She is the daughter of an elite Costa Rican family that taught her public service is a “sacred obligation.” Her father, Jose Figueres Ferrer, was a revolutionary coffee rancher who served three non-consecutive terms as president after a civil war installed a fledgling democracy in 1948. It was her father who disbanded the Costa Rican army and was instrumental in making the Central American country a leader in ecological preservation. Her mother, U.S.-born Karen Olsen Figueres, served in the Costa Rican Congress and as ambassador to Israel. Her brother, Jose Maria, was also president for a term while her half sister, Muni, is now the country’s ambassador to the United States. Christiana Figueres trained as an anthropologist. She spent time in Samoa – in the footsteps of trailblazing anthropologist Margaret Meade – and a year in an aboriginal village in Talamanca, Costa Rica, writing a literacy textbook in the native language. … “I’m optimistic because I have a fundamental belief, an unswerving belief, in two things: that mankind, humankind, does know the difference between right and wrong, and that ultimately when we are confronted with the choice, we do choose the right,” she says. “Second, I believe in human ingenuity – that when we decide on a task to be done, no matter how daunting it may seem at the beginning, we are able to unleash human ingenuity and human innovative capacity that was unknown, and takes us to a solution.” … “What I know for sure is that the shift to low carbon is by now irreversible. It may still be challenging to figure our way through, but it is irreversible,” she says. “And because it is irreversible, one really has to ask whether the investments today in infrastructure and extraction industries that belong in the old economy, whether those are the safest and most wise investments. Or whether investments shouldn’t be moving into the economy of the future.” To earth, with love Christiana Figueres is never far from her well-worn copy of Thich Nhat Hanh’s Love Letter to the Earth; it is on her night table in whatever city she happens to find herself. Mr. Hanh is a Vietnamese monk who combines ancient Zen Buddhist teaching with modern environmentalism; his book urges readers to respect the Earth as a living organism and source of all life, and to form an “intimate relationship” with it. Love Letter to the Earth doesn’t mention oil sands, or coal-fired power planets, or even climate change. It deals with first principles – positing not Man against Nature, or Man’s dominion over Nature, or even Man’s stewardship over Nature, but rather, Humankind’s fundamental connection with Nature. It does carry endorsements by Bill McKibben, the American environmentalist, founder of 350.org, and fierce critic of the oil sands and the pipelines needed to get its crude to market, and by David Suzuki, the Canadian biologist, broadcaster and activist who campaigns against our continued reliance on fossil fuels. From Love Letter to the Earth: “When you realize the Earth is so much more than simply the environment, you will be moved to protect her as you would yourself. There is no difference between you and her. In that kind of communion, you no longer feel alienated.” From Mr. Hanh’s teaching, Christina Figueres draws on themes on ideas of interconnectedness and mindfulness, as she pursues a global agreement to reduce emissions: “We have the responsibility to create our future. This is not about sitting back and just by default letting the future happen. “This is about a future by design and by intent, by collective intent perhaps even more importantly.” theglobeandmail/report-on-business/careers/careers-leadership/christiana-figueres-passionate-and-impatient-about-climate/article21066366/?page=all
Posted on: Sun, 12 Oct 2014 16:11:08 +0000