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ACTIVE RETIREMENT ASSOCIATION
PO BOX 421
DURHAM, NH 03824
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
“WHALING DIPLOMACY, SCIENTIFIC UNCERTAINTY, AND LESSONS
FOR CLIMATE CHANGE”
DURHAM, NH ---What does it take to bring the nations of the world together to serve the best interests of
all? The Seacoast Memorial Lecture Series is proud to present Dr. Kurk Dorsey, UNH
Professor of History, discussing “Whaling Diplomacy, Scientific Uncertainty, and
Lessons for Climate Change.” This event is free and open to the public. Everyone is
welcome. Please join us on Tuesday, February 23, 2016, 1:30 pm, at the Durham
Evangelical Church, 114 Dover Road (Route 108), Durham, NH, to learn how decades
of experience with international whaling regulation might inform climate-change
diplomacy.
Scientific uncertainty is often cited by global climate change skeptics as a reason for
opposing laws or treaties designed to address rising levels of greenhouse gases.
Decades ago, scientific uncertainty played a critical role in the first global environmental
diplomatic negotiations: efforts to regulate whaling on the high seas. Proponents of
reducing whaling often found themselves stymied by disagreement over what exactly
was going on with whale populations, as well as by the unknowns of whale
biology. Professor Dorsey will analyze the parallels with climate-change diplomacy and
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assess the chances that the recent Paris accords will be considered successful in the
long run.
Dr. Dorsey, Director of the History Graduate Program at UNH, specializes in U.S.
foreign policy, environmental history, and the history of Canada. He is the author of
Whales and Nations: Environmental Diplomacy on the High Seas (2014) and The Dawn
of Conservation Diplomacy: U.S.-Canadian Wildlife Protection Treaties in the
Progressive Era (1998).
The Seacoast Memorial Lecture Series is a public service presentation of the Active
Retirement Association (ARA). The ARA is supported by annual dues from its 300+
members who represent 35 communities in southern Maine and New Hampshire. For
additional information, visit the ARA website at www.unh.edu/ara or phone or email
Membership Director Carol Caldwell at 603-312-1536 or [email protected].
(ARA, a registered 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, is not affiliated with any political,
religious, ethnic, or special interest group.)
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Submitted by Penelope B. Drooker
ARA Public Relations Director
[email protected]
603-397-5681