Another exciting day here at the Aspen Ideas Festival began with another in the Festival’s CEO Series, featuring Dr. Anthony Coles, president and CEO of Onyx Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

Other sessions included a Thomson Reuters Knowledge Exchange event, “Information’s Beautiful Future,” featuring our chief technology officer, James Powell, in conversation with Edwin Schlossberg, founder and principal designer of ESI Design and Mark Wigley, dean of Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, discussing our new advanced data visualization partnership with Columbia.

In the afternoon, Thomson Reuters Foundation CEO Monique Villa moderated a panel discussion titled, “The Politics of Sex,” with Christopher Elias, president of the Global Development Program of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; Musimbi Kanyoro, president and CEO of the Global Fund for Women, and Timothy E. Wirth, president of the United Nations Foundation and Better World Fund. The session was presented with support from United States Agency for International Development.

 

 

Scientists and environmental groups have been pressuring governments to include the value of their countries’ natural resources into future measurements of economic activity to show their true growth prospects. The Inclusive Wealth Index does just that, taking into account manufactured, human and natural capital like forests, fisheries and fossil fuels, instead of relying only on GDP as a growth indicator. For example, the index shows that even though China, the United States, Brazil and South Africa experienced GDP growth, their natural capital was significantly depleted. Are you surprised by the positions of any of the countries in the index below? How do you feel about including natural resources when valuing future growth opportunities?

For more graphics like these, check out the Reuters News Infographics page.

 

Population growth, urbanization and consumption are set to inflict irreversible damage on the planet, the UN said in its fifth Global Environment Outlook (GEO-5). The report, published two weeks ago, calls for urgent agreement on new green targets to save the environment. Today’s graphic shows some of the main findings of the report that was compiled by more than 600 experts.

Many nations have not prepared for a future of more extreme weather and rising sea levels, the United Nations says, and calls for countries to ramp up disaster risk management plans to save lives and limit spiraling economic losses. Today’s graphic looks at a variety of natural disasters and the regions that are most affected. It also looks at the financial damage that weather and climate related disasters have caused worldwide since 1980.

On Friday, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said that he would demand full membership to the United Nations. Today’s graphic highlights the entire membership process. First it differentiates between the “member state” option and the “non-member state” option. It also shows how many votes are necessary for induction, as well as the countries that are allowed veto-rights. Finally it shows the geographical implications of the proposal.

Did you know that in just a few months the global population will have reached seven billion? That’s more than double the number of people living together on our planet just 50 years ago. As our population continues to grow, addressing existing challenges such as health, urbanization, education, and the environment becomes increasingly important, and new challenges and opportunities arise.

A few months ago I was invited to participate in a weekend-long brainstorming session to explore this issue. That gathering resulted in the formation of a special task force sponsored the by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), an arm of the UN whose mission is to “promote the right of every woman, man and child to enjoy a life of health and equal opportunity.” In addition to representation from Thomson Reuters and other large organizations like IBM, SAP, T-Mobile and many others, participants came from NGOs and nonprofit organizations, academic institutions, and some of the leading social media platforms, e.g., Facebook, LinkedIn, Foursquare, etc.

The purpose of the gathering and the task force is to explore how social media technologies can be used to spur conversation and raise awareness, commitment and action around the challenges and opportunities we face as we approach the seven billion population mark this fall. The result of our efforts is the “7 Billion Actions” campaign, a call to action to highlight the challenges, opportunities and actions that will shape our common future.

I’m very honored and proud to be a part of this initiative on behalf of Thomson Reuters, and to help announce that today, July 11th, is World Population Day and the kickoff of this worldwide advocacy campaign, 7 Billion Actions, which will continue through October 31st, the date the UN projects the world’s population will reach and exceed seven billion.

The goal of the 7 Billion Actions campaign is to promote dialogue about what it means to live in a world with so many people and to encourage action on issues that affect us all as global citizens. The UNFPA, the 7 Billion campaign task force members and partner organizations will organize a variety of related activities throughout the next four months to support these goals.

Here’s a bit more about the campaign and the challenges and opportunities we all face as we approach this milestone:

(more…)