Monday, May 19, 2008

World Science Festival

Exciting news! I will be a featured speaker at the World Science Festival in NYC, speaking at Columbia University on Friday evening, May 30th. This is the first of its kind event and I will tell of my adventure through the NW Passage and the disappearance of the ice in the Arctic Ocean. It is a great honor, and quite humbling, to be selected to speak with Dr. Richard Leakey and other renowned scientists, artists, actors, etc, at this event.

Here is my event listing. Clicking on any of the highlighted links will take you to the official website. Thanks for checking it out.

Celebrated paleontologist and conservationist Richard Leakey sounds the alarm: life on Earth is under siege. From disappearing bees and deformed frogs to diseased crops, the evidence is everywhere. Leakey is joined by famed oceanographer Sylvia Earle, who takes us underwater for an equally vivid call to arms.

Featuring presentations of sounds now extinct from the wild, as well as recent video footage from the Arctic, this astonishing and moving picture of the planet today presents in no uncertain terms what’s at stake in the fight to preserve our planet’s rich biodiversity.

  • Sylvia Earle

    Sylvia Earle is an oceanographer, marine botanist, ecologist, and writer. The National Geographic Society's explorer-in-residence since 1998, she tirelessly works for the preservation and exploration of the world's marine ecosystems. She has led more than 50 expeditions and spent more than 6,500 hours of her life underwater.

  • Bernie Krause

    Bernie Krause is a bioacoustician — an expert on the sounds of nature — who has traveled the world recording and archiving the sounds of endangered creatures and environments. He is President and CEO of Wild Sanctuary, Inc., one of the world’s largest archives of natural sounds.

  • Richard Leakey

    Paleontologist Richard Leakey’s discoveries have helped shape our understanding of human origins. He is a committed conservationist and staunch advocate for the protection of Kenyan wildlife. A former director of Kenya’s Wildlife Service, he is the author of several books including The Sixth Extinction.

  • David Thoreson

    David Thoreson is an adventurer, photographer and sailor who has bicycled 10,000 miles around North America; sailed 36,000 miles around the planet; and crossed the Atlantic three times by sail. In the summer of 2007, he completed the Northwest Passage, where he filmed a documentary about the effects of climate change.

Friday, May 9, 2008

Erratic Weather Patterns

Last week, May 2nd, I was driving back to the upper Midwest from Santa Fe, NM, and listening to "The Weather Makers," by Tim Flannery on my iPod. This is an amazing piece of work on how the climate works and how we have gotten to this point in our history.

As I drove along the eastern plains of the Rockies the wind began to blow and I altered course to get to the interstate ASAP. Winds built to @70 mph and I could not help to think how crazy this was to listen to this book about weather patterns changing while the weather patterns were changing.

Near the lovely hamlet of Limon, CO, I nearly got my truck ripped apart by a gust the Weather Channel later reported to be over 90 mph. Soon it began to snow and a blizzard began out of nowhere, this on May 2nd mind you.

I managed to turn around and inch back to Limon and hit happy hour with the ranchers at the South Side Tavern. I was happy to be in for sure. I could not help overhearing a rancher next to me state, "this has been the windiest spring I can ever remember." This to me is more evidence, "folk evidence," as I like to call it of our climate changing.

I later learned there was a record number of tornadoes ahead of this violent system and four feet of snow in the Black Hills of South Dakota. Very interesting times we live in to be sure.