Climate Calling 2023
Student and Community Responses to Climate Change
April 2023
Climate Calling is a conference dedicated to exploring climate change, its consequences, and our moral calling to respond to growing concerns about the future of our planet. The conference is led by a group of Pepperdine faculty members from diverse disciplines.
The gathering draws students, faculty, and community members together in a mutual effort to address the subject of climate change and to foster a more sustainable future. Attendees learn about topics such as species extinction, drought, flooding, marine impacts, sustainable food practices, and environmental justice and activism through a keynote lecture, student presentations, and on-campus activities.
Climate Calling is sponsored by the Malibu Library Speaker Series and the Pepperdine Office of the Vice Provost and the Center for Sustainability.
Events Schedule
2023 Keynote Address
Thursday, April 6, Elkins Auditorium
5pm Keynote Address
6:30pm Book Signing
Dr. Britt Wray presented by the Malibu Library Speaker Series with Pepperdine University
Climate crisis anxieties can cause us to burn out, give up, and question deeply personal decisions. Dr. Britt Wray presents practical tips and strategies to healthily and productively deal with our emotions, live with climate trauma, and strengthen our communities so we can combat climate change together.
Dr. Britt Wray is a ground-breaking researcher and storyteller, and a growing voice around the mental health effects of climate change. She draws on rigorous investigation and insightful interviews with therapists, activists and researchers to make the scientific case for embracing our climate crisis emotions—especially the ones we’d prefer to ignore. When we heal ourselves through community and open communication, we’ll be better equipped to heal the planet. Dr. Wray's new book Generation Dread, about finding purpose during the climate crisis, is an honest, profoundly compelling exploration of our climate-related stresses and “a road map out from under the burden of environmental chaos, made all the more compelling by the way it tracks her own journey” (Macleans). It was named a finalist for the 2022 Governor General’s Literary Awards. Dr. Wray has a PhD in Science Communication from the University of Copenhagen, and is an advisor to the Good Energy Project for climate storytelling and the Climate Mental Health Network.
Student Research Presentations
Wednesday, April 5, from 3 pm to 5 pm
Biggers Family Courtyard (next to Elkins Auditorium)
Student researchers will present their research topics during an academic poster session. Their presentations are part of a spring semester course that includes a climate change component.
Earth Day FairTuesday, April 4, from 11 am to 2 pm The Center for Sustainability is hosting its annual Earth Day event in the heart of the Malibu Campus, where students, faculty, and staff come together to celebrate our beautiful planet with food and informational booths from environmental organizations inside and outside of Pepperdine.
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Art x Sustainability Lecture Series
Wednesday, April 5
12:00 pm - Tea Ceremony & Artist Lecture
Pepperdine Community Garden
Paige Emery is an artist exploring the ecological body and ritual interactions that weave worlds. Her work bridges poetics and praxis, mysticism and theory, healing rituals and environmentalism. This takes shape through a variety of works: art installations that offer perspectives towards ecological knowledge, sound pieces for deep listening, and medicinal gardens for nonlinear time and regenerative metabolism. As a land steward and environmental activist, her work also extends to social practice in projects such as a guerrilla community garden she started with a houseless community in Echo Park and an ongoing project to help community gardens in LA that reconsiders metrics of urban ecological metabolism. Emery is an embodied gardener and herbalist and her artwork is an extension of working with the healing powers of plants. She has published plant healing rituals with Ignota Books among others.