2007 Spark Series Discusses Global Warming Tomorrow

Internationally acclaimed scientist Dr. Tim Flannery believes that human activity is altering the Earth's climate. His best-selling book, The Weather Makers, documents the substantial climate change and the likely ecological effects to the planet if this process continues.

Flannery’s other books include The Future Eaters and The Eternal Frontier, the definitive ecological histories of Australia and North America respectevly. As a field zoologist he has discovered and named more than thirty new species of mammals including two tree-kangaroos.

Formerly director of the South Australian Museum, Flannery is chairman of the South Australian Premier’s Science Council and Sustainability Roundtable; a director of the Australian Wildlife Conservancy; and the National Geographic Society’s representative in Australasia.

In April 2005 he was honored as Australian Humanist of the Year.

Journalist Elizabeth Kolbert worked with top scientists for her groundbreaking environmental series for The New Yorker. That work has been expanded for the book Field Notes from a Catastrophe, which delves into what can be done to negate the causes of global warming.

Kolbert’s series on global warming, “The Climate of Man,” appeared in The New Yorker in the spring of 2005, and won the American Association for the Advancement of Science’s magazine award, as well as the 2006 National Academy of Sciences Communication Award in the newspaper/magazine category.

She has written dozens of pieces including profiles of Senator Hillary Clinton, Mayor Michael Bloomberg, and Rudolph Giuliani. A collection of her work, The Prophet of Love and Other Tales of Power and Deceit, was published in 2004. Prior to joining the staff of The New Yorker in 1999, Kolbert was a political reporter for The New York Times. She is a graduate of Yale University.