I am a retired science teacher from Thornridge H.S. I have been involved with bringing information about climate change to my local communities since being trained in 2017 as a Climate Reality Project leader. I have presented at Thornridge H.S., Mothe McCauley H.S., Stagg H.S., Moraine Valley CC and Joliet Junior College, Sauk Calumet Sierra Club and St. Judes church in New Lenox.
In 2020, I learned about an organization called Pachamama where I had the opportunity to take a number of online courses that dealt with solutions to climate change as described in a book called Drawdown by Paul Hawken. Two fellow retired teachers, Janet Musil and Sharon White, joined me in the classes and we decided to form a local Pachamama chapter. Since that time we have presented to AAUW (American Association of University Women), Sierra Club, St. Judes, Sandburg H.S., Orland Park, Tinley Park, and New Lenox Rotary Clubs. For Earth Day 2021, we presented to the Homewood Science Center.
Our mission is twofold. We want to educate individuals about the issues of and solutions to climate change. And, we want to organize community members toward local activism.
2 topics · no fee, no honorarium, no mileage
Review available topics below. Use the “Request This Free Speech” button and fill out the contact form. Dorelle contacts you to discuss the details of the request.
Climate change is an immediate and serious threat that must be addressed this decade. We will briefly touch on the impact of climate change that is evident today as well as the basic science of global warming. However, our main focus will be on the fact that the solutions to climate change are already here. We have the technology to "drawdown" our atmospheric carbon dioxide and prevent catastrophic climate change.
The "doom and gloom" scenario often heard on the news is not the reality of sustainability. Instead, we will embrace grounded optimism that recognizes our achievements, acknowledges future uncertainites while remaining hopeful that what we do in the present will shape the future. We will invite participants to consider individual actions to reduce their carbon footprint while inviting participants to join us at a local level to advocate for community, state, national and international action.
Presentations are individually tailored to your group and we are especially excited to present to youth and school groups where we provide raffle prizes to motivate students to take action.
Are you concerned about our warming planet want to do your part to create a sustainable future? Is it possible to have a thriving economy today and protect our planet? According to Hannah Ritchie, a data scientist, it is! Now, let's learn how we, as individuals, can make this happen. Using Project Drawdown's "Explore" we will follow the science in choosing measurable actions to consider. Next, we will recognize that respectful conversations are key to magnifying our individual actions into community actions that will bend the warming curve down.
This presentation will explore the work of Jonathan Foley (Project Drawdown), Hannah Ritchie (Our World in Data) and Katharine Hayhoe (Chief Scientist for The Nature Conservancy) to give participants the information and resources they can use to create meaningful change.
The presentation will end by creating a group "word cloud" to remind us that in the words of Margaret Mead: “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”
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