Ted Turner, the founder of CNN and world-renowned philanthropist, appeared on Charlie Rose last night to shed some insight on his views on the world (after he got a bit of old-timey singing out of the way), and the dangers that we may face if we don’t stray from the path we’re currently on. His first concern is the disarmament of all nuclear weapons by all nations, but his second is to resolve the global climate crisis before it’s too late. Of the issue, he said:
“We have to mobilize the same way we did in World War II… It’s going to be the biggest business project in the history of the world… Not doing it will be catastrophic… It will be 8 degrees hotter in 30 or 40 years… None of the crops will grow… Most of the people will have died, and the rest of us will be cannibals”.
In his words, not doing anything is suicide.
While this vision of the future is extreme, and something I would normally disregard, it is, in actuality, entirely possible that times could get as tough as he envisions. I think his grounded views in many other topics nullifies the idea that he is an alarmist or embellishing the possible outcome, and his solutions to the problem are both realistic and, more than likely, the eventual path that will be taken to secure our future.
Turner went on to discuss his views on the current state of CNN, that it is not international enough, is not focussed enough on news, and isn’t addressing important issues to the people today. This is coming from a man who has been in the media business for years, and helped shape what we consider to be broadcast news today. I think it is very important to take what he says seriously.
The entire conversation between the two men is quite insightful, but his ideas about converting coal energy to wind and solar, and even nuclear power, is something that shouldn’t be overlooked.
Watch the entire video at CharlieRose.com.
