Mark McCaffrey
May 20, 2012
Mark McCaffrey from the National Center for Science Education (NCSE) will discuss NCSE’s just-initiated efforts to promote climate change education via resources that it has developed in the areas of “Climate Change 101″, “Teaching Climate Change”, “Climate Change Denial”, and “Taking Action”. (See http://ncse.com/climate)
The excellent presentation is available here.
Humanist Community Forum (2012-05-20): The Climate Literacy Imperative: Toward an Adult Conversation about Climate and Energy from Humanist Community-SiliconValley on Vimeo.
Derek Tennant has many stories to tell from his work with FEMA following recent large hurricanes. He has also performed volunteer work in Haiti and Thailand (for Burmese refugees). In addition to discussing his own experiences, he will facilitate a discussion about our own disaster preparedness and ways we can help each other become more resilient.
All over the world, democratic reforms have brought power to the people, but under conditions where the people have little opportunity to think about the power that they exercise. Stanford Professor James S. Fishkin will discuss his book whose title is the title of this talk. In this book, he combines a new theory of democracy with actual practice and shows how an idea that harks back to ancient Athenians and their use of the Kleroterion machine can be used to revive our modern democracies. Professor Fishkin is a Professor of Communication and Professor of Political Science at Stanford. He is also Director of Stanford’s Center for Deliberative Democracy and Chair of the Dept. of Communication. For more information on this critical subject see his web site: 
Sex and religion are constantly in the news this election year—typically in ways quite aggravating to humanists. With razor-sharp wit and 30 years of clinical experience, Dr. Marty Klein will analyze the news, describing what he calls America’s War On Sex (www.WarOnSex.com). “The Religious Right is using the issue of sexual regulation to undermine secular democracy,” he says. “Its War On Sex uses phony categories, dangerism, and a broad Sexual Disaster Industry. It is successfully re-conceptualizing private sexual expression into public behavior, which is therefore subject to public control.” The subject of sexuality is currently missing from much of humanist thought. But a humanist approach to sexuality, says Dr. Klein, would address people’s fear of their own–and others’–sexuality without supporting their ignorance, superstition, narrow categories, and anxiety about not being “normal.” What a great way to attract people to humanism, he says—and what a great way to make supernatural religion obsolete. Dr. Marty Klein is a Palo Alto-based psychotherapist, sex therapist, and international lecturer in sexuality and public policy. He has been an expert witness or invited plaintiff in many important state and federal obscenity and anti-censorship cases. His landmark book America’s War On Sex, with a foreword by the ACLU’s Nadine Strossen, was honored as Book of the Year by AASECT, and will be re-released on April 30. Join us for a creative, thought-provoking, and entertaining talk.