WOOSTER, Ohio -- Cal DeWitt of the University of Wisconsin, an expert on sustainability and land stewardship and a leading Christian environmentalist, will speak five times in Wooster and Columbus later this week, Jan. 26-28.
DeWitt is a professor with Wisconsin’s Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies; is the author of Earth-wise: A Biblical Response to Environmental Issues; is co-founder of the Evangelical Environmental Network; and as the elected town chair of Dunn, Wisc., led the creation of an innovative, award-winning land use plan, including a purchase of development rights program.
Four of the talks are sponsored or co-sponsored by parts of Ohio State University’s College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences.
“I have a lot of heroes, but Cal DeWitt is high on the list,” author Bill McKibben (The End of Nature) wrote on Beliefnet.com in 2007. “Before anyone else, (DeWitt) was at work building the religious environmental movement in this country, and he has never wavered -- the fact that evangelical leaders from across the theological spectrum last year signed a statement of concern about climate change owes more to his leadership than anyone else’s.”
Two of DeWitt’s talks will be co-presented with David Kline, an Amish organic farmer in north-central Ohio’s Holmes County and the author of Great Possessions: An Amish Farmer’s Journal and Scratching the Woodchuck: Nature on an Amish Farm.
All the talks are free and open to the public.
- Jan. 26: “Environmental Science as an Ethically Driven Integrative Science” by DeWitt at 3:30 p.m. in 103 Kottman Hall, Ohio State, 2021 Coffey Road, Columbus, with a video link to 123 Williams Hall at the Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center, 1680 Madison Ave., Wooster. Part of the winter quarter seminar series of Ohio State’s School of Environment and Natural Resources. Information: 614-292-2265 or 330-263-3659.
- Jan. 26: “Will the Destroyers of the Earth be Destroyed? What Christians Have to Learn From Those Who Are Not, and Vice Versa” by DeWitt from 7-9 p.m. in the Gault Recital Hall of the Scheide Music Center, College of Wooster, 525 E. University St., Wooster. A “Faith and Science” seminar sponsored by the college’s Wooster Christian Fellowship. Information: 330-263-2602.
- Jan. 27: “Challenges to Earth Stewardship: Two Perspectives” by DeWitt and Kline at 3:30 p.m. in 121 Fisher Auditorium, OARDC, Wooster, with a video link to 244 Kottman Hall on Ohio State’s Columbus campus. Part of the winter quarter seminar series of Ohio State’s Environmental Sciences Graduate Program and Department of Horticulture and Crop Science. Information: 614-292-9752.
- Jan. 28: “The Dunn Paradigm: How We Transformed Our Town Into an Environmental Stewardship Community” by DeWitt from 11 a.m.-12:30 p.m. at the Shisler Conference Center, OARDC, Wooster. Sponsored by Ohio State’s School of Environment and Natural Resources, Department of Horticulture and Crop Science, Department of Plant Pathology, and Environmental Sciences Graduate Program. Information: 330-263-5501.
- Jan. 28: “Climate and Agricultural Ethics: Winds and Seeds of Change” by DeWitt and Kline at 7 p.m. at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Wayne County, 3186 Burbank Road, Wooster. Sponsored by OARDC, the College of Wooster, Wooster Grace Brethren Church and the UUFWC. Information: 330-262-9194.
DeWitt’s University of Wisconsin website is at http://experts.news.wisc.edu/experts/219.
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