Tycoon Ted Turner famously puts his money where his heart is. He donated $1 billion to the United Nations Foundation. He is the largest landowner in the nation, buying up vast tracts of land, mostly to keep them natural. His latest venture is solar power, joining a league of billionaires who have turned their attention and their dollars to environmental issues.

Turner headlines this week’s American Renewable Energy Day events in Aspen, topping a list of prominent environmental speakers and activities over three days.

“I think what we’re looking at is a ‘tycoon team,’ if you will, people with the resources and vision for a new energy economy,” said Sally Ranney, co-producer of this year’s AREDay, which in its fifth year is the largest the festival has ever been.

Running from Thursday through Sunday, the event includes an abbreviated version of Al Gore’s famous “An Inconvenient Truth” slide show presentation, a presentation on global warming impacts on the arctic and discussions of climate change solutions. It also includes a performance by Peter Buffett, the musician son of billionaire investor Warren Buffett, who will perform in a multimedia presentation with the Native American Sacred Wind Dancers.

“It’s time for the wealthiest of the country to lead in solving the carbon crisis,” said Chip Comins, founder and co-producer of AREDay.

Turner joins wealthy luminaries such as T. Boone Pickens, the Texas oilman who visited Aspen on Friday to talk about his wind power campaign, and Denver’s Phil Anschutz, who is also looking at wind farm investments.

“There are many, many billionaires,” Ranney said. “If they can come together on climate change and pool their intellectual resources, their financial resources and their own teams of people they have managing their empires, what a critical mass that would be, and what a voice it would be.”

AREDay once stood for Aspen Renewable Energy Day, but Comins has been working to expand the scope and take the show on the road. This year’s schedule is the most extensive ever for the event, which in the past has drawn speakers such as Gov. Bill Ritter, Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper and former Sen. Gary Hart.

This year’s event will feature some 40 speakers, including Lester Brown, president of the Earth Policy Institute; Jerome Ringo, president of the carbon-reduction organization Apollo Alliance; Randy Hayes, founder of the Rainforest Action Network; and Harris Sherman, executive director of the Colorado Department of Natural Resources.

The festival begins Thursday afternoon with Gore’s “Inconvenient Truth” presentation, followed by a full schedule of activities through the weekend. They culminate on Saturday at 7 p.m. with Turner in conversation with Pat Mitchell, former president and CEO of PBS who now heads the Paley Center for Media. That conversation will be followed by Buffett’s performance, and the conference will conclude with remarks and a prayer by Sioux Chief Arvol Looking Horse, the 19th generation keeper of the sacred white buffalo camp.

“This is a combination of a symposium and a renewable energy street fair and multimedia presentation,” Comins said. “It’s a fabulous concentration. Most venues don’t bring all of that together.”

For more information, go to www.areday.net [1].

dfrey@aspendailynews.com