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CBH Talk | Confronting Climate Change
Confronting Climate Change is a three-part series that explores one of the most urgent issues of our times. Join leading thinkers, scientists, journalists, and advocates for these vitally important conversations.
Part One of Confronting Climate Change examines the rise and persistence of climate denial, asking how doubt about the well-established scientific consensus has been deliberately cultivated, and to what effect. This conversation explores the networks of influence behind denial, from fossil fuel industry funding to media ecosystems that amplify skepticism, as well as the social and political forces that have entrenched resistance to climate policy in public life.
The conversation features environmental writer and activist Bill McKibben, whose decades of work have helped define how we understand the climate crisis and the opposition to addressing it. He is joined by Ricky Bradley, Executive Director of Citizens’ Climate Lobby, who brings a strategist’s perspective on how beliefs are formed, how misinformation spreads, and what it takes to build political will for climate action across ideological divides.
The program is moderated by Rebecca Hersher, correspondent on NPR’s Climate Desk, whose reporting on climate science, extreme weather, and human adaptation offers a clear-eyed view of how these debates play out in real time. Together, they unpack how denial has been organized and sustained, and consider what it will take to move beyond it.
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Wednesday, May 13, 6:30-8:30 PM ~ Part Two: The Science—Understanding a Changing Planet
Part Two of Confronting Climate Change turns to science, bringing together leading voices to illuminate the realities of global warming and its far-reaching effects on ecosystems and human lives. What do we know with certainty? What are scientists still working to understand? And how are these changes already reshaping the world around us?
Pulitzer Prize–winning author and The New Yorker staff writer Elizabeth Kolbert joins the conversation, drawing on decades of reporting and writing that has translated complex environmental science into urgent, compelling narratives including her most recent work Life on a Little-Known Planet. She is joined by climate scientist Dr. Gavin Schmidt, whose extensive research and leadership across major scientific institutions, including NASA and NOAA, offer a deeply informed perspective on how we study past, present, and future climate change, and how that knowledge is communicated to the public.
The program is moderated by Rebecca Hersher of NPR’s Climate Desk, whose award-winning reporting connects scientific research to the lived realities of extreme weather and a warming world. Together, they explore what the science tells us now and what it demands of us moving forward.
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Monday, June 8, 6:30-8:30 PM ~ Part Three: Solutions—From Innovation to Action
Part Three of Confronting Climate Change looks ahead, focusing on solutions and the collective work needed to build a more sustainable future. What tools do we already have to address the climate crisis? What innovations are emerging? And what will it take not just to imagine change, but to implement it at scale?
This conversation brings together experts working across law, planning, and climate adaptation to examine a wide range of responses, from renewable energy and resource efficiency to rethinking how and where we build. Michael Burger, Executive Director of the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia Law School, offers insight into the legal strategies and policy frameworks shaping climate action in the U.S. and globally. Jesse M. Keenan, a leading scholar of climate adaptation and urbanism, explores how cities, infrastructure, and real estate must evolve in the face of rising climate risks. Nadia Seeteram, an adaptation scientist and Director of Buyouts for New York State, brings a ground-level perspective on resilience, focusing on housing, migration, and the difficult but necessary decisions communities face in a changing environment.
Moderated by Rebecca Hersher of NPR’s Climate Desk, this conversation is not only about what can be done, but about the details of how to address climate change in fair and durable ways, and the roles individuals, communities, and institutions can play in driving change. Join us to consider the pathways forward, the trade-offs ahead, and how we might move from urgency to action.