Environmental advocate Hal Harvey will be talking about his new book with Pitkin County Commissioner Greg Poschman at Explore Booksellers on Thursday in Aspen.
Harvey was born and raised in Aspen and now runs Energy Innovation — an energy and environmental policy firm based in San Francisco.
He and New York Times reporter Justin Gillis released a new book in September called “The Big Fix: Seven Practical Steps to Save Our Planet” about how individuals can influence policy decisions to address the climate crisis.
In the book, the authors propose a way to move from what Harvey calls “symbolic environmental gestures” to ambitious climate policy.
“We need smart public policy if we're going to get through this morass and have a decent planet,” he said. “But that requires a much more intensive focus on doing a small number of hugely consequential things rather than a large number of modestly helpful things.”
The book is full of real-world examples of people who took it upon themselves to advocate for this kind of change, including a Republican woman in eastern Colorado who grew up in a ranching family.
Harvey said she saw the opportunity for ranchers to make extra money on their land by working with public utilities to get more wind farms built.
“And she browbeat the Public Utilities Commission and ultimately went to the state legislature and then to the people in an election and she won it,” he said. “And the consequence of that is Colorado is leading amongst all states in going to 100% renewable energy for the electricity grid.”
Harvey said a trio of legendary Aspen women — Joy Caudill, Dottie Fox and his own mother, Connie Harvey — are another example of how a small group of individuals can push for major environmental change.
Known as “The Maroon Belles,” the trio led the charge to create and expand several federally protected wilderness areas, including the iconic Maroon Bells-Snowmass Wilderness.
“It didn't just happen, it took a small number of people with a really clear sense of what needed to be done and how it could be done and who could make the choice and they got it done,” Harvey said. “And that's been an inspiration.”
Harvey hopes people will walk away from the book talk with a sense of purpose — and an idea of what they can do to influence climate and environmental policy on a large scale.
Thursday’s book talk takes place at 4:30 p.m. at Explore Booksellers.
The Community Office for Resource Efficiency (CORE) is hosting a reception before the talk starts at 4 p.m.
