Distinctly Montana Magazine

* DM Exclusive INterview * Ted Turner's LAST StAND DM Your father told you to set your goals so high that you can't possibly accomplish them in one lifetime. Are you still reaching for things you would like to accomplish, or more committed to managing and consolidating what you have already done? TED I don't think we are ever done working toward achieving a kinder, more equitable, and peaceful world. We still face a very real threat from nuclear weapons, and we have a long way to go to find a meaningful solution to global climate change and the loss of species. These are serious issues that must be addressed, so we can't be content with what we've already accomplished. There's always more we can do. Just this year, we completed our fifth solar project as part of a great partnership we have with the Southern Company. My hope is that through leading by example, more people of means and more companies will look into clean energy and will be inspired to follow suit. * Ex-President Jimmy Carter was quoted in your book as saying that "Human identity is no longer defined by what one does, but by what one owns." To what extent do you think this contributes to the world's problems and malaise? President Carter is more brilliant than he is sometimes given credit for. The same problems he identified in the 1970s are still with us today. What he really wanted to do was to get the country to unite around common causes and embrace personal sacrifice in order to address the bigger challenges. During my lifetime our identity as a society seems to have shifted. We started putting our own interests ahead of everything else. A lot of people measure their self-worth based upon how much stuff they've accumulated, stuff that depreciates over time. My belief is that whether it's what you do or what you own, it should have meaning. Questions by Bill Muhlenfeld w w w. d i s t i n c t ly mo nt a na .co m How would CNN and world news look today if you were in charge? They are doing a pretty good job at CNN but there are a few things I would do differently. There'd be a lot less fluff. Intelligent people are attracted to intelligent content and programming. I'd like to see strong international bureaus come back and I'd keep the focus on hard news. If you don't treat the news business as a serious enterprise, your viewers won't take you or the news you deliver seriously. * What do you believe to be your biggest environmental failing? That I wasn't as vocal sooner about what we were doing to the environment, and that I didn't have the resources to start addressing the biggest challenges earlier in life. * Your bumper stickers have changed from "Save the Humans" to "Save Everything." Is that a note of optimism or despair? I think we need to Save Everything that is good in our world and that matters. When I first came up with SAVE THE HUMANS, it was my way of saying that if we want to save our own species, we have to care about other species. We need to be less violent and cruel toward each other. But we can't just be human-centric. I think one of the things that makes us human is that we have empathy for other species that call Planet Earth home. Earth is a pretty fine place to be, and we have to be careful not to mess it up. * Climate Change or Nuclear Disaster? Which should the world fear most? I don't like to scare people. I'd prefer to inspire people to get them to act and remind them that what they do matters. How do you say one is more worrisome than another? 75

• Cover