CAZENOVIA — On April 23, the Cazenovia Forum will celebrate Earth Day (April 22) with a virtual lecture on issues of sustainability and climate planning and policy.
The presentation, titled “Climate Change: Global Challenge and Local Responses,” will be live-streamed at 7 p.m. via Zoom.
The event will feature a conversation between Andy Pattison, assistant professor of environmental studies at Colgate University, and moderator Sharon Anderson, of EcoLogic environmental consultants in Cazenovia.
Pattison and Anderson will explore how local communities and governments can plan for climate change, focusing specifically on roles, opportunities, examples of best practices, available resources and tools, and public engagement.
Pattison has worked in both the public and private sectors as a sustainability and climate change consultant.
Some of his research and teaching interests include sustainability and climate action planning, US environmental politics and policy, adaptive management of social-ecological systems, the role of science and technical information in the policy process, and issues of urban environmental justice and social equity.
He has worked with dozens of local governments, private companies, nonprofits, and educational institutions on climate action and sustainability planning, as well as energy conservation strategies.
“I believe climate change is a crisis and the ways in which communities come together to mitigate the effects and adapt to the impacts on human and natural systems will be a defining challenge of the next decades,” Pattison said. “What climate preparedness and adaptation planning look like in each community is different, but we all need to take part. Climate planning at the national, state, county, and local government scales are all necessary, and strong social, political and practical connections are needed to stitch it together. I hope I can help advance the work being done in our region to stitch together a landscape of needed and appropriate climate policy and planning.”
According to Cazenovia Forum Board of Directors President Diane Clark, the forum initially invited Pattison to speak last year in celebration of the 50th anniversary of Earth Day, but the lecture was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“In January of this year at our annual planning meeting, we discussed the possibility of rescheduling the event, just one year later,” Clark said. “Happily, Dr. Pattison was willing to be our speaker again. He wanted the lecture to be structured differently than our usual events and thought it would be interesting if after 20 minutes of his lecture the format changed to a conversation between him and an appropriate moderator. Liz Moran, [principal scientist of EcoLogic], suggested Sharon Anderson would be wonderful in that role.”
Anderson, whose work focuses on flood resilience and energy issues, recently joined EcoLogic to lead community engagement and outreach for the Coastal Lakeshore Economy and Resiliency (CLEAR) initiative. Funded by New York State, CLEAR guides Lake Ontario shoreline communities in planning for changing water levels.
Anderson is also the environmental team leader at Cornell Cooperative Extension in Tompkins County.
The presentation is free and open to public. To register, visit cazenoviaforum.com.
Established in 2006, the Cazenovia Forum is a non-profit organization that hosts regularly scheduled public affairs lecture series that offer citizens from Cazenovia and the surrounding areas the opportunity to hear nationally and internationally known experts on a variety of key issues, and to engage in thoughtful discussion.
