Author To Read, Talk at Art Garage This Thursday

COOPERSTOWN—Renowned environmental strategist and writer Paula DiPerna will discuss her latest book, “Pricing the Priceless,” in a world premier discussion and book-signing at the Art Garage on Thursday, June 22 at 5 p.m., part of the Star Power series associated with the current exhibition.

DiPerna will discuss how recognition of the value of art and human creativity link to her reimagined world—where finance is used to shift how we value the planet to protect what has too long been treated as free and taken for granted, the natural assets that DiPerna notes we need and love most, now on their way to exhaustion and leading to what she calls “environmental default.” The program is offered in cooperation with Wiley Publishing of New York City, publishers of the DiPerna oeuvre; copies of the new book will be available.

Seating is limited and reservations are recommended by e-mailing leartgarage@gmail.com or by texting/calling (315) 941-9607. Light refreshments will be served. As with all Art Garage programs, guests are asked to park on the lawns—not on the town road—at 689 Beaver Meadow Road.

In “Pricing the Priceless: The Financial Transformation to Value the Planet, Solve the Climate Crisis, and Protect Our Most Precious Assets,” world traveler DiPerna brings a unique voice and optic to de-mystify and unveil today’s most fascinating financial disruption—pricing the priceless to flip conventional ideas of how we value natural assets and why.

According to Wiley, she asks the provocative question long ignored: Why do we value the indispensable atmosphere at zero, but dispensable production in the trillions? She digs into alternatives, with real-life examples from around the globe of fascinating and pioneering financial innovations—controversial and paradoxical, but essential. With a traveler’s voice, an explorer’s eye and a journalist’s quest for the facts, DiPerna journeys from rainforests to Wall Street, board rooms to the Vatican, coral reefs to mangroves to China’s carbon markets.

“Pricing the Priceless” intends no less than a critical financial transformation that can help determine future planetary health and social stability. DiPerna highlights new financial inventions and experiments—insurance, bonds, markets, investment funds—all aimed at pricing what is precious and vital to human well-being; how the great current intergenerational shift in wealth and attitudes is redefining investment trends and the idea of what constitutes wealth and return; and how climate change and other urgent environmental problems now require entirely new financial thinking to trigger solutions.

Once-radical ideas about measuring economic progress are now re-imagining the very purpose of capitalism. DiPerna believes that finance should no longer be an exclusive province and needs critical re-invention to remain credible in the face of increasing public skepticism of business-as-usual economic practice. “Pricing the Priceless” is a landmark that could shape the future, bridging the tangible and intangible to answer a critical question of rising economic and social inspiration: What is money for?

Paula DiPerna is a resident of Middlefield and Manhattan when not traveling, and was instrumental for a number of local initiatives as a founding member of Otsego 2000. She is a pioneer and leader at the forefront of finance and climate policy, from the Oval Office to Antarctica, coral reefs to carbon markets. She served as president of CCX International, the world’s first expansive emissions trading system to address global warming; president of the Joyce Foundation; and writer for underwater hero Jacques-Yves Cousteau. Currently, she is special advisor to CDP, the world’s only integrated environmental disclosure system.

The Art Garage is open Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. and daily, with a text or call to (315) 941-9607 to make appointment.