Tuesday, July 26, 2011

The release of World on the Edge and our 10 year anniversary kept us busy this year. But it did not prevent Lester Brown from participating in a number of conferences. After World on the Edge was released in January, he left little time before heading to another continent. In London he released the Earthscan (which is now part of the Taylor & Francis group) edition of World on the Edge before stopping over in Oxford, where he launched a new environmental lecture series at Oxford's Environmental Change Institute.

On the way to the University, his driver pointed out the house where Roger Bannister lived. Bannister was a medical student when he broke the 4-minute mile barrier in 1952, running it at 3:59.2. To Lester, a long-time runner, Roger was as close to a hero as one can get. His faculty host suggested that he inscribe a copy of World on the Edge for Sir Roger, and he would get it to him. Some weeks later he received an autographed photograph of Bannister crossing the finish line at the end of that historic mile. The inscription said simply, “Thank you for your kind comment. Roger Bannister.” Wow.

Not long after returning, Lester set off again in early February, this time to Boston and Cambridge where he gave a presentation at Harvard’s Center for the Environment, did a number of radio interviews, including one for NPR's Living on Earth, and gave an evening presentation for the Cambridge Forum. 

March saw Lester in Brussels, giving a keynote presentation at the Forum for the Future of Agriculture, and a presentation at the European Parliament, put together by long-time friend Frank Schwalba-Hoth.

March was also a special month in that it was when Plan B, the film, was screened at the DC Environmental Film Festival and released nationwide in the United States on PBS. The day before the PBS release, found Lester giving an evening keynote presentation on World on the Edge for the Annual Convention of Reform Rabbis in New Orleans.

Other notable keynotes that he gave were at the Earth Institute of Columbia University’s 17th Annual International Sustainable Development Research Conference in New York City, the Consumer Good’s Global Summit in Barcelona, the 21st World Conference on Disaster Management in Toronto, and a presentation in Tokyo for the Asahi Glass Foundation which was celebrating its twentieth anniversary for the Blue Planet Prize, which Lester had received in 1994.

Want to keep up with what’s coming up? See our Events page.

Cheers!

Reah Janise Kauffman