Lecture Series Addresses the Environment in the Present Tense

Environmental challenges are often framed in future tense — how our actions will impact our children and our children’s children. But what are some of the consequences of the choices we make with regard to the environment that we can feel now and in our own lifetimes? And what might we have to change — and give up — to set a new path for remediation and sustainability?

The Center for Religion, Ethics and Culture continues to explore these questions with its yearlong series, In Our Lifetimes: Environmental Change and Stewardship. This semester, lectures will tackle the global issues of freshwater scarcity, the biodiversity of species and the effects of pesticides on human health, while members of the Presidential Task Force on the Environment at Holy Cross will lay out the plans and challenges for reducing the College’s carbon footprint and promoting sustainability on campus.

All events will be held in Rehm Library, Smith Hall, and are free and open to the public. Events are also recorded and accessible anytime from the Center’s website.

Journalist and author Steven Solomon opens the second half of the series with a lecture titled “When the Well Runs Dry: Finding Solutions for the Freshwater Crisis,” on Feb. 3 at 4:30 p.m. In his recent book, Water: The Epic Struggle for Wealth, Power, and Civilization, Solomon asserts that freshwater scarcity is one of the 21st century's decisive, looming challenges and is driving new political, economic and environmental realities across the globe.

On Feb. 9 at 4:30 p.m., John Cannon, associate director for planning and operations in Physical Plant, and Katherine Kiel, associate professor of economics, will talk about the efforts of the College and the actions of students that have the greatest positive and negative impacts on sustainability on campus. Cannon and Kiel are members of the Presidential Task Force on the Environment, the committee that drafted the College’s carbon neutral plan and is charged with promoting good environmental practices on campus.

Holy Cross alumnus Kierán Suckling ’88 returns to Mount St. James on Feb. 15 at 7:30 p.m. to talk about “The Biodiversity Crisis: Why Driving Species Extinct Makes Us Less Human.” Founder and executive director of the Center for Biological Diversity, Suckling created and maintains the country's most comprehensive endangered species database. He will talk about the extent of biodiversity loss in the United States and globally, and why the extinction crisis, though most often spoken of in ecological terms, is undermining our own humanity.

Finally, the series will conclude with a talk exploring the real health implications of widespread pesticide use. Brenda Eskenazi, director of the Center for Environmental Research and Children's Health at the University of California Berkeley, will share “Lessons from the Fields: Pesticides and Health,” on March 28 at 4:30 p.m. Eskenazi has studied the effects of environmental exposures to reproductive, perinatal and children's health for two decades. Her talk is the Katherine A. Henry '86 Memorial Lecture, part of an annual series that addresses women’s health issues.

Learn more about In Our Lifetimes and listen to last semester’s talks online.