Clover Moore, Lord Mayor of Sydney, Australia, who's vowed to reduce city government emissions by 70% by 2030. Already, she's made Sydney the first Australian city to be declared carbon neutral.
Sheila Watt-Cloutier, Inuit activist, who sees her indigenous people as climate change sentinels for the world, and levers their observations, experience, and knowledge of the Arctic to benefit people everywhere.
Fifteen thousand Sri Lankan women who raise and plant "miracle trees," mangroves, which sequester five times more carbon dioxide than tropical trees in the Amazon Rain Forest.
Nelleke van der Puil, Vice President of Materials at LEGO, who is developing plastic made with plants instead of oil, which is transforming her company's products.
Women are especially effective leaders when it comes to combating global warming. Christiana Figueres and Tom Rivett-Carnac, architects of the 2015 Paris Agreement, report that "Nations with greater female representation in positions of power have smaller climate footprints. Companies with women on their executive boards are more likely to invest in renewable energy and develop products that help solve the climate crisis. Women legislators vote for environmental protections almost twice as frequently as men, and women who lead investment firms are twice as likely to make investment decisions based on how companies treat their employees and the environment."
For this book, Paola Gianturco and her 12-year-old granddaughter and co-author, Avery Sangster, interviewed and photographed heads of grassroots organizations, activists, politicians, corporate executives, scholars, and presidents of nonprofits in the United States, United Kingdom, Sweden, Denmark, Tanzania, Australia, Sri Lanka, India, Canada and Hong Kong. All of them are using intelligence, creativity, and courage.
Paola Gianturco is joining us on the virtual Busboys stage to share more about these inspiring stories and how you can join them on this existential journey. Copies of the book will be available for purchase before and during the event, so make sure to order your copy on Eventbrite! Your purchase of the book includes shipping anywhere in the United States via USPS.
This event is free and open to all. Our program begins at 6:00 pm, and will be followed by an audience Q&A. Copies of COOL: Women Leaders Reversing Global Warming will be available for purchase before and during the event. Please note that this event is virtual and will only be livestreamed.
We ask that guests RSVP in order to receive direct updates about the event from Busboys and Poets Books
Paola Gianturco is an author/photographer who has documented women’s lives in 62 countries and had six books published.
Her involvement with women’s issues is long standing. She has lectured about them in the US, Canada, France, United Arab Emirates, and Spain. She spoke at UNESCO International Headquarters in Paris on International Women’ s Day 2008; her photographs were exhibited there in 2009 and 2011. Paola co-developed and taught Executive Institutes on Women and Leadership at Stanford University, and served on the Board of the Association for Women’s Rights in Development (AWID). She was a principal in the first women-owned advertising agency in the United States and is a current member of International Women’s Forum. Paola presented a TED TALK in 2014 in Dubai. In 2013, Paola was named one of "40 Women to Watch over 40" --- and in 2014, she was named one of "21 Leaders for the 21st Century" by Women's eNews. In 2017 the YWCA inducted her into the Marin Women's Hall of Fame.
Paola has been a guest on the Oprah Winfrey Show, NPR, and CNN. Her photographs have been published by Harpers Bazaar-Australia, Marie Claire (US, Taiwan and Greek editions), The Washington Post, The San Francisco Chronicle/Examiner, The Denver Post, The Chicago Tribune, plus many Internet sites, podcasts and blogs.
In addition to her involvement with women’s issues, Paola is a member of the Advisory Boards of three nonprofits: Global Grandmothers, Rise Up , and Pencils for Africa . Previously, she was Board Chair of The Crafts Center, which worked with low-income artisans in 79 countries, and served on the Board of the travel company, International Nature and Cultural Adventures.
Avery Sangster is a high school senior at Marlborough in Los Angeles, where she is a member of the school’s varsity tennis team.
When she was 12, she and her grandmother, Paola Gianturco, co-created “COOL: Women Leaders Reversing Global Warming,” (powerhouse Books, 2022). For the book, Avery interviewed and photographed women leaders in the United States and Tanzania. She took the book’s cover image, and wrote an introduction as well as the powerful closing Call to Action.
Avery and Paola have presented slide lectures about “COOL” at San Francisco’s Commonwealth Club and World Affairs Council, plus other prestigious platforms.
Passionate about reversing global warming, Avery mobilized her sixth grade classmates to create an environmental website.
She and her sister co-founded and, for seven years, ran a program, Just Kids, at the annual poverty conference, Opportunity Collaboration, in Mexico.
