Panel Discussion: Raising Public Awareness on Climate Change: Spotlight on Ecologically Sensitive Urban Places with Kelly Kennedy, Joshua Mosley, and Simon Richter moderated by Genie Birch

Raising Public Awareness on Climate Change: Spotlight on Ecologically Sensitive Urban Places
Panel Discussion with Kelly Kennedy, Joshua Mosley, and Simon Richter moderated by Genie Birch
September 21, 2023 at the World Forum, Perry World House

As global warming continues to intensify, ecologically sensitive urban places are particularly prone to its consequences. This panel will focus on the world-renowned Galapagos Islands, a place experiencing meteoric growth in land- and sea-based tourism (up from 18,000 in 1980 to 271,000 in 2019) as an example. Speakers engaged in Penn IUR’s Galapagos Goes Green Project, will underscore their efforts to increase public awareness about the conflict between local desires to maximize visitors and resulting induced negative effects (e.g., uncontrolled urban growth, increased use of fossil fuels, ongoing threat to biodiversity) as a means to guide public and private decision-making about many dimensions of  the islands’ economy. A short, animated video, What Would it Take to Make Galapagos Tourist Resilient?, will be shown and explain the underlying research. 

In this panel discussion sponsored by the Penn Institute for Urban Research and the Perry World House, academics, researchers, and artists will come together to discuss interdisciplinary methods on raising public awareness on climate change. Speakers will include: Simon Richter, Class of 1942 Endowed Term Professor of Germanic Studies, School of Arts & Sciences and Joshua Mosley, Professor of Fine Arts, Weitzman School of Design, and Kelly Kennedy, Research Coordinator and Lab Manager of the Galápagos Education and Research Alliance. Eugenie L. Birch, Co-Director, Penn Institute for Urban Research will moderate the session.

More information and register here