Celebrate Women’s History Month with Vail Symposium

Celebrate Women’s History Month with Vail Symposium and author/photographer Paola Gianturco on Wednesday, March 8 at Vail Interfaith Chapel. Gianturco recently published “COOL: Women Leaders Reversing Global Warming,” a book that highlights the work currently being done by women of all ages to combat climate change.

“We get to celebrate International Women’s Day with profiles of women and girls taking action on the most important issue of our time: climate change,” commented executive director James Kenly. “Paola has spent her career lifting up women and girls around the world, and we are fortunate to host her in Vail on such an important day.”

During this program, Gianturco will share slides and stories from “COOL: Women leaders Reversing Global Warming,” the first book to document the work of women and girl climate leaders worldwide. Written by Paola Gianturco and Avery Sangster, this duo is not your typical co-author situation. Gianturco is 83 years old and an award-winning seven-time author; Sangster is Gianturco’s 14-year-old granddaughter. The two decided to take advantage of their widespread age difference and shared climate concerns to produce this book full of lively interviews, fun graphics and great photographs to showcase the incredible work from women across the globe — and inspire all of us to do more.

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For example, you’ll meet:

• an Inuit woman activist in the Arctic
• the Lord Mayor of Sydney Australia
• a chemist who is creating bio-plastics for LEGO
• indigenous women planting mangrove forests in Sri Lanka
• teenagers whose strikes have escalated awareness of climate change everywhere

Each of these women and girls suggest ideas that you can do to help reverse global warming; the book makes getting more information on every project and woman highlighted easy by including a QR code in the “What You Can Do” recommendations at the end of each profile.

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In acknowledging and magnifying the power of women to make a difference, Gianturco and Sangster repeat what Christiana Figueres and Tom Rivett-Carnac, architects of the 2015 Paris Agreement, previously declared: “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.”

Concludes author Sangster, “It’s a fact. If all of us do a few small things, we make a big impact. Actions like ours produce ripple effects that spread through our families, our friends, and our communities.”

About the speaker:
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 longstanding. She has lectured about them in the U.S., 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.

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Gianturco 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. She was a principal in the first women-owned advertising agency in the U.S. and is a current member of International Women’s Forum. Gianturco presented a TED TALK in 2014 in Dubai. In 2013, Gianturco was named one of “40 Women to Watch over 40” — and in 2014, Women’s eNews named her one of “21 Leaders for the 21st Century.” In 2017, the YWCA inducted her into the Marin Women’s Hall of Fame.