Aftermath: Got Live if You Want It (The Making of Earth Day 2020)
YouTube links
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
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.
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
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.
posted by Richard Stowe at 4:11 AM
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