Aftermath: Got Live if You Want It (The Making of Earth Day 2020)

YouTube links

Transportation and Ecology

Nature, Health and Built Environment

On the Impacts of Sea Level Rise in Florida

The Story

Many thanks to the nine speakers, two faciiitators (bios below) and those, who appear in the story below.

Last year on September 12th, Elizabeth Barnes, a friend of mine from my years in Santa Barbara, attended a talk with her then boyfriend Richard, a Harvard alumni .  The talk by Ken Hiltner was presented by the Harvard Club of Santa Barbara and co-sponsored by Community Environmental Council, one of my former employers and it took place at Alhecama Theater at El Presidio de Santa Barbara State Historic Park literally right behind the site of the house I used to live in.  Mr. Hiltner, who earned his Ph.D. at Harvard in 2006, is Chair of the Graduate Program in the Department of English and Director of the Environmental Humanities Initiative.  Ken's talk centered around the themes of his new book "Writing a New Environmental Era: Moving Forward to Nature."   Elizabeth excitedly called me afterward to let me know about Mr. Hiltner and the content of his presentation..

A search on  Professor Hiltner revealed that he is the author of a white paper entitled "A Nearly Carbon-Neutral Conference Model."  That find piqued my interest; I had never considered the benefits of holding a digital conference.  

Sometime in September, I reached out to Ted Brownstein, an adherent to the Bahá'í Faith, a religion (founded in 1863),  which recognizes the worthiness and unity of all Religions and people and whose governing body is situated in Haifa, Israel.  Shortly after reaching a shoreline community on the Lake Worth Lagoon from which the historical town of Jewel arose, Mr. Brownstein fand his wife Christine) found common purpose with neighbors in organizing an annual Earth Day celebration..  During our conversation, I learned that there was an opportunity to organize the 50th Anniversary of Earth Day.

In November, I met with Heather Danforth, the Vice-Chair of Congress of the New Urbanism's CNU of the Palm Beaches chapter at the Cultural Plaza, the historical location of Earth Day Festivals.  We walked up Lake Avenue and down Lucerne with the intention of siting an alternative location and shortly before arriving back at the Plaza, we discovered a delightful space at Social House LW.  Within a week we met with Jessica Gray, the Social House LW manager for a tour and commenced planning to hold an Earth Day Symposium on April 18, 2020 there.  

In late January, I reached out to Lise Van Susteren, M.D., a board member of the Earth Day Network, who in turn introduced me to Will Callaway, the National Campaign Director of the 50th Annivesary of Earth Day.  It was Mr. Callaway that asked me to record Hal Wanless the weekend before Earth Day.  Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk recorded Hal's presentation and forwarded it to Will (see link "On the Impacts of Sea Lavel Rise in Florida.")

In February, Anne Fairfax joined our organizing effort.

The three of us met at Social House on March 4th and toward the end of the meeting, I uttered the word Coronavirus and spoke with Anne about Ken Hiltner's white paper.  

Shifting to an electronic platform involved a learning curve and opened up new opportunities & risks.  it opened up the opportunity to reach out to presenters across the country, while reducing carbon footprint, travel time and expenses  At the same time, the learning curve also created discomfort for some potential presenters.

As the risks of COVID-19 became more apparent, Amanda Jungles shared a Raymond Jungles, Inc, announcement regarding US. CDC COVID-19 guidelines, social distancing and virtual meetings.  In late March, Ms Jungles introduced me to a Raymond Junges slide presentation via Zoom.

Along the way, Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk and Shannon Tracy suggested potential speakers.

In April, Heather brought on CNU of the Palm Beaches Officer Roya Edwards and audio engineer Paul Velez introduced the three of us to Zoom.  Heather, Roya & I approved using Zoom webinar as our Earth Day format.

Ms. Danforth designed a beautiful electronic schedule of speakers announcement and Monica Buck (monicabuck.com) put finishing touches on it that made the electronic flyer shine.

CNU of the Palm Beaches live webinars commemorated the 50th Anniversary of Earth Day on April 18 & 22, 2020.  Over the course of two days, nine presentations and two extended Q & A panels in two two-hour mid-afternoon segments.  It gave attendees and presenters alike an opportunity to think differently about how to mitigate adverse impacts of climate warming.

CNU of the Palm Beaches Earth Day Live Webinar

Saturday April 18, 2020

With countries across the globe grappling to contain COVID-19, transportation-related carbon emissions have suddenly sunk.  In our Transportation & Ecology session, four "think different" transportation experts recommend investments designed to mitigate adverse impacts of conventional transportation and incentivize alternatives that lead to a long-lasting decline in transportation-related emissions

Transportation & Ecology

About the Facilitator 

 

Roya Edwards is a Transportation Planner at CTS Engineering, Inc., a multi-modal transportation concern.  In that role she serves as the City of West Palm Beach Transportation Management Initiative (TMI) Coordinator. Previously, Ms. Edwards worked on site plans as an Associate Planner at Keith

Ms. Edwards earned a bachelor and masters degree from Florida Atlantic University in City/Urban, Community and Regional Planning.

Roya is a member of CNU of the Palm Beaches. 

Nine presentations and two extended Q & A panels over two days in two two-hour mid-afternoon segments

About the Presenters

  

Donald Shoup is Distinguished Research Professor in the Department of Urban Planning at the University of California, Los Angeles, where he has taught classes for 52 years. 

Prior to that, Dr. Shoup spent ten years as a student at Yale University, where he earned a BE, BA, ME and Ph.D. in electrical engineering and economics.  

His critically acclaimed books are The High Cost of Free Parking (2005) and Parking and the City (2018.)

His research focuses on how parking policies affect the economy, environment and cities.

Shoup is a Fellow of the American Institute of Certified Planners.  

Patrick Siegman is the Founding Principal of Siegman and Associates, a transportation planning firm devoted to the creation of sustainable cities.  Patrick has led the transportation of more than 70 citywide, neighborhood district and campus plans.  His projects have been honored with awards from Congress for the New Urbanism, American Institute of Architects, American Planning Association, and Society for College and University Planning.  

A graduate of Stanford University with honors, Patrick has taught short courses on transportation for the APA, written for Planning Magazine, and contributed to books such as New Urbanism: Best Practices Guide; Sustainable Transportation Planning and Parking and the City.

Jason R. Chandler, A.I.A., is the Chair of the Department of Architecture at the College of Communication, Architecture + The Arts at Florida International University. Chandler has taught at FIU since 1998. 

Chandler’s academic activities focus on building construction systems and their integration into architecture and urban design. 

Chandler is the founder and principal of the award-winning firm, Chandler and Associates in South Miami, Florida. Jason Chandler’s design work has been published by the Princeton Architectural Press, Trama, Florida/Caribbean Architect, and The Miami Herald and has been noted in the New York Times and the MIT Press.

Founder, President and Transportation Engineer of Alternate Street Design, PA (1998), Michael Wallwork has nearly fifty years of design engineer experience.  Mr. Wallwork got his start as District Traffic Engineer for the City of Melbourne, Australia and moved onto the Florida Department of Transportation as a Design Engineer.  A creative, innovative safe streets designer, Mr. Wallwork has designed over 900 modern roundabouts, re-designed 61 poorly designed roundabouts and numerous traffic calming projects in four countries and 43 states.  He’s given 1700 presentations and 150 training courses on roundabouts and walkability.  His safe streets and roundabout designs have received many awards and recognition.  

 CNU of the Palm Beaches Earth Day Live Webinar

Wednesday April 22, 2020

In "Nature, Health & Built Environment," five design, planning and science experts share solutions to challenges of soulless sprawl, carbon addiction, inequity and waste.  Solutions that mitigate climate warming, biodiversity loss and pandemic cross-species virus transmission.

Nature, Health & Built Environment

About the Facilitator 

Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, FAIA, LEED AP, is Malcolm Matheson Distinguished Professor of Architecture and Director of the Master of Urban Design Program at University of Miami

She has a joint appointment in the Department of Public Health Sciences at the Miller School of Medicine.  Her courses include those on built environment adaptation to climate change. 

Plater-Zyberk is a founding partner of DPZCoDesign, a co-founder of the Congress for the New Urbanism, and co-author of Suburban Nation: the Rise of Sprawl and the Decline of the American Dream.

About the Presenters

James R. Benya, PE, FIES, FIALD is Principal of Benya Burnett Consultancy based in Davis, California. He provides lighting design services, technical and legal expert services, and assists organizations, communities, and states in developing lighting codes and standards. 

A professional engineer emphasizing architectural lighting design, Mr. Benya also has expertise in daylighting design, high efficiency lighting controls and photovoltaic integration.

Jim is a Fellow of the Illuminating Engineer Society (IES) and Fellow of the International Association of Lighting Designers (IALD). He is the winner of over 250 lighting design awards.

As a member of the International Dark-Sky Association (IDA) board, Benya chaired the IDA/IES Model Lighting Ordinance Task Force.

Linda C. Degutis, DrPH, MSN, is a Lecturer at the School of Public Health at Yale University and Adjunct Professor of Public Health at the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University and previously was an Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine and Public Health at Yale University

Dr. Degutis is past Executive Director of Defense Health Horizons at Uniformed Service University and prior to that Director of the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control at CDC 

A member of the National Academy of Medicine, Dr. Degutis is past President and former Executive Board Chair of the American Public Health Association.  

Victor Dover serves as principal-in-charge for many of the Dover, Kohl & Partners design and planning projects. 

Mr. Dover has led more than 150 charrettes.  He lectures widely around the nation on the topics of livable communities and sustainable development.  

Victor was national Chair of the Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU) from 2010 to 2012 and with John Massengale co-authored the bestselling book Street Design: The Secret to Great Cities and Towns (Wiley 2014).  

Victor was awarded the John Nolen Medal for contributions to urbanism.  He serves as an adjunct faculty member at the University of Miami.

Josh Martin currently serves as the Managing Principal of Sustainable Settlement LLC based in Palm Beach and Miami Beach, Florida and before that served as the Director of Planning, Zoning, and Building for the Town of Palm Beach, Florida.  

In South Carolina, Mr. Martin served under the direct supervision of Ch arleston Mayor Joseph P. Riley, Jr. as Senior Advisor on the Built Environment and Director of Planning, Preservation, and Economic Innovation.  

Prior to that Josh served as Director of Planning & Strategy at Turnberry Consulting US.  Mr. Martin is active with the Congress for the New Urbanism and American Planning Association.  

Hal Wanless, Professor, Department of Geography and Regional Studies and former 19-year Chair of Geological Sciences, joined the Marine School at University of Miami in 1971.   

Dr. Wanless studies the evolution and dynamics of tropical shallow marine and coastal environments in South Florida and Bahamas, and has twice conducted research on ice dynamics in Greenland in part to better predict future coastal environments in an era of rising sea levels and climate warming.

Hal earned a B.A., Geology, Princeton University (1964); M.S., Marine Geology and Geophysics, University of Miami (1967) and Ph.D., Earth and Planetary Sciences, John Hopkins University (1973.)  

The following presentation was requested Will Callaway, the Campaign Director for by Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk 

On the Impacts of Sea Level Rise in Florida

Dr. Harold R. Wanless is Professor in the Department of Geography and Regional Studies.  He previously served as Chair of Geological Sciences for 19 years.          

He joined the University of Miami faculty in 1971 at the Marine School.   He and his students have been studying the dynamics and evolution of tropical shallow marine and coastal environments in South Florida and the Bahamas.  Especially important to this research has been documenting the influence of changing sea level and catastrophic events, such as hurricanes.  They are now using this understanding to better predict the future of our coastal environments in the face of global warming and projected future rates of sea level rise.

He completed a B.A. in Geology at Princeton University in 1964 with a Thesis on the Beach Sands of Molokai, Hawaii.  

His M.S. degree was in Marine Geology and Geophysics at the University of Miami in 1967 with a Thesis on “Holocene Sediments and Paleo-Environmental Evolution of Biscayne Bay, Florida” (in part refining the post-glacial sea level rise towards its present position).  

His Ph.D. in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Johns Hopkins University was completed in1973 with a Dissertation on the “Geology and Paleo-environmental Reconstruction of the Cambrian rock sequences of Grand Canyon, Arizona” (a study of the sedimentary record in a time of repeated natural sea level cycles).

In 2016, Dr. Wanless, together with Mayor Phil Stoddard, was named one of Politico’s 50 plus ‘thinkers, doers and visionaries who are transforming American Politics in 2016.’

With his fiancée Lynn Bauer, he has twice had the opportunity to conduct research on ice dynamics in Greenland – where our sea level future is being determined.

Jo-Ann Golden's Memorial in Christopher McVoy's backyard

On Saturday November 16, 2019, Kelly and I attended a Memorial to commemorate the life of former City Commissioner and City Tree Board member Jo-Ann Golden at former City Commissioner and current City Tree Board Chair Christopher McVoy's home.

Jo-Ann was a special friend, supportive, a mentor and a lovely neighbor.  It was so nice to meet her brothers Tom and Mark and listen to so many close friends share their cherished memories of Jo-Ann.

Jo-Ann used to stop by my house periodically and bring me thoughtful gifts.  Sometimes it was tomatoes she grew in her garden.

One day she brought me a print.  Underneath the print was a quote from The Red and the Green by Iris Murdoch, her ninth book and only historical writing.  The quote was as follows: "THE BICYCLE is the most civilized conveyance known.  Other forms of transport grow daily more nightmarish.  Only the bicycle remains pure at heart."

Another time she gifted me a polo shirt from her days as a Lake Worth City Commissioner.
I treasured it, but never wore until we went to Jo-Ann's Memorial last Saturday.

Thank you to Cara and Laurie D. for letting me know about the Memorial and working so hard in advance of and during Jo-Ann's memorial, Christopher McVoy for offering his backyard and everyone, who took time to attend; it was memorable and moving afternoon.

 Christopher McVoy

Hillary Keyes & Suki DeJong

PJ, Cheryl Leventhal, Gael Silverblatt, Howard Silverblatt

Ginny Powell, Luis Tamayo (center right)

Michelle Bernzweig, Richard Guerico, Ed Grimm, Suki DeJong

Barbara Reeve (nearly obscured), Lynda Mahoney & PJ

Mark Golden

Tom Golden

Betty Resch

Javier Del Sol

Lynda Mahoney

Ed Grimm

       

           Panagioti Tsolkas                             

John Pauley (lower left, background)

Richard Stowe

Daniel Robleto, PJ, Jim Thompson, Lynda, Panagioti and Javier

Cara Jennings

As species disappear and the climate warms, environmentalists are under attack

Washington Post

Environmentalist filmed Iran's vanishing cheetahs. Now they could be executed for spying.  

By ERIC CUNNINGHAM AND BEN GUARINO

The nine conservationists had embarked on one of the most ambitious wildlife projects in Iran in recent years, setting camera traps in seven provinces to monitor the critically endangered Asiatic cheetah, whose dwindling population stalks Iran’s central plateau.

They worked with the government, secured the right permits and received funding and equipment from abroad. But the researchers, all Iranian, soon drew the suspicion of the Revolutionary Guard Corps, a powerful branch of Iran’s armed forces, and were arrested last year for alleged espionage.

Now, four members of the team charged with “spreading corruption on earth” could face the death penalty, and four others could be sentenced to up to 10 years in prison. The researchers, from the nonprofit Persian Wildlife Heritage Foundation, are awaiting a verdict in a trial that rights groups say has been marred by abuses and accusations of torture.

The ninth researcher who was detained, the foundation’s chairman, Kavous Seyed-Emami, died in custody shortly after his arrest last year. Tehran’s prosecutor general said Seyed-Emami, a professor who also held Canadian citizenship, had died by suicide, but family members and colleagues have rejected that account.

“He was hopeful and optimistic about the country’s future,” Seyed-Emami’s son, Mehram, said in an interview. “He was never one to have hard-line or polarized views.”

The plight of the conservationists, described by friends and family as passionate champions of the environment, has highlighted what analysts say is the growing criminalization of scientific and scholarly research in Iran, spurred in part by the security forces’ profound suspicion of contacts with foreign institutions.

The Revolutionary Guard Corps has increasingly targeted academics, researchers, business executives and dual nationals for arrest, and the repressive campaign is taking a particular toll on Iranian efforts to address a mounting environmental crisis. In addition to concerns about vanishing species, the country faces dwindling water resources because of rapid urbanization and excessive dam building.

The Persian Wildlife Heritage Foundation began using wildlife camera traps, deployed by researchers around the world, to track the intensely shy Asiatic cheetah amid concerns about its eroding natural habitat, which is threatened by Iran’s expanding mining sector and growing road network. The cheetahs now number fewer than 50, scientists say.

The rudimentary cameras are triggered by a mammal’s movement and body heat and snap images of animals within a few yards of a target spot, such as a game trail or watering hole.

But the conservationists — whose areas of expertise include wildlife biology, ecology and eco-tourism — were accused of using scientific and environmental projects, including the foreign-manufactured camera traps, to collect classified military information.

After the arrests, more than 350 scientists from around the world, including Jane Goodall, signed a letter to Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in support of the conservationists. “We are horrified about the thought that the neutral field of conservation could ever be used to pursue political objectives,” the letter read. “We as a community strongly condemn that, and we are convinced our colleagues had no such part.”

Founded in 2008, the Persian Wildlife Heritage Foundation had long worked in cooperation with Iran’s Department of Environment, which operates under President Hassan Rouhani and had cordial relations with authorities, colleagues said.

“Their work as an NGO [nongovernmental organization] was very transparent,” Mehram said of his father and his colleagues. “They submitted annual reports highlighting all of their activities. There was nothing to hide.”

Earlier this year, two government agencies overseen by Rouhani, including Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, cleared the researchers of wrongdoing in inquiries prompted by Seyed-Emami’s death.

But the findings did not win their release. Human Rights Watch reported that at least two members of the group — Niloufar Bayani, a U.S.-educated biologist, and Sepideh Kashani, a project coordinator — planned this month to begin a hunger strike to protest their detention.

“Members of the Persian Wildlife Heritage Foundation have languished behind bars for over 550 days while Iranian authorities have blatantly failed to provide a shred of evidence about their alleged crime,” Michael Page, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement this month. “The authorities should take the long overdue step of releasing these defenders of Iran’s endangered wildlife and end this injustice against them.”

The fate of the conservationists has become tangled up in the tensions between Rouhani’s moderate administration, which has sought dialogue with the West, and hard-liners in the Revolutionary Guard.

Within the past two months, Iranian authorities have detained two scholars with dual nationality: British Iranian anthropologist Kameel Ahmady and French Iranian researcher Fariba Adelkhah. U.S. scholar Xiyue Wang, who traveled to Iran to research his thesis on the Qajar dynasty for Princeton University, has been imprisoned since 2016.

Kaveh Madani, a former deputy director at the Department of Environment, said he was forced to leave Iran after he was arrested early last year and interrogated by the Revolutionary Guard. He said authorities accused him, among other things, of trying to “shut down” the farming sector by criticizing the government’s water and agricultural policies, which prioritize dam building. Many of the dams in Iran are constructed by the Revolutionary Guard.

“Iran can serve as a classic example of the effects of shortsighted management and plans for development on the environment,” said Madani, an environmental scientist and water conservation expert. “In Iran,” he said, “we have every environmental problem imaginable: desertification, deforestation, dust storms, sinkholes, water pollution, air pollution, diversity loss.”

Scientists warn that the conservationists’ detention has halted critical wildlife protection efforts in Iran. The country is home to several rare species, including Persian leopards, Baluchistan bears and other mammals. If the Asiatic cheetahs go extinct, they will join the vanished Caspian tiger and Asiatic lion.

The camera traps were considered a vital tool to keep that from happening.

In a study of Iran’s rare cheetah published in 2017, Houman Jowkar, one of the detained scientists, described using wildlife camera traps to confirm the cats’ presence in 18 locations. The 2017 study used mostly models made in the United States.

“A camera trap used to study wildlife would be a very poor tool to spy on anything from a distance,” said Rahel Sollmann, a biologist at the University of California at Davis and a camera trap expert.

Added Cole Burton, a conservationist at the University of British Columbia: “We’re not looking for magazine quality. We just want to be able to count spots on the side of the animal or what have you.” Burton, who signed the letter to Khamenei, has used camera traps to study brown bears in Iran’s neighbor Armenia.

Burton said that two graduate students in his lab, both Canadian Iranian, had planned to extend their bear research across the border into Iran. Those plans were canceled after the arrests, he said.

“It has been very concerning for conservationists in general but definitely for those of us using this tool,” he said. “This has been a real setback” for conservation in the region, he said.