The Alliance for Sustainable Colorado hosts a number of speakers each year ranging from sustainability advocates and experts to leaders who build awareness to transform ideas, behaviors, and policies.
Please browse through a selection of our speakers from years past:
Julia Butterfly Hill – For 738 days Julia Butterfly Hill lived in the canopy of an ancient redwood tree, called Luna, to help make the world aware of the plight of ancient forests. Her courageous act of civil disobedience gained international attention for the redwoods as well as other environmental and social justice issues and is chronicled in her book The Legacy of Luna: The Story of a Tree, a Woman, and the Struggle to Save the Redwoods. Julia, with the great help of steelworkers and environmentalists, successfully negotiated to permanently protect the 1,000 year-old tree and a nearly three- acre buffer zone. Her two-year vigil informed the public that only 3% of the ancient redwood forests remain and that the Headwaters Forest Agreement, brokered by state and federal agencies and Pacific Lumber/Maxxam Corporation, will not adequately protect forests and species.
Lester Brown – The Washington Post called Lester Brown “one of the world’s most influential thinkers.” The Telegraph of Calcutta refers to him as “the guru of the environmental movement.” In 1986, the Library of Congress requested his personal papers noting that his writings “have already strongly affected thinking about problems of world population and resources.” Brown has authored or coauthored 50 books. One of the world’s most widely published authors, his books have appeared in some 40 languages. Among his earlier books are Man, Land and Food, World Without Borders, and Building a Sustainable Society. His 1995 book Who Will Feed China? challenged the official view of China’s food prospect, spawning hundreds of conferences and seminars.
Bobby Kennedy, Jr – According to his website, Bobby Kennedy Jr’s reputation as a resolute defender of the environment stems from a litany of successful legal actions. Mr. Kennedy was named one of Time magazine’s “Heroes for the Planet” for his success helping Riverkeeper lead the fight to restore the Hudson River. The group’s achievement helped spawn more than 130 Waterkeeper organizations across the globe. Mr. Kennedy serves as Chief Prosecuting Attorney for the Hudson Riverkeeper and President of Waterkeeper Alliance. He is also a Clinical Professor and Supervising Attorney at Pace University School of Law’s Environmental Litigation Clinic and is co-host of Ring of Fire on Air America Radio.
T. Boone Pickens – Named one of the world’s 100 most influential people by Time magazine in 2009, Pickens has warned the country could very well be spending $10 trillion on foreign oil within a decade, gaining the ear and imagination of both bi-partisan political support and the public at large. Pickens travels the nation sharing with audiences his urgent plea to lessen our dependence on fossil fuels, invest in alternative energy and look for other ways to enhance U.S. energy security and stability. He has brought his solution — a combination of wind farms along the Wind Belt, the vast corridor that extends the length of the Great Plains, from Texas to the Canadian border, and a transfer of a portion of the natural gas from electricity generation to transportation use — to the forefront of American debate and legislative action.
Annie Leonard- Annie has spent nearly two decades investigating and organizing on environmental health and justice issues. She has traveled to 40 countries, visiting literally hundreds of factories where our stuff is made and dumps where our stuff is dumped. Witnessing first hand the horrendous impacts of both over- and under- consumption around the world, Annie is fiercely dedicated to reclaiming and transforming our industrial and economic systems so they serve, rather than undermine, ecological sustainability and social equity. Annie is the author of The Story of Stuff which was published in March 2010.
