Climate Change and the Pursuit of Happiness - Kim Stanley Robinson

As a result of our technologys carbon burning, we face climate change that has potentially devastating consequences for all the generations to come. We have to change how we live, and fast.

Kim Stanley Robinson will discuss how we can do that and share recent findings in several different scientific disciplines to suggest how this necessary set of changes could be very good for us as individuals and as a world civilization.

Robinson, a science fiction writer, has published 14 novels and four story collections. His works have been translated into 23 languages and earned literary awards in four languages, including science fictions Hugo and Nebula Awards. He was named a Time Magazine Hero of the Environment in 2008. His latest novel sequence, Science In the Capital (Forty Signs of Rain, Fifty Degrees Below, and Sixty Days and Counting) describes a near future in which the federal government, and everyone else, tries to deal with abrupt climate change.

His presentation during the conference is dedicated to the memory of Dr. William Burling, former professor of English at Missouri State and noted author.

Public Affairs Conference - Missouri State University

Act Locally and Affect the Whole World - Chris Maser

Sustainable Actions for a Sustainable Future 2009 Public Affairs Conference Missouri State University

As a research scientist in natural history and ecology, Chris Maser has spent more than 25 years in forest, shrub steppe, sub-arctic, desert, coastal and agricultural settings. Trained primarily as a vertebrate zoologist, he served as a research mammalogist in Nubia, Egypt, with the Yale University Peabody Museum Prehistoric Expedition, as well as in Nepal, where he participated in a study of tick-borne diseases for the U.S. Naval Medical Research Unit #3 based in Cairo, Egypt. Today, he is an independent author, as well as an international lecturer and facilitator in resolving environmental conflicts, vision statements and sustainable community development. He also is an international consultant in forest ecology and sustainable forestry practices.

Chris Maser - Social-Environmental Sustainability

Avian Einsteins World Science Festival

How do we learn to speak? What is the connection between language and movement? Join a broad and distinguished panel on an exploration of how striking parallels between bird and human brains are providing sharp new insights into how we acquire language and the links between hearing and movement.

This event was moderated by Faith Salie and features author Jonathan Rosen; neurobiologist Erich Jarvis; scientist and noted bird researcher Irene Pepperberg; professor of comparative cognition at Cambridge University, Nicola Clayton; Head of the Laboratory of Animal Behavior at CUNY, Ofer Tchernichovski; and David Rothenberg, professor of philosophy and music at the New Jersey Institute of Technology."

Avian Einsteins" also features a special appearance by Snowball, the world famous dancing cockatoo, and owner, Irena Schulz.

2009 Festival Highlights

OUTFOXED : Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism

Outfoxed examines how media empires, led by Rupert Murdoch's Fox News, have been running a "race to the bottom" in television news. This film provides an in-depth look at Fox News and the dangers of ever-enlarging corporations taking control of the public's right to know. Read on »

The Paradox of Choice Why More Is Less

By Barry Schwartz

Book Description

Whether we're buying a pair of jeans, ordering a cup of coffee, selecting a long-distance carrier, applying to college, choosing a doctor, or setting up a 401(k), everyday decisions -- both big and small -- have become increasingly complex due to the overwhelming abundance of choice with which we are presented.

As Americans, we assume that more choice means better options and greater satisfaction. But beware of excessive choice: choice overload can make you question the decisions you make before you even make them, it can set you up for unrealistically high expectations, and it can make you blame yourself for any and all failures. In the long run, this can lead to decision-making paralysis, anxiety, and perpetual stress. And, in a culture that tells us that there is no excuse for falling short of perfection when your options are limitless, too much choice can lead to clinical depression.

In The Paradox of Choice, Barry Schwartz explains at what point choice -- the hallmark of individual freedom and self-determination that we so cherish -- becomes detrimental to our psychological and emotional well-being. In accessible, engaging, and anecdotal prose, Schwartz shows how the dramatic explosion in choice -- from the mundane to the profound challenges of balancing career, family, and individual needs -- has paradoxically become a problem instead of a solution. Schwartz also shows how our obsession with choice encourages us to seek that which makes us feel worse.

By synthesizing current research in the social sciences, Schwartz makes the counter intuitive case that eliminating choices can greatly reduce the stress, anxiety, and busyness of our lives. He offers eleven practical steps on how to limit choices to a manageable number, have the discipline to focus on those that are important and ignore the rest, and ultimately derive greater satisfaction from the choices you have to make.

The Paradox of Choice - Why More Is Less

UCSD Guestbook: Kim Stanley Robinson

Kim Stanley Robinson received both his B.A. and Ph.D. from UCSD. He is a highly acclaimed writer of science fiction and science fiction criticism; the recipient of numerous major literary awards; and the author of 14 books (novels, short stories, criticism), including his multiple prize-winning "Mars" trilogy.

National Geographic - Strange Days on Planet Earth

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Around the globe, scientists are racing to solve a series of mysteries. Unsettling transformations are sweeping across the planet, and clue by clue, investigators around the world are assembling a new picture of Earth, discovering ways that seemingly disparate events are connected. Crumbling houses in New Orleans are linked to voracious creatures from southern China. Vanishing forests in Yellowstone are linked to the disappearance of wolves. An asthma epidemic in the Caribbean is linked to dust storms in Africa. Scientists suspect we have entered a time of global change swifter than any human being has ever witnessed. Where are we headed? What can we do to alter this course of events? National Geographic's Strange Days on Planet Earth, premiering in Spring 2005 on PBS, explores these questions. Drawing upon research being generated by a new discipline, Earth System Science (ESS), the series aims to create an innovative type of environmental awareness. By revealing a cause and effect relationship between what we as humans do to the Earth and what that in turn does to our environment and ecosystems, the series creates a new sense of environmental urgency. Award-winning actor, writer and director Edward Norton (Primal Fear, American History X, Italian Job) hosts the series. A dedicated environmental activist, Norton has a special interest in providing solar energy to low income families. Each of the four one-hour episodes is constructed as a high-tech detective story, with the fate of the planet at stake.