N.Y. Times Reporter Brings Environmental Message to UA on Earth Day

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Matthew L. Wald, a Washington bureau reporter for The New York Times, will speak on “A Low Carb Diet for the Planet: Sustainability Perspectives from Transportation and Energy” at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, April 22 (Earth Day), in room 127 in the Biology Building at The University of Alabama.

The lecture is free and open to the public.

Wald’s talk is part of Alabama Perspectives on Sustainability and Climate Change, a program in UA’s College of Arts and Sciences. The two-year program of lectures, exhibits, forums and discussions brings to campus and the Tuscaloosa community national experts to address the science, politics, economics and ethics of energy sustainability, climate change and its related social impacts.

Wald also will be a featured speaker Thursday, April 22, for Journalism Day at UA’s journalism department in The College of Communication and Information Sciences. New College, the College of Arts and Sciences and the journalism department are co-sponsors of the visit.

Wald’s appearance is made possible by the UA Campus Readership Program that brings nearly 800 copies daily of The New York Times and USA Today to campus to be used in classes. The program is funded by the Office of the Provost.

Wald covers transportation for the Washington bureau of the Times. He specializes in aviation and highway safety. He also writes about environmental and energy issues.

Before joining the Washington bureau in September 1996, he covered transportation for the metropolitan desk for three years. From October 1993 to February 1998, he covered energy and environment for Business Day.

Wald joined The Times in October 1976 as a news clerk in the newspaper’s Washington bureau and moved to New York in July 1977 as a member of the metropolitan staff.  Assigned to the Stamford, Conn., bureau in February 1978, he transferred in May 1979 to the State Capitol in Hartford, where he worked until the end of 1982.

He returned to New York City and the metropolitan desk to specialize in housing and nuclear power. In July 1985, he became a national correspondent in Boston and served there until he joined the business-financial staff in September 1987.