Le Moyne College Calendar

Andrew Hoffman, Ph.D., explores how scientists have documented the processes and impacts by which human activity is changing the climate. In spite of the wealth of documented evidence, surveys show that the Americans are still divided on this issue. In the past election, climate change was a wedge issue on a par with abortion. Why is this so? Why do such large numbers of Americans reject the consensus of the scientific community? To answer this question, he examines ideological preferences, personal experience, and values – all of which are heavily influenced by referent groups and their individual psychology. Dr. Hoffman is the Holcim Professor of Sustainable Enterprise at the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business and School of Environment and Sustainability. He is the author of the book How Culture Shapes the Climate Change Debate.

About the Initiative

The McDevitt Center’s initiative devoted to Sustaining Earth is motivated by our sense of the urgency of the growing threats to our environment and by our conviction that a full understanding of these threats and effective responses to them must draw upon both scientific and broadly religious insights and perspectives. Through the public events in this initiative, we aim to provide a wide audience of students, faculty and members of the regional community with accurate and up-to-date information about the threats, their causes and measures to meet these threats. We also seek to ground and frame these issues within the context of broadly religious perspectives on our human relation to the environment and our ethical obligations to care for it – all with the intention of helping to foster informed and concerted action to sustain the earth.

This event is free and open to the public. It is sponsored by the McDevitt Center. For more information, contact the McDevitt Cetner at [email protected] or (315) 445-6200.