Wednesday, April 27, 2011

To encourage a dialogue about current environmental issues, the University of North Carolina Wilmington is hosting a climate change seminar, "CO2 Rising: The Earth's Greatest Environmental Challenge," with noted science writer Tyler Volk. The event, which is free and open to the public, will take place at 7 p.m., Thurs., April 28 in Dobo Hall room 134. A reception will follow the lecture.

Volk is professor of biology and environmental studies and science director of the Environmental Studies Program at New York University (NYU). He has published a number of scholarly articles and books, including Gaia's Body: Toward a Physiology of Earth, What is Death? A Scientist Looks at the Cycle of Life, and CO2 Rising: The Earth's Greatest Environmental Challenge, the last of which will be the topic of his talk.

Volk will present data and conclusions from his book about the global carbon cycle and the huge disturbances that human activity produces, helping to equip people to consider the hard questions raised in CO2 Rising: projections of future levels of CO2; which energy systems and processes will power civilization in the future; the relationships among the wealth of nations, energy use, and CO2 emissions; and global equity in per capita emissions. Answering these questions may be our greatest environmental challenge.

Media contact:
Dana Fischetti, media relations manager, 910.508.3127 or fischettid@uncw.edu