Mothers and Others Board Chair Laura Turner Seydel addressed health and climate leaders from around the globe during a one day summit on February 16, 2017 at The Carter Center in Atlanta. The meeting was convened by former Vice President Al Gore. With support from the Climate Reality Project, Turner Foundation, American Public Health Association (APHA), and many others, Gore organized the meeting when a similar conference planned at the CDC was postponed indefinitely. The APHA has declared 2017 as the Year of Climate Change and Health, and its annual conference, held in Atlanta later in the year, will focus on this topic.
Ms. Seydel spoke on the pressing needs of protecting our air and natural resources not only for the health of our children, but for future generations as well. She pointed to gains in renewable energy as critical ways to power our homes and businesses while reducing fossil fuel power emissions. Seydel shared that her father, Ted Turner, always encouraged taking both the short and long term views for protecting the climate, and in turn she passed those same values on to her children. Her son, John R. Seydel, has followed in his parents’ footsteps as a leader in environmental protection, and was named as Atlanta’s Sustainability Director late last year by Mayor Kasim Reed. Protecting our fragile natural resources is clearly a family passion for the Seydel family.
