Past Event

Café Society: Who Cares About Social Justice...If We'll All Be Dead Because of Global Warming?!

SPECIAL NOTE – NO INTELLIGENSTIA CAFE SOCIETY MEETING JULY 4th. Please join us at one of our other sites this week.

The Public Square at the Illinois Humanities Council is committed to a social justice mission. However, if environmentalists are right, many of the issues we seek to address today — extreme poverty, pre-emptive wars, violence against women, racism, etc–are are trumped by the global climate change. If it is not addressed, all life on the planet will be devastated regardless of location, class, race, or gender.

The widely reviewed film, An Inconvenient Truth, informs us about the growing consensus among scientists that the Earth is hotter today than in any period over the last four centuries and probably over the last 1,000 years. Al Gore would like us to think that addressing climate change is a moral issue.

However, this message is derided by some as a campaign of fear, spreading an unnecessarily alarmist, doomsday message. If are in such a state of deep crisis, why are politicians and the public so slow to react? To what degree do we have control over the Earth’s atmosphere?

The fight against global warming is often portrayed as a trade-off between emissions reduction and economic progress. As Washington has refused to act, many states have taken matters into their own hands. For example, California has mandated higher fuel-efficiency standards for cars sold within the state. Yet this mandatehas been challenged by the auto industry and the Supreme Court has recently agreed to hear the case.

Join us this week at Café Society to share your thoughts on the myths and realities of global warming.

Suggested Readings:


If you are interested in seeing An Inconvenient Truth over the holiday, visit the Chicago Reader’s Movie Listings.

For more informaiton, please contact Kristin Millikan at 312.422.5580.