CAPE Events for Spring, 2008

Join a national day of action with over 1,000 college campuses participating. Learn about varying aspects of global climate change at panel sessions during the day and speak your mind at the Green Democracy Town Hall in the evening.
9:30-10:45  Business and Global Climate Change
Dr. Angela Casler, Management
Dr. Anita Chaudhry, Economics
Dr. Charles Liao, Economics
Dr. Dan Toy, Finance & Marketing
               
11:00-12:15  Science and Global Climate Change       
Dr. James Houpis, Dean, College of Natural Sciences
Dr. James Pushnik, Rawlins Professor of Environmental Literacy
                
12:30-1:45  Politics and Global Climate Change
Dr. Mahalley Allen, Political Science
Richard Crabtree, Crabtree Law Offices
Hal Thomas, Special Deputy District Attorney of Environmental Crimes
Ann Schwab, Vice Mayor, City of Chico
Mary Stegall, Mayor, City of Redding

2:00-3:15   Solutions and Global Climate Change: Greenhouse Gas Inventories
Halli Bovia, Graduate Student Interdisciplinary Studies
Daniel Salazar, Greenhouse Gas Specialist
Dr. Mark Stemen, Geography and Planning

3:30-4:45  Ethical and Psychological Aspects of Global Climate Change
Dr. Bruce Grelle, Religious Studies
Dr. Linda Kline, Psychology
In the evening from 6:00-9:00 pm Chico State and Butte College, faculty, students and staff will host a Town Hall meeting discussing aspects of global climate change.  Share your thoughts and ideas with political leaders, community members, students, business leaders, civic groups, faith based organizations, and K-college educators and staff.

David Chameides:  “Chasing Sustainability”
Wednesday, February 27th, 7:30 pm, PAC 134

Sponsored by The Institute for Sustainable Development

What is the rate of fossil fuel consumption in the United States compared with the rest of the world? How much longer can we continue to use energy at the rate at which we are accustomed? If not much longer, what are our prospects for developing alternative, non-polluting sources? How do regular people in Chico, California go about doing this?

David Chameides presents an argument in favor of practicing conservation with the broader ambition of living a more sustainable lifestyle. His talk begins with a now famous Cal. Tech. study from 1999 in which scientists determined how much energy the inhabitants of the earth used compared to how much we will eventually need, paying particular attention to how petroleum is consumed, and then proceeds to make the case that we are now at "peak oil," setting up a discussion of conservation and alternative energy. Chameides cites the conversion of his car to run on used vegetable oil as a concrete instance of what can be done to change the way we as a society consume resources. He also delves into the science in Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth” and explains the critical concept of "Hubberts Peak" The talk concludes with a frank assessment of Big Oil and introduces some manageable changes to which we can each commit to start living more sustainable lifestyles. Never judgmental and often lighthearted, Chameides relies on the facts and a no-nonsense pragmatism to persuade, confident that once people are given the right information they will choose to do what is best.

David Chameides is a freelance journalist writing articles on alternative fuels and alternative fuel vehicles for Edmunds.com, an automotive website that receives in excess of a million hits a month. He created and teaches a course on renewable energy and sustainability to middle school and high school students throughout Los Angeles County, has converted his car to run on used vegetable oil, and has a 2.8 kilowatt solar system installed on his house.  For the last twenty years he has been a director and cameraman in Hollywood and has won two Emmys, one for his work on the television show E.R.

Faith Language:  Is it Unraveling America’s Civic Fabric?
Wednesday, April 2nd, 7:30 pm, PAC 134

In 1900 women couldn’t vote. In 1940 blacks could not be elected. Today both, and gays and Latinos, run for office and are elected. But is the egalitarian dream of acceptance and civic participation still beyond reach for some citizens? While politicians from a variety of religious backgrounds have held major public offices, no “open atheist” could hope to run and be elected. According to professors Futrell and Geisert, “the common juxtapositions routinely presented in media aren’t doing atheists any favors: religious/nonreligious – believers/nonbelievers – people of faith/godless people – theists/atheists. Just how do all these phrases play out in today’s society? In the realm of religion, the language is one of brutally sharp contrasts, not pluralism. It gets louder and louder, too: Are some citizens being trapped in a verbal ghetto?”

Paul Geisert, a biology teacher in Chicago in the 60s, a professor of biology and science education in the 70s, an entrepreneur and writer in the 80s, and a co-developer of learning materials and websites in the 90s, is the creator of the noun, “bright” and a co-director of The Bright Net, an Internet constituency of persons in 144 nations with a naturalistic worldview.

Mynga Futrell has been an educator at all levels of instruction, from an elementary open school through university professor, including at Gallaudet University (for the Deaf), Washington, DC. She is lead developer for a religion-neutral professional web resource for educators. In addition to co-directing The Brights' Net, she serves on the National Advisory Council of Americans United for the Separation of Church and State and on boards of several free thought and religious liberty organizations.

Why Preserve Species?:  Some Philosophical Problems (and Answers)
Thursday, May 8th, 7:30 pm, AYRS 120

Most environmentalists believe that there is value in preserving species and ecosystems beyond their purely instrumental worth as resources for humans. However, the search for a rationale for this belief is what philosopher Elliott Sober calls "the main conceptual problem for environmentalism." In this talk, Robert C. Jones will present an overview of the philosophical rationales that environmentalists have relied upon for such views, and analyze and evaluate these rationales to see which one(s) (if any) can be depended upon to provide a sound justification for these common environmentalist intuitions.

Robert C. Jones received his PhD in philosophy from Stanford University in 2005. His research explores the relationship between nonhuman animal cognition and moral considerability and environmental studies, such as the environmental impact of food production. He is currently a visiting researcher at the Ethics in Society Project at Wesleyan University in Connecticut. In the fall, Robert joins the faculty here at California State University, Chico, as Assistant Professor of Philosophy and director of CAPE.