David Orr

Fellow, Climate, Education & Communities

Climate, Communities, Education

David Orr is the Paul Sears Distinguished Professor of Environmental Studies and Senior Adviser to the President of Oberlin College. His career as a scholar, teacher, writer, speaker, and entrepreneur spans fields as diverse as environment and politics, environmental education, campus greening, green building, ecological design, and climate change. He is the author of six books, including the widely praised Ecological Literacy (1992) and Earth in Mind (1994/2004); his most recent book is Down to the Wire: Confronting Climate Collapse.

In 1996 David organized the effort to design the first substantially green building on a U.S. college campus. The Adam Joseph Lewis Center was later named by the U.S. Department of Energy as "One of Thirty Milestone Buildings in the 20th Century." His recent projects include a two year, $2 million project to define a 100-days climate action plan for the Obama administration. David is Trustee of the Rocky Mountain Institute and Bioneers.

videos

Some like it Hot - But Lots More Don't

length: 1.04:22   credit: MissouriState

David Orr's Sept. 4th, 2008 presentation on Some like it Hot - But Lots More Don't: The Changing Climate of US Politics. Part of the Missouri State University 2008-2009 Public Affairs Convocation Series.

audio

Down to the Wire: Confronting Climate Collapse

length: 01:03:38   credit: Commonwealth Club Radio

Due to our refusal to live within the Earth’s natural limits, we now face a multitude of problems that will have a severe negative impact on human civilization. David Orr, an expert on environmental literacy and ecological design, further argues that political negligence, an economy driven by insatiable consumption and a disregard for future generations are only adding to our plethora of environmental challenges. This program was recorded in front of a live audience at the Commonwealth Club of California, on November 11th, 2009.

Latest Publications

An Interview with David Orr, author of ‘Down to the Wire’. Parts Two and Three

David Orr    Mar 22, 2010   

Part Two How do you see the relationship between sustainability and resilience as concepts? Is resilience part of sustainability? Is sustainability part of resilience? I guess for me sustainability is kind of a boring word … >>

Eyeing the difficult path to a sustainable future

David Orr    May 26, 2010   

Environmentalist David Orr says the easy part of helping the United States live within its ecological limits may be passing laws, such as one that puts a price on carbon. The hard part, he maintains in an interview with Yale … >>

Down to the Wire

David Orr

"The real fault line in American politics is not between liberals and conservatives.... It is, rather, in how we orient ourselves to the generations to come who will bear the consequences, for better and for worse, of our … >>

press coverage

Orr quoted in Huffington Post article on 'global weirding'

David Orr  

Post Carbon Fellow David Orr was extensively quoted in this article on extreme weather patterns. From the article: In Greenland, a giant ice floe four times the size of Manhattan broke off one of the country's two main … >>