Talking Climate Impacts and Solutions in Minnesota with Katharine Hayhoe
Mon, Jan 31, 12–1 pm
Virtual event, moderated by McKnight Foundation’s Tonya Allen
In partnership with Westminster Town Hall Forum and The Nature Conservancy
Climate is changing—throughout Minnesota, across the United States, and for the planet as a whole. Temperatures are increasing, rainfall patterns are shifting, and many weather extremes are becoming more dangerous and more damaging.
Climate change isn’t just a problem for polar bears or future generations anymore—it’s affecting us, here and now. Not only that, but the choices we make today will have profound impact on our future. We need to accelerate both mitigation and adaptation, and nature has a big role to play.
Can we do what it takes to avoid widespread, dangerous change? Join Katharine Hayhoe as she discusses her new book, Saving Us, which explains how climate change affects us all and how we all have a role to play in solving it.
Katharine Hayhoe is an accomplished atmospheric scientist who studies climate change and why it matters to us here and now. In her role as Chief Scientist, Katharine is responsible for The Nature Conservancy’s wider portfolio of global climate advocacy and adaptation work.
She has served as lead author on the Second, Third, and Fourth National Climate Assessments, and also hosts and produces the PBS Digital Series, Global Weirding, and serves on advisory committees for a broad range of organizations including the Smithsonian Natural History Museum, the Earth Science Women’s Network, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Katharine is also a remarkable communicator who has received the National Center for Science Education’s Friend of the Planet award, the American Geophysical Union’s Climate Communication Prize, the Sierra Club’s Distinguished Service award, and been named to a number of lists including Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People, Foreign Policy’s 100 Leading Thinkers, FORTUNE magazine’s World’s Greatest Leaders and the United Nations Champion of the Earth in Science and Innovation.
Katharine retains an academic appointment at Texas Tech University, where she is a Paul Whitfield Horn Distinguished Professor and Endowed Chair in Public Policy and Public Law within the Department of Political Science. She has a B.Sc. in Physics from the University of Toronto and an M.S. and Ph.D. in Atmospheric Science from the University of Illinois and has been awarded honorary doctorates from Colgate University and Victoria University at the University of Toronto.
Moderator Tonya Allen serves as president of the McKnight Foundation. She heads an all-women, majority people-of-color senior leadership team and a diverse staff of about 50 people at McKnight. Like Katharine Hayhoe, Tonya is passionate about bringing unlikely allies together, and throughout her 25-year career she has been a bridge-builder and a civic diplomat. Tonya leads successful philanthropic, business, government, and community partnerships that catalyze fresh thinking, test new approaches, and advance public policy.
The Westminster Town Hall Forum is Minnesota's largest and longest-running national speaker series. For more than 40 years, it has invited voices of conscience to address the issues of the day, from an ethical perspective. All Town Hall Forum programs are entirely free and open to the public, both in-person and online.
Katherine Hayhoe's talk in collaboration with the Great Northern Festival will kick-off a season of speakers at the Forum all focusing on climate change and the future of the planet.
