There was that plus the fact that people would rather not be at environmental sessions of any conference anywhere, because they think they re going to have to listen to a whole litany of doom. The third reason is that there were two women speakers. There is a sense in which that s true. I m not making a sexist remark. I and many of my professional women friends have noticed the same thing.
Men are far less able to listen to what women are saying than women are to what men are saying.
There s a tremendously unlevel playing field. It s quite unconscious. I liked the way the Forum ended yesterday with human rights and the individual versus the group, and rights versus responsibility. All these things have to be balanced. I grew up in Britain so the political discourse in the US seems so primitive.