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How do you celebrate 20 years of conservation success? Conservation International (CI) brought Wal-Mart’s Rob Walton and UCLA geography professor Dr. Jared Diamond together on March 1 to talk about the next 20 years and to discuss the stake all of us have in the future health of our planet.
Nearly 430 guests gathered for dinner in San Francisco’s Ferry Building to toast CI’s 20th anniversary.
New York Times columnist Tom Friedman moderated discussion between CI board members Rob Walton and Jared Diamond, as they considered the challenges we face in making a long-term commitment to protect the Earth.
“One of the difficulties of environmental issues is that they are time bombs with a long fuse,” Diamond said. “They’re not time bombs with a one day fuse."
Diamond, whose 2005 bestseller
Collapse analyzed what causes societies to fail, underscored the urgency of curtailing our environmental impact by explaining that if we allow even one environmental problem to spin out of control, it could bring about the demise of our civilization.
Walton recounted ways Wal-Mart has already begun to reduce its long-term impact on the environment. In the years since meeting CI climate scientist Michael Totten on a bus in Tokyo, Wal-Mart has forged a relationship with CI that is changing the way businesses worldwide engage in conservation.
The event raised close to $600,000, a record for CI fundraising events in the San Francisco area. More importantly, the program raised awareness about the crucial issues facing today’s global society and CI’s commitment to meet the challenge of protecting our environment.
San Francisco Dinner Committee:
Board of Directors
Randi and Bob Fisher
Harrison Ford
Betty and Gordon Moore
Judy and Ken Siebel
Barbara and Tom Stephenson
Chairman's Council
Ann-Eve Hazen
Kris and Ken Moore
Diane Morris
Sarah and Chris Redlich
Kirsten and John Swift
Members
Suzanne Badenhoop and Guy Lampard
Carolyn and Preston Butcher
Tom Byers and Michele Mandell
Nancy Cole and Khris Loux
Mary Gallo
Charlene Harvey
Elizabeth and Bill Patterson
Lisa and John Pritzker
Special thanks to our generous sponsors:
Global Council
Lynda and Stewart A. Resnick
Judy and Ken Siebel
Hotspot Investor
Randi and Bob Fisher
Ann and Thomas L. Friedman
Jane and Jeff Gale
Mary Gallo
Vinod and Neeru Khosla
Kris and Ken Moore
Diane Morris
Elizabeth and Bill Patterson
Ann Ziff