Speaker 1: You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Messer and
Speaker 1: Bloomberg Quick Takes Tim Stinovic on Bloomberg Radio. Really fun
Speaker 1: reading in for this next guest who last year told
Speaker 1: People Magazine that quote taking care of the environment, it's
Speaker 1: in her DNA. We so welcome Laura Turner Sidell. She
Speaker 1: is chair of Captain Planet Foundation and she joins us
Speaker 1: on the phone from Atlanta. Laura, it's so nice to
Speaker 1: have you here on Bloomberg Radio. Um, let's cut to
Speaker 1: the chase. Your dad, well known, someone who changed the
Speaker 1: world of media, blowing up the world of cable decades ago.
Speaker 1: We're talking, of course about Ted Turner, who I believe
Speaker 1: also is a big, big or one of the largest
Speaker 1: individual landowners in North America, lots of open land out
Speaker 1: west sees. The environment has been the environment has been
Speaker 1: so important to him. What was it like growing up
Speaker 1: in that environment? Well, thank you first the foremost, Carol
Speaker 1: and Tim for having me on the program today. It
Speaker 1: was kind of like drinking out of a fire hall. Uh.
Speaker 1: He is a real life Captain Planet and he spent
Speaker 1: his career on a top mountain, top of information, and
Speaker 1: he saw a lot of what we're experiencing today, either
Speaker 1: firsthand or in you know, reports coming in from around
Speaker 1: the world about environmental degradation and pollution and you know,
Speaker 1: potential for wars. And obviously he covered a lot of
Speaker 1: that on on his his media platforms, including CNN. UM,
Speaker 1: we got into trouble for not turning the lights off
Speaker 1: or or leaving the TV on when we left the room. Uh.
Speaker 1: He we drove around in a little Japanese car, you know,
Speaker 1: swished in. We've weeded our lawn by hands on the weekends,
Speaker 1: and our neighbors would drive bag. We've waved to him. Um,
Speaker 1: our whole whole yard was weeks. That was really uh,
Speaker 1: to avoid using chemicals and door paying for expensive uh maintenance. Um,
Speaker 1: when you have five kids, you've got a you know, uh,
Speaker 1: pretty much a free labor force. What do you think
Speaker 1: your dad saw at a time when people weren't really
Speaker 1: talking about the environment. I mean, we come back to
Speaker 1: even like Rachel Carson silent Spring, right, he was thinking
Speaker 1: about these things before that. He sure was, Um, he
Speaker 1: was really concerned. Um, you know Dr Lester Brown. Uh,
Speaker 1: there was a global two thousand reports the President Carter
Speaker 1: at that time, commissions that said, you know, humanity was
Speaker 1: racing towards disaster. Um you know that we were over consuming,
Speaker 1: uh the resources of the planet. We were not taking
Speaker 1: care of the systems that supported all lights, our air,
Speaker 1: our water, our land, our soil, our climate. And uh
Speaker 1: you know he really you know, used his plat warm
Speaker 1: for good to educate people. Um he you know, aired
Speaker 1: underwater Sea Adventures of Doc Pustau and National Geographic Explorer
Speaker 1: to make people fall in love when nature and want
Speaker 1: to take care of it. But I would say one
Speaker 1: of the most important uh you know, parts of putting
Speaker 1: Vision back into television was um, you know, his focus
Speaker 1: on engaging, empowering and forming youth to be problem solvers
Speaker 1: and you know agents for change, uh for for our
Speaker 1: life support system, for their inheritance and their children's and
Speaker 1: grandchildren's inheritance. And uh you know that it was this idea.
Speaker 1: He's like, we need a superhero, but not just the
Speaker 1: superhero that goes around blowing things up, but actually superhero
Speaker 1: focused on saving the earth. But what was great is
Speaker 1: the executive producer, Barbara Pyle came up with the idea
Speaker 1: that it really needed to be a in conjunction with
Speaker 1: with young people from around the world who would come
Speaker 1: together and their youth really was their superpower. And um,
Speaker 1: if they worked individually and collectively uh and smartly and
Speaker 1: wisely and strategically, they could change systems and uh put
Speaker 1: pressure on governments on business uh and you know, really
Speaker 1: create a world that they that they envisioned. And you know,
Speaker 1: I just think you know, in our thirty first year
Speaker 1: of the formation of the foundation, uh, well it's our
Speaker 1: thirty one. Last year was our thirtieth. Of course, we
Speaker 1: put everything off because of COVID uh and we are
Speaker 1: hosting our first in person gala and a couple of
Speaker 1: years um coming up in March. But you know, I
Speaker 1: think that the what he wanted to happen when he
Speaker 1: started that cartoon actually been happening all these years. In
Speaker 1: terms of the media world and growing up with that,
Speaker 1: it has changed so dramatically. UM. Your thoughts on media
Speaker 1: and the responsibility when it comes to climate change, Well,
Speaker 1: of course there is a huge responsibility uh to climate change.
Speaker 1: But UM, you know, I think unfortunately, uh, there are
Speaker 1: some you know companies that uh you know are more
Speaker 1: concerned about profits uh them people, and and they're they're
Speaker 1: willing to do anything to support their companies and you know,
Speaker 1: squeeze out every last little penny. Um. Some companies are
Speaker 1: transitioning and trying to get on board, but they control
Speaker 1: our media through the that tizing, and they control our politicians,
Speaker 1: and you know, so it's really important that uh that
Speaker 1: you know, the public um puts pressure in the right places.
Speaker 1: And and that's what I love about Captain Planet Foundation
Speaker 1: is that the youth now are putting pressure on the
Speaker 1: right places. With a little bit of training, mentoring support, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, they can go out and they can be
Speaker 1: change agents, and they're changing policies and they're getting you know,
Speaker 1: getting businesses. Yes, well, I gotta say, I have to say,
Speaker 1: just we're gonna come We're gonna do some news and
Speaker 1: come back in just a moment that we were talking
Speaker 1: capt Planet and I'm gonna be fair time. Tim my
Speaker 1: co host, and one of our producers, are they like,
Speaker 1: oh my god, that's right. Turner. We started singing the
Speaker 1: Captain Planet theme song during the break because you know,
Speaker 1: grew up early nineties, that's when we were kids. You
Speaker 1: were watching it. Are we're gonna come back to Laura
Speaker 1: Turner's side down chairf Captain Planet Foundation will continue our
Speaker 1: conversation with her in just to moment, I'm Bloomberg. Let's
Speaker 1: get back to our guest. Laura Turner side Out, chair
Speaker 1: of Captain Planet Foundation, still with us on the phone
Speaker 1: from Atlanta. Laura, you're talking about the foundation. I think
Speaker 1: you're getting ready for a big event. Tell us a
Speaker 1: bit more about what's coming up. And I'm also curious,
Speaker 1: since you guys have been around for about three decades,
Speaker 1: I'm curious about the impact that you all have seen
Speaker 1: in working with a younger generation, especially when it comes
Speaker 1: to improving things for our environment, really our future, the
Speaker 1: existence of all yea indeed, and I listened to your
Speaker 1: program with Katherine hay Hoo and understand you have a
Speaker 1: teenage daughter might want to check out one of two
Speaker 1: events I was hoping to tell you about, obviously our
Speaker 1: gala coming up, but we just launched the Planetier Alliance yesterday,
Speaker 1: so this interview comes at a really good time. And basically, uh,
Speaker 1: it's gen D came to us and said, you know,
Speaker 1: it's great that you're funding educators and then we're you know,
Speaker 1: going through the program and working with them, but we
Speaker 1: want to work with you directly. We want training mentoring
Speaker 1: resources and a platform to UH to organize and strategize
Speaker 1: and share best practices around the globe. And we've been
Speaker 1: perfecting this platform for the past five years. And it's
Speaker 1: really interesting. You know. We because of COVID, we had
Speaker 1: to pivot to everything virtual, which was a game changer
Speaker 1: and a blessing for the use of this world because
Speaker 1: we were able to get UH. You know, a couple
Speaker 1: of thousand UH you know used to come to our
Speaker 1: trainings and UH and and they're sharing, you know, peer
Speaker 1: to peer. They're teaching peer to peer, and these kids
Speaker 1: are going out and making such enormous change like this
Speaker 1: Hawaiian UH Dyson t came to our boot camp. He
Speaker 1: was he was an introvert, self identified as an introvert
Speaker 1: and shy. And at the end of boot camp he said, Okay,
Speaker 1: now I understand youth is my power. I've got the confidence,
Speaker 1: I've got the plan. And he went and stood up
Speaker 1: three campaigns. One he shut down. He led a youth
Speaker 1: campaign to shut down the last cold fire plant. And
Speaker 1: why he UM is currently shutting down these UH military
Speaker 1: oils holding tanks that have been polluting the water on
Speaker 1: a Allahu for a hundred thousand people, and uh, you know,
Speaker 1: he just is absolutely brilliant and you know, is getting
Speaker 1: it done. And there's just that case is not unique.
Speaker 1: There are so many of these hundreds of these youths
Speaker 1: that are standing up these campaigns. Chloe May, for instance,
Speaker 1: in California, UM got three schools to stop, you know,
Speaker 1: distributing plastics cross at lunch because she went and talked
Speaker 1: to about costs of of these class the thought that
Speaker 1: we're going freight in the trash can and you know,
Speaker 1: so here she came to our training. And that's what
Speaker 1: the Planets here, the Planets Here alliance is all about,
Speaker 1: is like getting these kids, the gen Z and now
Speaker 1: Jen Alpha to really um look at a broad suite
Speaker 1: of issues that are facing them from Yeah, I'm wondering.
Speaker 1: You know, It's funny Carol and I were both nodding
Speaker 1: along when you explain to us that you know, you've
Speaker 1: got in trouble for leaving TV on or turning the
Speaker 1: lights out, because we both grew up in homes like that.
Speaker 1: And I'm wondering in a world where companies account for
Speaker 1: so much of the pollution and other countries account for
Speaker 1: so much the pollution in our world, what message you
Speaker 1: have to people who feel like completely overwhelmed with the
Speaker 1: direction that our planet is going, and what changes that
Speaker 1: they could actually make in their daily lives when it
Speaker 1: doesn't actually feel like okay, separating you know the trash
Speaker 1: from the recycling is actually making a difference, right, You know,
Speaker 1: we have to do everything in our power because you know,
Speaker 1: we it's like a lot of what we've heard and
Speaker 1: learned over the past couple of decades is that the
Speaker 1: climate change, the worst of it is coming in. You
Speaker 1: know that was that was wrong information. We're seeing a
Speaker 1: play out before our very eyes. Now, maybe we should
Speaker 1: pay more attention to what the youth they're trying to
Speaker 1: do and think about when we make decisions of you know,
Speaker 1: what we buy and you know, how we consume and
Speaker 1: and uh and how we recycle and how we voke
Speaker 1: uh and show up that we're thinking about, like the
Speaker 1: indigenous people did about the seventh generation, how do our
Speaker 1: actions today affect their health, their future, their quality of life.
Speaker 1: We haven't done enough of that. We focused on fourth
Speaker 1: coord earnings and the next election, but we're not thinking
Speaker 1: about them and and and that's just plain wrong. And
Speaker 1: my dad, you know, pay attention to what he has
Speaker 1: sat all along. You know, the science is real. We
Speaker 1: need to take action. We need to figure out how
Speaker 1: we can engage in every way possible. You know what,
Speaker 1: in the end, our kids are going to look us
Speaker 1: from the eyes and they're been a whole disaccountable. Just
Speaker 1: just I just went jump in for a second, and
Speaker 1: I'm just curious. You know, it's in terms of agents
Speaker 1: have changed. Because you talked about agents of change failing us.
Speaker 1: Just if you had to pick one quickly, you know,
Speaker 1: agent of change that could really make a difference with
Speaker 1: the climate because you guys have been doing this for
Speaker 1: thirty years and yet the trend lines when it comes
Speaker 1: to climate change, and you know the forces have been
Speaker 1: against everybody because it's just gotten worse. What's one agent
Speaker 1: of change that if you could flip the switch on,
Speaker 1: turn it off like our parents told us to do,
Speaker 1: what would it be. I've been involved with an organization
Speaker 1: called League of Conservation Voters. Go online see how your legislators,
Speaker 1: both federally and asked you know, and locally vote on
Speaker 1: things related to the environment, vote on climate, on the
Speaker 1: climate crisis, and make sure that you're calling them and
Speaker 1: telling them to UH, that it's important for them to
Speaker 1: pass to Build Back Better Bill because there's a lot
Speaker 1: of money that will help, uh, you know, with to
Speaker 1: come up with solutions to the climate crisis that's really
Speaker 1: really really important. And also find out what's important to
Speaker 1: your kids and figure out ways to plug into it.
Speaker 1: And there's so many amazing nonprofit groups, uh in in
Speaker 1: our communities, you know, from water keepers, uh that need help,
Speaker 1: they need support, they need volunteered you know, gardening is
Speaker 1: really important in community gardens. We have school gardens that
Speaker 1: captain Planet, you know, funded about the South and of
Speaker 1: them and have a learning garden program that gets teaches
Speaker 1: kids about what's important. Laura La la, Laura gotta jump
Speaker 1: in and I just because we do only have like
Speaker 1: thirty seconds left here. There's a lot of people reaching
Speaker 1: out to me on social media saying Ted Turner, our
Speaker 1: thoughts are with him. How is your dad doing? Just quickly,
Speaker 1: you know what He's doing really well under the circumstances.
Speaker 1: But so many people have Louis body dementia twice the
Speaker 1: number of people that have been diagnosed with Parkinson's, and
Speaker 1: you know, there are a lot of people that have
Speaker 1: it that might not know about it, and I would
Speaker 1: just to go to UH the Louis Body Dementia Association
Speaker 1: and if you have a loved one that is UH,
Speaker 1: you know, coming down with signs of dementia and watch
Speaker 1: Robin Williams uh the documentary about his struggle with Louis
Speaker 1: Body demesia. But thanks for asking, and you know he's
Speaker 1: gotten the good fight. We get Laura. We we have
Speaker 1: to run. And I'm so sorry, but good luck with
Speaker 1: your event. Our best wishes to your dad, and you
Speaker 1: are all listening to Bloomberg