Meet the Speakers - Gustavus Student ExclusiveTuesday, September 24 at 4:30 p.m.

Gustavus students have an exclusive opportunity to participate in conversations with our presenters on Tuesday, September 24 at 4:30 p.m. in Beck Hall (2nd Floor). 

Climate change as a human rights challenge with Diana Liverman and Sheila Watt-Cloutier
Location: Beck Hall 211
Climate change as a human rights challenge. Changes in our climate system have a disproportionate effect on those people who are already the most marginalized in their societies by race, class and gender; and also on those who are living in some of the most extreme ecosystems on earth, such as the high Arctic. Diana Liverman studies the challenges of trying to mitigate the effects of climate change while also striving to promote the prosperity of those most marginalized--the challenge of sustainable development. Sheila Watt-Cloutier is a spokesperson and political representative for the Inuit people of Arctic Canada; she writes about the ways in which climate change in the Arctic affects the lives of people across the globe. 

Ice cores and Fingerprints: How do we detect and attribute the causes of climate change? with Richard Alley and Gabriele Hegerl 
Location: Beck Hall 213
Ice cores and Fingerprints: how do we detect and attribute the causes of climate change? Richard Alley studies paleoclimates (i.e. long-ago climates) by studying the bubbles of air that can be found in ice core samples taken in places like Antarctica. By studying this long-ago atmosphere, scientists can identify periods in history during which Earth’s climate changed, sometimes abruptly. Gabriele Hegerl develops climate models that can identify the “fingerprints” left by climate-change-causing agents, both in the past and in our own time. 

The humanities and arts respond to climate change with Amitav Ghosh and Mike Hulme
Location: Beck Hall 217
The humanities and arts respond to climate change. Amitav Ghosh suggests that “the climate crisis is also a crisis of culture, and thus of the imagination.” Mike Hulme writes that humans live in a “culture-climate dyad,” a deeply intertwined relationship with our climate. If our efforts to respond to climate change draw only on data and focus only on the catastrophic effects of climate change, we are overlooking a valuable set of resources; human creativity, a vital tool in adapting and accommodating to climate change. How can the humanities and the arts help us to reframe the challenges with which climate change presents us?