YSU hosts speaker series on environment, energy topics

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

Youngstown State University once again will host a series of lectures on several environmental-science-related topics for the fall semester.

The “Speaker Series on Energy and the Environment” will feature lectures that are free and open to the public at 7 p.m. Wednesdays in Cushwa Hall, Room B100, from Wednesday through Nov. 18.

“We have, not one but two, famous professors from Pennsylvania State University speaking this semester: Drs. Terry Engelder and Michael Mann,” said Ray Beiersdorfer, YSU professor of geological and environmental sciences, in a statement. “Terry will be speaking in person, so people can meet him and shake his hand. Nobel prize winner Michael Mann will be speaking via Skype.”

The series emphasizes scientific, public health and policy research surrounding climate change, shale gas development and renewable energy. Though there will be three live lectures, the rest will take place through video conferencing.

Although YSU will be closed Nov. 11 for Veterans Day, Thomas Linzey, executive director of the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund, will speak in person Nov. 12 about the community-rights movement.

“This will be an exciting lecture,” Beiersdorfer said. “The whole community rights versus corporate rights issue is a hot topic in Ohio and nationwide.”

Other speakers are from the Concerned Health Professionals of New York, Earthworks, Group Against Smog and Pollution, Physicians Scientists and Engineers for Healthy Energy and the Post Carbon Institute.