Please join us for a special evening with Dr. Terry Root and her presentation, “Climate Change is Disrupting Everything (But We Can Help Stop It).  You won’t want to miss this important conversation.  We invite you to bring a friend.

Since the late 1800s, the average global temperature has increased about 2.2 o F (1.2 o C) and we are on track to surpass the Paris Agreement target of 2.7 o F (1.5 o C) by 2030s. Even with the pledges made in 2021 at the COP in Glasgow, Scotland, the planet will warm above those levels. Millions of people and countless numbers of animals and plants around the globe are being greatly affected by our rapidly changing climate. The changes include numerous extreme heat waves, record low temperatures in the US due to polar vortices, extreme droughts, extreme floods, extensive wildfires, and longer, hotter summers. Unless we soon slow the rapid warming, the millions of people affected will become billions of people suffering due to escalating climate disruption. Additionally, hundreds of thousands to millions of entire species—including species we rely upon—will face extinction. Current extinction rate indicates that the 6th Mass Extinction has not only begun but is escalating. We must stop our fossil-fuel addiction to dampen such world-wide problems. Thankfully, the largest US climate change bill (Inflation Reduction Act (IRA)) was recently signed into law, providing $369 billion to fight rapid warming. Individuals, cities, counties and states can take advantage of many IRA programs. Additionally, we can do many things, collectively and individually, to decrease the emissions of CO 2 and other greenhouse gases. We just need the personal and political will to do it, which we certainly can muster.

Terry L. Root is Professor Emerita at Stanford University. She was a lead author of the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change 4th Assessment Report that in 2007 was co-
awarded the Nobel Peace Prize with Vice President Al Gore. Also, she was a lead author for the 3rd Assessment Report (2001) and a Review Editor for the 5th Assessment Report (2014). In addition to other honors, Root was awarded the Spirit of Defenders Award for Science by Defenders of Wildlife in 2010, and Lifetime Achievement Award in 2016 for the conservation organization Point Blue. She served on the National Audubon Board of Directors from 2010 to 2019, currently serves on the boards of Defenders of Wildlife and Birds Caribbean, and is on numerous science advisory boards, including the Renewable Energy Wildlife Institute.

Root earned her undergraduate degree in Mathematics and Statistics from the University of New Mexico, her master’s degree in biology from the University of Colorado and her
doctorate in Biology from Princeton University. She was a professor at the University of
Michigan for 15 years, and then at Stanford University for 15 years. Now she frequently gives talks around the US on climate change, and plastics and wildlife. Currently she lives in Santa Fe, NM, with her husband, Jim Davis, and their cockapoo, Misa.