Oct. 20, 2015

Contact Rick Kyte at 608-796-3704 or rlkyte@viterbo.edu

ENVIRONMENTAL EXPERT JACK WILLIAMS TO PRESENT “UNDERSTANDING CLIMATE CHANGE” AT VITERBO UNIVERSITY NOV. 5

LA CROSSE, Wis. – John (Jack) Williams, director of the Nelson Institute Center for Climatic Research and Bryson Professor of Climate, People, and Environment at the University of Wisconsin, will present “Understanding Climate Change” at 7 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 5 in the Viterbo University Fine Arts Center Main Theatre.

Williams’ research focuses on the responses of plant species and communities to past and future climate change, with an emphasis on the communities and climates of the last deglaciation as a model system for understanding 21st century climate change.

Richard Kyte, director of the D.B. Reinhart Institute for Ethics in Leadership at Viterbo noted that climate change is a controversial topic that needs to be discussed publicly. “Climate is both complex and important,” he said. “If we are to come to agreement on what to do about it, we have to first understand it. Ignoring the science is not an option. After all, Pope Francis, in his recent encyclical, observed that ‘the climate is a common good, belonging to all and meant for all.’”

Williams has received numerous awards for his work, including the Cooper Award from the Ecological Society of America, the Phil Certain Distinguished Faculty Award from the University of Wisconsin, and an Aldo Leopold Leadership Fellowship from the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment.

This presentation is part of the D.B. Reinhart Institute for Ethics in Leadership’s fall lecture series. No tickets are necessary, but seating is limited. For a full schedule of D.B. Reinhart Institute for Ethics in Leadership events, visit www.viterbo.edu/ethics.

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