Sustainability scientist believes the climate can be fixed
Watch the lecture recording
Watch the UO Today interview.
What will it take to inspire and empower a critical mass of people to act in time to safeguard our climate, civilization, and the living world? Sustainability scientist Kimberly Nicholas argues that it’s a combination of facts, feelings, and action. Three guiding principles to make the shift from exploitation to regeneration are: to simultaneously promote human and planetary health and well-being; reduce harmful practices at their source; and strengthen the resilience of both human and natural communities. For each of us, figuring out how to contribute to, sustain, and find meaning and joy in this work is a primary duty of being alive at this moment.
Kimberly Nicholas will expand on these ideas in her virtual talk “Facing Climate Change with Facts, Feelings, and Action” on Wednesday, January 12, 2022 at 12 p.m. as the 2021–22 Cressman Lecturer, part of the “Imagining Futures” series.
Nicholas counters the argument that individual action has little impact on the climate. Her message is aimed at people making a middle-class income or higher who live in wealthy countries like the United States, Germany, or France, whom she refers to as the “carbon elite.” Nicholas points out that globally, more than two-thirds of climate pollution can be attributed to household consumption, and that the richest 10 percent of the world population—those making more than $38,000 a year—is responsible for about half of those emissions. The carbon elite, Nicholas argues, must support policies that get the world to net-zero emissions quickly, but they must also take steps to reduce their personal emissions in order to make the energy transition easier for everyone. The most impactful ways to reduce personal emissions? According to Nicholas, go car-free, meat-free, and flight-free.
Nicholas is an associate professor of Sustainability Science at Lund University in Sweden. She is the author of Under the Sky We Make: How to be Human in a Warming World (2021) and the monthly climate newsletter “We Can Fix It.”
Born and raised on her family’s vineyard in Sonoma, California, Nicholas studied the effect of climate change on the California wine industry for her PhD in Environment and Resources at Stanford University. In her research, she studies the connections between people, land, and climate. Her goal is to understand how to steward ecosystems to support a good life for everyone alive today, and leave a thriving planet for future generations.
Her current research projects include a collaboration with the Municipality of Lund to radically reduce climate pollution; “The Takeoff of Staying on the Ground,” studying the flight-free movement in Sweden; and using digital communication to improve traveler satisfaction with public transport. She recently concluded a five-year investigation of sustainable food systems in Europe.
Nicholas has published over 55 articles on climate and sustainability in leading peer-reviewed journals and her research has been honored with the Innovation in Sustainability Science Award from the Ecological Society of America.
Nicholas’s mission is to keep carbon out of the atmosphere, and to inform, empower, and inspire others to do the same.
Nicholas has declined an honorarium for her talk, asking us instead to purchase and distribute 100 copies of her book, Under the Sky We Make, to UO undergraduates.
Nicholas’s talk is free and open to the public. Registration is required.