Navigating the Northwest Passage & Activating Political Will

Monday, April 27th
Reception 5:30 pm
Program 6:30 pm
UMN St. Paul Student Center Theater

Find this event on Facebook here.

Featuring
David Thoreson: Arctic Explorer and Northwest Passage Sailor and author of One Island, One Ocean
Joseph Robertson: Global Strategy Director for Citizens' Climate Lobby and author of Building a Green Economy

Justin Halverson: musician

David Thoreson and Joseph Robertson share the pursuit of new ways of interacting with the world through exploration. Both are deeply involved in the world's climate future. On Monday, April 27th, Robertson and Thoreson will come together to portray the problem of Arctic ice loss and to postulate a solution that puts a ramping price on atmospheric carbon emissions.

Thoreson is a professional photographer and explorer from Lake Okoboji, Iowa -- an adventurer for much of his life. His striking work has appeared in a broad spectrum of media, from PBS and the Smithsonian, to a recent TED Talk, to the publication of the photo book, One Island, One Ocean, about his recent expedition around the Americas. Thoreson has braved the elements in several attempts to travel the Northwest Passage by sailboat -- some successful and some not. He has become the only American to have ever sailed it in both directions. His Northwest Passage story convincingly demonstrates the disappearance of Arctic ice and the impacts of that disappearance on living conditions all over the world. Thoreson reports, "Climate change was just a theory that was tossed about by scientists. I had now met this theory face to face. It was real.” Included in his talk will be his findings about the Arctic ice cap from the scientifically equipped sailboat Ocean Watch, on which he later served as ice expert and documentary photographer.

Robertson is on a campaign to persuade peoples far and wide to curb their climate-upsetting greenhouse-gas emissions by actively reducing their fossil-fuel consumption, boosting their economies in the process. He is Global Strategy Director for Citizens’ Climate Lobby (CCL), an international organization whose mission is to create the political will for a livable world. His efforts for the climate take him on frequent journeys to the far corners of the globe, where he develops new groups and leads CCL's engagements with the United Nations, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and other multilateral institutions. Robertson is the author of the book Building a Green Economy: On the Economics of Carbon Pricing & the Transition to Clean, Renewable Fuels. He is also founder of Geoversiv Envisioning, a social-benefit endeavor that aims to discover and deploy the ingredients of a clean future of global abundance. In his talk he will describe CCL’s carbon fee-and-dividend proposal and its economic and climate benefits.

Halverson is a musician, organizer, and poet studying Music at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities. He believes art and nature's wisdom are an intersection of assets that can solve the intertwined challenges of poverty, climate change, and war.

Please join us as Thoreson and Robertson probe the expanse of the climate issue and the promise of the carbon fee as its solution.

A free will donation will be accepted at the event to cover costs.
more info: www.citizensclimatelobby-mn.org