Sept. 20-- Speaker to discuss lessons from Norse Greenland on adapting to climate change
The extinction of the Norse Greenland colony by the mid-1400s has been seen as a class example of maladaptation and an overly ambitious transfer of unsustainable European life ways to the arctic. That picture may be flawed, says Thomas H. McGovern, director of the Hunter College (CUNY) Zooarchaeology Lab and the next speaker in the Fall 2010 EarthTalks series. McGovern’s talk, “New Views of Norse Greenland: Well Adapted But Still Extinct,” is set for 4 p.m., Monday, Sept. 20, in 112 Walker Building. According to McGovern, recent work funded by the NSF International Polar Year reveals that the colony was engaged in sustainable resource management and creative communal management of arctic resources, suggesting some success in responding to initial phases of climate change. “Norse Greenland may actually represent a cautionary tale about trade off of adaptation and resilience that nearly succeeded,” McGovern said.
Sept. 27 -- Radio host will examine how societies become resilient in the face of traumatic change
Mark Sommer, founder and host of the weekly radio program "A World of Possibilities," will examine ecologists’ understanding of resilience as applied to human societies in his 4 p.m., Sept. 27, EarthTalks presentation, “Resilience -- Ecologists Look to Nature for Strategies to Stay Afloat in Turbulent Times.” In his talk, Sommer will draw upon his radio program with some of the foremost thinkers on the concept of resilience whom he interviewed after the Resilience 2008 conference in Stockholm. In addition to his radio program, Sommer also is the founder and executive director of Connexus Communications, a public education organization committed to exploring new approaches to longstanding challenges on a wide range of critical national and international issues. He is a frequent contributor to newspaper and magazine columns.
Oct. 4 -- Speaker to address opportunities and barriers in climate change policy
Tom Fry, senior policy advisor on climate adaptation for the nonprofit Nature Conservancy (TNC), will look at initiatives of the Obama administration to advance comprehensive climate legislation as part of the Fall 2010 EarthTalks series. In his talk, “Managing the Unavoidable: Mainstreaming Climate Adaptation in Public Policy,” Fry will consider how federal institutions are adapting to a shifting climate and what the range of policy venues and vehicles are for dealing with effective governance in a new climate era. Fry’s talk is scheduled for 4 p.m., Monday, Oct. 4, in 112 Walker Building.
EarthTalks is open to the public and is sponsored by the Earth and Environmental Systems Institute (EESI), the Penn State Institutes of Energy and the Environment (PSIEE), the John A. Dutton e-Education Institute, and the Department of Geography.