SEI Climate Lectures 2021-2024

February 29, 2024: "Everywhere and Forever Chemicals: what you need to know" with:

Dr. Brian Johnston, Adventist Health Hospital

Dr. Sherlock Li, USC Keck School of Medicine

Dr. Max Aung, USC Keck School of Medicine

• Recording of the event  YouTube (90 mins.)

• PFAS exposure linked to decreased bone health in adolescents and young adults

• Unveiling PFAS in everyday foods

• Science Is Falling Woefully Behind in Testing New Chemicals

• US companies DuPont and Chemours generated extensive contamination with toxic "forever chemicals"

• Why the U.S. Is Losing the Fight to Ban Toxic Chemicals

• Groundbreaking map shows toxic forever chemicals’ in more than 330 wildlife species, EWG

• Turf fields may have ‘forever chemicals.’ Should kids be playing on them?, WaPo, March 12, 2024

• PBS Newshour: EPA bans forever chemicals in drinking water, 7 mins

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2023:

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October 26, 2023: "All Careers are Climate careers", a breakout session at WLAC Climate Palooza' 3-day conference. 

• Recording of the event, YouTube (60 mins.)

• Slides used in the breakout

• Dustin Lehren, Nature Journaling

• Stella Setka, Empathy and the Phantasmic in Ethnic American Trauma Narratives (Reading Trauma and Memory)

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October 19, 2023: Dr. Yi Yin (NYU) and PhD candidate, Liyin He (CalTech), "Unequal Exposure to Heatwaves in Los Angeles: Impact of Uneven Green Spaces"

• Recording of the event, YouTube (60 mins.)

• Short intro recording, YouTube 7 mins

• EPA: Heat Islands and Equity

• Science Advances, "Unequal exposure to heatwaves in Los Angeles: Impact of uneven green spaces" April 2023

• “The tree cover and temperature disparity in US urbanized areas: Quantifying the association with income across 5,723 communities.”, Robert I. McDonald , et al, PLOS, April 28, 2021

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September 28, 2023, Marta Segura, chief heat officer for Los Angeles talks about the heat island effect and environmental and climate equity.

• Recording of the event, YouTube (60 mins.)

• Short intro recording, 12 mins

• L.A.’s Chief Heat Officer on the Public Health Threat of Extreme Heat – Aspen Institute August, 2023, (YouTube, 13 mins.)

• Marta Segura, Chief Heat Officer and Director of Climate Emergency Mobilization for the City of Los Angeles

• EPA: Heat Islands and Equity

• NYT: Heat Singes the mind 8/10/23

• NYT: 9/8/23: Heat and Hurricanes: What Keeps the N.Y.C. Climate Chief Up at Night

• Guardian 7/31/23: "Phoenix’s record streak of temperatures above 110F ends after 31 days"

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May 18, 2023: The Inflation Reduction Act: What's the IRA all about? Andrew Ellis, Environmental Scientist and speaker from the Climate Reality Project

• Recording of the event on YouTube (60 mins.)

• Articles on the IRA and Climate provisions:

• Mother Jones, May-June 2023: "“Electrify Everything, Everywhere, All At Once”

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April 28, 2023: See April Earth Month under this tab.

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March 17, 2023: Incorporating a climate curriculum in non-STEM fields: a breakout session hosted by the SEI at Discipline Day 2023 from the DAS - LACCD

• Recording of the Event (2 hrs)

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February 23, 2023: Finance and Fossil Fuels: a panel on banking, defunding, and divestment from carbon burning

• Recording of the event

• California-Pensions-Fail-to-Engage, Fossil Free California

• CalSTRS rebuts the divestment proposal

• Two Economies Collide: Competition, Conflict, and the Financial Case for Fossil Fuel Divestment

• Stranded fossil-fuel assets translate to major losses for investors in advanced economies

• Banking-on-Climate-Chaos-2021 (complete report)

• Bill announced to divest California, (FFCA)

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2022:

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November 10, 2022: Climate Anxiety and Younger People

• Recording of the Event

• Google Docs page with media sources on climate anxiety

• What Psychologists Want Today’s Young Adults to Know, NYT

• 6 Ways Climate Change Will Affect Physical and Mental Health, Medium

• Campuses are offering therapy for anxiety over climate change WaPo

• Climate anxiety is a normal response to an abnormal situation

• Leveraging the Neuroscience of Now, Inside Higher Ed.

• Combating Climate Anxiety, KQED

• Try to Resist the Call of the Doomers, NYT

• The Joy of Saving the World, New Republic

• 'OK Doomer' and the Climate Advocates Who Say It’s Not Too Late

• Students wait months for mental health help, LAT

• Facing extreme heat and drought, young Californians cope to beat climate anxiety and doom

• "Doctors: TikTok Mental Health Advice Videos Are a Cesspool of Misinformation"

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October 20, 2022: Aridity and Water

• Recording of the Event

• SEI Workshop for October 20: Aridity and Water

• TreePeople and Water

• Friends of the LA River, FoLAR

• Los Angeles is running out of water

• Beneath parched L.A. is a sea of water. But can it quench our thirst?

• California Coastal Commission OKs desalination plant in Orange County

• California drought pits farmers vs. cities

• Legislature must remake water laws for a drier California

• Water, water everywhere, and L.A. just lets it go to waste. What we need to do to keep it

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September 22, 2022: "Climate Politics"

• Recording of the event (100 mins)

• Discussion points for the event

• LAVC College Library Climate Action Resources

• Politics and Global Warming 2020 a Yale and George Mason Univ. study

• 8/22/22: NYT- "Democrats Designed the Climate Law to Be a Game Changer, here's how"

• 8/5/22: NYT- "How Republicans Are ‘Weaponizing’ Public Office Against Climate Action"

• 7/23/22: NYT- "Try to Resist the Call of the Doomers"

• 6/28/22: New Republic, "The Joy of Saving the World"

• 3/26/22: NYT- "OK Doomer"

• 9/6/21: Guardian- "No point in anything else Gen Z and climate"

• 9/2019: Vice: "The Environmental Movement Needs to Reckon with Its Racist History"

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August 18, 2022: "Heat" seminar

• Recording of the Event (approx 90 mins)

• "As extreme heat grips the globe, access to air conditioning is an urgent public health issue" Brookings .pdf

• "CDC Heat Response Plans" .pdf

• Federal Government Fires Up Website all about heat, NYT 7/26/22

• "How America's first heat officers are cooling Miami and Los Angeles: meet Marta Segura"

• "What is the Urban Heat Island effect and Urban Surface Roughness?" Medium

• LA Regional Collaborative for Climate Action: "Extreme Heat Campaign Social Media Toolkit"

• UCLA Fielding School project shows health effects of extreme heat across California at the community level: 7/11/22 press release

• City of Los Angeles Emergency Management Department "Beat the Heat" website

• Buying a Heat Pump Could Get You Thousands in Federal Tax Credits and State Rebates (Consumer Reports, PDF)

• "SoCal’s worst heat wave of the year: What’s the timing, who will be hit hardest?" LA Times 8/30

• 6/17/21: NatGeo: “Los Angeles confronts its shady divide: A lack of tree cover in low-income areas has left many residents especially vulnerable to rising heat. It’s a legacy of the city’s design—and its history of racist policies”

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​April 22, 2022: Earth Day seminar

• The SEI hosted a morning of Earth Day via zoom

• There were 110 participants  The program is here

• Recording of the event, (90 minutes, YouTube).

• Panelists and their affiliations

• Dr. Brian Johnston's suggested reading list

• "Poisoned in LA: the Exide battery recycling plant"

• Robina Suwol and California Safe Schools

• TreePeople list of City Approved Trees

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2021:

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November 18: "California fires: better ideas in forest management and risk reduction—
from powerlines to microgrids"

• Recorded Lecture: California fires: better ideas in forest management and risk reduction—from powerlines to microgrids.

• zip file with slides (no videos)

• Life and Death on the Fire P lanet, an interview with Stephen Pyne

• California Wildfires Reach a Historic Scale and are still growing, WaPo

• Maps show where wildfires have burned over and over again in LA county (Curbed)

• Mike Davis, "The Case for Letting Malibu Burn"

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October 21: “Addressing the sixth largest mass extinction in natural history”

• “Addressing the sixth largest mass extinction in natural history”:  Species protection through habitat protection, stopping deforestation and leaving 50% for wildlife

• zip file with slides (minus video clips) 60MB

• Accelerated modern human–induced species losses: Entering the sixth mass extinction

• Priceless or Worthless? The world’s most threatened species
  by Jonathan E M Baillie and Ellen R Butcher, IUCN

• 2021 Sustainable LA: Grand Challenge Sustainability: Report Card for Los Angeles County Ecosystem Health, UCLA IoES

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September 16: Energy Efficiency in the Built Environment: Is sustainability Possible?

• Energy Efficiency and The Built Environment: Is sustainability Possible?

• Zip file with Leddy's slides

• YouTube Carbon capture cement? Dave Borlace

• YouTube Carbon friendly steel? Dave Borlace, Just Have a Think

• YouTube LA100 energy goals

• YouTube Can LA be Sustainable?

• Facilities slides (PDF) courtesy of Dr. Rueben Smith and Bharat Patel

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August 19: The Challenge of the Climate Crisis

• Aug 19 Talk on Climate Crisis and way forward, G. Leddy

• mp4 video (2:15 mins) Runaway Glaciers Antarctica NASA (videos)

• Zip file with all the slides (not the video clips)

• Climate Change Indicators for the US (EPA)

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July 15: California Water

• California Drought and the future for LA water (seminar from the SEI)

• Zip file with all the slides (66MB)

• mp4 video (9:30 mins) on CA Water from NeoChannel (videos page)

• mp4 video (4:55 mins) on CA drought from Climate Desk (videos page)

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