William Selby, author of The California Sky Watcher (published by Heyday), participates in the California Geographical Society’s Annual Conference at Stanislaus State University. Selby’s presentation is “Making Sense of our Wildfires and Other ‘Natural’ Disasters.”

CONFERENCE REGISTRATION
Student – $15
Faculty/Professional – $100
Current CGS Lifetime Member – $70
New CGS Lifetime Member – $320

Presentation summary: Catastrophic wildfires are some of the latest signs that something has gone terribly wrong. Our dysfunctional relationships with the natural systems and cycles that rule our world has tragic consequences that are being played out in media spectacles every day. We are bombarded with such an extraordinary number of examples and teaching aides; they have become ordinary and routine. But instead of learning from them, we continue to repeat the same mistakes that help define a form of insanity. In this presentation, we will follow the before, during, and after of the wildfire disasters in Pacific Palisades and Altadena. We will use these and other “natural” disasters as evidence to show how “unprecedented” has become the new normal. And we will discuss our responsibility in educating the general public about the science behind the scenes.