Fmr. Under Secretary of State for Global Affairs
Fmr. Chief U.S. Climate Negotiator

We have a number of problems, but two of them are war - we see that at the very moment - but the one that is relatively new, that we didn't have a word for it when I grew up, we certainly didn't understand when I grew up, is environmental consequences. And we have gone from not understanding that to understanding it pretty well, but having a difficult time responding appropriately to that threat.

When I decided I would spend some time in the nonprofit sector, it was my wife who said, "Don't diddle around with a whole bunch of things, focus on something that you care about, and spend both time and your money on that." And so I picked the environment because it seemed to me it had a rather unusual and unique combination of social, economic, political, technical, and scientific elements to it that made it a really interesting complex issue.