The Great Divide: Can We Work Together for a Healthy Environment?

Monday, November 9, 2018

Environmental Forum of Marin presents Congressman Jared Huffman and award-winning Bay Area authors, Arlie Hochschild and Mark Hertsgaard, for a lively evening of discussion about why our values and beliefs on environmental issues vary across the political divide.

We all want to breathe clean air and drink clean water, but our priorities can be misaligned and our thinking on environmental standards incompatible. Finding common ground requires understanding other perspectives. Can we do this and bridge the political divide for effective environmental problem-solving?

Jared Huffman will introduce this program by sharing some of his experiences “bridging the divide” and his approach to doing so. Huffman, US Representative (CA 2nd District), is an ardent protector of the environment and has worked to pass effective legislation for both California and the nation. He created the podcast, Off the Cuff with Jared Huffman, to promote productive and open dialogue across a spectrum of constituents on some of today’s biggest challenges.

Arlie Hochschild, author of Strangers in Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right, will present the findings of her book and views on why some people often seem to vote against their best interests when it comes to the environment.
Hochschild is Professor Emerita of Sociology, UC Berkeley and spent five years interviewing Tea Party enthusiasts in Louisiana, many of whom were impacted by severe environmental degradation, to learn their “deep stories” and attempt to “cross the empathy divide.”

Mark Hertsgaard, will host a fireside chat with Hochschild to delve into some of the complex issues and solutions around “The Great Divide.” Environmental Correspondent for The Nation and author of Hot: Living Through the Next Fifty Years on Earth, Hertsgaard has spent much of his career focused on climate change and the politics that influence environmental decision-making.

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