How Close is That Tipping Point, and Will We Act in Time?
Thoughts on the Global Environmental Crisis

Thursday, November 8
5:30 reception, 6:00 lecture


Peter F. Sale, prominent marine ecologist, Assistant Director for the Institute for Water, Environment and Health United Nations University, and author of Our Dying Planet: An Ecologist's View of the Crisis We Face will give a talk at the Museum of the Earth.

The global environmental crisis is much bigger than climate change, and as a coral reef ecologist, Peter Sale has a very particular perspective on it—his coral reefs are likely to disappear entirely from our planet by 2050. Reefs will be just one of many casualties as we change our planet into something we have never known before. This talk explores what is happening to our planet and why, and focuses on the fact that we have the power to decide what kind of future we want. At present, we seem to be travelling down dangerous paths, and the environment is responding in dangerous ways. Making the needed changes to transition to a good future will take understanding and real commitment, but it can be done and the alternative futures are dire. Will we make the right decisions, and will we do so in time to perhaps save coral reefs?

This lecture is presented in partnership with Atkinson Center for a Sustainable Future.

For more information, please contact Johanna Batman, Museum Operations at 607-273-6623 x13.