Our guest speaker this week was Dr. Elizabeth Bagley, Director of Drawdown Learn at Project Drawdown, speaking to us on a pre-recorded video from Sitka, Alaska. Dr. Bagley received her undergraduate degree from UW-Madison as well as her Ph.D. jointly in Environment and Resources and Educational Psychology. She is clearly well suited to teach us about environmental issues in understandable terms.
“Drawdown” refers to that point at which human-made atmospheric chemicals that support climate change and warming begin to decline. Dr. Bagley offered us a number of ways that we can arrive at this point of drawdown, beginning immediately. These solutions fall under three broad categories: Reduce the Sources of climate change; support the natural Heat Sinks that reduce these pollutants; and help Society make necessary changes. All of these solutions, she argues, are possible right now.
Drawdown and ESRAG (an environmental group within Rotary International represented here by Paul Riehemann and Karen Kendrick-Hands) advocate planting millions of trees that will reduce carbon dioxide levels of the atmosphere. Support electricity reform such as solar and wind power. Reduce food waste and increase composting. Reduce leaks of harmful refrigerants into the atmosphere where they do their thing: trapping heat. Reform transportation by increasing the use of electric vehicles and bicycles. Heat sinks can be supported by agricultural practices, the planting of trees, and the restoration of damaged ecosystems. Society can be mobilized in the effort by reforming practices in health and education.
Dr. Bagley suggested solutions that are not pie-in-the-sky or wildly expensive, and that are actually already being done in places around the world with support from organizations like Rotary. She grew up on a sheep farm in western Wisconsin and earned undergraduate and graduate degrees from a great research university. The combination has produced an articulate, knowledgeable, and practical worker in the cause of preventing catastrophic change in our atmosphere. Our thanks to Elizabeth Bagley for her presentation this week and to Rich Leffler for preparing this review article. If you missed our meeting this week, you can watch it here: https://youtu.be/zI899HBa4bI.
Rotary Club of Madison, Wisconsin 