Originally broadcast at 1:00 p.m. ET Thursday, July 29, 2021.

In the footsteps of great naturalists and explorers through history, Carpenter fell into a career as a wildlife filmmaker for Nat Geo and Discovery. Walking with elephants, diving with dolphins, she saw how the natural world was fraying, to their detriment, and ours. Whether feathers, hooved or finned, the world’s wildlife now faces a common foe – climate change. Some habitats too hot, some too dry, some too acidic, with seasons changing at the wrong times. And in the eye of the larger and growing storm – wildlife and humans in peril, too. On her journey, she found trouble but also hope, in the incredible people working globally to protect us all. Now with a job in the resilience business, she at last has gotten the chance to focus on solutions. Join Carpenter as she tells of her travels with elephants, capybaras, gators, whales and whooping cranes, and the other coal-mine canaries of our world – and how she learned to love strong tents and strong coffee on the shores of lakes screaming with boisterous flamingos along the way. Ever heard of schistosomiasis? Climate may be changing, but there is plenty we can do. Speaker Bio: Katie Carpenter is an award-winning documentary filmmaker specializing in environmental subjects for television. She was a producer on the six-hour series “Ocean Warriors” and the feature documentary “Chasing the Thunder”, covering the crusade to curtail illegal fishing around the world. Carpenter produced three National Geographic film specials, “Battle for the Elephants”, “Warlords of Ivory” and “Bones of Turkana”, as well as “Hundred Heartbeats” for MSNBC, and the Emmy-nominated documentary “A Year on Earth” for Discovery. Her film work has taken her all over Africa, Asia, and Latin America, covering the needs of wild places and creatures, and growing concerns about climate change. Currently, she works for Resilient Enterprise Solutions, managing marketing and communications for a company that provides home elevations and flood proofing on our Atlantic and Gulf coasts. For RES, she writes articles and produces videos about the risks of rising waters for audiences in coastal communities, and advocates for the protection of increasingly anxious shore-dwellers.

About Chautauqua Institution: Chautauqua Institution is a community on the shores of Chautauqua Lake in southwestern New York state that comes alive each summer with a unique mix of fine and performing arts, lectures, interfaith worship and programs, and recreational activities. As a community, we celebrate, encourage and study the arts and treat them as integral to all of learning, and we convene the critical conversations of the day to advance understanding through civil dialogue. CHQ Assembly is the online expression of Chautauqua Institution's mission.