Matt Hodgetts
12:00 pm | Baker-Nord Center, Clark Hall Room 206, 11130 Bellflower Road, Cleveland, OH 44106
2025 began with a stark reminder of our climate reality. As the Los Angeles wildfires raged, the World Meteorological Association confirmed that 2024 was the first year where average global temperatures exceeded the Paris Agreement target of 1.5°C of warming. With 16% of Americans reporting some form of climate anxiety. Greta Thunberg's 2019 cajoling of the World Economic Forum that "I don't want your hope. I want you to panic... and act" captures the understandable dominance of fear in our climate discourse. And yet, Matthew Hodgetts, the George B. Mayer Visiting Assistant Professor of Urban and Environmental Studies in the Department of Political Science, will argue in this talk that hope, and ultimately utopia, ought not to be neglected. Beginning from science fiction author Kim Stanley Robinson's seemingly contradictory contention that "utopia is no longer a nice idea, but a survival necessity", he advances an argument for how both hope and fear could be understood so as to meaningfully contribute to a more productive climate discourse.
An informal lunch will be served.
Registration is requested. Register HERE.