There are lots of things to be bummed about these days. Climate change is at the top of Professor Ray Horton’s list because of the scale of the threat it poses to humankind and because, in his opinion, humankind lacks the ability to contain it. 

Fortunately, we have Columbia Business School colleagues who are both more knowledgeable and less pessimistic. In this episode of More MPE, host Professor Ray Horton speaks with Bruce Usher, co-director of the Tamer Center for Social Enterprise; Elizabeth B. Strickler ’86 and Mark T. Gallogly ’86 Faculty Director; and Professor of Professional Practice at Columbia Business School.

Usher is not a doomsayer like Horton (or a denier like Trump). He argues that the species has survived bigger problems, like ice ages, but that it's 50-50 we’ll be able to avoid repeated “catastrophes” from the extreme events we are already beginning to experience. 

Usher argues that we have the technological ability to solve the problem — renewable energy, electric cars, and lithium batteries — but the political will is lacking in the United States and internationally. Business, then, is going to have to take the lead, which is why, as Usher ends our conversation, the School and Tamer Center are engaged in a wide range of activities designed to make climate change central to the lives of CBS graduates.

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