March 15, 2022 Town Hall Seattle

Reception at 6 pm with presentation at 7 pm

We are happy to once again have an in-person event in Seattle at Town Hall Seattle, but glad the presentation will also be available on YouTube for live streaming and later viewing on our YouTube channel. The evening will begin with an in-person reception starting at 6 pm and we look forward to sharing light fare, beverages and conversation with old and new friends. The in-person and virtual presentation starting at 7 pm will include an overview of George Divoky’s half-century on Cooper Island documenting a melting Arctic and his experiences informing the public, government, and media of the magnitude and immediacy of climate change in the region. He will be joined by science educator Katie Morrison and expeditionary artist Maria Coryell-Martin, who visited Cooper Island in 2019, and will discuss and share the lesson plans and art they have created to inform students and the public about Arctic change.

There is an increasing awareness of current and anticipated devastation from the impacts of global warming and climate change and the need for governmental programs to address the threat. The current Netflix blockbuster Don’t Look Up uses the analogy of an approaching comet to parody the institutional and cultural inertia of government, media, and the public in addressing an existential threat. No analogy is needed for Divoky, who has studied a colony of an ice-dependent seabird, the Mandt’s Black Guillemot, in Arctic Alaska for 47 years. Loss of Arctic sea ice has led to a 90% reduction in colony size since the 1980s and its likely disappearance by mid-century.