Welcome
John C. Mutter, Deputy Director, The Earth Institute at Columbia University; Professor of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Columbia University; Chair, State of the Planet Conference Steering Committee

John Mutter: Good morning. Welcome to the State of the Planet conference. My name is John Mutter, I'm a Professor here in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences in the School of International and Public Affairs. I'm also Deputy Director of the Earth Institute that is the host of this conference. More especially I am the Chair of the Steering Committee that created this conference. This is the fourth in the series. The first was held in 1999 to celebrate the end of the millennium, and the fiftieth year of the Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory. The third was held in conjunction with the 250th anniversary of this university, and this coincides with the tenth year of the Earth Institute itself.

I'd like to begin by thanking the members of the Steering Committee who helped put this together. They are Charles Alexander, former reporter for Time magazine, two members of the European Community, that is Wolfgang Kinzelbach and Marco Mazzotti from ETH Zurich, and our own people include Cheryl Palm, Glenn-Marie Lang, Elliott Sklar, Peter Schlosser, and Shahid Naeem, all of Columbia University.

Let me briefly tell you how the conference is going to be organized. The underlying theme of this year's conference asks the question “Is Sustainable Development Feasible?” As we were putting together the proceedings a few people suggested that that might be a slightly disingenuous question because the Earth Institute is dedicated to the notion that sustainable development perhaps can be made feasible, but this is a serious question, an open question, and one that is not yet answered. And the purpose of this conference is to frame those questions and to perhaps seek a few answers.

It will happen in four sessions. The lead off talk will be given by Jeff Sachs who will frame the questions and the discussions for the two days. There will then be four separate panels, each making half a day. The first tries to answer the questions or frame the questions in the context of research and ingenuity, the second concerns itself with market forces in the economy, the third is about effective global institutional structures, the fourth involves challenging patterns of personal behavior. The conference will end with a panel that draws together several people from throughout the two days, and will be led by John Rennie who is the Executive Editor of Scientific American. That will bring the conference to a close.

I need to remind you of a few housekeeping things, that's part of my job as moderator for the two days. Restrooms, if you haven't found them already, are locating just outside the door. I'd like you to keep your folders with you because we decided not to use name tags and your folders are your reentry ticket. There is an information center outside if you want to get further information on the activities of the Earth Institute and others. And of course I do ask you to turn off all Blackberries, cell phones, etcetera, and anything that makes one of those charming little sounds to alert you to its presence.

It's my very great pleasure to begin opening this conference by introducing the President of the University, President Lee C. Bollinger. He is the nineteenth president of the University, and a member of the faculty of law. President Bollinger comes to us after a distinguished career in scholarship and university leadership. Before coming to Columbia he was Provost of Dartmouth College and professor of government there in 1999, and was named the twelfth president of the University of Michigan in 1996. His primary teaching and scholarship interests are focused on free speech and First Amendment issues, and he's published numerous books, articles and essays on those topics and has received numerous awards. It's a great honor for this conference for me to be able to introduce Lee C. Bollinger, President of the University to make some opening remarks.

Thank you.