Hutington Library, San Marino, CA, 91108
San Marino, California

Presented by Zócalo and The Huntington-USC Institute on California and the West
Moderated by Paul Wennberg,
Director, Linde Center for Global Environmental Science at the California Institute of Technology

The landscape that defines Los Angeles also threatens it. For decades, the mountains and hills that encircle the city have trapped pollution in its basins and valleys, leaving low-hanging brown clouds. Teeming with cars, home to the nation’s largest port complex and the world’s seventh largest airport, and trailing behind other cities in annual rainfall, Los Angeles has always been uniquely vulnerable to pollution, and uniquely poised to fight it. Fifty years ago, Angelenos rallied against air pollution, and the city ambitiously began to reduce it. Today, pollution levels are lower than they have been in more than 75 years, but challenges remain as the world begins to confront the specter of climate change. Though Los Angeles has launched an aggressive effort to address global warming, how will the city survive a future of droughts and rising oceans? Zócalo hosts a panel of experts — including CalTech Professor of Environmental Science Tapio Schneider, UCLA Associate Professor of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences Alex Hall, and Pulitzer Prize winning environmental writer Usha McFarling — to discuss the challenges Los Angeles faces as temperatures rise, what we can do to address global warming now, and to ask, if Los Angeles and the world continue on their current path, how the city might survive a hotter future.

This event is made possible by a generous grant from the John Randolph Haynes and Dora Haynes Foundation of Los Angeles.

Zócalo Public Square is a non-profit organization that builds community by broadening access to civic discourse. Zócalo presents lectures, panels, screenings, and conferences, and publishes original reviews, interviews, and other online features to spur conversation on and action around the most important and compelling ideas of our time. All Zócalo events are presented in open, welcoming, non-partisan, and multi-ethnic spaces. Our online work strives to strike the same broad, generous and balanced tone as our live events.

Added by zocalo_events on October 6, 2009

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