AMES, Iowa -- David Orr, who has been one of the guiding voices of the environmental movement for more than 30 years, will speak at Iowa State University.
Orr will present "Dangerous Years: Climate Change in the Long Emergency" at 8 p.m. Monday, Feb. 29, in the Great Hall of the Memorial Union. His talk is part of the University Symposium on Sustainability and the Pearl Hogrefe Visiting Writers Series. It is free and open to the public.
Orr is the Paul Sears Distinguished Professor of Environmental Studies and Politics and senior adviser to the president of Oberlin College. He is a pioneering champion of the cause of ecological literacy in higher education, and helped establish and shape the field of ecological design.
In an influential article in the Chronicle of Higher Education in 2000, Orr proposed the goal of carbon neutrality for colleges and universities and subsequently organized and funded an effort to define a carbon neutral plan for his own campus. He spearheaded the effort to design, fund and build the Adam Joseph Lewis Center at Oberlin, which was named by an American Institute of Architects (AIA) panel “the most important green building of the past 30 years,” and as “one of 30 milestone buildings of the 20th century” by the U.S. Department of Energy.
Orr is the author of more than seven books, including "Down to the Wire," The Last Refuge," "The Nature of Design,"" Earth in Mind" and "Ecological Literacy.” He also is co-editor of "Hope is an Imperative."
Orr has been awarded seven honorary degrees and a dozen other awards, including a Lyndhurst Prize, a National Achievement Award from the National Wildlife Federation and a Visionary Leadership Award from Second Nature.
Orr's talk is co-sponsored by the MFA Program in Creative Writing and Environment, the Office of Sustainability, Pearl Hogrefe Fund, The Green Umbrella, Writers' Guild and the Committee on Lectures, which is funded by Student Government.
More information on ISU lectures is available online, or by calling 515-294-9935.
