated summa cum laude from Yale University, attended Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar, and received his J.D. from Yale Law School.

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