MALIBU—From Wednesday, April 12 to Friday, April 14, Pepperdine University and the Malibu Public Library Speaker Series will host the fourth annual Climate Calling Conference at the Pepperdine campus.
“Climate Calling: Student and Community Responses to Climate Change” is a three-day conference that explores climate change and its effects on the planet. Pepperdine faculty members will lead the conference. According to the Pepperdine University website, lectures, documentaries, and presentations will guide attendees through topics such as species extinction, drought, sustainable food practices, and environmental activism. Participants are encouraged to address the issue of climate change and consider ways to develop a more sustainable future.
On Wednesday, April 12, at 7 p.m., National Geographic Society explorer-in-residence Sylvia A. Earle will deliver the keynote address at Elkins Auditorium. Earle, an oceanographer, explorer, author, and lecturer, has been referred to as “Her Deepness” by the New Yorker and the New York Times, “Living Legend” by the Library of Congress, and the first “Hero of the Planet” by Time magazine. She holds a B.S. degree from Florida State University, and an M.S. and Ph.D from Duke University.
Earle was the first female chief scientist of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA) and the founder of Deep Ocean Exploration and Research, Inc. and Mission Blue and SEAlliance. She is also the chair of the Advisory Councils of the Harte Research Institute and the Ocean in Google Earth, and leader of the National Geographic Society Sustainable Sea Expeditions. Her work focuses on developing “a global network of areas on land and in the ocean to safeguard the living systems that provide the underpinnings of global processes,” according to the National Geographic website.
The seventh annual Earth Day Fair will also be held on Wednesday, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Mullin Towne Square. Local vendors will provide free food. Guests can compete for prizes, see farm animals, and learn more about how the university and local organizations are developing their environmental causes.
The Climate Calling Media Festival will be held on Thursday, April 13, at Elkins Auditorium. The multimedia festival will give students the opportunity to share their experiences of climate change. They will be encouraged to share their accounts of climate change in their everyday lives, events that inspired them to care about the world, and how their faith has spurred them to act. Students and Pepperdine alum are welcome to submit short films of 1-2 minutes, speeches, photo exhibitions, or other creations.
On Friday, April 14 at 2 p.m., student presentations will be given at Juarez Courtyard and Weisman Museum. Students will discuss their research topics pertaining to climate change at an academic poster session.
The Climate Calling Conference is presented with Pepperdine University’s Center for Sustainability and the Institute for Entertainment, Media, and Culture. The events are free to attend. For more information, visit www.pepperdine.edu/climate-calling/.
