Veteran environmental reporter Mark Hertsgaard, who has covered climate change for outlets such as The New Yorker, Vanity Fair and Time, will speak Friday, April 13, at Duke University's Sanford School of Public Policy.The noon event, sponsored by Duke's Hart Leadership Program, is free and open to the public. A book signing will follow the talk.In his book, "Hot: Living through the Next Fifty Years on Earth," Hertsgaard outlines "Generation Hot" scenarios, such as a Chicago with Houston-like temperatures year-round, and policy solutions, such as geo-engineering and tree planting."When my daughter turned 7 last week, we celebrated with a homemade chocolate cake. I wonder whether she'll be able to do that with her own child someday. Scientists are already warning that chocolate and wheat (the raw material for flour) will become harder to grow as temperature and rainfall patterns are disrupted," Hertsgaard wrote in a recent article in the online magazine Slate.Hertsgaard has hope for "Generation Hot." In Africa, he found farmers adapting to hotter temperatures by planting trees in their fields of millet, which ended up increasing crop yield by providing shade and increasing water retention in the soil. All over the world, he has found people exploring solutions, from the high-tech of alternative energy to simple methods of water conservation.
