6:00pm – 7:20pm Benjamin BarberDemocratic political theoristBenjamin Barber has written in books like Strong Democracy and Jihad
vs McWorld about the crisis in liberal democracy and the nation-state. In
recent years, he has focused on the extraordinary role cities are playing in
both local and global governance and in the revival of democracy. Coming from
his book If Mayors Ruled the World, the idea for a Global Parliament of
Mayors (GPM) has taken root. Last month in The Hague, the GPM was formally
inaugurated with 70 cities and 25 urban networks participating. The voice of
cities now has a global megaphone and a platform for common action, and offers
a powerful response to the paralysis of gridlock nation-states and national
political parties. 7:30pm – 8:50pm Andrew Revkin
Surviving the
Anthropocene – An insider’s view of the emergence of humanity’s planet-scale
power surge and the many prescriptions for avoiding calamity.
Through an odd set of circumstances, Andrew Revkin is both
one of the leading chroniclers of Earth’s human- dominated age and, as one of 35
members of the Anthropocene Working Group, one of those tasked with assessing
whether it deserves status as a geological epoch.Â
