Children are uniquely vulnerable to some of climate change's effects including asthma, infectious diseases, heat illness, and more. Dr. Ahdoot will discuss the effects of climate change on the health of children and the vital role of the health community in advancing climate solutions.
One of the challenges in the effort to create a more circular textile economy is the collection and taking back of clothing from its original owner when the owner no longer has use for it. Ms. Barber, Mr. Metellus, and Hanhnji Jang will discuss clothing upcycling, decolonizing closets, and the intersections of sustainability, fashion, and the textile industry.
Mila Tewell, Dalton teacher of history and economics, will interview Reid Capalino, Senior VP with LS Power, about his work researching, writing, and directing investment in clean energy strategies.
Did you know that the buildings in the US is responsible for 44% of total GHG emissions? Join us as we discuss how important buildings and the built environment are to the greenhouse puzzle. Come learn what Dalton has done at its own facilities and learn how you can make a difference in your own personal life by making small changes that add up to a big difference.
Recognizing the understandable emotional distress that can occur in facing the climate crisis, this workshop will help students to find ways to process and cope with these important emotions, connect with others around these feelings and learn a variety of emotional resilience strategies to manage ongoing stress.
Dr. Guenther will discuss how to have conversations that neutralize disinformation and inspire people into action.
In the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, city, state, and federal stakeholders tok to the helm of rebuilding and repairing New York Cty's coastlines. Nine years later, we face a new challenge, as Hurricane Ida caught the city by surprise with record breaking rainfall and inland flooding. In this session, Lawton will explain how a design competition centered on community input led to one of the world's largest climate adaptation projects to date -- New York City's BIG U.
Join Food Ethnographer, June Jo Lee, in conversation with you to explore “what’s good to eat,” and how we might nourish our Modern Hungers of disconnection and dislocation through foods flavored by relationships. Cracking the Story of Separation—that some beings deserve more, can take more, be more than others—is a hard nut to crack. Separation feels like broken hearts, broken hopes, broken ecosystems. Regeneration melts away the pain of separation to reveal the Greater Whole of reciprocity and inter-being; trusting in BELONGING to the greater whole. Believing in regenerative future in which we are all, ALL* in careful and caring relationships with people, plants and places.
In the face of climate catastrophe, the field of ecopoetics invites us to examine the interactions between the built and natural world, in all of its dimensions. Drawing from adrienne maree brown’s emergent strategy theory, which invites us to “feel, map, assess, and learn from the swirling patterns around us in order to better understand and influence them as they happen,” we will write poetry at the intersections of destruction/creation, consumption/care, and person/place. We’ll accomplish this by reading the work of poets who explore the ways we perceive body, environment, self, and flux, ultimately generating something akin to hope(!): meaningful, radical, climate-just work.
Some may think trees are silent or inert but they are not. They grow towards and away from stimuli and communicate via chemicals. The soils in which they grow are also filled with a whole spectrum of sound. Delve into the underground sound found right beneath our feet in NYC. New York artist Nikki Lindt explores sounds in unexpected places; the sounds rumbling in the soil of subways passing and snowflakes crashing to the earth; the sound of sap flowing inside tree trunks. These unexpected sounds ask us to think differently. After listening-in to trees and other natural entities how might we respond? In this session you will explore this mysterious world of surprising and dynamic subsurface acoustics across a gradient from the Arctic Circle to New York City. The possibilities of unusual collaborations in a challenging era will be highlighted. Students will also get a preview of Lindt's public art project 'The Underground Project' which will open in May in Prospect Park.
Small particles in the atmosphere have big effects on climate and human health. Learn about the many sources of atmospheric aerosols and their impacts. Hands-on demonstrations of particle dynamics and cloud formation.
This panel will discuss the overlapping issues of transportation, innovative energy solutions, and regulation as they pertain to the challenges of climate change in New York City.
It's been years in the making, but it looks like we will have a floating pool in the East River! Ms. Meyer will share the process and design elements that underpin +Pool's efforts to filter the East River water for a public swimming pool.
Climate change affects people and environments differently around the world and in our own communities. Ms. Fox will interview Jacqui Patterson, Senior Director of the NAACP Environmental and Climate Justice Program, about environmental and climate justice.
With all that buildings contribute to the climate crisis, you’d think a climate-conscious person would be ashamed to admit that they live and work indoors. In total, almost 40% of all the world’s carbon emissions come from buildings. The world’s buildings are one of its largest energy consumers, their construction leads to enormous material extraction and waste, and the growth of cities threatens ecosystems across the globe. Paradoxically, though, buildings and cities have a unique and essential role in combatting the climate crisis and, just as importantly, keeping us happy and healthy along the way. In this session, we’ll test-drive cutting-edge data models to understand how buildings can be transformed to reduce their climate impact, then turn to larger questions: How can we ensure that the transformation of our buildings and cities is equitably achieved? And what’s the connection between climate-positive architecture and a good life? Early environmentalism in the United States focused on wide open spaces, but its future might be in the great indoors.
One under-appreciated aspect of climate is the pivotal role of healthy ecosystems in climate regulation. We now know that we can rehabilitate even large-scale damaged ecosystems, and so we can restore that function on at least a regional scale. Such efforts also enhance biodiversity, food security, political stability, and resilience to weather-related pressures like fires, floods and drought. I will share stories from eco-restoration pioneers in locales including Saudi Arabia, China, Southern Africa, and Finland beyond the Arctic Circle, and highlight opportunities for all of us to be engaged in what the UN has declared the Decade On Ecosystem Restoration.
Dr. Shimada is an expert in the field of energy efficiency. He will discuss his work with ThinkEco and the outcomes of innovative partnerships with Con Edison, LG, ElectroLux, and more.
Here is the fundamental challenge of this hands-on workshop: can we create a satisfying plant-based “burger” experience that is both tasty and sustainable? Can our food be real food and amazing and eco-friendly? I think the answer is yes, and we will prepare and sample several recipes as we explore the way to build a better “burger.” Is it “vegetarian”? Is it “vegan”? Who cares?! We don’t need labels when the focus is on “delicious.” And the guiding issue is real. According to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), Americans consume an average of 2.4 burgers per day, or about 50 billion burgers per year. The conversion ratio of beef (an analysis of the total resources needed to produce the meat we eat) translates into about 2,500 gallons of water, 12 pounds of grain, 35 pounds of topsoil and the energy equivalent of one gallon of gasoline to produce one pound of feedlot beef. In other words, not sustainable. The ecological footprint is significant (not to mention frankly disturbing when you examine the “confined animal feedlot operations” that produce most of the meat consumed). But yet perhaps there is something about the hamburger experience that remains elemental. The mystique remains. We must eat all of those burgers for a reason. But remember, you are what you eat so let’s eat in full consciousness of what in fact we are eating and its implications.
The American lawn is always green and trimmed, embodying a permanent present. It is also a kill zone, a mausoleum for anything that impedes the lawn owner's aspiration for lawn perfection. Through its ahistorical, hyper-capitalist, violently anti-nature anthropocentrism, the lawn becomes the perfect emblem of an American patriarchal epistemology that sees itself endowed with a sense of ownership of all. However, beneath the lawn's perpetually immaculate lawn-ness lies dirt--forgotten, maligned, seen as dirty, dirt is, as Sharon Olds suggests, the source of all.
Ecomusicology is a broad field of study that exists at the intersection of ecology and musicology, and considers how our understanding of music and the environment can impact and influence each other. This workshop will introduce general concepts through discussion and will dive into selected case studies to illuminate how music from around the world can be an indicator of climate change and potentially inspire political pressure.
Ms. Troge and Ms.Hopson Begun will discuss the historical importance of kelp and a healthy coastline, critical to the Shinnecock's ancient culture, how it was nearly destroyed, and the steps being taken by six women to rebuild and regenerate kelp farming and the ocean seaweed-based community..
In addition to her keynote presentation, Alexandria Villaseñor will share with students her journey as an activist, some of the most influential and necessary work taking place right now, and how students can get involved and make change.