Ecologue

The Oral History Program at the OSU Libraries Special Collections and Archives Research Center presents Voices of a Warming Planet, an oral history series about climate change. Voices of a Warming Planet is a website containing contextualized interviews with twelve OSU faculty members, staff, and students, including the Sustainability Office’s own Sustainability Officer, Brandon Trelstad! The interviews trace the study of and action against climate change as it relates to each interviewee’s path in academia and life in general.

Watch each of these faculty members discuss climate change and its relation to their academic and professional pursuits:

• Dominique Bachelet, biological and ecological engineering
• Jeff Bethel, biological and population health sciences
• Hilary Boudet, sociology
• Peter Clark, earth, ocean and atmospheric sciences
• William Jaeger, applied economics
• Beverly Law, global change biology and terrestrial systems science
• Philip Mote, Oregon Climate Change Research Institute
• Peter Ruggiero, geology and geophysics
• Andreas Schmittner, earth, ocean and atmospheric sciences
• Allen Thompson, philosophy
• Jason Hanauska, undergraduate senior in environmental engineering
• Brandon Trelstad, OSU Sustainability Officer

The interviews vary in length, from about 40 minutes to an hour and a half, but what they all have in common is fascinating stories about the evolution of people and their interests in climate action. Interviewer Elizabeth Thorley organizes the interviews chronologically, by beginning with questions about the interviewees early lives and childhoods and concluding with the climate change projects they are currently working on. Not only are the interviews an excellent resource for anyone studying climate change, but they also contain entertaining anecdotes about the lives of staff, students, and faculty at OSU.

Oregon State University Sustainability Officer Brandon Trelstad made an appearance on Voices of a Warming Planet, because much of his environmental sustainability work is focused on minimizing OSU’s contribution to global climate change and mitigating the consequences of climate change as they affect OSU. Brandon’s interview touches on topics such as growing up in Salem, Oregon, working for the Government Relations Office as an undergraduate student at OSU, pioneering the Sustainability Officer position, evolution of the Sustainability Officer position, OSU’s climate plan, divestment from fossil fuel industries, student engagement, and much more.