From the Blue Marble 1972 to Brussels 2024 with Verena Ringler, SAIS ’01, ’02 (MA)

“I’m pro-human, not pro-toad.” The CEO of a major global company CEO reportedly said this as an argument that habitat destruction was sometimes necessary for progress. Yet 500 years earlier, Leonardo da Vinci observed that: “We know more about the movement of celestial bodies than about the soil underfoot.“

What connects these two observations? Which key figures and historical milestones have led us to see the sustainability agenda as so important today?

We will tackle these questions in two engaging and interactive online sessions on the cultural history of sustainability. In a lively parkours tailored to curious minds in the larger Johns Hopkins community, we will unpack key moments and movements in the sustainability movement, as well as their links to international relations, multilateralism, leadership/change management, European Affairs, and peace studies.