Awareness of biodiversity loss is increasing, but climate change still dominates investors’ discourse on the environment. Joel Clement, a senior fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, explains why we need to focus urgently on the biodiversity crisis. He also discusses why he came a whistleblower in 2017 and the aftermath of that decision.
The Take 15 Series is a collection of illuminating, short conversations with noted economists, best-selling authors, leading researchers, and successful practitioners on topics ranging from geopolitics and whistleblowing to irrationality and outlooks.
Episode Transcript (PDF)
Topics discussed:
2:20 What’s life like in Maine
3:55 The basics of biodiversity
7:30 The biodiversity crisis
9:16 Why the wider population needs to act on biodiversity
11:30 Joel’s decision to blow the whistle
16:39 The response after Joel blew the whistle
18:36 Was the experience of blowing the whistle lonely?
20:00 Is the word, “whistleblower” negative?
21:40 Joel’s advice to whistleblowers
22:53 What Joel has been working on over the past few years
24:00 Global implications for what is happening in the artic
25:47 Has the Biden administration gotten America back in the climate game?
27:21 America The Beautiful Report
29:33 What Joel tells the skeptics
32:49 Wrap up questions
- What is one positive long-lasting change resulting from the pandemic?
- What one item would you take with you on a NASA flight?
- Flight v. invisibility: which would you choose?
Related articles and links:
- UNPRI paper
- Joel’s whistleblower article
- Joel’s resignation letter
- Joel’s recent speech where he said: “There is another crisis that gets a bit lost in all the talk of climate action, and that’s the biodiversity crisis.”
- Stephanie Gibaud’s comment: “This word, whistleblower, is so negative,” she said. “It’s really like radioactive when someone says he or she is a whistleblower.”
- Ethics learning lab
- CFA report on climate change analysis