Earth Week 2009 Keynote Speaker

Brian Tokar

Presentation: "From Climate Awareness to Climate Justice"

Date: Monday, April 20, 2009

Time: 7:00pm

Location: Lane University Center, Frostburg State University

Renewing Energy and Renewing Society - Three decades ago, a powerful grassroots antinuclear movement transformed debates about US energy policy and articulated a vision of a liberatory, solar-powered society. Today, after 30 years of political stagnation and reaction, concerns about our energy and climate future are again in the forefront of popular awareness. The time horizon for action is much shorter than before, but the need for fundamental changes in how we live is more urgent than ever. Social ecologist Brian Tokar will discuss the potential--and the necessity--for broadly democratic and participatory social changes at the heart of a meaningful solution to our energy and climate crises, in contrast to the many status-quo "false solutions" that often dominate our public discussions.

Brian Tokar Biography
Brian Tokar has been an activist, author and a leading critical voice for ecological activism since the 1970s, and is currently the Director of the Institute for Social Ecology, based in Vermont. He is the author of The Green Alternative (1987, revised 1992) and Earth for Sale (1997), and edited Redesigning Life?, an international collection on the politics and implications of biotechnology, (Zed Books, 2001), as well as Gene Traders: Biotechnology, World Trade and the globalization of Hunger (Toward Freedom, 2004). Brian has lectured throughout the U.S., as well as
internationally, and is acclaimed as a passionate advocate of grassroots action for ecological sanity and global justice. His articles on environmental issues and emerging ecological movements appear in Z Magazine, Earth Island Journal, and on web sites such as Counterpunch, Toward Freedom, ZNet, Truthout, and WW4Report. Brian holds concurrent degrees from MIT in biology and physics, and a Masters degree in biophysics from Harvard University.