Tuesday, April 18, 2017

#notnormal: Environmental talk at Wesleyan this week


Please join Wesleyan Professor Brian Stewart for his 10th Annual Earth Week Rant, #notnormal: understanding change and demanding action.  It will be held twice: Wednesday at 7 p.m., and Thursday at noon at two different locations on the Wesleyan campus (see announcement below for details). 
In Brian's words, we find ourselves in a situation that feels abnormal, wishing for a normalcy (real or imagined) of either the recent or the not-so-recent past.  Why is this an abnormal age?  Is normalcy just around the corner, or are we on the cusp of an even more abnormal future?  I will argue that a surprisingly simple, nature-oriented way of organizing the information that deluges us can help us to make decisions as we navigate a murky future.  The body politic is awakening from a long slumber just in time to internalize this nature-centric approach and to demand a like awareness on the part of its elected representatives.

P.S.  Those of a certain age will recall George C. Scott as Patton in “the war movie for people who hate war movies”.  I’m no George C. Scott, but I think of this talk as “the environmental lecture for people who hate environmental lectures”.



No comments: