2025

Meet author/scientist Jonathan C. Slaght As you know, we love to share book recommendations in this newsletter. (Tell us which ones you’ve read!) And, in preparation for the holidays, we have an especially great recommendation for you: Tigers Between Empires: The Improbable Return of Great Cats to the Forests of Russia and China by Jonathan C. Slaght. […]

Why home insurance may be the unlock we need It seems like we’re in for real sticker shock everywhere we look these days. In our last issue, we wrote about electric vehicles and how public policy in the US is making them more expensive. Today, let’s consider another looming and even more unsettling affordability challenge

What’s Up with EVs Affordability seems to be at the top of everyone’s minds these days. It’s discussed at kitchen tables. It underlies most media stories. And it’s front and center in our elections. Recent US political winners ran campaigns based on affordability politics. So, if we want to encourage consumption of a certain product,

Here’s a way to find all three. I’m just back from three and a half days traveling with strangers…and it was exactly what I needed. It was a trip organized by an environmental NGO I support. Our organization is still young, but it has been growing at a nice pace and has reached the stage

Check out the new biography of Yvon Chouinard David Gelles’s biography of Yvon Chouinard is hot off the presses. We enjoyed reading it, learned a lot, and recommend that you read it too. It’s an entertaining and inspiring report on Yvon’s singular life. It’s also a good examination of the challenges and opportunities associated with

Getting the dialogue going Following our last issue, where I proposed we all weigh in on how the environmental movement can make more progress, I reached out to a few colleagues for their take. I’m pleased to share their responses here. I hope you’ll read all of them and even respond. We need more of this.

Is it Time to Pivot? Next week, New York City will be abuzz as leaders from government, business, nonprofits, and philanthropy (many of them friends and colleagues I deeply admire) gather for Climate Week 2025. It’s always an energizing time as we share ideas and collectively push for faster climate progress. That spirit of collaboration

And how he thinks about impact, environmental optimism, and scaling solutions I’m delighted to introduce my friend and former colleague, Rich Gilmore, to readers of this newsletter. Rich and I worked together at The Nature Conservancy for many years; he led our Australia unit and was a conservation finance lead in Asia during my tenure

Tell us how you really feel. Time really does fly when you’re having fun. This month marks the fifth anniversary of The Instigator! As we approach this major milestone—and hit send on our 115th newsletter!—we thought it would be a good time to check in with the most important people engaged in this endeavor: You, our

Planning an Environmental Career Now I welcome opportunities to advise people who are pursuing careers in the environmental field (as evidenced here, here, and here). I remember with genuine gratitude how many people kindly advised me when I was trying to figure out how to transition from a career on Wall Street to the environmental world. So when