Years ago, Bill McKibben suggested climate change would be the end of nature. More recently, Elizabeth Kolbert has argued the “Sixth Extinction” means the end of nature as we know it. Yet other scholars have argued that the term “nature” is not helpful—humans have always been modifying the world in which we live. And in The Collapse of Western Civilization, Erik Conway and Naomi Oreskes argue that liberal democracy is at stake as well.
As part of the 2019 Cleveland Humanities Festival, Oreskes, professor of the history of science at Harvard University, will give a talk titled “Is Climate Change the End? And If So, the End of What?” Friday, March 22, at 5 p.m. in Tinkham Veale University Center, Ballroom A.
In her talk, Oreskes will explore these issues and suggest that—however we look at it—unless we rapidly address climate change, we will be living in a world that is deeply impoverished, biologically, materially and politically.
This event is free and open to the public. Register for the talk through Baker-Nord Center for the Humanities website.