Ted Turner said he had some simple business advice for CNN before he left the company "in disgust," and it's the same advice he offers to the world.
"We've got to stop doing the dumb things and start doing the smart things," said Turner, speaking in front of a full house at the Wheeler Opera House on Saturday.
"We could transform this world into a Garden of Eden instead of a hell," Turner said as he closed the fifth annual American Renewable Energy Day.
Turner said that as he flew to Colorado he noticed the acres of dead timber below caused by the spread of pine beetles, an infestation he blamed on global warming.
"A little bit of warming throws a lot of things out of kilter," he said.
A television mogul turned philanthropist, Turner created television networks such as CNN, Turner Classic Movies and the Cartoon Network that made him a fortune. Forbes magazine estimates his holdings at $2.3 billion.
More recently, though, his spending has made headlines as much as his investing. He pledged $1 billion to the United Nations through his United Nations Foundation. He owns 2 million acres of land in the United States, making him the country's largest private landowner, and he holds a similar distinction in Argentina. In addition to raising bison - he's also the largest buffalo rancher in the world - Turner has devoted himself to preserving the land and protecting endangered species, including the Mexican wolf.
Turner launched the Nuclear Threat Initiative in 2001 with former Sen. Sam Nunn, D-Ga., a foundation dedicated to reducing the risk of nuclear war.
"All I want to see us do is survive," said Turner in a wry, sometimes cantankerous interview with Pat Mitchell, the former president of PBS and CNN whose son is married to Turner's daughter. "This planet is worth saving. We shouldn't be destroying it and we shouldn't be destroying ourselves."
Turner said his latest investment has been in solar power. He didn't offer details, but he said he has "put a significant amount into solar power," and criticized government incentives for the fossil fuel industry and what he said was a lack of incentives for renewable energy, including recently-ended wind incentives.
Heather Rousseau/Aspen Daily NewsCNN founder Ted Turner told his Aspen audience a “new energy infrastructure” would turn the U.S. economy around. He also praised fellow billionaire T. Boone Pickens for his efforts to create a wind power system in Texas.
"I think that's where the next great fortune is going to be made and I can't think of anything else that has a fraction of the potential," Turner said of renewable energy.
He said the creation of a "new energy infrastructure" would "be the thing that turns our economy around and headed back in the right direction."
Turner's talk closed three days of discussions of climate change and renewable energy at the annual AREDay. His presentation was sandwiched by performances by Peter Buffett, son of billionaire investor Warren Buffett, a pianist and composer who played alongside American Indian musicians and the Spirit Wind Dancers. His latest work, "Spirit of the Seventh Fire," is a nod to the Ojibwe belief in a time of crossroads leading to the eighth and final fire.
"So many Ojibwe people believe that we're in the seventh fire," Buffett said. "That we're in it and the time to act is now."
Past AREDay speakers have included former presidential candidate Gary Hart, Gov. Bill Ritter and Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper.
Turner praised the work of his friend and fellow billionaire T. Boone Pickens, who is campaigning for a massive wind power initiative and is investing in what would be the nation's largest wind farm in Texas. Pickens spoke at the Aspen Institute recently, championing what he calls the "Pickens Plan" for a corridor of wind farms across the eastern edge of the Rockies.
While Pickens looked at wind power in terms of energy security, Turner said, he looked at it terms of the environment.
"It's wonderful to think that these two entrepreneurs are thinking about the world in a whole different perspective," said Grace Brod, of Old Snowmass, who heard both speak.
"I thought they both had the same message," said her friend Charlotte Wandell, of Snowmass Village.
As famous for his liberal politics as for his money, Turner, sometimes dubbed "the mouth of the South," displayed his famous sense of humor as he took swipes at the Bush administration. He criticized the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and blasted the country's dependence on fossil fuels.
"We can't afford to keep burning it because we're going to turn the world into a hothouse," he said.
He called for a national effort to boost renewable energy equivalent to the World War II retooling of automobile factories from making cars to building tanks and fighter planes.
"This time, we're at war with ourselves," he said.
dfrey@aspendailynews.com
