June 24, 6:15 pm
As emissions pour into the atmosphere and world leaders struggle for solutions to a climate emergency, the controversial climate-cooling technology called solar geoengineering is entering the world’s stage. It’s an idea so powerful and full of uncertainty that even the proposal of research itself is seen as a dire risk by leading environmental activists and scientists. But for physicist David Keith, what matters is not what’s popular but what could help reduce the harms of a heating planet. And to learn more, he plans to launch the world’s first experiment into the stratosphere.
Plan C for Civilization — described by academy award-winning director of An Inconvenient Truth, Davis Guggenheim, as “compelling, in the most productive, wonderful way” — tackles the promise and peril of solar geoengineering. From Bangladesh to Nevada, the technology is emerging after more than 60 years in the shadows, and with it, a new chapter of the climate change saga.
Join the film’s director Ben Kalina at The Conduit for a preview screening followed by an interactive dialogue led by Foresight practitioner Tessa Finlev. Expect radical ideas and robust discussion in this deep dive into the emerging realm of climate stabilization technologies and how they may – or may not – factor into our collective future.
Event Schedule
6:15pm: Pre-event socialising and networking
6:30pm: Screening begins
8:15pm: Screening ends, followed by refreshments and discussion
9:00pm: Event ends
Speakers
Ben Kalina is an award-winning director and producer whose work centers on the collision between human nature and the force of nature. In 2020 he produced and directed Can We Cool the Planet? for NOVA. His film Shored Up, the 2014 Sundance Institute LightStay Sustainability Award winner, explored rising sea levels and the politics of climate change in the U.S. in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. He directed and produced the documentary HOME for WHYY in Philadelphia in 2017 and produced four episodes of the 2016 PBS/ CPB/OZY Media series The Contenders: 16 for ‘16. He was Associate Producer of A Sea Change, broadcast on Discovery’s Planet Green in 2009, and Two Square Miles, broadcast on PBS’ Independent Lens in 2006. His short film Diorama won a 2007 Eastman Kodak Award and international grand prize awards at film festivals in the U.S. and Europe. Ben’s production company, Mangrove Media, is based in Philadelphia where he is an Assistant Professor in the Film and Television Program at Drexel University.
Tessa Finlev – After close to 15 years working as a professional futurist, Tessa founded Facilitating Foresight, a boutique futures firm focused on building capacity and facilitating new skills and insights rooted in strategic foresight. Tessa develops corporate foresight to enable strong employee engagement, decisive leadership and decision-making for the 21st century, and a business mindset anchored in long-term outcomes over short-term gains. Tessa was named a leading female futurist in Forbes and is Dolby Lab’s first ever in-house Foresight Strategist. Her career has spanned the intersection of futures thinking and peace building and social change, the future of pretty much any topic under the sun, facilitation and teaching, and designing and launching internal futures thinking functions. Tessa’s experiences as an immigrant are is her strategic super-power. Tessa is used to being an outsider and looking at opportunities and norms from different angles.
Please note that this event will be recorded and photographed. By attending this event, you consent to being photographed, filmed and recorded (“Recordings”). You further consent to The Conduit, and its assigns’ use of your name and your appearance and voice as captured by these Recordings, in any and all media, worldwide, for any purpose in connection with this event, including promotion of this event.
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