People chase many things. A dog when it runs out of the house, the latest fashion trend, money, maybe even dreams. But few can say they chase what Terry Kemper does.

Mr. Kemper, a retired television executive and member of the East Hampton Fire Department, chases solar eclipses, and on Monday he will chase his 17th.

The solar eclipse is set to begin on the East Coast around 1:23 p.m., reach maximum sun coverage around 2:44, and end at 4. Here on Long Island, sky viewers will see only a partial (about 70 percent) solar eclipse, during which the moon will cover part of the sun’s disk, but anyone from South Carolina to Oregon will be in the path of totality, when the moon completely covers the sun.

While 17 eclipses might seem redundant, Mr. Kemper is just as excited for this one as he was for any other. In fact, after he saw his first one as a young boy in Winnipeg, Manitoba, he said, he was completely hooked.

This total solar eclipse is also special because it is the first one since 1778 to be seen only in the United States. Parts of South America, Africa, and Europe will see only a partial solar eclipse.

“Because it’s in the U.S., not in China, Australia, or Uganda,” where solar eclipses are more common, Mr. Kemper explained over the phone, this one “will be viewed by more people than probably have ever seen an eclipse before.”

To safely view or photograph the eclipse of the sun, people should use a filtering device; Mr. Kemper suggests purchasing No. 14 welder’s glass. While people in New York will have to wear or use the glass the entire time, those who are watching the eclipse where there will be totality can remove the glass during that approximately two-minute window.

Totality is what Mr. Kemper chases, which is why he will be traveling to Redmond, Ore., to watch the celestial event.

“There is something really mystical about it, the power of the universe,” he said. “It happens only this way on this planet, because, oddly, the sun is 400 times larger than the moon, but it’s 400 times farther away, so the two are exactly the same size in that moment.”

For those not luckily enough to travel elsewhere for the eclipse, there will be plenty of observation events on the East End. The South Fork Natural History Museum in Bridgehampton will hold one from 1 to 4 p.m. SoFo will distribute eclipse shades, and Montauk Observatory astronomers will be on hand to help operate the solar telescopes.

If the weather does not hold out, the museum will have the eclipse streamed live by NASA and displayed on a big screen in SoFo’s barn. During the totality, viewers will be able to see Venus, Mercury, Jupiter, and Mars.

Admission is free for those attending the eclipse event at SoFo, but attendees who want to enter the museum will pay $10 for adults, $7.50 for kids ages 3 to 12. Admission is free for children under 3 and museum members.

Similar events will take place at the East Hampton Library from 1:20 to 3:50 p.m., at the John Jermain Memorial Library in Sag Harbor at 1:15, and at the Parrish Art Museum in Water Mill starting at 1. Eclipse glasses will be distributed at each of them, though supplies are limited.

Tickets for the Parrish lawn event are $12, free for members and students. Reservations in advance have been strongly encouraged, and blankets or lawn chairs for outdoor viewing have been suggested. The Parrish, too, will have Montauk Observatory astronomers helping with telescopes, and there will be a live streaming of the total eclipse in the Lichtenstein Theater.

A sighting like this won’t happen again until 2024.

Representative Lee Zeldin of New York’s First Congressional District has echoed President Donald Trump’s assertion that several groups were responsible for the violence on Saturday in Charlottesville, Va., in which one woman was killed and 19 others seriously injured when a car was intentionally rammed into a crowd.

Unite the Right, a rally by some 500 people categorized as “alt-right” activists, many bearing Confederate and Nazi banners, was organized to protest the planned removal of a statue of Gen. Robert E. Lee, who commanded the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia during the Civil War.

• RELATED: East Hampton Task Force Issues Charlottesville Statement

On Friday night, the group, bearing torches, marched in the city, sometimes chanting slogans including “blood and soil,” popularized in the 1930s by the Nazi Party in Germany. Skirmishes grew between the marchers and counter-protesters on Saturday, with anti-Semitic signs like “Jews are satan’s children” seen and shouts of “Jew” heard whenever the name of Charlottesville’s Mayor, Michael Signer, was mentioned.

 In Mr. Trump’s initial remarks on the confrontation that afternoon, he made no mention of white supremacists and said “many sides” were responsible for the violence. On his Facebook page, Mr. Zeldin, a Republican who was elected in 2014, wrote:

 “We are still learning the facts of what happened today in Charlottesville and there is evidence that the violence came from multiple groups and multiple sides and really no one can be defended who traveled to this beautiful, historic city for the sole purpose of causing physical harm to others. . . . For the protesters with pure, good, genuine, and peaceful purposes, I think it is very important you were brave enough to be there to lend your voice. For any of the protesters on either side with extremist views and violent purposes, you are 100-percent completely in the wrong.”

Asked to clarify and define the groups and sides to which Mr. Zeldin referred, Jennifer DiSiena, Mr. Zeldin’s communications director, said in an email that “while both sides are of course certainly not equals, violent acts were being committed from both sides of the protest, not just one side.” Ms. DiSiena cited statements posted on Twitter, including a tweet by Sheryl Gay Stolberg, a New York Times reporter, which said, “The hard left seemed as hate-filled as alt-right. I saw club-wielding ‘antifa’ [anti-fascists] beating white nationalists being led out of the park.” On Sunday, Ms. Stolberg amended her tweet. “Rethinking this. Should have said violent, not hate-filled. They were standing up to hate.”

Ms. DiSiena also cited another reporter’s tweet stating that counter-protesters were using pepper spray, and a report that Jason Kessler, an organizer of the white activists’ rally, had been chased and tackled by “violent protesters.”

On Monday, facing growing criticism for apparently drawing a moral equivalency between the white supremacists and counter-protesters, Mr. Trump condemned the Ku Klux Klan and neo-Nazis. He reverted to his original stance, however, in a combative exchange with reporters on Tuesday, asserting that “there is blame on both sides” and “not all of those people were neo-Nazis, believe me.”

On Monday, Perry Gershon, an East Hampton resident who would like the Democratic Party’s nomination to challenge Mr. Zeldin next year, wrote on his Facebook page, “At least a White House spokesman has finally condemned white supremacists for the tragedy in Charlottesville — 36 hours later. Lee Zeldin is still drawing a moral equivalence between the two ‘extremes.’ Shame on him.”

On Tuesday during an East Hampton Town Board meeting, Supervisor Larry Cantwell commented on the violence in Charlottesville,  saying, “The hate and violence that occurred in Virginia must be denounced and it must be condemned by all of us on every level in every community throughout the country. White supremacists, Nazis, and the Ku Klux Klan and the hate and violence they represent are anti-American and represent a plague on our democracy. We are very proud of this country, but we, all of us, must and should stand against what these groups represent.”

 Speaking on behalf of the board, he continued. “Even though it’s on a national-level issue, I think all of us have to stand up and denounce what happened there and what it represents. And we really have to stop the hate and violence in this country. I think it starts with all of us speaking out against the hate and violence, and all of those who participate in it.”

With reporting by Joanne Pilgrim

More than 20 local, state, and federal agencies and East End police departments began a "dirty bomb" interdiction exercise in Gardiner's Bay on Thursday, which will continue through Saturday with safety checks of recreational and commercial boaters.

In a statement from Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo's office, Operation Blue Trident was described as a way to help make sure Long Island's bays and harbors do not provide a "natural sanctuary for potential smuggling of terrorists and/or radiological devices to the New York City metropolitan area."

The participating agencies, including East Hampton Town Marine Patrol and the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, have deployed vessels in eastern Long Island waters. Roughly 100 personnel are taking part.

The exercise is not in response to a specific threat, Ed Michels, the chief harbormaster of the Town Marine Patrol, said.

D.E.C. officers working from a temporary command post at Stony Brook University's Southampton Campus, helm the exercise.

It was described as the first of its kind off eastern Long Island and was planned in keeping with the guidelines of the Homeland Security Exercise and Evaluation Program, the governor's office said.

The Division of Homeland Security, the Emergency Services Office of Counter Terrorism, New York State police, United States Coast Guard Sector Long Island, U.S. Customs and Border Patrol, and the National Marine Fisheries Service are participating, as are the New York State Police Department and officers from the Southampton, Southold, Shelter Island and other East End police departments..

"It is a good thing that we work together," Chief Michels said. He explained that the operation was the largest his agency had ever been a part of and that it was an important test of communication systems.

According to Basil Seggos, the D.E.C. commissioner, an initial phase of the exercise took place during the first two weeks of August, focusing on marinas and other shoreline facilities and checking compliance with water protection regulations.

The second phase of the exercise, which began this week, included training in the interception of illicit radiological material, as well as checks of navigational safety, foreign vessel interdiction, and marine fisheries and water quality compliance.

Checks of boaters are to continue through the weekend, the governor's office said, with an eye toward boating-while-impaired enforcement, threats to water quality, such as unsecured marine sanitation devices, threats to fishery stocks, and general navigational safety.

The D.E.C. has coordinated similar joint training exercises on Lake Erie and Lake Ontario and, last year, Operation Clear passage on Lake Champlain.

The governor's office also announced that the Division of Homeland Security and the Emergency Services Office of Counter Terrorism would conduct about 70 counter-terrorism exercises on land this week. Law enforcement teams are checking numerous sites and facilities on Long Island, including public gatherings, truck companies, retail stores, and marinas.

In a statement, State Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr. praised the exercise. "At a time of increased risk to New York's security, law enforcement must be prepared for all eventualities. The State D.E.C. is to be commended for spearheading this effort."

Fresh Pond in Amagansett isn’t so fresh after all.

According to the Concerned Citizens of Montauk’s weekly water-quality test report, a tidal creek at the East Hampton Town waterfront park had an enterococcus level of 714 colony forming units, or viable cells, per 100 milliliters of water in a sample taken last week. This was significantly above the health standard of 104 cells, and indicates a high presence of potentially disease-causing feces in the water.

Pussy’s Pond, Springs, the Nature Trail in East Hampton Village, the third jetty at Georgica Beach, and the Cove Hollow access to Georgica Pond also had high bacteria counts in the latest C.C.O.M. tests. The Montauk Highway kayak launch access to Georgica Pond in East Hampton indicated a medium bacteria count.

Three locations in Lake Montauk had exceedingly high levels in previous test reports, but levels had fallen in the most recent samples. Little Reed Pond creek indicated a medium level of 85 cells, and East Creek and West Creek showed low levels.

Twenty-two other locations tested by C.C.O.C. had low or no detectable bacterial levels.

Update, Aug. 12, 12:40 a.m.: An outdoor fire in an East Hampton retail complex Friday night started in a Dumpster and extended to a large stack of wooden pallets, according to East Hampton Fire Department's First Assistant Chief Gerry Turza.

The fire was 25 feet from Hampton Beverage, and though the chief said it was unlikely it would have spread to the building, propane tanks stored in the vicinity were exposed to the radiant heat. "That could have been a problem," he said.

However, firefighters quickly put out the fire. One engine and a tanker truck responded.

Flames were visible from Pantigo Road, which is part of Montauk Highway, and passersby thought Hampton Beverage or Goldberg's Bagels was ablaze. When firefighters responded to 100 Pantigo Place, they found the fire in the area where the Dumpsters and stacks of pallets were kept, behind the hedge near the ice bins next to the parking area, Chief Turza said.

Neither Goldberg's Bagels or Hampton Beverage, which share the complex, sustained damage. 

Chief Turza said David Browne, the chief East Hampton Town fire marshal, was investigating the cause, though he said it did not appear suspicious.  

Originally, Aug. 11, 11:29 p.m.: The East Hampton Fire Department extinguished an outside fire by Goldberg's Famous Bagels in East Hampton on Friday night. Pallets outside of the bagel store at 100 Pantigo Place were ablaze when firefighters were called at about 10:45 p.m.

The call was initially reported a structure fire, but it was the pallets that were on fire. They were reportedly away from the building.  The East Hampton Town fire marshal's office is investigating the fire's cause. 

Firefighters were back in service by about 11:25 p.m.

Correction: Churchill Wines and Spirits is no longer in the complex. 

Sean P. Ludwick pleaded guilty on Tuesday to aggravated vehicular homicide, a felony, in the death of his passenger, Paul Hansen, in a car crash in Noyac in August 2015.

Appearing in the Central Islip courtroom of New York State Supreme Court Justice Fernando Camacho, Mr. Ludwick, 44, also pleaded guilty to leaving the scene of a fatal accident, also a felony, and aggravated drunken driving, a misdemeanor. He has been in custody since late 2015 after allegedly trying to flee the country.

Before entering those guilty pleas, Mr. Ludwick addressed Mr. Hansen's family, who packed the gallery in the small courtroom. "I just want to say I am very sorry. I feel awful for the circumstances," Mr. Ludwick said. "I humbly apologize to you, especially to Hunter and Austin," he added, referring to Mr. Hansen's two sons. Mr. Hansen was 53 at the time of his death and his sons were 14 and 11.

Following his apology, Mr. Ludwick faced the bench again. Justice Camacho explained that he had agreed to sentence Mr. Ludwick to three to nine years in state prison and that, in return, Mr. Ludwick was waiving any right to appeal. Raymond Varuolo, the prosecuting attorney, told the court that the people had requested a sentence of 5 to 15 years. The sentencing is scheduled for Oct. 18.

Mr. Ludwick was then required to answer a series of questions from Justice Camacho about the details leading up to and following Mr. Hansen's death. He admitted that he had been driving his 2013 Porsche convertible on Rolling Hills Court East at about 2:30 a.m. on Aug. 30, 2015, and that he was intoxicated. (A reading obtained five hours after his arrest, showed his blood alcohol content at .18.)

The two men were acquaintances, with their primary contact until that night being through their sons, who were friends, Mr. Hansen's family has said previously. Mr. Ludwick's son was sleeping over at Mr. Hansen's house that night. The two men apparently stopped at a couple of bars in Southampton during the course of the night. Drunk and driving in the dark down the cul de sac where Mr. Hansen's family lived, Mr. Ludwick passed Mr. Hansen's driveway a couple of times before crashing into a utility pole at high speed. The accident was yards away from Mr. Hansen's driveway.

Mr. Ludwick admitted that he drove away, leaving Mr. Hansen at the side of the road. Police have said previously that the car's tires were flat and that it was leaking fluids; it made it only about a quarter of a mile down the road. Police reported at the time that they found Mr. Ludwick standing by the side of the car.

Mr. Ludwick admitted all this in court on Tuesday. When Justice Camacho concluded, he asked if Mr. Ludwick had any questions. "Not at this moment," Mr. Ludwick answered.

"Well, this is the moment," Justice Camacho said, telling Mr. Ludwick that after he entered the guilty plea, there would be no turning back.

"It is completely clear. Thank you," Mr. Ludwick said. He was soon led away.

Now that the criminal process is concluded, the wrongful death suit launched against Mr. Ludwick by Katherine Hansen, his widow, can proceed, the Hansen family's lawyer, Scott Middleton, said outside the courtroom.

Robert Hansen, Paul Hansen's brother, has attended every court session over the past two years. When reporters asked him if he thought Mr. Ludwick's apology was heartfelt, Robert Hansen said, "I think we appreciated his words, is how I would say that, I think we just appreciated that he recognized that. Whether it was his true feelings or not his true feelings, I can't really tell you. You will have to ask him yourself."

No one was injured when a sport utility vehicle knocked down a utility pole, starting a fire on Daniel's Hole Road, near Hedges Lane, in Wainscott on Tuesday afternoon. 

Members of the East Hampton Fire Department responded to the accident at 3:25 p.m. Chief Ken Wessberg said the S.U.V. "slid across the road" just as it started raining heavily and hit the pole, cracking it at its base and bringing down electric wires. The pole fell away from the vehicle, across Daniel's Hole Road. 

"He didn't have a scratch on him," Chief Wessberg said of the driver. 

A fire started where the top of the pole hit the ground. Firefighters had to wait to extinguish the fire until PSEG-Long Island responded to turn off power in the area. 

A Bloomfield, N.J., man was taken to Sag Harbor Village Justice Court on Aug. 8 from Rikers Island, to be arraigned on charges of stealing tens of thousands of dollars by way of a skimming device placed on an automated teller machine outside the Bridgehampton National Bank on Bay Street. The man, Teck We Gim, 29, has already been charged in New York City and New Jersey with stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars via skimming devices.

“The state police did a fantastic job,” Sag Harbor Police Chief Austin McGuire said Friday. State troopers had pulled him over on Dec. 11 on Sunrise Highway and given him a traffic ticket. Later on, armed with images of Mr. Gim and his Porsche Cayenne, police used the ticket to prove the man was on the East End that day, the day he is alleged to have placed the skimmer at the bank in Sag Harbor.

Mr. Gim and his wife, Wendy, were not arrested until March 30, in Rochelle Park, N.J. Police there began investigating after a skimming device was found on an A.T.M. at a West Passaic Street bank earlier that month.

Lt. Dean Pinto of the Rochelle Park police explained on Friday how a skimmer works. Placed over the debit card portal on an A.T.M., it reads and stores the information contained on the card’s magnetic strip. It also records the PIN entered. The thief then uses the information to create counterfeit cards, giving full access to the victim’s bank account. “You can go online and buy these devices for maybe $2,000,” Lieutenant Pinto said.

A skimmer does not work with the new chip cards.

Using surveillance video, police in Rochelle Park soon identified the couple, and learned that besides their New Jersey residence they also maintained an apartment in Astoria, Queens. That brought the New York Police Department into the investigation. Ultimately, the N.Y.P.D. brought over 140 charges against Mr. Gim, including 96 felonies. These include many counts of identity theft causing loss, possession of a forged instrument, falsifying business records, criminal possession of stolen property, and grand larceny.

The New Jersey police raided the couple’s Bloomfield Hills house, then arrested Mr. Gim at a Porsche dealership. They seized a large amount of cash, along with his 2016 Cayenne and a 2015 Ford Explorer. He was taken to the Bergen County jail, charged with multiple counts of possession of a forgery device, trafficking in personal information, identity theft, accessing computer data to defraud another, and possession of property gained through illegal activity. He has since been indicted on the New Jersey charges.

He was turned over to New York City police three weeks later, on April 24, and was arraigned in Queens County Court. Bail was set at $250,000. Unable to make bail, he was sent to Rikers Island. Between then and now, apparently, police connected him to the skimming device at Bridgehampton National.

New York State troopers picked him up at Rikers on Tuesday and took him to Sag Harbor Village headquarters, where he was booked on the local charges, which include grand larceny. Justice Lisa R. Rana set bail at $50,000. After his arraignment, he was returned to Rikers Island, where he remains.

Wendy Gim, 39, who faces lesser charges, is currently free.   

The League of Women Voters of the Hamptons will celebrate the 100th anniversary of suffrage in New York State — three years before the ratification of the 19th amendment to the Constitution — next Thursday with the recreation of a rally that took place in East Hampton 104 years ago.

While New York celebrations have taken place throughout 2017, Arlene Hinkemeyer, the vice president of the League chapter, has focused on a 1913 event when East Hampton women gathered in the front yard of a house belonging to May Groot Manson, chairwoman of the executive committee of the Woman Suffrage League of East Hampton, to meet Harriot Stanton Blatch, the president of the Women’s Political Union.

Wearing white shirtwaists or skirts and gold sashes that read Votes for Women, more than 150 women then marched up the middle of Main Street to Town Pond for an open-air meeting.  A roadside historic marker was recently placed outside the house, at 117 Main Street.

“I’m in awe of the women that did all of this,” Ms. Hinkemeyer said. “It’s hard to imagine all of this took place.”

Women have been asked to wear white dresses next Thursday and to gather at 2 p.m. along the brick wall in front of the Manson house to recreate the march. Mary Jane Brock, who with her husband, Charles, now owns the house, will greet the marchers, and a snare drummer will lead the way up Main Street toward brief stops at Clinton Academy and at The East Hampton Star before ending with a program and refreshments at the East Hampton Library. 

Coline Jenkins, a descendant of Harriot Stanton Blatch and Elizabeth Cady Stanton — the co-head of the 1848 Seneca Falls Conference — will say a few words, as will East Hampton Village Mayor Paul F. Rickenbach Jr. and Hugh King, the village historian. Also expected to speak is Lieut. Gov. Kathy Hochul, chairwoman of the New York State Women’s Suffrage 100th Anniversary Commemoration Com­mission.

Ms. Hinkemeyer said she is expecting around 100 attendees, who might even wish to hold signs bearing the names of prominent 1913 marchers, and wear gold sashes, which will be sold for $10 to support the League of Women Voters. East Hampton High School students will make a short video of the events, to be shown on Oct. 19 at a Tom Twomey Lecture Series program on the suffrage centennial at the library.

The headline on an earlier version of this story gave the wrong year for the 1913 rally.

President Trump was repeatedly scorned by a full house at Guild Hall in East Hampton on Tuesday as the first Hamptons Institute discussion of 2017 focused on climate change and how to combat it.

Introduced by the actor Alec Baldwin and moderated by David E. Rattray, the editor of The Star, the event’s three panelists encouraged those in attendance to act individually and collectively, and to remain optimistic despite already visible manifestations of climate change and increasingly ominous warnings from scientists.

Rhea Suh, president of the Natural Resources Defense Council, told the gathering that in the nearly 50-year history of her organization, “I can unequivocally say this is the worst we’ve ever seen it,” with respect to the Trump administration’s denial of climate change and embrace of fossil fuels at the expense of a transformation to renewable energy that is well underway in other countries. “I can go through the several dozens of actions that this administration has already taken” in undoing progress made by the previous administration, she said, along with “the very disturbing signs that we’re seeing also from the legislative branch.”

These, she said, “represent twin threats that we’ve had in the past, but I don’t think we’ve had it quite at this level of magnitude.”

Naomi Oreskes, a professor of the history of science and affiliated professor of earth and planetary sciences at Harvard University, said that recent travel around the world illustrated that “people know the climate is changing, people accept the scientific evidence, people think it’s a serious problem, and people are trying to do things about it.” Returning to the United States, however, was “like going through some weird ‘Twilight Zone’ episode.”

Alex Soros, founder of the Alexander Soros Foundation, lamented “a president that is engaging in policies that are out of whack with the majority of the American people.”

That disconnect, the panelists said, is partly a result of democracy: Changes in the executive and legislative branches of government inevitably bring changes in policy. Another factor, Ms. Oreskes said, is the fact that climate information comes from scientists, “and I can tell you they’re terrible communicators. They don’t like to personalize things.” Consequently, climate change remains an abstract and distant concept, she said.

Regardless of federal policy, however, a majority of Americans recognize that climate change is real and man-made, Ms. Suh said, and there is ample cause for optimism even in the face of regressive policies at the federal level. Several states — and not just California and New York — are taking aggressive action to sharply reduce carbon emissions and implement a clean-energy infrastructure. “I think we are continuing to make progress regardless of the man that’s in the White House,” she said.

In New York, Ms. Suh said, there is a direct correlation between the Public Service Commission’s Clean Energy Standard and the South Fork Wind Farm, an offshore installation that Deepwater Wind, a Rhode Island company, hopes to construct approximately 30 miles from Montauk. She credited Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo for acting to transform the state’s electricity generation to clean and renewable sources.

But, she told Mr. Rattray, “I can’t help but get triggered. When you say ‘Deepwater Wind,’ I think ‘Deepwater Horizon,’ ” a reference to the largest marine oil spill in history, in which some 4.9 million barrels of oil were discharged into the Gulf of Mexico in 2010. “The reality that this administration wants to actually open up development, to actually expand that type of deepwater drilling, will have direct impact on coastal communities, like the one that we’re sitting in right now.”

Concerned citizens can look to the year 1970, when President Richard Nixon signed the National Environmental Policy Act and the federal Environmental Protection Agency was established, for inspiration, Ms. Oreskes said. “Nixon was acutely aware that the American people wanted this,” she said. “He was responding to the pressure of public opinion. That’s where we all come in.”

Many leaders, she said, are in fact followers. “We need to make sure that our congressmen, our senators, our local representatives, and our president hear from us, because they do respond to what they think voters think are going to do at the next election.”

Ms. Suh told the audience to take heart in the millions who have taken to the streets to protest the Trump administration, many of them first-time activists who “felt like they needed to stand up and speak out. . . . People want to know what they can do. It’s not just about calling a congressman or signing a petition, it’s what they can do in their own communities, in their own states.” A “movement moment” is upon us, she said.

With that in mind, Ms. Oreskes noted her surprise at the scarcity of solar panels on rooftops in East Hampton despite the affluence of many of its residents. For less affluent people, the up-front installation costs are a barrier, she said. “We need to think about micro-financing to help working-class families, middle-class families make that up-front investment. But in a well-off community, I think there’s no excuse for not having solar panels on your roof. . . . And it’s something you can do tomorrow.”

Another way individuals can lessen their impact on climate change, she said, is to reduce or eliminate beef consumption. Animal agriculture, according a report by the Worldwatch Institute, is responsible for at least half of global greenhouse-gas emissions.

Mr. Baldwin asked the panelists what larger-scale, immediate actions could be taken to mitigate the impacts of climate change.

“Stop subsidizing all fossil fuels,” Ms. Oreskes said, and cease construction of fossil-fuel infrastructure, “because every pipeline, every export terminal is committing us to 30, 50, 75 years of continued fossil-fuel use.”

Mr. Soros advocated an executive order banning hydraulic fracturing, the practice known as fracking, in which natural gas or oil is extracted from the earth, and a return to America’s positive engagement with the world. These, he acknowledged, are unlikely during the Trump administration.

“We should be moving to electrification of the vehicle,” Ms. Suh said, and be moving quickly to reduce carbon emissions from power plants.

“While we are in this time of great, great distress, don’t ever forget that you can make a difference,” she said. “It really is the basis of how we’ve always made progress in this country.”