{"id":3451,"date":"2019-10-03T11:46:05","date_gmt":"2019-10-03T15:46:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/campusconnection\/?p=3451"},"modified":"2019-10-03T11:46:05","modified_gmt":"2019-10-03T15:46:05","slug":"detroit-mercy-hosts-15th-annual-great-lakes-bioneers-detroit-conference","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/campusconnection\/2019\/10\/03\/detroit-mercy-hosts-15th-annual-great-lakes-bioneers-detroit-conference\/","title":{"rendered":"Detroit Mercy hosts 15th annual Great Lakes Bioneers Detroit Conference"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"College
Sandy beach leads to a gorgeous sunrise along the Great Lakes Coast in Port Huron Michigan.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Detroit Mercy\u2019s College of Engineering & Science will play host to the 15th\u00a0Annual Great Lakes Bioneers Detroit (GLBD) Conference titled \u201cThe Planet will Survive. Will We?\u201d Oct. 25-26 on the McNic hols Campus.<\/p>\n

This event will bring together hundreds of high school students, teachers, university faculty and organizational leaders to discuss the environment and changes.\u00a0Additionally, attendees will receive opportunities to ponder and discuss many questions about the environment, such as whether or not the planet and human race will exist in the future, given the impact of global warming.<\/p>\n

Bill McKibben, one of the nation\u2019s leading environmental activists, will present a pre-recorded keynote address\u00a0titled \u201cChanging the Climate: What We\u2019ve Learned in the Last 30 Years.\u201d He is a scholar of Environmental Studies at Middlebury College and author of\u00a0The End of Nature\u00a0(1989), the first book for general audiences about climate change. He is also the founder of 350.org, the first planet-wide, grassroots climate change movement. For his work, he has won the Right Livelihood Award, Gandhi Prize and Thomas Merton Prize.<\/p>\n

A number of compelling presentations and discussions will be available for attendees. On Friday night, conference participants will hear from Ed Whitfield. He is a social critic, writer and community activist, as well as co-managing director of the Fund for Democratic Communities. Originally from Little Rock, Ark., Whitfield\u2019s political activism began when he attended Little Rock Central High School and engaged in the anti-war protest as a teenager. Today, he speaks and writes on issues of cooperatives and economic development, and continues to study issues of war and peace, as well as education and social responses to racism. He serves on the boards of the New Economy Coalition, The Working World and the Southern Reparations Loan Fund.<\/p>\n

The conference will also present nine plenary speakers from the national Bioneers conference, as well as the following tours:<\/p>\n