The Pittsburgh Citizen

The G-20 negotiations were expected to be contentious -- after all, there was a lot to disagree about: bonus regulations, tax havens, and protectionist tariffs just to name a few. Luckily, many of the leaders of the world's largest economies agree that the economy is still fragile despite some signs of improvement.  At the summit held in Pittsburgh last week, these leaders demonstrated their commitment to avoiding the massive global imbalances that some say caused the greatest financial slump since the Great Depression.

The Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens, located in Oakland’s Schenley Park since 1893, has long served as a local getaway for Pittsburgh residents – providing a green escape for the harsh winter months. But for the G-20 leaders who dined there on September 24th, the Conservatory served a much larger role: as a symbol of a city and world learning to come to terms with it’s environment.

Prior to the dinner last Thursday night, Richard Piacentini, the Executive Director of the conservatory, was kind of enough to answer a few questions about the G-20 dinner.

The member countries of the G-20 account for more than 80% of world trade and two-thirds of the world’s population—but what, it may be fair to ask, about everyone else?

Last week, world leaders descended on Pittsburgh with a purported willingness to make hard decisions concerning bank executives’ bonuses, international finance regulations and trade agreements. But these decisions will affect not only their own nations, the scope of those decisions will extend to the one-third of the world’s population in those developing countries not given a seat at the table.