Source: Shireen Roshanravan, 785-532-5738, sroshanr@k-state.edu
News release prepared by: Nellie Ryan, 785-532-6415, media@k-state.edu

Tuesday, Oct. 6, 2009

K-STATE'S WOMEN'S STUDIES PROGRAM TO OFFER PRESENTATION ON CLIMATE CHANGE BY ENVIRONMENTAL EXPERT VANDANA SHIVA

MANHATTAN -- Vandana Shiva, a noted environmental leader, will give the presentation "Soil Not Oil: Food Security in Times of Climate Change" at 7 p.m. Friday, Oct. 16, in McCain Auditorium at Kansas State University.

Shiva's speech, which is free and open to the public, is being offered by the K-State women's studies program. She will address the global economic conditions that force residents of marginal and poor communities to abandon their biodiverse economies and how they are paying the highest price for climate change and chaos: erratic rainfall, more intense droughts, floods and hurricanes, and extreme heat and cold waves.

A native of India, Shiva is a trained physicist, ecofeminist and founding member of Navdanya, which means "nine seeds." It is a participatory research initiative on global environmental justice based in New Delhi, India. After the Orissa super cyclone in 1998 and the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, Navdanya distributed seeds of saline-resistant rice varieties as "seeds of hope" to rejuvenate agriculture in lands rendered saline by the sea. With Shiva's leadership, Navdanya has created seed banks of drought-resistant, flood-resistant and saline-resistant seed varieties to respond to climate extremities.

Much of Shiva's research focuses on how biodiversity and ecological agriculture are necessary to both reduce carbon dioxide emissions and provide resilience to climate chaos. She documents how industrial agriculture, with its chemical intensive and fossil fuel intensive inputs, is responsible for large contributions of greenhouse gases. She has received the Right Livelihood Award, called the alternative Pulitzer Prize, in 1993. She is often a featured speaker on National Public Radio's "All Things Considered" and "Democracy Now!" She also has appeared on PBS' "NOW with Bill Moyers" and has authored many articles and books on environmental justice, ending violence against women and fighting world poverty.

Shiva's presentation is sponsored by K-State's women's studies program, Division of Biology, the College of Education's Diversity for Community Committee, office of international programs, department of political science, department of philosophy, natural resources and environmental studies program, Hale Library's Dow Multicultural Resource Center, Ordinary Women, Diversity Programming Council, Lou Douglas Lecture Series, Consortium for Environmental Sustainability and Stewardship, Campaign for Nonviolence, Students for Environmental Action, Indian Student Association and International Activities Council, as well as the Manhattan Alliance for Peace and Justice, Carol Barta and Manhattan Friends and Evil Twin Booking Agency.

For more information, contact Angela Hubler at ahubler@k-state.edu or Shireen Roshanravan at sroshanr@k-state.edu.