Alex Honnold on Climbing, the Climate, and Crypto

We are very happy to welcome Alex Honnold [1] for an online event to talk about climate change and discuss its implications for Ethereum. Alex is known for his free solo ascents of big walls, including of El Capitan as recorded in the Academy Award-winning documentary film "Free Solo" [2]. We will start the event with a short talk by Alex with the following abstract:

"Alex launched the Honnold Foundation [3] in 2012, when he was an up-and-coming climber still living in his van. As he climbed around the world, from Yosemite to Chad, he became convinced that solar energy was one of the keys to addressing climate change and moving towards a carbon neutral future. He'll share his personal philosophy of low-impact living [4], as well as his journey from starting HF to growing the organization into an independent nonprofit that gives out more than $1 million in grants each year. He will be joined by Honnold Foundation Executive Director Emily Teitsworth."

After Alex's talk, Chris Peel will briefly outline Ethereum's upcoming move to proof-of-stake, which Vitalik Buterin has described as not "breaking the environment" [5] due to much better energy efficiency (using ~ 1/3000th the energy of proof-of-work [6]). We will ask for Alex's comments on this move by Ethereum and other initiatives such as the Crypto Climate Accord [7]. We'll discuss risk in climbing, crypto, and the climate. We'll conclude with audience questions.

This will be an online event [8]. We hope you'll join us!

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alex_Honnold
[2] https://films.nationalgeographic.com/free-solo/
[3] https://www.honnoldfoundation.org/about
[4] https://www.honnoldfoundation.org/ticklist#people-and-the-planet
[5] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XW0QZmtbjvs&t=33m40s
[6] https://blog.ethereum.org/2021/05/18/country-power-no-more/
[7] https://cryptoclimate.org/
[8] https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84263237491?pwd=eUNRZlNmYWllZDQ5eDZ4MTJPMmdodz09

The meetup is sponsored by https://d24n.org/