Is it too late? Is the planet irreparably doomed by climate change? Is the human species inexorably marching toward extinction?

“Time is running out to prevent the irreversible and dangerous impacts of climate change,” warned the sixth Global Environmental Outlook, released by the UN in March 2019.

For Paul Richard, instructor and chair of Kwantlen Polytechnic University’s environmental protection technology department, the Earth and humankind can be saved. There is no need to be paralyzed into inaction by fear.

“We already have the technology necessary to address the problem and alleviate its worst consequences,” Richard wrote in the blurb for a talk he will deliver in Vancouver. “It’s simply a matter of using it, and the first step is awareness.”

Titled “Optimism in an Era of Climate Change”, the event happens on Wednesday (July 10) at Science World at TELUS World of Science (1455 Quebec Street). Doors open at 6 p.m.; the talk starts at 7 p.m.