With the end of our bunny-tastic frolics still only hours old, the odds are quite good that a multitude of Easter cheer (a.k.a “chocolate”) is just waiting to shed its pastel foils and give you a sugar buzz; and, oh yes, taxes are due soon, as well, are they not? Did anyone make an April Fool of you last weekend? Ahh…such a winning combination of treats, tricks and drudgery. Number crunching, prank-planning and candy counting always seem to win our hearts and heads in this most merry month – but how many of us can recall the last time we shone like a Holiday pro for Earth Day? Yes, folks, that one is in April, too (and, unlike Easter, it doesn’t fly around all willy-nilly changing dates). In an early celebration for the annual nod to our planet (which is April 22, kids), oceanographer and author Sylvia Earle will speak at Bellarmine University’s Frazier Hall tomorrow evening, April 10th at 7:30pm.
Sylvia Earle, often referred to as “Her Deepness” or “The Sturgeon General”, has logged more 7,000 hours of undersea exploration and led more than 60 expeditions to meet with the denizens of the deep. Currently a National Geographic explorer-in-residence, Earle is also the author of more than 125 publications concerning marine science, undersea ecology and technology; this written repertoire includes the books Exploring the Deep Frontier, Sea Change, Wild Ocean: America’s Parks Under the Sea and The Atlas of the Ocean, as well as the children’s titles, Coral Reefs, Hello Fish, Sea Critters and Dive!. Her newest literary contribution, The World is Blue: How Our Fate and the Ocean’s Are One, underscores the need for not just respect and acknowledgement to our planet’s lifeblood (i.e. water) but the direct link between action (or inaction) in our efforts to protect our oceans – and thus ourselves.
Join this prize-winner, activist, explorer, adventurer and – oh yeah – writer as she invites us to understand the delicate balance of our life (which, again, is kind of dependent on water) on Earth. And with a background that easily challenges Indiana Jones, who wouldn’t be willing to listen up? Bring the rest of your chocolate bunny along (I always start with the ears first, personally), take a deep breath and plunge into the depths with Sylvia Earle.
This lecture is free and open to the public. Bellarmine University is located at 2001 Newburg Road.
Image: Courtesy of Louisville Free Public Library website www.lfpl.org
