The History and Future of the Moon
Free and open to the public. There will be a reception at 5 P.M.
As the US prepares to resume manned missions to the moon for the first time since the Apollo program and corporations dream of mining the moon’s abundant natural resources, lunar landscapes may change more than they have in billions of years. This extraterrestrial extension of the Anthropocene could, ironically, ease the environmental footprint of humanity on Earth. But to understand the future of the moon, we must also understand its past. This lecture will detail the rich history of human fascination with and exploration of the moon, while also exploring what the future might hold as we embark upon the Lunar Anthropocene.
Biography
Dagomar Degroot, Ph.D., is an associate professor of environmental history at Georgetown University. His scholarship bridges the sciences and humanities to write histories that guide responses to today’s most urgent challenges. He is an expert on climate change, space exploration, and existential risk.
His newest book, Ripples on the Cosmic Ocean: An Environmental History of Our Place in the Solar System (2025), reveals how changes in cosmic environments have influenced the course of human history. He is also the author of The Frigid Golden Age: Climate Change, the Little Ice Age, and the Dutch Republic (2018), a book that, for the first time, explores how a society thrived in a period of pre-industrial climate change.
Professor Degroot is the lead editor of several volumes on the history of climate change, including the forthcoming Oxford Handbook of Resilience in the History of Climate Change.
He publishes equally in major scientific and historical journals, such as Nature and the American Historical Review, and writes for popular audiences in such sources as the Washington Post, Aeon, and The Conversation. He also creates popular online resources, most recently the award-winning podcast and video series, The Climate Chronicles.
He has been interviewed by many news outlets, including the New York Times and CNN, and has shared the unique perspectives of the past with policymakers, corporate leaders, journalists, and the public in many cities, from Wuhan, China, to Washington, DC.
Suggested Reading
Degroot, Dagomar. Ripples on the Cosmic Ocean: An Environmental History of Our Place in the Solar System. Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2025.
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