Award-winning environmental author Cynthia Barnett explores the long, rich and surprisingly
profound relationship between humans and seashells. For eons, shell and their mollusk makers
have reflected humanity’s shifting attitudes toward and precarious place in the natural world.
While shells reveal how humans have altered the climate and the sea – down to its very chemistry – they are also sentinels of hope for alternative energy, carbon capture, and other solutions that lie beneath the waves. Barnett illuminates the beauty and wonder of seashells as well as the human ingenuity and scientific solutions they represent for our warming world. In conjunction with the lecture, the Wimberly Library will host the exhibit “Between the Waves: Finding Ocean Curiosities,” curated by Victoria Thur, Assistant Dean for Research and Distinctive Collections.