2008 Woodie Awards
Flannery Heats up Chapel
Author of 2011 Summer Book Tackles Warming
Maxwell Weiss
Issue date: 10/25/07 Section: News
- Page 1 of 2 next >
|
Flannery, who is currently the chairman of the Copenhagen Climate Council and the 2007 Australian of the Year, was asked to speak because of his research and his book, The Weather Makers, which was the assigned summer reading for the class of 2011. Dean of First-Year Students Beverly Low and Provost and Dean of the Faculty Lyle Roelofs chaired the committee to select the book.
"Two summers ago I saw Al Gore's movie, An Inconvenient Truth, and started reading The Weather Makers," Professor of Geology and Presidential Scholar Connie Soja, another key player in the decision to assign the book to incoming first-years, said. "The two complemented each other in such significant and profound ways, it was as if two hands were being offered as gestures of good will, asking us to recognize the impact each of us is having on the Earth's environmental future."
The book, published in 2005, describes the causes of climate change, the steps necessary to stop it and the global causes of inertia on the matter. Flannery was both "honored and worried" that his book was mandatory reading.
"When something is mandatory more people are bound to resent it," Flannery said. "However, it is good overall and helps the growing awareness of the big challenge we are going to face."
Flannery was greeted with roaring applause from the audience. To the surprise of many and the relief of some, this was not a science lecture, but rather a comprehensive evaluation of the historical significance of the current climate problem and instances in the past in which mankind has risen to overcome similar challenges.
"Our history has been one of a ceaseless fight against pollution," he said as he began to describe the cholera epidemic in London, England in the 1800's and the unprecedented response to it: the creation of the London sewage system.
Be the first to comment on this story