Ecologist, author to speak on pollution and human health

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AMES, Iowa -- Sandra Steingraber, acclaimed ecologist, author and cancer survivor, will speak at Iowa State University on Sunday, March 4 about her compelling call to abolish the fossil fuel dependency that forces parents to raise their children in a toxic, ecologically unstable world.

Steingraber will present the 2012 Shivvers Memorial Lecture, “Environmental Pollution, Climate Change and Our Health,” in the Sun Room of the Memorial Union at 7:00 p.m. The lecture is free and open to the public.

“Ultimately the environmental crisis is a parenting crisis,” Steingraber writes in her latest book, Raising Elijah: Protecting Our Children in an Age of Environmental Crisis. “It undermines my ability to carry out my two fundamental duties: to protect my children from harm and to plan for their future.”

Like Rachel Carson, who brought the dangers of pesticides into public view in the 1960s, Steingraber skillfully weaves hard facts with lyrical storytelling. Raising Elijah explores the author’s dual role as a scientist and a mother searching for ways to shield her son and daughter from the perils of climate change and environmental pollution. She describes how the daily routines of parenting—cooking pizza, choosing a daycare center, helping with homework—are intertwined with national policies on energy, transportation and agriculture.

Steingraber rejects the notion that a safe, healthy environment should depend on consumer choice. Instead, she calls for the abolition of the chemicals and industrial processes that endanger us, targeting our fossil fuel dependence as the root of the environmental crisis. She actively campaigns against hydraulic fracturing, a process for extracting natural gas that risks introducing carcinogens and other toxic chemicals to groundwater.

Steingraber also is the author of Living Downstream: An Ecologist’s Personal Investigation of Cancer and the Environment, which explores the evidence linking cancer to environmental contamination, Having Faith: An Ecologist’s Journey to Motherhood, a memoir from her first pregnancy.

Steingraber was recently honored with the Heinz Award, given for significant achievements benefitting the environment. She is a scholar-in-residence in the Department of Environmental Studies and Sciences at Ithaca College and a columnist for Orion. She has a doctorate in biological sciences from the University of Michigan.

The Shivvers Memorial Lecture Series honors John Shivvers, a Knoxville farmer who became a role model in his community for his innovative farming practices. Since 1969 the Shivvers Memorial Lecture Series has brought distinguished speakers to ISU to speak about the ways agriculture can sustain rather than destroy natural resources, its responsibility to both land and farmer, and its interdependence in the web of life. The lecture series is sponsored by the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture, the UNI Center for Energy and Environmental Education, ISU Chapter of Gamma Sigma Delta Honorary Society for Agriculture and the ISU Committee on Lectures (funded by GSB).

Learn more about the Shivvers Memorial Lecture at www.leopold.iastate.edu/news/calendar/shivvers.

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The Leopold Center was established by the 1987 Iowa Groundwater Protection Act as a research and education center at Iowa State University to develop sustainable agricultural practices that are both profitable and conserve natural resources. Iowa State does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, age, religion, national origin, sexual orientation, sex, marital status, disability, or status as a U.S. Vietnam Era Veteran. Any persons having inquiries concerning this may contact the Director of Affirmative Action, 3210 Beardshear Hall, (515) 294-7612.

This page was found at http://www.leopold.iastate.edu/news/02-13-2012/ecologist-author-speak-pollution-and-human-health on 01/21/2013