<html><head><style type='text/css'>p { margin: 0; }</style></head><body><div style='font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10pt; color: #000000'><div style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span></span><span><strong>National Book Award-Winning Author Peter Matthiessen to Speak about Arctic Oil Drilling and its Impact on Native Peoples at the <span class="Object" id="OBJ_PREFIX_DWT607">August 6</span> MBL <span class="Object" id="OBJ_PREFIX_DWT608">Friday</span> Evening Lecture</strong><br style="font-weight: bold;"><br>MBL,
WOODS HOLE, MA—Two-time National Book Award-winning novelist and
nonfiction writer Peter Matthiessen will deliver the MBL Friday Evening
Lecture at 8:00 pm on <span class="Object" id="OBJ_PREFIX_DWT609">August 6</span> in the Lillie Auditorium, 7 MBL Street, Woods Hole. The event is free and open to the public.<br><br>In
recent years, Mr. Matthiessen has been traveling and writing in both
the Antarctic and Arctic, paying attention to the effects of climate
change and global warming, which happen to be most pronounced on the
Antarctic Peninsula and in northwest Alaska. In particular, he has
focused on the impact on the northern fauna with its corollary effect on
our indigenous Arctic peoples—the Inupiat of Alaska’s north and
northwest coasts and the Athapaskan caribou hunters called Gwii’chin,
who inhabit the forests north of the Arctic Circle in Alaska and Canada. <br><br>In
his MBL lecture titled “Arctic Americans and Ice Age Animals Versus the
Fossil Fuelers,” Mr. Matthiessen will discuss how the alarming retreat
of polar ice is exacerbated by the prospecting and development of
problematic offshore fossil fuel reserves under the Beaufort and Chukchi
Seas. He maintains that this threat, suspended in recent years, is
impending once again as the Obama administration’s energy proposals
include the leasing to the oil industry of both of these vast marine
areas more and more accessible under ice-free conditions.<br><br>Peter
Matthiessen is a two-time National Book Award winner, acclaimed
non-fiction writer, and environmental activist. His writings are best
known for their detailed imagery, impeccable clarity, and passion that
he imparts about the natural world, and have been credited with helping
to start the environmental movement in this country. Mr. Matthiessen’s
extensive travels have greatly influenced his work as a writer and
naturalist. He won his first National Book Award in 1980 for "The Snow
Leopard," an account of his two month journey with naturalist George
Schaller to Crystal Mountain, on the Tibetan Plateau in the Himalayas.
In <span class="Object" id="OBJ_PREFIX_DWT610">November 2008</span>, at
the age 81, he received his second National Book Award for "Shadow
Country," a revision of a trilogy of novels he released in the 1990s. <br><br>Mr.
Matthiessen received a bachelor’s degree in English from Yale
University where he also nurtured his interest in Zoology. After moving
to Paris in 1951, he founded "The Paris Review," an English language
literary magazine, and completed his first novel. Numerous honors and
awards can attest to Mr. Matthiessen’s sweeping achievements as a writer
and naturalist. In addition to numerous literary awards, he received
the Gold Medal for Distinction in Natural History from the Academy of
Natural Sciences in 1985, a Global 500 Environmental Achievement Award
from the United Nations Environmental Program in 1991, and a Lifetime
Achievement Award from the Lannan Foundation in 2002. He is currently a
MBL Trustee and has also served as a Trustee for the New York Zoological
Society. Mr. Matthiessen is a member of the American Academy of Arts
and Letters and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. <br><br>The remaining lectures in the MBL <span class="Object" id="OBJ_PREFIX_DWT611">Friday</span> Evening Lecture series are below. For more information, visit <span class="Object" id="OBJ_PREFIX_DWT612"><a target="_blank" href="http://www.mbl.edu/FEL">www.mbl.edu/FEL</a></span><br><br><span class="Object" id="OBJ_PREFIX_DWT613">August 13</span>, 2010<br>Joshua Lederberg Lecture - "Telomere Biology in Aging and Cancer" - Woodring E. Wright, UT Southwestern Medical Center <br><br><span class="Object" id="OBJ_PREFIX_DWT614">August 20</span>, 2010<br>"Establishing
a Body Plan: Maternal Control of Axis Formation in Drosophila" - Sager
Lecture - Trudi Schupbach, Princeton University; Howard Hughes Medical
Institute <br><br>—###—<br><br>The MBL is a leading international,
independent, nonprofit institution dedicated to discovery and to
improving the human condition through creative research and education in
the biological, biomedical and environmental sciences. Founded in 1888
as the Marine Biological Laboratory, the MBL is the oldest private
marine laboratory in the Americas.<br><br> <br><br><br><br>-- <br><span></span>Gina Hebert<br>Associate Director of Communications<br>Marine Biological Laboratory<br>7 MBL Street<br>Woods Hole, MA 02543<br>Tel: <span class="" id="OBJ_PREFIX_DWT615"><a href="callto:+1508-289-7725" onclick="window.top.Com_Zimbra_Phone.unsetOnbeforeunload()">508-289-7725</a></span><br>Fax: <span class="" id="OBJ_PREFIX_DWT616"><a href="callto:+1508-289-7934" onclick="window.top.Com_Zimbra_Phone.unsetOnbeforeunload()">508-289-7934</a></span><br>Web: <span class="Object" id="OBJ_PREFIX_DWT617"><a target="_blank" href="http://www.mbl.edu/">http://www.mbl.edu</a></span><br><span></span><br></span></div><span id="c901b474-817c-4a42-b66a-fab847aeb11d"><br></span><br><span id="c901b474-817c-4a42-b66a-fab847aeb11d"><br>-- <br><span name="x"></span>Gina Hebert<br>Associate Director of Communications<br>Marine Biological Laboratory<br>7 MBL Street<br>Woods Hole, MA 02543<br>Tel: 508-289-7725<br>Fax: 508-289-7934<br>Web: http://www.mbl.edu<br><span name="x"></span><br></span></div></body></html>