InterPlanetary Transmissions: Genesis pp.66-87
DOI:
2: Planetary Policy & Regulation
Panel introduced by David Krakauer, featuring Linda Sheehan and Jeff Ubois
Excerpt
David Krakauer We’ve been listening to issues around creating sustainable planets, and one such issue is human beings interacting with their environments and with each other, and that’s a question of regulation and law. So I’m going to introduce the two discussants who are going to be talking about those dimensions of this InterPlanetary experiment.
Linda Sheehan is senior counsel with the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation. And Linda is trained as a lawyer and is particularly interested in what I would call in our conversations complex law—how regulatory systems interact in such a way as to promote freedom but also good behavior and long-term vision, and that’s sort of Linda’s issue. Of course, one of the most pressing problems in that space is climate change.
I shouldn’t really need this cheat sheet for Jeff, because I’ve known Jeff for a long time. Jeff works at the MacArthur Foundation, which has been supporting incredible research for a very long time. And Jeff runs the 100&Change program—I’ll allow him to talk about that a little bit. But he’s also something of a social activist. I think he brings to foundations the spirit of the open source movement, the idea that you need to create tools to empower citizens, not to diminish their freedoms, and so I’ve always been a great admirer of the work that he’s been doing. So with that, Linda and Jeff.
Applause
Jeff Ubois Great. Thank you, David.
Linda Sheehan Thank you.
J. Ubois Welcome! Thanks for coming out in the hot sun. If you look at the session’s description, you’ll see that we are going to cover a lot of topics in a short time, and we’ll be looking for dialogue following some of these remarks. When Linda and I were talking about this panel, we both noted that often it’s easier to understand the principles regarding Earth by thinking about places far away. And so, as we get going, we encourage you to think alternately about places far away and places here on Earth, where it does seem that many of the problems that are facing us now reflect some kind of crisis of complexity. If you think about climate or economics, or health care, or demographics, these all involve higher levels of complexity than the traditional systems of law and policy have been built to manage.