Tuesday, March 26, 2024

7 pm, Rio Grande Theater

Free and open to the public

Tim Davis, Attorney, WildEarth Guardians

Jonathan Juarez, Individual Plaintiff and Organizer with YUCCA

(Youth United for Climate Crisis Action) and No False Solutions

Jozee Zuniga, Permian Basin Resident, Organizer with YUCCA

The Pollution Control Clause of the NM Constitution: State Accountability for Oil and Gas Pollution Crisis in NM

Synopsis: 

A coalition of frontline community members, Indigenous people and youth filed a landmark lawsuit against New Mexico in May of 2023, charging Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s administration and the Legislature with violating the state constitution by failing to curb oil and gas pollution. This is the first lawsuit to hold the state government accountable to the state constitution’s 1971 pollution control clause, which mandates protection of the state's healthful and beautiful environment.” The lawsuit comes as oil production in New Mexico’s Permian Basin has increased nearly tenfold since 2010, leaving those in the area living in some of the most polluted areas in the country. In another region of the state, up in the Northwest Corner, the fracking boom has left tens of thousands of fracking sites across the Greater Chaco Landscape, contaminating the air, land, and water. The lawsuit, filed in New Mexico’s 1st Judicial District Court in Santa Fe, asks a judge to declare lawmakers and officials out of compliance with their constitutional duties. It also calls for the state to establish and fund enforcement tools that protect the environment and that new permits for oil and gas wells be suspended until the state complies.

Two plaintiffs and attorney Tim Davis will speak about the health and climate harms from oil and gas production and pollution in New Mexico. And they will articulate their views about the state’s constitutional duty to control oil and gas pollution and the remedies they seek. The talk provides an opportunity to consider how litigation is deployed to pursue progress when policy and legislation have fallen short.

 Tuesday, April 9, 2024

7 pm, Rio Grande Theater

Free and open to the public

Jason Laney, Warning Coordination Meteorologist

National Weather Service - El Paso/Santa Teresa

Climate Change: A "Hot" Topic for the NWS

Synopsis:

In the wake of what has turned out to be one of, if not the hottest summers ever both  locally and  globally, the NWS is doing its part to warn and educate the public not only of the dangers that heat possesses, but all of the extreme weather that is resulting from climate change. Faced with a looming climate crisis, NOAA and the NWS are meeting the challenge head-on by getting vital weather, water and climate information and data in the hands of community and business decision makers to reduce the impacts of climate change as we work to build a "Climate Ready Nation". 

We will look at the ways that our local El Paso NWS office communicated and warned on the excessive heat this past summer, including how they used a detailed risk assessment that was centered around local vulnerabilities to improve the local warning process.  Better yet, we will look ahead to the upcoming summer season to see if we can expect a repeat of 2023.

Tuesday, November 28, 2023

7 pm, Rio Grande Theater

Free and open to the public

Dr. Adriana L. Romero-Olivares

New Mexico State University

Fungi Under Global Climate Change and Impacts to Our Ecosystems

Synopsis:

Global climate change is affecting all organisms on Earth and fungi are no exception. In her research, Dr. Romero-Olivares addresses a major challenge: incorporating fungal responses and adaptation. She has discovered fungal mechanisms that govern ecosystem functioning under global climate change. This represents essential knowledge needed to develop solutions to ensure food supply, societal health, natural resource protection, and environmental sustainability under a changing climate.  

Dr. Romero-Olivares is a soil microbiologist interested in understanding how fungi respond and adapt to environmental stress to better understand and plan for the ecosystem-scale effects of global climate change. She earned her PhD from the University of California Irvine where she investigated the effects of global warming on the soil fungal communities of boreal forests in Alaska and consequences for decomposition and the carbon cycle. As a postdoctoral scholar in the University of New Hampshire, she studied fungal communities in temperate forests in New England experiencing long-term simulated warming and nitrogen pollution and impacts to the cycling of carbon. In her lab at New Mexico State University she and her team investigate fungi in desert ecosystems and how they respond and adapt to global climate change.  

 Tuesday, February 6, 2024

7 pm, Rio Grande Theater

Free and open to the public

Alaina Wood

Sustainability Scientist and Climate Communicator

A Case for Climate Optimism

Synopsis:

Presentation Canceled.  We hope to reschedule.

Without hope, movements are destined to fail. For far too long climate issues have been the sole focus of discussions around climate in the media and in the classroom. Because of that, many have developed eco-anxiety and given up on climate activism due to believing it is too late. In this talk, sustainability scientist and climate communicator Alaina Wood will make an argument for fair and honest coverage of both climate issues and solutions using her experience in media and activism. 

 Alaina Wood is sustainability scientist and award-winning climate communicator based in Appalachia. She holds a degree in sustainability and geography from the University of Tennessee, and her work as a scientist primarily focuses on addressing water pollution at waste facilities and land developments. Alaina is the founder of the online climate education platform @thegarbagequeen where she produces content on climate science, solutions, and activism for her global audience of over 500,000.