Elizabeth Kolbert, author of the new book "Field Notes From a Catastrophe," spoke to undergraduates, faculty and community members in a packed Filene Auditorium on Tuesday evening. Brought in as part of the George Links Jr. Environmental Awareness Lecture series, Kolbert criticized the Bush administration, explained the difficulty the media has in discussing global warming and used statistics and case studies to illustrate the radical effects of global warming.
The lecture took issue with the argument that, although global warming is actually occurring, there is no causal association between global warming and increased greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide.
"This argument ignores more than 100 years of science," said Kolbert, who started her speech with a chronological history of the discovery and study of greenhouse gases and global warming. "This argument is championed by the Bush administration," she added.
Kolbert expressed cynicism toward the motives of those who doubt that greenhouse gases cause global warming.
"Any scientist, journalist or president that tells you he or she is skeptical of the relationship...hasn't bothered to see the evidence or is on the payroll of an oil company," she said.
In the lecture, the author also reproached the government for focusing on addressing the symptoms of global warming instead of its actual source and for promoting the belief that the current climate trends are part of a natural cycle.
"[These arguments] mix propositions that are true with propositions that are not true but sound true," she said.
Kolbert, who used to write for The New York Times and currently works as a reporter for the New Yorker, also spoke on the changes in the media's representation of global warming, comparing a recent headline from Time magazine that warned of the impending climate disaster to past coverage that questioned the existence of the global warming altogether.
"I won't say much about journalistic mechanisms, except to say that I think that global warming is a very difficult issue for journalists and journalism to deal with," she said. "Global warming is not a news event and it is not a controversy."
Kolbert emphasized that current trends in global temperatures show recent years to be the warmest since the 1890s and relayed stories and displayed pictures of the tangible effects of global warming. She also pointed to an example in Shishmaref, Alaska, in which the late arrival of protective sea ice led to fall storms that affected the town.
"If we go on business as usual, by the end of the century, we end up with [carbon dioxide] levels that are not double but triple pre-industrial levels," Kolbert said. "2005 broke just about every hurricane record."
Kolbert wound down her lecture with a request for action.
"With knowledge comes great responsibilities. It's these responsibilities that we have been running away from," she said.
