Planet under Pressure

uilt Columbia Maryland, which was
the first planned community, he had
an incredible sense of how developers
and urban planning needed to have
progressive values.
“It’s interesting, in modern life, the phrase
‘shopping mall’ is taken to represent bad
things, but you have to consider the fact
this was social change on a colossal scale,
and it’s hypocritical to demean that
just because it was consumerism. The
fabric of the movement was the same,
and it’s those sorts of qualities we need
to embrace.”
Norton’s father was a former US Attorney
for Maryland, who went over to become
the litigator and Head of Public Policy for
The Wilderness Society. He founded the
Grand Canyon Trust, among others, and
remains one of the Senior Advisers for
the Environment at TPG, an American
investment company. “However they
have gone about it, the reality is I have
spent a lot of my life around people who
care about society and the environment
… right the way through to my mother,
who was a teacher. They were using their
smarts to think about how to work on
social problems, but they were also very
entrepreneurial. I think that’s a good
mix – I’m okay with that.”
As far as current projects go, Norton
remains dedicated to promoting sustainable
tourism with the Maasai in Kenya.
“Across everything I do, I probably find
Kenya the most engaging, and I’ve been
going there for many years. My sister
once worked for an American travel
company that organized climbs up Mt.
Global Goals Yearbook 2020
“
ECOLOGICAL LESSONS
I don’t want
to be that guy
who brings
about an end
point purely
on the basis
of him being
famous.
I feel that
cheapens the
whole ethos –
it misses
the point.
”
Kilimanjaro, and on one such expedition
I decided to accompany her. That’s when
I met Luca Belpietro, who is the founder
of the Maasai Wilderness Conservation
Trust and was also running Campi Ya
Kanzi, a tourist resort in Kenya.
“People believe conservation is the concept
of leaving something alone, but it’s
not always that way. In this case, Luca
was trying to create a much different,
more enhanced kind of tourist experience.
Now I have both friends and family
who live there and I go every year for
fun as well as for environment-related
meetings. I look forward to every visit
there and it’s my favorite place in Africa.”
The fact that Edward Norton has rebelled
against the plastic glamour of the entertainment
industry is, in many ways,
very satisfying. Of course, he is not alone,
and alongside him, Leonardo DiCaprio,
Robert Redford, Gisele Bundchen, and
others are treading a new path that
challenges our perception not just of
the individual, or the industry, but the
world around us.
“In film, in environmentalism … whatever
it is, I never want to feel that I am
going through the motions or repeating
myself. I’ve had periods where I’ve asked
myself, ‘What am I doing?’ and that’s
very troubling.
“What I’m certain of now is there will
always be more to do, and for someone
entrenched in the idea of changing the
world for the better, that’s not such a
bad emotion.”
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