Chapman University to screen “The Island President” documentary addressing climate change and rising sea levels

ORANGE, Calif. – Chapman University joins more than 85 colleges and community organizations across the country that have lined up to join the Bard Center for Environmental Policy and C2C Fellows Network in leading a national conversation on democracy and climate change with a screening of “The Island President”—the 2011 documentary that chronicles Maldives President Mohamed Nasheed’s efforts to confront climate change and rising sea levels, which threaten to submerge the 1,200 islands that make up the low-lying nation.

The film will be screened on Wednesday, April 17, at 4 p.m. PDT in Beckman Hall Room 401, on Chapman’s campus. It will be followed at 6 p.m. by a web discussion with the film’s director, Jon Shenk; Thilmeeza Hussain, former United Nations deputy permanent representative to the Maldives; May Boeve, 350.org executive director and cofounder; and Eban Goodstein, director of Bard CEP and the Bard MBA in Sustainability. The event is free and open to the public .

“This movie really brings home to our students the human faces and story behind the science we teach them about global warming and climate change,” said Catherine Clark, Ph.D., associate dean, School of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Chapman University. “While climate models predict that California will see changes in temperature, weather and precipitation patterns over the next few decades, which will bring us challenges related to water supply, crops, and development; humans are resourceful and we will find ways to manage these. However, these low lying island nations featured in the film will be completely flooded after a relatively low sea level rise occurs and so they face enormous overwhelming challenges in migration and relocation issues and the potential loss of their nation and culture,” Clark continued.

Stressing the urgency of action on climate change, the screening and discussion marks C2C Fellows’ inaugural National Day of Action, an event that Fellows are organizing in hundreds of locations nationwide as an opportunity to get leadership experience in their communities and on their campuses. Based at the Bard Center for Environmental Policy, C2C Fellows is a national network of undergraduate college students and recent graduates aspiring to sustainability leadership in politics and business. C2C stands for Campus to Congress, to Capitol, to City Hall, and also for Campus to Corporation.

For more information on this event visit http://blogs.bard.edu/theislandpresident. Seating is limited, R.S.V.P. to Brad Agrums at agrums@chapman.edu.

Consistently ranked among the top universities in the West, Chapman University provides a uniquely personalized and interdisciplinary educational experience to highly qualified students. Our programs encourage innovation, creativity and collaboration, and focus on developing global citizen-leaders who are distinctively prepared to improve their community and their world.
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