“Human-caused climate change is a global emergency, which disproportionately affects the people who are least responsible for the problem,” writes David Blockstein, PhD, the co-director of Solve Climate by 2030.

Blockstein will present evidence of climate change and offer solutions that can make a difference in a program titled "Teaching the World about Climate Solutions and Justice” on April 20 at Neumann University. His presentation, scheduled for 4:15 p.m. in the Meagher Theatre, is free and open to the public.

“Although a certain amount of climate change is unstoppable,” Blockstein says, “the actions that governments, businesses, universities and other institutions, and individuals take or do not take this decade will have great impact on how bad climate change will become for hundreds if not thousands of years.”

He cites the most recent report (2022) from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which has concluded that “Human-induced climate change, including more frequent and intense extreme events, has caused widespread adverse impacts and related losses and damages to nature and people, beyond natural climate variability.”

The report also concludes that “Approximately 3.3 to 3.6 billion people live in contexts that are highly vulnerable to climate change” and that these locations are often areas of “unsustainable ocean and land use, inequity, and marginalization.”

Blockstein believes that universities and faith-based institutions have critical roles in educating people about climate change, climate solutions, and climate justice. People acting individually and collectively can slow the climate trend “if we act now,” he says.

Solve Climate by 2030 is a project of the Bard College (NY) graduate programs in sustainability. It sponsors the Worldwide Teach-In on Climate and Justice that involves more than 300 teach-ins at colleges and universities, schools, and community institutions in more than 50 countries. Neumann University is one of the teach-in hosts.

Blockstein is an ecologist and conservation biologist with more than 30 years of national leadership at the intersection of science and environmental policy. He has worked on a wide range of science and policy issues including climate change and energy education, biodiversity policy, sustainability, increasing the representation of minorities in science, and digital communication of scientific information on the environment.

He helped to create the National Council for Science and the Environment (NCSE) and served as its first executive director in 1990. Blockstein also helped to shape interdisciplinary environmental, sustainability and energy education at U.S. colleges and universities by founding several groups, including the Association for Environmental Studies and Sciences (AESS), where he currently serves as senior advisor.