Event Description

Andrew Revkin, an award-winning science reporter and author who covered environmental issues for The New York Times for nearly 15 years, will speak at the University of Arizona on Jan. 26.

During his free public talk, “9 Billion People + 1 Planet = ?,” which will be held at 3:30 p.m. in Room 120 of the Integrated Learning Center, Revkin will discuss efforts to balance human activities with the planet’s finite resources.

The event kicks off the UA lecture series, Clearing the Air: Arizona's Voice for Environmental Science, which will include talks by four renowned experts on communicating climate and environmental science. The series is designed to highlight the importance of communicating science broadly and clearly.

The title of Revkin’s talk refers to projections that the human population will hit nine billion by the middle of this century. Thus far, spikes in population and resource appetites have been sustained by technology and fossil fuels. But the road toward a more stable, prosperous human population later in the century can be made smoother or bumpier depending on choices made now—including the choice to stick with business as usual.

During his talk, Revkin will present an optimistic, but realistic, exploration of ways to foster progress on a finite planet—including the unique role of universities as hubs of innovation, learning and, most important, doing.

Revkin has spent more than a quarter of a century covering subjects ranging from the assault on the Amazon to the Asian tsunami, from the troubled relationship of science and politics to climate change at the North Pole. As a journalist for The New York Times, he made three trips to the Arctic to report on climate change and was among the first reporters to file stories and photos from the floating sea ice around the Pole. Revkin left the Times staff at the end of 2009 to become a senior fellow at Pace University's Pace Academy for Applied Environmental Sciences. A pioneer in multimedia journalism, he continues to write the Times’ Dot Earth blog, which is read by millions of people in more than 200 countries.

Revkin previously worked as a senior editor of Discover and a senior writer at Science Digest. He has written acclaimed books on the Amazon, global warming and the Arctic. In September he became the first two-time winner of the Communication Award bestowed jointly by the National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering and Institute of Medicine. He also has received the prestigious John Chancellor Award for sustained excellence in journalism for his coverage of climate change.

Event Sponsors:

• Water Sustainability Program
• Institute of the Environment
• UA Renewable Energy Network
• School of Earth and Environmental Sciences
• College of Science
• Biosphere 2
• James E. Rogers College of Law
• School of Geography and Development

Contact Info & Links

Lesa Langan DuBerry
(520) 626-4345
lesa@email.arizona.edu

Series Name: Clearing the Air: Arizona's Voice for Environmental Science

Event Type: Talk