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Turner Headlines Environmental Conference at
Oglethorpe University
Atlanta – R.E. “Ted” Turner, vice chairman of Time Warner
Inc., will deliver the closing address to participants in Oglethorpe
University’s “ECO-TALK: Environmental Strategies for the 21st
Century” Conference on Thursday, September 16, 1999.
The conference, sponsored by the Benwood Foundation, the Turner
Foundation and Oglethorpe University, is a day-long event to
heighten student awareness of and involvement in environmental
activities and issues. The program seeks to introduce college
students to innovative programs, strategies and the people behind
them who are making significant contributions to our understanding
of, and offering potential solutions to, important environmental
issues.
The program will begin at noon in the Miriam H. and John A.
Conant Performing Arts Center on campus. Peter Bahouth, executive
director of the Turner Foundation, will provide an overview of the
challenges facing the environment today. A panel discussion
moderated by Bahouth will follow which includes panelists Sally
Bethea, executive director of the Upper Chattahoochee Riverkeeper;
Lester Brown, executive director of the Worldwatch Institute; and
Deb Callahan, executive director of the League of Conservation
Voters.
The afternoon will offer breakout discussion sessions featuring
the environment and its role in business, journalism, politics and
other areas. The day will conclude with interactive demonstrations,
an environmental quiz bowl and Turner’s closing address at 7 p.m. in
the Conant Performing Arts Center
Peter Bahouth has been executive director of the Turner
Foundation since 1993. The Foundation is a private family foundation
committed to preventing damage to the natural systems on which all
life depends. Prior to working with the Foundation, Bahouth worked
for Greenpeace, first as a volunteer in 1979. He became national
chairman in 1984 and in 1988 he helped consolidate Greenpeace’s
seven chapters into Greenpeace USA, of which he was executive
director. He has also participated in many of Greenpeace’s direct
actions, including chaining himself to a set of railroad tracks near
a company’s headquarters to block shipments of chemicals destructive
to the ozone layer.
Sally Bethea has been executive director of the Upper
Chattahoochee Riverkeeper since March 1994. In 1979, she joined the
National Park Service as a community planning technician and then
moved to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in 1980. She was a
water resources specialist from 1990-93 and then director of the
water and wetlands program of The Georgia Conservancy from 1993-94.
A graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and
the Georgia Institute of Technology, Bethea was recently named by
Governor Roy Barnes to Georgia’s Board of Natural Resources.
In 1974 Lester Brown founded the Worldwatch Institute, a private
non-profit research institution devoted to the analysis of global
environmental issues, following work with the U.S. Department of
Agriculture and the Overseas Development Council. In 1984 Brown
launched the State of the World reports which are now translated
into more than 30 languages. A graduate of Rutgers University, the
University of Maryland, and Harvard University, he has also authored
more than a dozen books. The Library of Congress has requested
Brown’s personal papers and manuscripts, recognizing the role of his
work and that of the Institute under his direction in shaping the
global environmental movement of the late 20th century.
Deb Callahan became president of the League of Conservation
Voters in 1996, determined to transition the more than 25-year-old
organization from its role as the environmental community’s
political action committee to a more complete activist campaign
organization. She had previously served as national field director
for the 1987-88 Gore for President campaign, as field coordinator in
the 1984 Mondale/Ferraro presidential campaign, and as the first
executive director of the Brainerd Foundation in Seattle. Under
Callahan’s direction, the League unveiled its Congressional Dirty
Dozen campaigns to target 12 lawmakers with the worst environmental
records for defeat.
Following the panel discussion, attendees will participate in
interactive breakout sessions.
These sessions include:
- Global Environmental Journalism with CNN Earthmatters host
Natalie Pawelski
- Comprehensive Regional Environmental Planning with Eric Meyer
of the Georgia Regional Transportation Association
- Making Environmental Protection Second Nature led by David
Mayer, director of pollution prevention and environmental affairs
for Georgia Pacific
- Accountability and Environmental Enforcement led by Zylpha
Pryor, associate regional counsel with the Atlanta office of the
Environmental Protection Agency
- A Photographic Journey Along the Chattahoochee with
photographers Joe and Monica Cook
- Sustainable Enterprise: The True Cost of Every Business
Decision with Jennifer DuBose, EcoSense program manager of
Interface, Inc.
- Power Generation and Air Quality with Chris Hobson, general
manager of environmental affairs for Georgia Power Company
- The Academic Perspective and Georgia Environmental Legislative
Action with Susan Varlamoff, president of the Georgia
Environmental Council
At 4:30 p.m., participants will be encouraged to observe several
demonstrations or participate in several hands-on activities such as
riding in an electric car provided by The Southern Company. From 5
p.m. until 5:45 p.m., students will test their knowledge in an
environmental quiz bowl, hosted by Rich Shertenlieb of radio station
99X - WNNX in Atlanta. ECO-TALK will conclude with a closing address
by Ted Turner at 7 p.m. in the Conant Performing Arts Center.
Turner is vice chairman of Time Warner Inc., a position he
assumed in 1996, and is a member of the Time Warner board of
directors. Born in Cincinnati in 1938, Turner’s family moved to
Savannah, Ga. when he was nine years old. He graduated from Brown
University and began working as an account executive for Turner
Advertising Company (now Turner Broadcasting System, Inc.). In 1963,
he became president and chief operating officer.
In 1970, Turner purchased Channel 17. Six years later, he
purchased Major League Baseball’s Atlanta Braves and originated the
“Superstation” concept, transmitting the station’s signal to cable
systems nationwide via satellite. TBS acquired the National
Basketball Association’s Atlanta Hawks a year later. Turner
inaugurated the Cable News Network in 1980. CNN was the world’s
first live, in-depth, round-the-clock all-news television network.
CNN International, launched in 1985, is distributed in more than 210
countries and territories worldwide. Turner’s news division now
includes CNNRadio, CNN Airport Network, CNN Interactive, CNNfn, and
CNN/Sports Illustrated.
In 1985, Turner originated the Goodwill Games, which is a
quadrennial, multi-sport, international world-class competition.
Turner, the recipient of numerous honorary degrees, is an active
environmentalist and has received many civic and industry awards and
honors, including being named Time magazine’s 1991 Man of the Year.
Oglethorpe University is an independent, highly selective
coeducational liberal arts university located in Atlanta. The
Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching categorizes
Oglethorpe as Baccalaureate I (BA-I), the classification of the most
selective liberal arts colleges in the country, and it is the only
co-educational BA-I in the state of Georgia. Founded in 1835,
Oglethorpe University is dedicated to producing graduates who are
broadly educated in the fundamental fields of knowledge and the
basic concepts and principles of their disciplines. During the
1998-99 academic year, Oglethorpe enrolled 1,230 students
representing 32 states and international students from 31 countries.
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