
At its root, the formula for a great dinner party is pretty simple: find a bunch of people with unique and interesting perspectives, bring them together, ask a few questions and get them talking. You don’t know what exactly will happen—and that’s part of the fun.
We took the same approach with a Twitter chat we held a few weeks ago, inviting a group of some pretty impressive (if we do say so ourselves) activists and media professionals with distinct points of view on the state of climate action today to join us and get talking.
So Who Was at the Table?
- Sam Champion, America’s most-watched weather anchor and managing editor at The Weather Channel.
- Xiuhtezcatl Martinez, youth director of Earth Guardians and all-around climate hero (he gave an incredible and powerful speech at the UN General Assembly earlier this year, in case you missed it).
- Vanessa Hauc, an Emmy Award-winning journalist for the Telemundo Network and co-founder of Sachamama, an organization committed to educating and empowering the Latino community on the importance of preserving the planet.
- Harriet Shugarman, Climate Reality Leader and executive director of Climate Mama, an organization focused on educating and engaging families in the movement for climate solutions.
- Sergio Carlo, actor, radio host, and soon-to-be Climate Reality Leader (he’ll be joining us in Miami for our training taking place Sept. 28-30).
So What Did They Talk About?
When you get five strong voices like these together, you can easily cover a lot of ground. We’re headed to Florida to train new Climate Reality Leaders this month. And in Florida, state employees were allegedly told not to say the words “climate change” in public. Of course, we’re going to be training these new leaders how to effectively say “climate change” in public online, in the media, and pretty much everywhere else.
With that in mind, we wanted to get these five talking about what they know best—strategies for getting loud about climate change, even when it’s considered rebellious or difficult. We know that facing climate change can sometimes feel overwhelming, but the good news is that there are a lot of really smart people facing it together and sometimes you just have to take the first step. And with that, it was time to get on to the questions.
First, we wanted to know: Can one person make a difference in combatting climate change?
Movements throughout history have started from the commitment passion and dedication of an individual carried by the community #crinflorida— Earth Guardians (@Earth Guardians)1441217634.0
A2 Absolutely “if u think ur 2 small 2 make a difference, try going 2 sleep in a room with a mosquito.” #crinflorida https://t.co/uT95INWsCA— Climate Mama (@Climate Mama)1441217367.0
@vanessahauc Important points, Vanessa, as citizens it's imperative to use these tools to send messages to those seeking office!!— Chris Hull (@Chris Hull)1441217703.0
@ClimateReality @CLIMATEMAMA @earthguardians Yes! one person can, and if no one does no one can...so each person must! #CRinFlorida— Sam Champion (@Sam Champion)1441217413.0
Why do you think people deny climate change, especially in places at higher risk like Florida?
@ClimateReality A4: People remember what's around them now, so it's hard for them to see the impacts of climate change #CRinFlorida— Sam Champion (@Sam Champion)1441217932.0
A3: @ClimateReality It's too scary to think of for many people. We don't have time to bury our heads in the sand. #CRinFlorida— Social Good Moms (@Social Good Moms)1441217977.0
Are there some communities that are impacted more by climate change than others?
@ClimateReality A5: Yes there are communities that are more vulnerable, but as #climatechange continues all risk increases #CRinFlorida— Sam Champion (@Sam Champion)1441218353.0
A5. Those least responsible 4 causing #climatechange, often most impacted; children, poor, people of color #crinflorida @EarthGuardianz— Climate Mama (@Climate Mama)1441218422.0
At #CrinFlorida (The upcoming Climate Reality training in Miami, Florida), one of our themes is Latinos raising their voices on climate change—which is exciting. Why is climate change an important issue for Latinos?
A6a This is a vital issue for Latinos Our community is one of the most vulnerable to the effects of Climate Change! https://t.co/oFKBXQhRix— VANESSA HAUC (@VANESSA HAUC)1441218940.0
Latinos see climate change as a consequence of human activity at higher % than other Americans. http://t.co/XixyGBY5Vb #CRinFlorida— Moms Clean Air Force (@Moms Clean Air Force)1441219010.0
What are they top three things people can do to help solve climate change?
@ClimateReality A8 Know ur community's risks, know ur footprint, take steps to reduce ur impact - importantly talk to friends #CRinFlorida— Sam Champion (@Sam Champion)1441219902.0
Get inspired, educated, involved, and take action through connecting to your passions to change the world #crinflorida— Earth Guardians (@Earth Guardians)1441220043.0
The news can be gloomy sometimes. What keeps you going as you work on climate?
@ClimateReality A9 I notice younger generations care more than mine, & I believe we can change habits & live in a clearer world #CRinFlorida— Sam Champion (@Sam Champion)1441220301.0
To think of future generations they deserve everything that we had: a safe & beautiful planet to live #CRinFlorida https://t.co/Wm6rhJ4iaJ— VANESSA HAUC (@VANESSA HAUC)1441220302.0
A lot of progress has been made this year. What give you #ClimateHope for the future?
@ClimateReality A10. Efforts already by @POTUS are very encouraging— No Planeta B! (@No Planeta B!)1441220787.0
A10 twitter chats like #CRinFlorida ... we can make a difference together! #ClimateHope— Lynn Hasselberger (@Lynn Hasselberger)1441220849.0
And with that, we had to wrap it up. Even the greatest dinner parties and conversations have to come to a close eventually. But talking with thoughtful and committed activists like our five guests and watching the creative ways they’re working for climate solutions—from bringing climate consciousness to hip-hop to speaking on the issue through the media to addressing world leaders at the UN to reaching out to families—gives us a whole lot of #ClimateHope and we’re hungry to come back for seconds.
If there was one thing to take away from the chat, it’s the simple message that one person can do so much. Anyone can take climate action today and if you’re ready to make a real difference, join us as a Climate Reality Leader at an upcoming training.
Visit the Climate Reality Leadership Corps page to stay updated on future trainings. With a global deal to limit greenhouse gas emissions on the table at the UN’s climate conference in Paris this year, it's more important than ever that we build strong public support so world leaders know: we want a clean, healthy, and prosperous future—and getting there starts with stopping climate change.
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By Katherine Kornei
Clear-cutting a forest is relatively easy—just pick a tree and start chopping. But there are benefits to more sophisticated forest management. One technique—which involves repeatedly harvesting smaller trees every 30 or so years but leaving an upper story of larger trees for longer periods (60, 90, or 120 years)—ensures a steady supply of both firewood and construction timber.
A Pattern in the Rings
<p>The <a href="https://www.encyclopedia.com/science/dictionaries-thesauruses-pictures-and-press-releases/coppice-standards-0" target="_blank">coppice-with-standards</a> management practice produces a two-story forest, said <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Bernhard_Muigg" target="_blank">Bernhard Muigg</a>, a dendrochronologist at the University of Freiburg in Germany. "You have an upper story of single trees that are allowed to grow for several understory generations."</p><p>That arrangement imprints a characteristic tree ring pattern in a forest's upper story trees (the "standards"): thick rings indicative of heavy growth, which show up at regular intervals as the surrounding smaller trees are cut down. "The trees are growing faster," said Muigg. "You can really see it with your naked eye."</p><p>Muigg and his collaborators characterized that <a href="https://ltrr.arizona.edu/about/treerings" target="_blank">dendrochronological pattern</a> in 161 oak trees growing in central Germany, one of the few remaining sites in Europe with actively managed coppice-with-standards forests. They found up to nine cycles of heavy growth in the trees, the oldest of which was planted in 1761. The researchers then turned to a historical data set — more than 2,000 oak <a href="https://eos.org/articles/podcast-discovering-europes-history-through-its-timbers" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">timbers from buildings and archaeological sites</a> in Germany and France dating from between 300 and 2015 — to look for a similar pattern.</p>A Gap of 500 Years
<p>The team found wood with the characteristic coppice-with-standards tree ring pattern dating to as early as the 6th century. That was a surprise, Muigg and his colleagues concluded, because the first mention of this forest management practice in historical documents occurred only roughly 500 years later, in the 13th century.</p><p>It's probable that forest management practices were not well documented prior to the High Middle Ages (1000–1250), the researchers suggested. "Forests are mainly mentioned in the context of royal hunting interests or donations," said Muigg. Dendrochronological studies are particularly important because they can reveal information not captured by a sparse historical record, he added.</p><p>These results were <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-78933-8" target="_blank">published in December in <em>Scientific Reports</em></a>.</p><p>"It's nice to see the longevity and the history of coppice-with-standards," said <a href="https://www.teagasc.ie/contact/staff-directory/s/ian-short/" target="_blank">Ian Short</a>, a forestry researcher at Teagasc, the Agriculture and Food Development Authority in Ireland, not involved in the research. This technique is valuable because it promotes conservation and habitat biodiversity, Short said. "In the next 10 or 20 years, I think we'll see more coppice-with-standards coming back into production."</p><p>In the future, Muigg and his collaborators hope to analyze a larger sample of historic timbers to trace how the coppice-with-standards practice spread throughout Europe. It will be interesting to understand where this technique originated and how it propagated, said Muigg, and there are plenty of old pieces of wood waiting to be analyzed. "There [are] tons of dendrochronological data."</p><p><em><a href="mailto:katherine.kornei@gmail.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Katherine Kornei</a> is a freelance science journalist covering Earth and space science. Her bylines frequently appear in Eos, Science, and The New York Times. Katherine holds a Ph.D. in astronomy from the University of California, Los Angeles.</em></p><p><em>This story originally appeared in <a href="https://eos.org/articles/tree-rings-reveal-how-ancient-forests-were-managed" target="_blank">Eos</a></em> <em>and is republished here as part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story.</em></p>Earth's ice is melting 57 percent faster than in the 1990s and the world has lost more than 28 trillion tons of ice since 1994, research published Monday in The Cryosphere shows.
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Noreen Nunez lives in a middle-class neighborhood that rises up a hillside in Trinidad's Tunapuna-Piarco region.