The history department at Ohio State Marion, the Norman Thomas Memorial Endowment Fund, and Fahey Bank welcome Senior Research Specialist at Greenpeace USA, Charlie Cray to the Marion campus as the featured speaker for the 46th Annual Norman Thomas Memorial Lecture, Wednesday, April 18th at noon in Maynard Hall’s Guthery Community Room.
Cray will present a lecture entitled, “Climate Change and Environmental Activism: Greenpeace and the Fight to Defend Our World.” He will discuss the issues of climate change, government policy, campaigns for sustainability, and the work of Greenpeace in the 21st century.
Charlie Cray specializes in corporations & democracy, GMOs, toxics, and fracking. He joined Greenpeace USA's research team in 2010. He has appeared on “Democracy Now” and has been mentioned in the Chicago Tribune and LA Times, and he keeps his own blog on Huffington Post. Between 1989 and 1999, Cray was a member of the Greenpeace Toxics Campaign, organizing campaigns to shut down toxic waste incinerators and phase out PVC plastics. Between 1999 and 2004, he helped edit Multinational Monitor magazine, directed the Campaign for Corporate Reform at Citizen Works, and co-authored The People's Business: Controlling Corporations and Restoring Democracy. He also co-founded the watchdog web site HalliburtonWatch.org. Between 2004 and 2010, Cray directed the Center for Corporate Policy, researching and publishing numerous articles and reports about a variety of topics related to corporate power and accountability, including corporate tax dodging, executive compensation, contractor accountability and corporate crime. Cray is a graduate of Amherst College, a Chicago native, and currently lives in Washington, D.C.
Greenpeace is a global, independent campaigning organization that uses peaceful protest and creative communication to expose global environmental problems and promote solutions that are essential to a green and peaceful future. Greenpeace continues to work to ban commercial whaling, convince the world's leaders to stop nuclear testing, protect Antarctica, and much more. Today, Greenpeace has grown into an international organization with offices in more than 50 countries.
Held annually at Ohio State Marion since 1972, The Norman Thomas Memorial Lecture was named in recognition of Norman Thomas, an American Presbyterian minister from Marion, Ohio, who achieved fame as a socialist, pacifist, and six-time presidential candidate for the Socialist Party of America. The lecture choses speakers from a wide variety of fields including, historians, labor leaders, educators, editors, and authors. All lecturers invited to speak have demonstrated concerns similar to those for which Norman Thomas lived—peace, social justice, rational discourse, and the expansion of democracy.
The Norman Thomas Memorial Lecture is free and open to the public. This annual lecture is organized by the history department at Ohio State Marion, and sponsored by the Harding/Thomas Endowment Fund, and Fahey Bank.