Calling global warming the ""most urgent challenge of our lifetime"" and advising students to make immediate lifestyle changes, environmental activist and ""An Inconvenient Truth"" producer Laurie David spoke at the Memorial Union Theatre Wednesday night as the first Distinguished Lecture Series speaker of the year.
David, wife of comedian and ""Seinfeld""-producer Larry David, began the lecture by confirming her husband is ""as nutty as he is on TV,"" but quickly changed directions and informed the audience they had 10 years to change their habits before global warming effects become irreversible.
""All the solutions to this problem already exist,"" David said. ""The only thing missing is the will of all of us to face it and make solving it an American priority. We have to have a serious and immediate shift in attitude.""
UW-Madison senior Emily Glimert, who has listened to DLS speakers throughout her college career, said she attended because she ""wanted to learn more about global warming and how it's going to affect the world.""
Despite David's initially grave tone, she expressed hope in the changing attitude of businesses, the action being taken by local governments and the movement of the issue into the realm of nonpartisanship.
David provided students with suggestions for small changes, including using energy-saving light bulbs, buying recycled toilet paper and paper towels, and unplugging appliances when not using them. She criticized the Bush administration for its inaction but also said it was up to individual citizens to make changes themselves.
""The government doesn't change until people demand it,"" David said. ""People build movements, and movements move mountains, and this mountain must be moved.""
""Which college campus will be the school that history points to and says the fight against global warming was galvanized there by those students?"" David asked.
Madison is one of a series of colleges on David's lecturing schedule, during which she is trying to inspire immediate action by students. In introducing David, associate professor of environmental studies and population health sciences Jonathan Patz called her efforts ""creative and tireless work to bring global warming out of the science books and into mainstream popular culture.""
