Event
The World Today presents The Crisis of Climate-Driven Extinction
3803 Locust Walk Philadelphia, PA 19104
Canadian and Hawaiian wildfires; a bleached Great Barrier Reef; flooding in Pakistan and Nigeria; drought in Somalia; and devastating Cyclones across Malawi and Mozambique are just some of the recent climate driven natural disasters rearranging and challenging the ecosystems on which we all depend.
The United Nations calls the confluence of climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution a “triple planetary crisis.” A million species are at risk of extinction by 2050. Despite global calls to act, the world is suffering increasingly severe and often irreversible impacts of climate change on ecosystems and the life they sustain. Is climate driven extinction unavoidable? What can be done to reverse course, and can we stop biodiversity loss, global warming, and planetary pollution concurrently? What happens if we fail?
As part of Penn Climate Week, Perry World House in collaboration with the Penn Center for Science, Sustainability and the Media; and the Department of Biology will host this urgent discussion of the intersection of biodiversity loss and climate change.
Featured Speakers
Erol Akçay, Associate Professor of Biology
Michael Mann, Presidential Distinguished Professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Science
Zinta Zommers, Humanitarian Affairs Officer, United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
Moderator
Simon Richter, Class of 1942 Endowed Term Professor of German
As part of this mission, Perry World House hosts "The World Today," a weekly event on one of today’s most pressing global issues. Taking place every Tuesday, it is dedicated to a timely and intimate conversation on a global policy issue that changes each week. It is open to the entire Penn community, regardless of academic focus, and aims to be accessible and interesting to students who might not have the time to take classes on these topics but still want to deepen their understanding of the world. Members of the wider community are always welcome.