PBS
Journalist to Host Day of Climate Talks
 The
increasingly rapid loss of the world’s
glaciers and the ramifications of this alarming climate development
will be the topic of discussion on Tuesday, Oct. 6, when
PBS journalist David Brancaccio visits Smith and hosts a
local film screening.
, a film about
the melting of glaciers worldwide—illustrated
by the disappearing Gangotri Glacier in the Himalyan mountains and those in Montana’s
Glacier National Park—will be shown at the Academy of Music in downtown Northampton
at 7 p.m. Brancaccio, the host and senior editor of PBS’s NOW, will
lead an open discussion following the film with audience members and local panelists,
including Thomas Litwin, director of the Clark Science Center at Smith; Raymond
S. Bradley, a climate researcher at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst;
and Catherine Ratte of the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission.Brancaccio narrates
the film.
The event is free for Smith
community members with an ID.
 Brancaccio will also be on
campus Oct. 6 for “PlanetWatch!” a conversation about journalism and environmental
issues, at noon in the Campus Center Carroll Room. He will speak about journalistic
coverage of environmental issues, such as global climate change, science policy
and human rights. Lunch will be provided.
Seventy-five percent of the
world’s
fresh water is stored in glaciers, Brancaccio points out
in On
Thin Ice, but
scientists predict that as a result of the globe’s increasing
climate change, the world’s largest glaciers will completely
melt by 2030. Along the way, dwindling food supplies, rising
water levels and temperature changes will have drastic affects
on life around the planet.
On Thin
Ice is part of the PBS
Planet Watch series, 10 features airing in 2010 and 2011
that explore strategies and solutions to the climate crisis.
Read about Smith’s . |
