Colgate University was fortunate enough to host the internationally acclaimed author and Australian Man of the Year, Tim Flannery.
After reading Flannery's The Weather Makers as part of my first-year reading requirement, I was grateful for the opportunity to meet with him to discuss the currently escalating issue of global warming, which he writes about in his book.
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Tim Flannery meets with students and faculty members at an informal luncheon held Monday, Oct. 22, at the Hall of Presidents. (Photo by Timothy D. Sofranko)
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At a recent luncheon on campus, Flannery talked with first-years about his intended goal when constructing The Weather Makers: to turn scientific information into a story that the public could understand and further portray a sense of optimism in order to encourage people to modify their action in hopes of preventing further climate change.
Before he started writing the book, he told us that he spent four years researching global warming and he read 10 years worth of back-issues of magazines related to the topic.
Flannery's opinion is that "humanity is inherently good, but we need education and motivation or else people will tend to have a sense of convenient hopelessness."
He stressed to us the urgency of starting to fight global warming now, as the Arctic ice cap could be gone in 20 years and 60 percent of the Great Barrier Reef was destroyed by 2002. He also explained the general lifestyle changes that students and others can make to help.
Posing as a good model for society, Flannery's house is powered by solar panels and he drives a hybrid car.
Hopefully, we'll soon see changes taken in every country to help prevent the devastating causes of humanity's excessive carbon emission into the atmosphere. And, if we do, we owe a great deal of credit to Flannery for his dedication to educate the world on this important issue.