The University is hosting the Millennium Seminar series today at 2 p.m., a discussion and presentations on areas of increasing interest to the public, climate change and global warming.
The theme of this year’s series is “innovation, leadership and higher education.”
NASA’s Waleed Abdalati, director of its cyrospheric sciences branch at the Goddard Space Flight Center, will speak as a part of the series about global warming regarding the research NASA funded on the issue.
According to Mary Easley, first lady of North Carolina and executive in residence in the provost’s office, long-term data show there are significant changes in climate.
Easley, who coordinated the event, said climate change will occur in North Carolina 50 to 70 years from now, and the seminar will cover up-to-date research on the issue.
“Because I want the seminar to be timely and topical, I don’t book [the speakers] way ahead,” Easley said. “I look for people on the cusp of a hot issue, such as Abdalati. I’m catching him before he gets all over everywhere.”
Easley said the University is not paying for most of the speakers at the seminar.
“NASA pays for Abdalati to come because it is time well spent here,” she said.
Fred Semazzi, a marine, earth and atmospheric sciences professor, is one of the panelists at the seminar who will contribute to the discussion.
“The series provides students the opportunity to interact with world leaders in diverse backgrounds. The presentations are world issues from the speaker’s perspective,” he said. “We are trying to place local and national events in a global context.”
Easley said Semazzi will help localize the issue of global climate change on which Abdalati is an expert. She said paleontologists will also be available to discuss what is happening “on the ground.” She said the speakers will not hold back.
“When [speakers and politicians] come to this seminar, they seem to be very unguarded about their opinions and what needs to happen,” Easley said. “For some reason, the Millennium Seminar is always very unfiltered.”
According to Semazzi, the seminar’s goal is to engage and encourage students to “reach behind borders and think more globally about land and where we will all be in the future” with an emphasis on higher education.
“My focus is going to be to challenge of North Carolina in science education,” he said.
Semazzi said he will express the need for the state to invest in its institutions of higher education for the benefit of its citizens.
According to Easley, the organizers want student participation and don’t want the faculty or administration to “squeeze out the student aspect.”
Easley said global climate change is becoming a bigger issue for everyone, and legislation for it is getting more focused.
“Businesses are embracing technology, which pays off on the back end and gets the legislators’s attention,” she said. “We’re getting beyond the problem and moving onto practical solutions.”
In terms of the event’s history, Easley said in previous years, the Millennium Series hosted David Gergen to talk about presidential leadership and Linday Graham to talk about torture in Guantanamo Bay.
News Editor Josh Harrell and Science & Tech Editor Kelly Helder contributed to this story
