Making the Impossible Possible - Video

Every year some 900 experts from the social, finance, private and public sectors convene in Oxford for the Skoll World Forum. Their goal: coming up with innovative, effective solutions to the problems of the dynamic, globalized, 21st century world.

At this year's event, Ploughshares Fund president Joe Cirincione, together with Arianna Huffington of The Huffington Post, Helene Gayle (CARE USA), Oxford’s Ian Goldin, and Larry Brilliant of Skoll Global Threats Fund discussed the catastrophic threats the world faces today.

Among the many global challenges that can overwhelm everything that we do, Joe said, two stand out: global warming and nuclear weapons.

“Both threaten life on a planetary scale. Both are caused by machines that we have made,” he added. “Both are reversible. But both require us to change the way that we think.”

We are making progress towards addressing the threat posed by global weapons. The U.S. and Russia have reduced their massive nuclear arsenals by more than 70% since the height of the Cold War. And with the understanding that nuclear weapons are a liability, not a security asset, there is growing bipartisan support for further reductions.

We still have a long way to go to achieve the vision of a world free of nuclear weapons. But we are making progress, thanks to initiatives like the Skoll World Forum.

That’s Joe’s tweeted takeaway from the conference: “When people say it’s impossible, they mean it's so hard that they can't imagine it. I just met 900 people who can.”