Hello and welcome to the Environmental Issues chat.  We would like to invite a very open dialogue here surrounding a very important issue: What can each of us do to help develop a more sustainable way of relating to the Earth?  Please share your thoughts, your questions and your hopes.

We will be joined by two very special guests throughout this four-day discussion, who together have more than 100 years of experience to share! 

David Brower, 84, was the first director of the Sierra Club and founded Friends of the Earth, League of Conservation Voters and many other projects. 

Adam Werbach, 23, was recently elected president of the Sierra Club and is becoming an icon for the possibility of youth involvement in environmental issues.

The Youth Summit of the State of the World Forum, here at the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco, hosted an environmental workshop tonight.  Youth from over 30 countries sat in a circle with Jane Goodall, Noel Brown, and Amory Lovins, three respected long-time voices for a saner human relation to the Earth. 

I am including some of the questions from this discussion which I hope will help set the stage for our dialogue: What issues do we face as young people in the world today, working for a more sustainable society?

"How can one explain that an otherwise intelligent species would undercut the very system that sustains life?"  - Noel Brown

"So often we cut ourselves off from nature in urban areas... How can we provide a healthy environment for raising our children in this society?"  - Jane Goodall

"The central task of all of us is to work on who we are as people, to become better... If you want to change what happens [in the world], you must change your dreams."  - Amory Lovins

Please post your thoughts, questions and ideas.  I'm sure we can each bring something very valuable from this sharing of ideas.

- Bill Buck