EAST LANSING, Mich. (WLNS) — A campus speech at Michigan State University Thursday will address climate change and threats to democracy.
David Orr, a 1966 MSU alumnus and current professor of practice at Arizona State University, who has written several books about climate change, is speaking on-campus Thursday and will discuss how the two issues are interconnected.
He will speak at 7 p.m. in Room 158 of the Natural Resources Building at MSU, at 480 Wilson Road in East Lansing. The event is free.
“Orr’s book, titled ‘Democracy in a Hotter Time,’ is the first to deal with the dual crises of democracy and climate change as one interrelated threat,” representatives of the Lansing Area Peace Education Center said in a news release Thursday.
The book calls for the reform of democratic institutions “as a prerequisite for avoiding climate change-related chaos,” and for adapting governance based on how Earth “works as a physical system.”
It touches on everything from Constitutional reform to participatory urban design, to education.
The event is in celebration of World Democracy Day, Sept. 15. It’s a part of PeaceQuest, a month-long recognition of the UN International Day of Peace on Sept. 21.
