Environmental Writers, an outgrowth of the institute, is an occasional speaker series held in the John D. MacArthur Campus administration building auditorium, 5353 Parkside Drive, Jupiter. Open to the general public, the series is sponored by the Scripps Howard Foundation and organized by FAU's School of Communication and Multimedia Studies with assistance from the Florida Center for Environmental Studies. Season three of Environmental Writers was presented during the 2010-2011 academic year. Four authors of environment-themed nonfictions books were scheduled to talk about their work but one planned appearance, by author Peter Thompson, had to be canceled due to flight-grounding winter weather
2010-2011 Series
Wednesday Oct. 26, 2010, 7 p.m.
Craig Pittman -- Manatee Insanity
Once viewed as a cross between a living speed bump and a potential food source, the gentle Florida manatee is now the state's most famous endangered species. Despite multiple laws protecting them, manatees are still repeatedly maimed and killed by speeding boats. In fact, scientists tell them apart by the pattern of their scars. Why hasn't the Endangered Species Act been able to halt this? And how did a move to better protect them turn into a battle over the future of Florida? About the speaker: St. Petersburg Times reporter Craig Pittman has written extensively about Florida environmental issues. His latest book is Manatee Insanity: Inside the War Over Florida’s Most Famous Endangered Species. Coauthor of Paving Paradise: Florida's Vanishing Wetlands and the Failure of No Net Loss, he has earned numerous awards including the Waldo Proffitt Award for Distinguished Environmental Journalism in Florida and the Kevin Carmody Award for Outstanding Investigative Reporting, from the Society of Environmental Journalists.
Wednesday , Nov. 10, 2010
Janisse Ray -- Human Ecology and Stories of Place
How are we going to live on Earth? This is the riddle of the 21st century that we must solve to survive. In order to keep what we love, we must rethink the idea of a global economy, ``relocalize’’ ourselves, and redefine the meaning of prosperity. About the speaker: Writer, naturalist and activist Janisse Ray has written and spoken widely about community, sustainable economics and the environment. She is the author of three books of literary nonfiction, including Ecology of a Cracker Childhood, her memoir about growing up in a junkyard in the ruined pinewoods of the Southeast. ``The forests of the South find their Rachel Carson,’’ a New York Times critic wrote in a review about the book. Her other two books are Wild Card Quilt: Taking a Chance on Home, and Pinhook: Finding Wholeness in a Fragmented Land. A poet and family farmer, Ray is also a faculty member of Chatham University’s low-residency MFA program and a Woodrow Wilson Visiting Fellow.
Wednesday, Feb. 2, 2011 (Canceled)
Peter Thomson -- The Road to Baikal: An Environmental Journalist’s Trek to the World’s Great Lake
Russians revere Siberia’s Lake Baikal as their ``sacred sea,’’ the largest body of fresh water on earth. Celebrated through the ages for its mystical qualities, pure water and unique creatures, in recent decades the lake has suffered its share of environmental assaults. Drawn by its contradictions as well as its storied beauty, journalist Peter Thomson traveled from Boston to Baikal entirely by train and boat, and returned with unexpected hope, renewed faith in people, and a book. About the speaker: Peter Thomson is the environment editor of the daily BBC/PRI public radio show The World. A veteran environmental journalist, he is founding producer of National Public Radio’s Living on Earth. His book, ``Sacred Sea: a Journey to Lake Baikal,’’ is an engrossing chronicle of his round-the-world trek and the challenges facing this famed inland sea.
Wednesday, March 2, 2011 
Anthony Barnosky -- New Needs for Nature in the Age of Global Warming
The reality of global warming means that nature as we know it – the species we love, the ecosystems that sustain us, and the wild places that renew us – is under siege as never before. Global warming is impacting nature in previously unimagined and potentially lethal ways. As daunting a task as saving nature presents, it is well within our grasp if we act now to slow greenhouse gas emissions and implement new conservation philosophies and policies. About the speaker: A faculty member of the University of California at Berkeley, Anthony Barnosky is a biologist, paleoecologist and author. He studies how climate changes impact earth’s ecosystems, and the evolution and extinction of species. His recent book, Heartstroke: Nature in the Age of Global Warming, explores what global warming means for nature itself, for the wild places we love and for our future.