Nadelhoffer at U Teach-In and Earth Day Anniversaries
The University of Michigan recently marked two historical milestones with campus-wide environmental events. UMBS Director Knute Nadelhoffer represented the Station at both.
In 1965, U-M faculty organized the nation’s first “teach-in,” to discuss the blossoming Vietnam War. Fifty years later, faculty, staff and students observed the anniversary with a new teach-in, Friday and Saturday March 27 and 28, 2015. This time the theme was “Teach-In +50: End the War against the Planet.”
Nadelhoffer was part of a Friday night panel on The Science and Politics of Climate Change. Fellow Ecology and Evolutionary Biology faculty member and event co-organizer John Vandermeer was on the same panel along with School of Natural Resources and Environment Professor Ivette Perfecto, History Professor Juan Cole and, via live feed, environmental activist and writer Bill McKibben. Nadelhoffer spoke about “Planning for Climate Change: Evidence-based Decision Making in a Belief-based World.”
A week later, Nadelhoffer spoke on the Diag as part of Central Student Government’s Earth Day celebration. The April 3 event marked Earth Day’s 45th anniversary. The Student Sustainability Initiative, event co-organizers, invited Nadelhoffer as recognition for his campus leadership on sustainability. His remarks addressed the differences between the problems that inspired the first earth day – tangible things like pollution and population – and those we face today. “Back then, we had no idea about [the impact of burning] fossil fuels.”
Related links
Video recording of Nadelhoffer’s presentation at Teach-In +50
Nadelhoffer’s Teach-In +50 presentation slides
UMich Heritage web story of the university’s key role in the first Earth Day
