Climate Change

Climate change is threatening the survival of Tonga and other South Pacific nations. It is causing sea level to rise, putting coastal communities at risk, and warming ocean temperatures, increasing the strength of cyclones/hurricanes. Cyclone Gita (2018), the strongest cyclone in history to make landfall on Tonga, caused significant damage.

Stories are critical to understanding and responding to climate change. On the one hand, our collective imaginations are shaped by dominant, inherited narrative conventions; as public climate stories rely almost entirely on large-scale, apocalyptic tropes, many people are uncertain how to respond to them in their everyday lives. On the other hand, stories can help us make shared emotional and relational sense of the complexity of large-scale ecological and social transformations.

DUE TO CAMPUS SNOW CLOSURE THIS TALK WAS CANCELED

For spring, 2020 all WWU classes are being taught online. As such, the Huxley Speaker Series is revisiting favorite presentations from the Archives.

This talk was originally presented as part of the Huxley Speaker Series in Fall 2015.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTAuw4UK3ig&list=PL_V1x509m24mrCNrm3tJBNOInyrovnHz1&index=5&t=0s

See Zoom details.

See Zoom details.

See Zoom details. 
This event will be a participatory Zoom Meeting with Breakout Rooms.

ZOOM MEETING ID:     973 2303 5459

(email stefan@wwu.edu for the meeting Passcode)

Climate justice, cutting-edge ecological research, and policy changes are all good things to engage in, but when do we have time to collectively do this work as a college/university/community?  

Climate change forced displacement and resettlement is becoming a pressing topic as the impacts of sea level rise, drought, and severe tropical storms increasingly impact communities’ livelihoods. As communities and entire nations are forced to resettle, how will basic social and cultural structures be maintained? The transportation of resilient socio- cultural patterns becomes essential for maintaining the health and well-being of a community.