Welcome to the 2021 Earth Day Workshops and Discussions, hosted by Wyoming Rising.
Wyoming Rising is happy to present two virtual events in honor of Earth Day.
In honor of Earth Day, April 22, Wyoming rising is presenting a slate of online events. In addition to our Earth Day Film Series we are presenting a Climate Simulation Workshop on April 22 and on April 25 we host a presentation & discussion of Climate Change And The Oceans on April 25. You must register in advance for these events. Links are provided in the event details below.
Earth Day Climate Simulator Workshop with Dan Cooper
Hosted by Wyoming Rising
7:00 pm MDT, Thursday, April 22
THE BIGGEST CHALLENGES FACING US ARE MADE UP OF
COMPLEX, INTERCONNECTED PARTS
People need better ways to understand
the full picture.
Climate Interactive is an independent, not-for-profit think-tank that grew out of MIT Sloan in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. Based on a long tradition of system dynamics modeling, our simulations and insights help people see connections, play out scenarios, and see what works to address climate change, inequity, and related issues like energy, health, and food.
Dan Cooper, longtime Wyoming outdoor enthusiast and Ambassador for the MIT/Climate Interactive simulator workshops will lead this real time, engaged workshop where you’ll be moving the levers of policy to design a future where we interrupt and transform predicted global warming.
Our workshop facilitator is Dan Cooper. Dan is a retired engineer and has lived in Casper for 14 years. He and Jennie live in a passive solar, carbon neutral house that Dan designed. They enjoy the Wyoming outdoors all year, hiking, bicycling, cross-country skiing, and snowshoeing.
Dan has been interested and increasingly concerned about climate change for 60 years. He has completed En-Roads Climate Ambassador training. En-Roads is an interactive climate simulator that runs on a laptop or PC. We will move the levers of policy to design a future where we can transform predicted global warming. If you have questions about how a climate model works, we can learn about its inputs, and change them to see the effects. It’s an awesome exercise in systems thinking where you will learn and meet people who share the vision for transforming our emissions. We expect participants from across Wyoming and you can build your network for statewide engagement.
Here is the Zoom Meeting link to register for the climate simulator workshop
• When: Apr 22, 2021 07:00 PM Mountain Time (US and Canada)
• Register in advance for this online workshop:
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZ0kc-qppzkrG9N2Obl_WvFhvA6WvqGabZ8R
• After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.
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Earth Day Discussion with Ronn Smith
Climate Change and the Oceans: Short-term Cushion and Long-Term Calamity
April 25, 2021 4:00-5:00 pm:
The ocean and coasts provide critical ecosystem services such as carbon storage, oxygen generation, food and income generation.
Coastal ecosystems like mangroves, salt marshes and seagrasses play a vital role in carbon storage and sequestration. Per unit of area, they sequester carbon faster and far more efficiently than terrestrial forests. When these ecosystems are degraded, lost or converted, massive amounts of CO2 – an estimated 0.15-1.02 billion tons every year – are released into the atmosphere or ocean, accounting for up to 19% of global carbon emissions from deforestation. The ecosystem services such as flood and storm protection that they provide are also lost.
The impacts of ocean warming and acidification on coastal and marine species and ecosystems are already observable. For example, the current amount of CO2 in the atmosphere is already too high for coral reefs to thrive, putting at risk food provision, flood protection and other services corals provide. Moreover, increased GHG emissions exacerbate the impact of already existing stressors on coastal and marine environments from land-based activities (e.g. urban discharges, agricultural runoff and plastic waste) and the ongoing, unsustainable exploitation of these systems (e.g. overfishing, deep-sea mining and coastal development). These cumulative impacts weaken the ability of the ocean and coasts to continue to perform critical ecosystem services.
Ronn Smith – Chair of Wyoming Rising, hosts an on-online presentation on the important and often overlooked ways the oceans impact and are impacted by climate change. Ronn is an engineer specializing in air quality compliance, atmospheric dispersion modeling, process engineering, and statistical analysis. He taught thermodynamics, math and physics for 15 years at Sheridan College and Northwest College. Recently he developed and published a simple energy balance model incorporating the five dominant factors and feedbacks that drive human-caused global warming.
There will be a brief slide show followed by questions and discussion. Any question related to climate science or policy will be entertained.
Here is the Zoom Meeting link to register for the discussion
• When: Apr 25, 2021 04:00 PM Mountain Time (US and Canada)
• Register in advance for this meeting:
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZEqduqrrDIsH9QpxOuOlYntl_r52EwDgYlC
• After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.