Raising Public Awareness on Climate Change

As global warming continues to intensify, ecologically sensitive urban places are particularly prone to its consequences. Focusing 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, the speakers, a student/professor team 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. They will screen a short, animated video, What Would it Take to Make Galapagos Tourist Resilient? and explain the underlying research. Discussants will assess team’s communications approach evaluating its intended reach and impact.

Co-sponsored by the Penn Institute for Urban Research and the Perry World House, the speakers are: 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. Discussants include 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.