By AMEARA DITSCHE
Arts Editor
It is no secret that the Earth is dying. Climate change is one of the most prevalent issues today. The League of Women’s Voters of Albany County is in tune to this fact and educate themselves and the community of such. On Jan. 28, they held an event at the Pine Hills Library to discuss the ramifications of climate change as well as possible solutions. The league frequently partners with them as well as other libraries for their events.
“Libraries are free and community centered, since we are volunteer based and don’t have a lot of funding, they help make our events accessible.” said Patricia Sibilia, the league’s president.
Sibilia said that the league, while bipartisan, takes stances on issues they find important; one being climate change.
“Climate change is one of the most important issues so we try to do these educational programs as often as possible.” said Sibilia.
The presentation was done in two parts: the first by Anne Erling, a league member. She presented a slideshow created by Al Gore’s Climate Reality that discusses what is contributing to climate change, how it is affecting the earth.
Erling mentioned events such as four hurricanes happening at once in the same sea in August of 2015, and Chennai, India becoming increasingly close to running out of water. She also spoke about how global warming makes the spreading of diseases easier. The mosquito that carries the Zika virus as well as other illnesses, can survive and breed better in warmer climates. With global warming quickly spreading, the mosquito can live in more places, and have a longer breeding period, causing the virus to spread further and more quickly.
Erling also presented statistics about hat places all over the world are most in danger. According to her presentation, hen organized by population density, the most at-risk cities for flooding are mostly in the developing world and do not contribute to emissions nearly as much as the U.S. and other developed nations.
Erling’s presentation also detailed some things people can do the change and reverse the effects of climate change. These include utilizing electric vehicles, LED lights, and more efficient energy uses.
After Erling’s Presentation, fellow league member Lori Gundrum lead attendees through an online course by Pachamama Alliance, an environmentalist movement centered around connectedness.
Pachamama takes a spiritual approach and focuses on things like feeling one with the Earth and with each other; they draw inspiration and advisement from indigenous groups in the Amazon about how best to preserve and respect the earth.
Pachamama also partners with Project Drawdown and together they presented 100 solutions to reverse global warming. Attendees examined these and discussed those which they thought were most important. Then, Gundru revealed the ranking done by Project Drawdown. Among the top 10 was “Educating Girls,” as the project sees women as family planners and says women have the responsibility of passing down sustainability to their children. One audience member asked where educating men fell on the list, but Pachamama did not include them in their solutions.
Pachamama also highlights activist Will Grant’s “4 levels of action.” These are Individual, Friends and Family, Community, and Policy. Gundrum cites community as her reasoning for sharing this.
“I wanted to reach level 3 by speaking here and bringing their mission to my community,” said Gundrum.
Gundrum said she attended a training session for Al Gore’s climate reality and afterwards did her own research to find more ways to get involved. This is how she found out about Pachamama.
The event was attended by many members of the community, including Mary Cosgrove, science problem-based learning coordinator, at The College of Saint Rose.
“Climate change is a theme in my class this semester so I wanted to learn new ways to reach people about it.” said Cosgrove.
