While world leaders wring their hands over forecasts of timid GDP growth, a growing list of visionaries around the world are collaborating to redefine economic objectives in a more meaningful and sustainable way. Former White House advisor Gus Speth has been at the forefront of new economic thought for decades. His prescription for change is not a bunch of economic mumbo-jumbo for boards and bankers. His ideas reach deep into the way we conduct our personal lives.

We need to get beyond this consumerism, to get beyond our hyperventilating lifestyles,…and start focusing on the things that really matter to us, to our future, to our children.”

In this never-before shared 2010 interview, Gus Speth shares how climate change was discussed in the Jimmy Carter White House, the successes of environmentalism, and where and how the environmental movement has failed us.

About Gus Speth:

Rhodes Scholar
Co-founder & Senior Attorney, Natural Resources Defense Council, 1970-1977
U.S. Council on Environmental Quality, 1977-1981 (Chair for two years)
Founder & President, World Resources Institute, 1982-1993
Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme, 1993-1999
Dean, Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, 1999-2009
Distinguished Senior Fellow, Demos
Distinguished Fellow & Co-Chair, Next System Project

Author:
America the Possible: Manifesto for a New Economy
The Bridge at the Edge of the World: Capitalism, the Environment, and Crossing from Crisis to Sustainability 
Red Sky at Morning: America and the Crisis of the Global Environment

This is the 18th in our series of podcasts and radio programs. We post a new podcast episode every Thursday. Be sure to subscribe! You can find us at iTunesSoundCloud and Stitcher, or sign up to get an email every Thursday with the newest episode. If you like what you hear, please support this project with a tax-deductible donation. Your comments are invited below.  Are you convinced our current economic system is not sustainable? 

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