Occupy Forum: Surviving Climate Chaos: Reframing the Climate Question

a special presentation on climate change

with author and environmentalist

Mark Hertsgaard

Surviving Climate Chaos: Reframing the Climate Question

​“Over the next 50 years, climate change will transform our world in ways we have only begun to imagine. Humans have changed the weather on the planet, and the battle to prevent climate chaos has become the race to survive it. Climate change worsens already existing conflicts over water supplies, energy sources, weather-induced migration — and it undermines the very ecosystems that make life possible. Besides striving to lower the global thermostat, we must take steps to prepare our societies for the serious climate impacts that are already in the pipeline.”

Mark Hertsgaard has spoken and written about global warming for more than 20 years. At the birth of his daughter, he was struck by how much more rapidly the earth’s warm-up has come upon us, and by the evidence of these changes. In his most recent book: HOT: Living Through the Next Fifty Years on Earth, Hertsgaard travels the globe to cover climate change effects and policy. He writes: “This book is both a father’s cry and a blueprint on how all of us  as parents, communities, companies and countries can navigate this unavoidable new era.”

Herstgaard will address how these changing conditions especially affect peoples living around the equator and in low-lying countries as the oceans rise. What does this mean for them? What will it mean for us? How can we begin to prepare for these inevitable mass migrations?

Like the 400,000 people who traveled to the streets of NY to marshal action on the climate chaos upon us, we must not remain silent. We must become part of the movement and contribute, using our best capabilities. We need thousands of ordinary heroes to step forward and create a new future.

Mark Hertsgaard is the author of six books and a long-time contributor to leading media outlets around the world, including The Nation, Harper’s, Vanity Fair, The New Yorker, Businessweek, NPR and the BBC. Food &Water Watch, 350 Bay Area, Roots Rhyzing, The Sunflower Alliance and Rising Tide will offer audience members brief descriptions of their climate work, and be available to welcome people who’d like to get involved.

Refreshments available, wheelchair accessible

RSVP: uus4peace@gmail.com or call 415-595-7306