Whitman announces new lecture series on climate change

WALLA WALLA – “Conversations on Climate Change” is the title of a new Whitman College lecture series, announced today by Phil Brick, professor of politics. It is sponsored by the college’s politics department, Global Studies Initiative and environmental studies program.

“Despite growing scientific evidence that our planet will warm substantially in the 21st century unless global emissions of greenhouse gasses are significantly reduced, climate change languishes on the political agenda,” Brick said.

The public is invited to the free lectures, which will “explore ways to think about climate change that can expand our grasp of what a warming planet will mean for all of us and for future generations,” Brick said.

There will be four lectures:

Thursday, January 28 – 7:30 p.m., Olin 130 (814 Isaacs)

Speaker: Nils Christoffersen, Executive Director of Wallowa Resources, an award-winning non-profit organization in northeastern Oregon.
Title: “Climate Change: Challenges and Opportunities for Rural Communities from Malawi to Oregon”

Monday, March 1 – 7:30 p.m., Olin 130 (814 Isaacs)

Speaker: David Schlosberg, Professor of Politics and International Affairs and Director of Environmental Studies at Northern Arizona University
Title: “Rethinking Global Climate Justice: Capabilities, Vulnerability, and Adaptation”

Thursday, April 8 – 7:30 p.m. Olin 130 (814 Isaacs)

Speaker: Ronald Bailey, award-winning science correspondent for Reason magazine and reason.com, where he writes a weekly science and technology column.
Title: “What's the Best Way To Handle Climate Change? Carbon markets, carbon taxes, technological push, or economic growth?”

Thursday, April 22 – 7:30 p.m. Olin 130 (814 Isaacs)

Speaker: Graham Chisholm, Executive Director of Audubon California.
Title: “Earth Day at Forty: New Conservation Challenges for the 21st Century”

Contact: Phil Brick
brick@whitman.edu, 527-4944