Fall Author Series
PHILADELPHIA,
September 4, 2012
The authors of new books on environmental issues in Arctic Alaska, crazy weather patterns around the world, and the transmission of diseases from animals to people headline the new fall speaker series at the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University.
Here’s what’s coming up:
Arctic Voices: Resistance at the Tipping Point
Wednesday, Sept. 19, 6:30 p.m., followed by book signing
$5 nonmembers, free for Academy members
To register: http://arcticvoices.eventbrite.com/ Tickets also available at the door.
Books available for purchase at the Academy Shop
In his new book, Arctic Voices: Resistance at the Tipping Point, world-renowned photographer, writer and activist Subhankar Banerjee brings together narratives from prominent activists, writers and researchers who address issues of climate change, resource war, and human rights in Arctic Alaska with urgency and groundbreaking research. Largely uninhabited and long at the margins of global affairs, the region has become the most contested land in recent U.S. history. Plans to exploit the vast oil and natural gas resources believed to lie off the north coast of Alaska have ignited environmental organizations in opposition to drilling. Over the past decade, Banerjee has emerged as a leading international voice on issues of Arctic conservation, indigenous human rights, resource development and climate change. At the Academy, he will be joined by Cindy Shogan, executive director of the Alaska Wilderness League. Academy paleontologist Dr. Ted Daeschler, whose research on the evolution of limbed animals takes him to the Canadian Arctic, will lead the engaging discussion.
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Global Weirdness and the Weather of the Future
Tuesday, Sept. 25, 6 p.m. reception, 6:30 p.m. talk, followed by book signing
$5 nonmembers, free for Academy members
To register: http://globalweirdness.eventbrite.com/ Tickets also available at the door.
Books available for purchase at the Academy Shop
Michael Lemonick, senior science writer for Climate Central, is the lead author of the new, critically acclaimed book Global Weirdness: Severe Storms, Deadly Heat Waves, Relentless Drought, Rising Seas, and the Weather of the Future. The New York Times describes Global Weirdness as “slim and elegant … written in the kind of plain English of which Strunk and White would approve, that lays out what we know about climate change while hewing to the facts and taking great care to avoid bias and hysteria…” In his talk, Lemonick will present the natural forces and human actions affecting climate change, the risks to human health, and the costs and benefits of reducing carbon emissions. Based in Princeton, N.J., Climate Central is a highly regarded nonprofit, nonpartisan science and journalism organization.
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Spillover: Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic
Tuesday, October 16, 6:30 p.m., followed by book signing
$5 nonmembers, free for Academy members
To register: http://spillover.eventbrite.com/ Tickets also available at the door.
Books available for purchase at the Academy Shop
David Quammen’s new book SPILLOVER: Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic, traces the science and history of major diseases that originate in wild animals and pass to humans, such as Ebola, SARS and AIDS. He tracks this subject around the world and recounts adventures in the field—netting bats in China, trapping monkeys in Bangladesh, stalking gorillas in the Congo—with the world’s leading disease scientists. In his talk, Quammen will explain how “spillover” diseases emerge and discuss what might be the next big pandemic. Quammen is the award-winning author of The Song of the Dodo and other books and is a contributing writer for National Geographic.
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