Events
Special Event
Optimism, Optopia and Climate Change Stories
Focus on Environment and Sustainability Seminar Series
How can science fiction balance hopeful stories about environmental futures with current realities? What theory of social change should inform these stories? With dire climate change impacts already happening, what kinds of stories can inspire audiences to care about and become active on large-scale environmental issues?
Wildfire disaster, recovery, and resilience: what have we learned?
2024-2025 Focus on Environment and Sustainability Series
Wildfire recovery in the U.S., particularly in California, is a slow and complex process hindered by unique post-fire challenges like housing shortages, regulatory hurdles, and underinsurance, but innovative solutions are emerging to improve resilience and equity.
Grand Theft Eco: The iBear in the River
LENS screening of the first episode of Grand Theft Eco: Environmental Futures of Los Angeles.
Grand Theft Eco is a machinima series and pedagogical engine that repurposes the video game Grand Theft Auto to explore possible eco-futures of LA in the year 2050.
On Campus
UCLA-wide sustainability events calendar
For those interested in more campus events on the environment and sustainability, follow our friends at UCLA Sustainability.
UPCOMING EVENTS
Novel Ecologies: Nature Remade and the Illusions of Tech
A talk by Professor Allison Carruth
Please join us for a LENS book talk with Princeton Professor Allison Carruth on Wednesday, May 14 at 4pm.
PAST EVENTS
Oppenheim Lecture: California’s Climate Future
Over the past few years, Californians have seen first-hand the consequences of hotter-than-normal temperatures and a smaller-than-normal Sierra Nevada snowpack, including historically low reservoir levels, dying trees, and increased wildfire…
Research Talk: What Climate Change Means for the Sierra Nevada—and California
Over the past few years, Californians have seen first-hand the consequences of hotter-than-normal temperatures and a smaller-than-normal Sierra Nevada snowpack, including historically low reservoir levels, dying trees, and increased wildfire…
Spotlight on Sustainability: Preparing Your Company for Water Resiliency
The Corporate Partners Program of UCLA’s Institute of the Environment and Sustainability is proud to present: Spotlight on Sustainability: Preparing Your Company for Water Resiliency UCLA water experts and business…
Drilling the City
More than 580,000 people live within a quarter mile of these sites, which bring toxic chemicals and air pollution—posing serious health threats to families, schools and communities. Please join UCLA…
Extinction! Fear and Hope at the La Brea Tar Pits
Extinctions happen all the time—evolution can't move forward without them. But mass extinctions are a different beast, wiping out large numbers of species regardless of how well adapted they are. Join us and the La Brea Tar Pits—home to extinct saber-toothed cats, dire wolves and mammoths—for a lively conversation about endangered plants and animals, extinction and the global consequences of mass extinction.
