History Weekend Asks: Climate Science — Whom Do You Trust?

Join us for NC State’s History Weekend, when Harvard professor Naomi Oreskes will address the history of climate change, as well as climate skepticism in her keynote address, Climate Science: Whom Do You Trust? A Historian’s Perspective.

“NC State’s Department of History plays a critical role in the discussion of climate change,” says David Zonderman, interim head of the Department of History. “We need to understand our past — including analyzing the historical context of these debates over science and public policy — in order to make good decisions for our future.”

Zonderman says Oreskes is “a leading authority on how the study of history can help us understand what is at stake — politically and economically — in the public debate over climate science and climate change.”

Her interests include earth and environmental sciences, with a focus on understanding scientific consensus and dissent. Her most recent works include The Collapse of Western Civilization: A View from the Future (2014) and Merchants of Doubt, How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco to Global Warming (2010), both co-authored with Erik M. Conway.

Oreskes will speak on Saturday, April 18, at 10 a.m. at Withers Hall, on NC State’s north campus. The three-day weekend of events related to Oreskes’ presentation begins with an April 16 showing of the film Disruption, a documentary on climate change. (Withers Hall 140, 7:00 p.m.)

History Weekend events are free and open to the public, but registration is recommended to reserve space.

Oreskes’ visit and the film are co-sponsored by the NC State Department of History, the Southeast Climate Science Center and the NC State Department of Marine, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences.