Speaking Engagements

SPEAKING ENGAGEMENTS

*  For speaking engagements, Dan Botkin is represented Arnett and Associates. For booking information, contact Patsy Arnett, Arnett and Associates patti@arnettandassociates.com Phone 804.353.5999. Contact Arnett and Associates or write Dan Botkin directly with you questions about the speech topics listed here or others you have in mind for him.

CURRENT SPEECH TOPICS

* GLOBAL WARMING AND THE DIVERSITY OF LIFE: WHAT ARE THE FACTS AND WHAT CAN WE EXPECT?

* LIVING WITH ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGE. Nature has always changed and change is natural. When we confront a problem like global warming, the underlying issue is how to with deal with rapid change in our surroundings. Nature can be our guide, and we have to watch carefully for other kinds of guides that can lead us astray.

* THE SOLUTION TO OUR ENERGY CRISIS. Based on a forthcoming book, Energy Forever: A Voter’s Guide to Energy, by Daniel B. Botkin.

* FORECASTING EFFECTS OF GLOBAL WARMING ON THE EARTH’S BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY.

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RECENT SPEECHES

December 29,2011, Explorers Club, New York City, Closing in on Global Warming: What We Know and What We Don’t Know,

October 12, 2011 Society of Risk Analysis, Southern California Chapter, San Diego, CA.  Fracking The Future:  How Unconventional Gas Threatens our Water, Health and Climate.

February 8-9,2011 (two speeches). Michigan Dept. of Natural Resources & Environment, Wildlife Management in an Ever-Changing World,

May 11, 2011  Smithsonian Associates, Washington, D.C.  Power Up!  Alternative Energy and the Environment. This talk examines which sources of energy are best for our environment, by assessing their prospects, limitations, costs, risk, and trade-offs,including effects of biological diversity and demands for water and minerals.

January 26, 2011  Army Environmental Policy Institute, Arlington, VA. “What is Sustainable about Sustainability?”  A look at the fundamental idea of sustainability — what it could mean in the real world of environment and people, and how to try to achieve it.

February 8-9, 2011.  State of Michigan Department of Natural Resources,  Roscommon, MI.  “Habitat and the Balance of Nature: Challenges to Inking Ecological Theory to Wildlife Management.”  How to think about nature and the management of wildlife in ever-changing ecosystems.  The need to move away from steady-state views of nature.

September 30, 2010.  Black Rock Forest Consortium, New York, NY.  “What’s New in Ecology.”  An introduction to what has and what hasn’t happen in the science of ecology in the past decade.

September 15, 2010  U. S. Geological Survey’s Annual meeting and Ecosystem modeling workshop in Vicksburg, MS.  Environmental Forecasting and Monitoring.  Ecological forecasting remains primitive and based on steady-state ideas that are inappropriate to natural ecological systems — to our pressing environmental problems including climate change and biological diversity.  In this talk I suggest how ecological forecasting can be done that will be useful.

April 29, 2010. American Enterprise Institute.  Powering the Future: A Scientist’s Guide to Energy Independence.  an introduction to my new book of that name.

April 7, 2009,  How to Think About Global Warming, part of McNeese University’s Banner Event Series, Lake Charles, LA.

February 11, 2009, Modern Ecology, Davidson College, Davidson, N.C.

February 9, 2009 Biology, Ethics and Sustainability Charlotte, N.C. City Club hosted by Charlotte Area Science Network.

February 9, 2009, The Balance of Nature Discovery Place Museum, Charlotte, N.C. Science Café

November 2 to 7, 2008, The first Distinguished Visiting Scientist at the Long Beach Aquarium, Long Beach, CA.  Nov. 3rd 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. Climate Change and Biodiversity;  Nov. 4th 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. Energy from the Sea.

October 23-24, 2008.  Keynote address to the U.S. Department of Agriculture Invasive Species Worshop, Washington, D. C.

September 10 to 13, 2008 Distinguished Visiting Scholar, Green Mountain College, Poultney, VT.  For a list of speeches there, see the college’s website.

OTHER SPEECH TOPICS

  • MORPH THE MOOSE, AFRICAN ELEPHANTS, AND THE FUTURE OF PROFESSIONAL FORESTRY , Society of American Foresters annual conference, Pittsburgh , PA.
  • MORPH THE MOOSE, AFRICAN ELEPHANTS, AND THE FUTURE OF PROFESSIONAL FORESTRY Keynote dinner speech to the Lousiana and Mississippi chapters of the Society of American Foresters, Natchez, Mississippi.
  • May 6 to 12, 2007 Oxford University Astor Lectureship, several speeches on a variety of topics, including a speech May 9, 4:00 pm, Discordant Harmonies: Climate Change, Steady State Models, and Western Ideology.
  • NO MAN’S GARDEN: THOREAU AND A NEW VISION FOR CIVILIZATION AND NATURE, Keynote speech, Nature Now Conference, Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture Planning and Preservation.
  • THE FOLKLORE BEHIND ECOLOGY, American Folklife Center Lecture Series, Library of Congress, Washington, D. C.
  • The Natural History of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, Summer Scholar Series at the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail Interpretive Center , Great Falls , Montana , also presented at the National Park Service’s “Tent of Many Voices” in Montana.
  • IS THERE A NORMAL FIRE REGIME IN AN ALWAYS CHANGING ENVIRONMENT? Keynote speech to the International Association of Wildland Fire, Portland , Oregon
  • PRINCIPLES FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF RIVERS, Keynote speech to Coastal Conference on Ecosystem-Based Approaches to Management in the Southeast Region, a five-state conference, University of North Carolina, Wilmington.
  • DOES SCIENCE MATTER IN SOLVING ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS?, Hudson River Foundation, New York City.
  • LEWIS AND CLARK AS GUIDES TO NATURE IN THE AMERICAN WEST, speeches as part of the Lewis and Clark Bicentennial celebration, Astoria Oregon and Long Beach , Washington.
  • DISCORDANT HARMONIES: HOW ANCIENT IDEAS BLOCK OUR ABILITIES TO SOLVE ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS, College of the Atlantic, Bar Harbor , Maine .
  • LEWIS AND CLARK: GUIDES TO THE ECOLOGY OF THE AMERICAN WEST, Keynote Speech to the Ecological Society of America’s annual conference, Portland , Oregon.
  • NATURE IN THE AMERICAN WEST FROM LEWIS AND CLARK TO TODAY, St. Louis Arch of the National Park Service.
  • LEWIS AND CLARK’S LEGACY: TWO CENTURIES OF CHANGE IN THE DELAWARE AND COLUMBIA WATERSHEDS, Academy of Natural Sciences , Philadelphia.
  • THE FUTURE OF BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY, Cosmos Club, Washington , D. C.
  • HOW TO APPLY SCIENCE TO SOLVE ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS, GRID, Arendal, Norway.
  • PRESERVING NATURE WHEN NATURE ALWAYS CHANGES George Wright Society.
  • WHO WILL REPLACE SMOKEY BEAR AS THE SYMBOL OF NATURE?, Oregon State University , Corvallis , Oregon .
  • MORPH THE MOOSE, AFRICAN ELEPHANTS, AND THE FUTURE OF PROFESSIONAL FORESTRY , Society of American Foresters annual conference, Pittsburgh , PA.
  • MORPH THE MOOSE, AFRICAN ELEPHANTS, AND THE FUTURE OF PROFESSIONAL FORESTRY Keynote dinner speech to the Lousiana and Mississippi chapters of the Society of American Foresters, Natchez, Mississippi.
  • May 6 to 12, 2007 Oxford University Astor Lectureship, several speeches on a variety of topics, including a speech May 9, 4:00 pm, Discordant Harmonies: Climate Change, Steady State Models, and Western Ideology.
  • NO MAN’S GARDEN: THOREAU AND A NEW VISION FOR CIVILIZATION AND NATURE, Keynote speech, Nature Now Conference, Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture Planning and Preservation.
  • THE FOLKLORE BEHIND ECOLOGY, American Folklife Center Lecture Series, Library of Congress, Washington, D. C.
  • The Natural History of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, Summer Scholar Series at the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail Interpretive Center , Great Falls , Montana , also presented at the National Park Service’s “Tent of Many Voices” in Montana.
  • IS THERE A NORMAL FIRE REGIME IN AN ALWAYS CHANGING ENVIRONMENT? Keynote speech to the International Association of Wildland Fire, Portland , Oregon
  • PRINCIPLES FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF RIVERS, Keynote speech to Coastal Conference on Ecosystem-Based Approaches to Management in the Southeast Region, a five-state conference, University of North Carolina, Wilmington.
  • DOES SCIENCE MATTER IN SOLVING ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS?, Hudson River Foundation, New York City.
  • LEWIS AND CLARK AS GUIDES TO NATURE IN THE AMERICAN WEST, speeches as part of the Lewis and Clark Bicentennial celebration, Astoria Oregon and Long Beach , Washington.
  • DISCORDANT HARMONIES: HOW ANCIENT IDEAS BLOCK OUR ABILITIES TO SOLVE ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS, College of the Atlantic, Bar Harbor , Maine .
  • LEWIS AND CLARK: GUIDES TO THE ECOLOGY OF THE AMERICAN WEST, Keynote Speech to the Ecological Society of America’s annual conference, Portland , Oregon.
  • NATURE IN THE AMERICAN WEST FROM LEWIS AND CLARK TO TODAY, St. Louis Arch of the National Park Service.
  • LEWIS AND CLARK’S LEGACY: TWO CENTURIES OF CHANGE IN THE DELAWARE AND COLUMBIA WATERSHEDS, Academy of Natural Sciences , Philadelphia.
  • THE FUTURE OF BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY, Cosmos Club, Washington , D. C.
  • HOW TO APPLY SCIENCE TO SOLVE ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS, GRID, Arendal, Norway.
  • PRESERVING NATURE WHEN NATURE ALWAYS CHANGES George Wright Society.
  • WHO WILL REPLACE SMOKEY BEAR AS THE SYMBOL OF NATURE?, Oregon State University , Corvallis , Oregon .