Cuban Next for New Speaker Series
National environmental correspondent David Schechter regaled Highland Park families with stories from trips made to places as far as the glaciers of Norway as he reports on climate change.
“This is the biggest story I’m aware of,” said the host of On the Dot, a former longtime WFAA senior reporter. “It’s happening everywhere.”
Schechter returned to CBS as a CBS News Innovation Lab member focused on climate change in 2022 after 16 years at WFAA.
“We just came back from Svalbard, Norway, which is the coolest work trip I’ve ever been on – 600 miles from the North Pole,” Schechter said. “It’s the fastest-warming place in the world, and we went there to show that what’s happening in the Arctic doesn’t stay in the Arctic. As it warms so quickly, it leads to sea level rise, which impacts the Texas coast and the East coast; it’s messing with the weather patterns.”
Aside from talking about what he learned about the impacts of climate change in his reporting, he also offered some solutions to the audience.
“I think spending a very small fraction of your time caring about the problem – if we all collectively put in a half a percent or a quarter of a percent – it’s a tremendous amount of our time,” Schechter said. “Then I’d say use it to help somebody else who’s doing more than that – who’s (spending) 90, 100% of their time caring about this issue.”
Schechter visited Highland Park High School as part of the inaugural Moody Speaker Series lecture. The next one, on Nov. 13, will feature Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban.
Executive Director Dr. Geoffrey Orsak said the Moody Innovation Institute established the speaker series “to involve our parents in the intellectual lives of their children.”
“I hope it’s a powerful experience for the families to realize that not only are they involved in the school district, but the school district also has things they can give to them, too,” Orsak said. “Here’s something in return, something that I know will be very entertaining and engaging they can do with their kid.”
Organizers plan to have fall and spring speakers, each connected to issues covered in classes in the Moody Advanced Professional Studies program at the high school, Orsak said. “We’re looking for people of some consequence.”
