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The university recently presented its annual Friend of the Earth awards to Naomi Oreskes, professor of the history of science at Harvard University, and Bob Prescott, director of the Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary as a part of its 2015 Earth Days Week celebration.

Prior to the presentation, Oreskes delivered the keynote speech before a large Slater Lecture Hall audience, addressing how the balance of scientific research and politics affect measures needed to stop global warming.

Oreskes is the author The Collapse of Western Civilization: A View from the Future and Merchants of Doubt: How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Global Warming. A documentary adaptation of the book has recently been released by Sony Picture Classics. "Through her work documenting the scientific consensus around climate change and exposing climate change deniers, Dr. Naomi Oreskes has issued a clarion call on the need to address climate change before it is too late," stated Marcos Luna, associate professor of geography. 

Also honored at the event was Prescott. "The efforts of the staff and volunteers of the Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary to save over a thousand endangered sea turtles have been heroic,” said Jennifer Jackman, professor of political science. “Most of the rescued sea turtles were Kemp Ridley, the most endangered species sea turtles, which nests in Mexico and have faced other threats to their survival, including the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill."

Past Salem State Friend of the Earth award recipients have been Jerry Bertrand, Wes Wilson, Francis Moore Lappe, Congressman John Tierney, Jan Schlichtmann, and Janet Domenitz.