March 31, 2022
Naomi Oreskes to present public talk 'Why Trust Science?' on April 6
The College of Arts and Sciences, Department of Geology and Office of the Provost have teamed up to bring Naomi Oreskes, an internationally renowned earth scientist, historian and author, to campus on April 6.
Oreskes will give the public talk "Why Trust Science?" from noon to 1:30 p.m. The presentation will be in the Bluemont Room of the K-State Student Union and simultaneously streamed on YouTube.
Oreskes is the Henry Charles Lea professor of the history of science and affiliated professor of earth and planetary sciences at Harvard University and a leading voice on the reality of anthropogenic climate change and the history of efforts to undermine climate action. Her 2004 essay “The Scientific Consensus on Climate Change” has been widely cited, including in the Royal Society’s publication “A Guide to Facts and Fictions about Climate Change" and in the Academy Award-winning film "An Inconvenient Truth."
Oreskes is the author of both scholarly and popular books and articles on the history of earth and environmental science. Her opinion pieces have been published in leading media outlets around the globe, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Times of London and the Frankfurter Allgemeine. In 2015 she wrote the introduction to the Melville House edition of the "Papal Encyclical on Climate Change and Inequality, Laudato Si."
Her 2010 book with Erik M. Conway, "Merchants of Doubt," has been translated into nine languages, sold over 100,000 copies and made into a documentary film. She is an elected fellow of the Geological Society of America, the American Geophysical Union, the American Academy for the Advancement of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Philosophical Society. In 2018 she became a Guggenheim fellow and in 2019 was awarded the British Academy Medal for “her commitment to documenting the role of corporations in distorting scientific findings for political ends.”
Her new book, with Erik Conway, "The Big Myth: How American Business Taught Us to Loathe Government and Love the Free Market" will be published by Bloomsbury Press this year.
After her talk, Oreskes will be available to meet with members of the campus community from 3-4:30 p.m. at the Mudge Room of Thompson Hall. Please email Karin Goldberg for further information.