ISSUED: 10 November 2015
MEDIA CONTACT: Valerie Owens
SHEPHERDSTOWN, WV — Shepherd University’s Department of Political Science is sponsoring a teach-in titled “Climate Change and Food Security” on Wednesday, November 18, from 6-7:30 p.m. at the Robert C. Byrd Center for Legislative Studies Auditorium.
Dr. Joe Robbins, associate professor of political science, will moderate the discussion. Dr. Richard Anson, co-founder and co-director of Ezekiel’s Place Retreat Center near Hedgesville, will discuss the economics of international development and food security; Franklin Moore, retired deputy assistant administrator for the U.S. Agency for International Development’s Africa bureau, will talk about the linkage between climate change, agriculture, and food security; Dr. Jacob Stump, assistant professor of political science, will address the history of environmental fears, the relationship between war and scarcity, and the most vulnerable populations relative to climate change and food scarcity; and Therese Zarlengo, adjunct instructor for the Institute of Environmental and Physical Sciences at Shepherd and a retired meteorologist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Weather Service, will talk about how scientists determined that the climate is warming due to human impacts, why what is happening is not just due to natural variability, the impacts of global warming, and what can be done to reduce human-induced impacts.
The teach-in is free and open to the public. For more information, contact Dr. Stephanie Slocum-Schaffer, associate professor of political science and chair of the Department of Political Science, at sslocums@shepherd.edu.