“What Would Steinbeck and Ricketts say about Climate Change?” talk by Steve Webster at the National Steinbeck Center on June 5th

On June 5, at 3 P.M., Dr. Steve Webster, co-founder of the Monterey Bay Aquarium, will give a talk at the National Steinbeck Center on climate change. “What Would Steinbeck and Ricketts say about Climate Change?” will explore what John Steinbeck and Ed Ricketts would likely be saying about climate change, were they here with us today.

John Steinbeck, in his own words, was “a student of the mutual relationship between organism and environment.” This worldview developed throughout his years of friendship and collaboration with Ed Ricketts and is, perhaps, best expressed in Sea of Cortez.

“On the 75th anniversary of Sea of Cortez, it is exiting to have Steve Webster at the NSC talking about the contemporary relevance of Steinbeck and Ricketts’s shared ecological vision. In the 1940s Ricketts wrote about the disappearance of sardines in Monterey, suggesting that overfishing was not the only reason for the decline in numbers—but that ocean warming was also a factor. Then and now, climate shifts affect us—and today, climate change confronts us daily. Steve will muse on what Steinbeck and Ricketts might have said about our changing world,” said National Steinbeck Center Director Susan Shillinglaw.

Dr. Steve Webster’s talk is presented by the National Steinbeck Center and the Climate Lobby Monterey.