Earth Day: Thoughts from the Past About the Future

The history of environmental education parallels Earth Day and the modern environmental movement. Evolving from the Nature Study and conservation education, environmental education formalized in the late 1960s and gained traction in the 1970s. Climate education has recently evolved to address the global and local impacts of anthropogenic climate change.

The speed of climate integration into the capital market structure along with policy changes continues to require ongoing learning by financial advisors to remain relevant. At Gitterman Asset Management, we are focused on improving literacy among advisors with educational pieces and thought leadership. There is no “one and done” approach to climate education, which is why we keep talking to people.

With so much information coming out, it is sometimes good to go back to foundational concepts. In celebration of Earth Day, we find the following conversations particularly insightful and worth looking at again. Relevant now for different reasons, these favorite moments of ours continue to be informative and fundamental.

A cathartic conversation between Jeff and Spencer Glendon, Ph.D., Senior Fellow at Woodwell Climate Research Center, titled Climate Risk and the Capital Markets, frames out how market participants can rise to the challenge of a future that will have vastly different rules. While stable capital markets are predicated on a stable world, climate change is forcing us to rethink numerous factors as we head towards a level of instability that is currently not accounted for in financial modelling:

The SEC recently issued the long-awaited Climate Disclosure Proposal, signaling a shift by regulators to begin managing climate risk in the U.S. financial system. In Jeff’s conversation with Bob Litterman, Chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Market Risk Advisory Committee and Co-founder of Kepos Capital, titled Managing Climate Risk, go behind the scenes to learn how the foundation for climate policy was drafted amongst key stakeholders in order to facilitate a rapid transition to a low carbon economy:

Finally, in the ongoing tradition of Earth Day, we offer you the inspiration that launched Jeff’s shift towards sustainable finance. As a co-producer of the feature documentary film Planetary, the ensemble of Bill McKibbon and Paul Hawken along with astronauts, scholars, and other visionaries offer a poetic and humbling reminder that it’s time to shift our perspective:

Happy Earth Day 2022, may you be well informed by these voices from the past. We remain dedicated to your success. Look for news about more practice building events in the coming weeks.

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