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The Graduate School

Dynamics of disbelief: Science, society and social welfare

Tues. March 1, 2016      7:30 p.m.

Kane Hall 130, UW Campus

This event is sold out. Wait list attendees will be accommodated on a space-available basis at 7:15 p.m.

For a century, scientists have known about the impact of human activity on the earth’s climate systems. But even as the science coalesced and forecasts became facts, a strong sense of disbelief and skepticism has been embraced by some political leaders and private citizens.


Naomi Oreskes is the author of both scholarly and popular books and articles on the history of earth and environmental science, including The Rejection of Continental Drift (Oxford, 1999), Plate Tectonics: An Insider’s History of the Modern Theory of the Earth (Westview, 2003) and The Collapse of Western Civilization (Columbia University Press, 2014). For the past decade, Oreskes has been primarily interested in the science and politics of anthropogenic climate change. Her 2010 book, Merchants of Doubt, How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco to Global Warming, co-authored with Erik M. Conway, was shortlisted for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and won the Watson-Davis Prize from the History of Science Society. The film version was released in late 2015.

Oreskes’s current research projects include completion of a scholarly book on the history of Cold War Oceanography,Science on a Mission: American Oceanography from the Cold War to Climate Change (Chicago, forthcoming) and Assessing Assessments: A Historical and Philosophical Study of Scientific Assessments for Environmental Policy in the Late 20th Century.

Brought to you by the UWAA, the Graduate School Public Lectures present visionary academics and personalities to discuss an array of timely topics, including technology integration in the classroom, and public discourse on climate science.


UWAA and UWRA members receive advance registration for the series! Not a member? Join today!

For more information, contact the UW Alumni Association at 206-543-0540 or uwalumni@uw.edu.