Climate Change and Culture in the Great Plains was postponed from April 9-10, 2020, to April 1-2, 2021. It is a free, Zoom conference that requires registration at https://www.unl.edu/plains/2020-symposium.

See our website for full conference schedule and description.

How did climate change become such a divisive issue? How does culture—meaning the beliefs, values, social practices, language, and attitudes by which we organize daily life—affect our understanding of climate change and limit or advance our possibilities for addressing it? Why have some embraced climate change denial and tried to delegitimize climate science? How can literature, art, history, politics, economics, psychology, language, and other social science and humanities disciplines bring new and constructive ways of communicating? And how can we move beyond the cultural impasse over climate change? These questions motivate “Climate Change & Culture in the Great Plains.”

Thirty years ago, in 1990, the Center hosted a conference called “Climate Change on the Great Plains,” which was described as “Looking Back from the Twenty-First Century at Impacts of Climate Change on the Great Plains.” We return to that topic three decades later.

Scientists track climate change, but we all will have to decide what to do about it. How can we focus national and regional attention on the key issues? This conference will examine the connection between climate change and culture through the Center for Great Plains Studies’ unique regional and interdisciplinary lens.