Landman Energy Management Club receives grant to promote discussion on the moral implications of energy and industrialization
On October 21, 2019, author Alex Epstein spoke on the campus of CU Boulder where the self-titled philosopher debated Robert Kennedy Jr. about restricting hydrocarbon consumption on earth. On Thursday, February 20, 2020, Epstein returns to Colorado visiting CMU to engage students about societal uses.
Epstein will speak about the benefits, impacts and moral considerations around petroleum products and their interplay with poverty, affluence and other variables relative to industrialization and consumption of energy products. The program will begin at 6pm and will conclude at 8pm. The speech is sponsored by a grant from the American Association of Professional Landmanagers (AAPL), which was acquired by students after the Landman Energy Management Club applied for the funds in 2019. CMU’s energy management/landman program is accredited by the AAPL along with 10 other universities in the U.S.
“Universities exist to protect speech and to advance and discuss the world's most complex and challenging subject matters,” said Land and Energy Management Club President Jared Franklin. “CMU has a proud history of allowing a diverse range of opinions to be civilly expressed in a manner consistent with academic freedom and the civil, free exchange of ideas. This event is an extension of that culture.”
Epstein is the director of the Center for Industrial progress and has spoken at Stanford, Duke, Rice, UCLA, CU Boulder and other universities. His remarks will include beliefs that, “mining, manufacturing, agriculture, chemistry and energy” result in “longer, happier, healthier, safer, more comfortable, more meaningful, more opportunity-filled life."
Epstein joins a long list of recent campus guests representing a litany of politically diverse speakers, academics and lectures who visited campus in 2019-2020. The list of past campus speakers includes Rachel Wegner, Reo Leslie, Stephane Lessard, Mathew LaPlante, R.K. Russell, Art Goodtimes, Tim Hernandez, Lynne Garcia, Stacy Ulbig, Stephon Ferguson, Fred Goldhammer, Trent England, Jonathan Thomson, Matt Rissell, Martin Cook, Penny Edgell, Michael Finnegan, Janet Heine-Barnett and Nita Mosby Tyler.
“CMU has hosted more than twenty national academics, activists, authors, athletes and celebrities during the last year,” said CMU Vice President of Academic Affairs Kurt Haas, PhD. “Freedom of expression is a principle that is alive and well through our faculty and student communities and is a defining feature of our institution.”
Community members interested in supporting future guest speakers and lecturers on campus are encouraged to contact the CMU Foundation.