CHAUTAUQUA - Chautauqua Institution and National Geographic team up this week to explore the world of water, locally and globally, discussing topics from availability, conservation and health concerns to consideration of all the living matter that we share this essential resource.
Sandra Postel and Dennis Dimick take the Amphitheater stage Monday at 10:45 a.m. to give the first morning lecture of the week. Postel is the founder and director of the Global Water Policy Project and Dimick is the executive editor of National Geographic Magazine.
Enric Sala is a marine ecologist and scientific researcher on marine conservation ecology for Spain's National Council for Scientific Research. Also a National Geographic explorer-in-residence, Sala will give the morning lecture Tuesday.
Oceanographer, explorer and author Sylvia Earle lectures on Wednesday. Earle is the founder of the Mission Blue Foundation and former chief scientist of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Brian Skerry gives the morning lecture Thursday. Skerry is an award-winning photojournalist specializing in marine wildlife and underwater environments. Since 1998, he has been a contract photographer for National Geographic Magazine. His photographs are also featured in the Ocean Soul visual arts exhibition at Chautauqua Institution, on display from June 24 to July 23 in Strohl Art Center.
The last morning lecturer of Week Four is Don Belt, writer and editor of National Geographic Magazine. In the past three decades, Belt has traveled to 65 countries and covered topics such as environmental degradation, vanishing cultures and the effects of global climate change. He takes the stage Friday.
Week Four's Interfaith Lecture Series, held at 2 p.m. in the Hall of Philosophy, begins with executive director of the National Religious Partnership for the Environment, Matthew Anderson. He lectures on Monday as part of the afternoon theme, "Water: Life Source/Life Force."
Lecturing Tuesday is Professor Emeritus of Physics and Humanities at the Rochester Institute of Technology, Varadaraja V. Raman.
Rabbi Rami Shapiro will give the lecture on Wednesday. Shapiro is an award-winning author of more than 20 books, poet, essayist and adjunct professor of religion at Middle Tennessee State University. He is also the director of Wisdom House, a center for interfaith study, dialogue and contemplative practice at the Scarritt-Bennett Center in Nashville, Tenn.
Thursday's lecturer is Ali Asani, professor of Indo-Muslim and Islamic Religion and Cultures at Harvard University.
Week Four's Interfaith Lecture Series comes to a close Friday with American adventurer Katie Spotz. With a passion to provide clean water for all people of the world, Spotz currently works for Kinetico Incorporated, a water treatment company, as a clean water advocate. She is the youngest person to row solo across the Atlantic Ocean and the first person to have swum the entire length of the Allegheny River in New York and Pennsylvania.
Morning lectures are held in the Amphitheater weekdays at 10:45 a.m. Afternoon/Interfaith lectures are held in the Hall of Philosophy weekdays at 2 p.m. Afternoon lecture themes coordinate with the themes of the 10:45 a.m. lectures, but take a different angle of vision.
Day tickets are available for purchase at the Main Gate Welcome Center Ticket Office on the day of your visit. Morning tickets grant visitors access to the grounds for $18 from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m.
For $12, afternoon tickets grant access from noon to 8 p.m.
Combined morning/afternoon passes (7 a.m. to 8 p.m.) are $30. For additional ticketing information, visit chautauquatickets.ciweb.org/ or call 357-6250.
