Join Renée Hoyos, Executive Director of the Tennessee Clean Water Network, for a discussion of Cool It: The Skeptical Environmentalist’s Guide to Global Warming by Bjørn Lomborg noon to 1:00 on Wednesday, February 17 in the East Tennessee History Center auditorium at 601 South Gay Street.

In Cool It!, Lomborg takes a conservative approach to climate change, arguing that many of the elaborate and staggeringly expensive actions now being considered to meet the challenges of global warming ultimately will have little impact on the world’s temperature. He suggests that rather than focusing on ineffective solutions that will cost us trillions of dollars over the coming decades,

we should be looking for smarter, more cost-effective approaches (such as massively increasing our commitment to green energy research and development) that will allow us to deal not only with climate change but also with other pressing global concerns, such as malaria and HIV/AIDS. And he considenters are immediately demonized.

Hoyos created Tennessee Clean Water Network's litigation and environmental health programs, and expanded the network from a small non-profit to a leading voice for the environmental community in Tennessee. She previously worked with the California Resources Agency and served as Special Assistant to Secretary Mary D. Nichols for Watersheds and Outreach. She holds masters degrees in agriculture and management, as well as avian science, both from the University of California in Davis.

Hoyos serves on the boards of Knoxville Transportation Authority, Historic Bijou Theater, and Community Health Alliance. She enjoys rafting, hiking, kayaking and skiing. She is a member of the National Ski Patrol and patrols on the weekend at Cataloochie Ski Ranch in Maggie Valley, North Carolina.

And here's what else is coming up:

March 23: Dr. Suzie Allard, Associate Dean for Research, College of Communication and Information – Big Data: A Revolution That Will Transform How We Live, Work, and Think by Viktor Mayer-Schönberger and Kenneth Cukier

April 27: Pastor Christopher R. Battles, Sr., Tabernacle Baptist Church, and Chris Woodhull, Former Knoxville City Councilman – Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates

May 25: The Honorable Pamela Reeves, United States District Court Judge – Sisters in Law: How Sandra Day O'Connor and Ruth Bader Ginsburg Went to the Supreme Court and Changed the World by Linda Hirshman

June 22: Dr. Annette Mendola, UT Department of Philosophy – Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End by Atul Gawande