This week, Senator Frist is joined by Jennifer Morris, CEO of The Nature Conservancy, a global conservation organization working with partners around the world to conserve the lands and waters on which all life depends. Jennifer leads nearly 4,000 global staff who are dedicated to creating a world where people and nature thrive together. “Our focus is on two main things,” Jennifer shares. “The first is protecting global biodiversity. And number two, and it’s newer for the organization, is addressing the climate emergency.”
Better than anyone, Jennifer understands that the health of each individual and each family is inextricably linked to the health of the environment. Earth Day was just last week, and we want to challenge our listeners to think about conservation as not only a good thing to do for the natural world, but as something that is vital to our health and long-term well-being.
The pandemic we’ve all been living through is just one example of how nature affects us all. Jennifer explains, “We’ve seen zoonotic disease outbreaks, or diseases coming from animals, more than tripling in the last decade alone. So that just shows us that we have to fix our relationship with nature.” How we choose to interact with our environment can dramatically shape our nation’s and our world’s trajectory. An investment just under two percent of the estimated financial damage caused by Covid-19 would protect global wildlife and forests and reduce the risk of future disease outbreaks, says Jennifer.
We also dive into what the private sector can do to lead in the environmental movement, and Jennifer challenges companies not to just shoot for lofty goals, but to plan for short-term, incremental change that can make a difference by 2025 or 2030.
Listen now on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Stitcher or YouTube.
