SALT LAKE CITY – Local climate activist Dr. Patrick Belmont will present a late afternoon seminar at the University of Utah on Thursday, Feb. 19.
Sponsored by the WEST Speaker Series, that seminar entitled “The Work Ahead: Building a Future Worth Inheriting” is scheduled to be held at 3:40 p.m. in Room 2950 on the second floor of the Carolyn and Kem Gardner Commons Building.
“Despite remarkable advances in knowledge and technology over the past century,” according to Belmont, “human civilization appears to be on a collision course with physics and ecology.
“This seminar explores why, what a sustainable trajectory might require and the roles of science and higher education in helping us get there.”
Belmont is a well-known professor of Watershed Sciences at Utah State University.
A former vice-chair of Logan’s Renewable Energy and Sustainability Advisory Board (RESAB), Belmont quit that panel in 2025 in protest over decisions by Municipal Council members committing the city to long-term dependence on fossil fuels for energy production.
Since then, Belmont has been a persistent and vocal critic of Logan’s energy policies.
The USU professor explains that his seminar on Feb. 19 will bring together two decades of research and a lot of reflection on why humans stay stuck on a path that fails to protect our planet for future generations.
“I don’t have all the answers,” Belmont admits. “But I’m seeing some of the key patterns much more clearly than I used to and I’m ready to get some new conversations started.”
The Carolyn and Ken Gardner Commons Building is located at 260 Central Campus Drive on the UofU campus in Salt Lake City.