Informal Conversations about Climate Change
Come join us for Let’s Talk Climate, a series of informal conversations about climate change, served up with some tasty foods. Facilitators will start each session by sharing some ideas and information about the day’s topic to set the stage, and then engage the group in an open discussion. We’ll have some discussion questions in mind to help guide the conversations, but we’ll let the conversations go where you and other participants want to take them. This series is co-sponsored by the Center for Sustainability Education and the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues.
All are welcome to this free event series – students, staff, faculty, and community members. Bring friends and colleagues.
All sessions are in ºìÐÓÖ±²¥app, Kaufman Hall (Room 178)
400 W. North Street
Carlisle, PA 17013
September 6, 2022 (Tuesday), 1:30 – 2:30 pm
Pathways to Net Zero Emissions
The most recent IPCC report suggests that limiting global warming to 1.5°C or 2.0°C will involve deep, rapid, and sustained emissions reductions. Join us for discussion of how these emissions pathways are developed and the role that local and national policy may play in achieving these emissions reduction targets.
- Facilitator: Professor Tony Underwood
September 16, 2022 (Friday), 1:30 – 2:30 pm
The IPCC is Coming to Dickinson! What’s that All ºìÐÓÖ±²¥app?
Scientists of the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change), the world’s most authoritative source of information about climate change, are coming to Dickinson to participate in an international symposium on climate action. Join us for a conversation about the work of the IPCC and why it matters.
- Facilitator: Neil Leary
September 23, 2022 (Friday), 1:30 – 2:30 pm
What the Global South Wants
The later developing countries have contributed much less to the world's carbon emissions historically, but in many cases are already feeling the worst effects of climate change and will be hardest hit in future. What are the priorities of some significant developing countries, large and small, in the COP process? 
- Facilitators: Professor Ed Webb and Professor Rachel Jacobs
October 7, 2022 (Friday), 1:30 – 2:30 pm
Warming in the Arctic: Why Do We Need to Care?
The Arctic is a critical area to understand as a first glimpse of changes that will be coming as global warming starts having a larger impact on driving climate change. If melting of the Greenland ice sheet causes too much freshening of North Atlantic waters, many bad things could follow ecologically and climatologically. The geopolitical realm of the Arctic is also moving to the global stage, in part as a result of Russia’s international ambitions and their impacts on current and future (Sweden and Finland) NATO members. We will pick out a few critical natural components of the Arctic in this session (sea ice, permafrost, glaciers), and discuss how they will have increasingly direct impacts on geopolitics in the near future.
- Facilitator: Professor Ben Edwards
October 14, 2022 (Friday), 1:30 – 2:30 pm
Coping with Climate Anxiety
“As climate change becomes felt by more people, the boundary between those who worry about a future apocalypse and those who are experiencing that apocalypse right now will further blur. Feelings of grief, mourning, fear, and overwhelm are giving rise to a new vocabulary including such terms as climate anxiety, vicarious trauma, solastalgia, pre-traumatic stress, and secondary grief.” An excerpt from Sarah Jaquette Ray in A Field Guide to Climate Anxiety: How to keep your cool on a warming planet. How does climate anxiety influence the daily life among students (now known as “the climate generation”), faculty, staff, and the broader community? What strategies and collective action can be used to inspire “constructive hope” as defined in recent studies?
- Facilitator: Kristin Strock
October 21, 2022 (Friday), 1:30 – 2:30 pm
Histories of Climate Thought and Anxiety
Fears and visions over climate change are not a new idea. How are the ways in which we relate to nature and climate linked to how people thought about--and worried about--climate in the past, especially in the 1700 and 1800s, when industrialization and other ideas of nature that continue to impact Western society were honed? How did Western views of climate become a global phenomenon, and how have both understanding and anxiety about climate and environment lead to current crisis?
- Facilitator: Professor Hanna Roman
November 4, 2022 (Friday), 1:30 – 2:30 pm
Encouraging More Diverse Climate Discussions
Women and communities of color disproportionately suffer the impacts of climate change. In addition, there is a call to diversify the voices that contribute to the scientific assessment of climate knowledge. For example, a study published in Nature this year suggests the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change needs to “do more to include the expertise and voices of women, even as numbers and policies improve.” In this session, we will discuss the challenges underrepresented groups face not only as a result of climate change but also when serving as a climate expert and participating in the climate movement more broadly.
- Facilitators: Professor Kristin Strock and Professor Alyssa Decker