Down to the Wire: Confronting Climate Catastrophe by Dr. David W. Orr Wednesday, April 22, 2009 8 p.m., Main Dining Room, Commons Building Corning Community College, Spencer Hill campus Corning, NY
Presented by Walter R. Smith Visiting Scholar Series A Paul Sears Distinguished Professor of Environmental Studies and Politics, Dr. David Orr also serves as special assistant to the President of Oberlin College. His career as a scholar, teacher, writer, speaker, and entrepreneur spans fields as diverse as environment and politics, environmental education, campus greening, green building, ecological design, and climate change. Dr. Orr is the author of six books and co-editor of three others. Ecological Literacy (SUNY, 1992), described as a "true classic" by Garrett Hardin, is widely read and used in hundreds of colleges and universities. A second book, Earth in Mind (1994/2004), is praised by people as diverse as biologist E. O. Wilson and writer, poet, and farmer, Wendell Berry. In 1987, Dr. Orr organized studies of energy, water, and materials use on several college campuses that helped to launch the green campus movement. In 1989, he organized the first ever conference on the effects of impending climate change on the banking industry. Co-sponsored by then Governor Bill Clinton, the conference featured prominent bankers throughout the mid-South and leading climate scientists including Stephen Schneider and George Woodwell. Dr. Orr's efforts continued in 1996 when he organized the effort to design the first substantially green building on a U.S. college campus. The Adam Joseph Lewis Center was later named by the U.S. Department of Energy as "One of Thirty Milestone Buildings in the 20th Century," and by The New York Times as the most interesting of a new generation of college and university buildings. The Lewis Center purifies all of its wastewater and is the first college building in the U.S. powered entirely by sunlight. Most importantly, it became a laboratory in sustainability that is training some of the nation's brightest and most dedicated students for careers in solving environmental problems. The story of that building is told in two books, The Nature of Design (Oxford, 2002) that Fritjof Capra called "brilliant," and a second, Design on the Edge (MIT, 2006), that architect Sim van der Ryn describes as "powerful and inspiring". Political writings by Dr. Orr have appeared in, The Last Refuge: Patriotism, Politics, and the Environment in an Age of Terror (Island Press, 2004), and articles such as "The Imminent Demise of the Republican Party" (www.commondreams.org 1/2005). In an influential article in the Chronicle of Higher Education 2000, Dr. Orr proposed the goal of carbon neutrality for colleges and universities and subsequently organized and funded an effort to define a carbon neutral plan for his own campus at Oberlin. Seven years later hundreds of colleges and universities, including Oberlin, have made that pledge. Recent projects include a two-year, $2 million project to define a 100 days climate action plan for the Obama administration (www.climateactionproject.com), and a project with prominent legal scholars across the U.S. to define the legal rights of posterity in cases where the actions of the present generation might deprive posterity of "life, liberty, and property." Dr. Orr is also active in efforts to stop mountaintop removal in Appalachia and develop a new economy based on ecological restoration and wind energy. He is the author of forthcoming Down to the Wire: Confronting Climate Collapse (Oxford University Press, 2009). Dr. Orr is the recipient of four honorary degrees and other awards including The Millennium Leadership Award from Global Green, the Bioneers Award, the National Wildlife Federation Leadership Award, and a Lyndhurst Prize acknowledging "persons of exceptional moral character, vision, and energy." In addition to being a James Marsh Professor at the University of Vermont, Dr. Orr has been a scholar in residence at Ball State University, the University of Washington, and other universities. He has lectured at hundreds of colleges and universities throughout the U.S. and Europe. He serves as a Trustee for several organizations including the Rocky Mountain Institute (www.rmi.org) and the Aldo Leopold Foundation (www.aldoleopold.org). The Walter R. Smith Visiting Scholar Series is in its sixth year of bringing notable speakers to Corning. The mission of the Series is to stimulate thought and encourage discussion around a broad range of topics including the arts, politics, science, history, and contemporary culture. Past presenters include Amory Houghton, Jr., Former New York State Congressman; Dr. Tina Packer, artistic director of Shakespeare & Company; Dr. Virginia Trimble, professor of Astronomy, History of Science, and Scientometrics at University of California, Irvine; Jeff Shaara, author; Alison Lurie, Pulitzer Prize winning author; Dr. Nelson Lankford, historian and author; Dr. Steven Squyres, Mars Rover scientist; and Dr. William Danko, co-author of The Millionaire Next Door. Lecture is free and open to the public. For questions, please contact Debbie Stayer Kelly at (607) 962- 9144 or via e-mail at [email protected]. _______________________________________________ For more information about sustainability in the Tompkins County area, please visit: http://www.sustainabletompkins.org/ RSS, archives, subscription & listserv information for: [email protected] http://lists.mutualaid.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainabletompkins Questions about the list? ask [email protected] free hosting by http://www.mutualaid.org
