18
Mar
2021
San Francisco
via Zoom
San Francisco, CA
United States of America

Whendee SilverReduction of greenhouse gas emissions is crucial if we are to slow climate change, but emissions reduction alone is no longer sufficient to solve the climate crisis. Dr. Whendee Silver will discuss land-based, carbon dioxide removal strategies that convert high greenhouse, gas-emitting waste streams into composted soil amendments that in turn increase carbon dioxide removal and improve soil quality. These strategies have a low bar for adoption by local, state, and federal agencies and engage the public and our food production system in climate change solutions.

The Silver Lab at UC Berkeley is currently working on drought and hurricane impacts on tropical forests, climate change mitigation potential of grasslands, and greenhouse gas dynamics of peatlands and wetlands. In addition, Professor Silver is the lead scientist of the Marin Carbon Project, which is determining the potential for land-based, climate change mitigation, particularly by composting high-emission, organic waste for soil amendments to sequester atmospheric carbon dioxide.

Dr. Silver is the Rudy Grah Chair and Professor of Ecosystem Ecology and Biogeochemistry in the Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management at UC Berkeley. She grew up in Southern California, earned her Master of Science in Forest Science from Yale School of Forestry in 1987, and in 1992 received her Ph.D. from Yale University. UC Berkeley’s Silver Lab was awarded the Innovation Prize by the American Carbon Registry (2015) for this work. Professor Silver is a fellow of the Ecological Society of America and was named a University of California Climate Champion for 2016 for outstanding teaching, research, and public service.

Please join the Rotary Climate Action Teams (RCAT) Network for this informative view of the climate crisis. To find out more about RCAT, the Network, and the Speakers Forum, go here

Register here for the Zoom link.