This spring, CLP’s popular science book club Black Holes, Beakers, and Books returns with three book selections about nature and climate change. What’s most exciting about the upcoming meetings is that employees of the Carnegie Museum of Natural History will be joining us with exhibit objects to supplement our first two discussions, and the author of our third book selection will be joining our discussion via telephone. Check out the selections and discussion dates below. Each meeting will be from 3:00 to 4:00pm in the Director’s Conference Room on the First Floor:
Sunday, March 21, 2010
Six Degrees: Our Future on a Hotter Planet
by Mark Lynas
What will happen to the earth and human civilization if the planet warms by one-to-six degrees Celsius? Mark Lynas tries to answer this question by looking at warming data past and present, concluding that, depending on the level of warming, the consequences range from the loss of mountain glaciers and coral reefs to the total destruction of life on the planet. An employee of the Carnegie Museum of Natural History will be joining us with objects from the Polar World exhibit to discuss the impact of climate change on arctic life!
Sunday, April 18, 2010
The World is Blue: How Our Fate and the Ocean’s Are One
by Sylvia A. Earle
Described by some as “a Silent Spring for our era,” The World is Blue is Sylvia Earle’s depiction of Earth’s oceans in crisis, as overfishing, pollution, and climate change drive species into extinction and throw off the delicate balance of the entire planet’s ecosystem. An employee of the Carnegie Museum of Natural History will be joining us with objects from the Whales/Tohora exhibit to supplement our discussion of Sylvia Earle’s book!
Sunday, May 16, 2010
Chasing Spring: An American Journey Through a Changing Season
by Bruce Stutz
Part science, part travelogue, Chasing Spring follows Bruce Stutz’s journey across America to “see spring in various phases.” What he discovers on his trip is both fascinating and disturbing: climate change is causing spring to arrive earlier, resulting in altered migration patterns for animals, glaciers that melt more quickly, and unbalanced relationships between plants and pollinators. Bruce Stutz will be joining our discuss via teleconference!
I hope to see you there!
–Wes
Eleventh Stack 