Earth Day Message With a Hockey Stick
Professor Alan Werner, Mount Holyoke College
Saturday evening Clem and I attended a Mount Holyoke College alumnae event in Fairfield with speaker Dr. Alan Werner. According to his bio, “Dr. Werner is Professor of Geology at Mount Holyoke College. His research focuses on climate change during and since the Last Ice Age. He is a glacial geologist and his specialty is interpreting glacier activity and climate change using sediment cores recovered from lakes.”
He gave a fascinating talk about climate change. I especially loved his PowerPoint slides which he used in ways new to me, but which I may try to adapt before I teach another course.
I loved the moment he needed help to get a video, embedded in his PowerPoint, to play. High school junior Charles Vasas was at the dinner with his Mount Holyoke alum mother Lisa and her husband. Charles resolved the issue in about 2 seconds!
Professor Werner showed us how today’s more rapid melting of Arctic ice can change ocean levels.
This talk was fitting for the day before Earth Day, though no one mentioned that!
As a follow-up, Professor Werner sent an email with a link to an article in Scientific American called “Earth Day and The Hockey Stick: A Singular Message.” I recommend it.
Composer Irving Berlin
Earth Day at Church
Our Chamber Choir sang for both Earth Day services at The Unitarian Church in Westport today. We’ve sung the final song many times, and it’s always a hit. It was really appropriate today – Blue Skies by Irving Berlin. Did you know he wrote it in 1926?
There are so many versions recorded by a wide variety of artists that I couldn’t decide which one to include for you. Have a look at Wikipedia or YouTube and tell me who is your favorite.
UN Asks Cameroon to Let Refugees Remain
Many Nigerians in northeastern Nigeria have fled Boko Haram attacks on their homes and villages. Over 87,000 have taken refuge in Cameroon, to Nigeria’s east.
Cameroon however has been sending them back to Nigeria, according to the article below. It says, “Since the beginning of 2018, 385 Nigerians refugees and asylum-seekers had been forcibly returned from Cameroon.”
They face a difficult situation back in Nigeria. Boko Haram is still a threat. Many have had their farms and homes destroyed. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees has asked that they be allowed to remain. You can read the whole article if you click on the title below.
https://www.vanguardngr.com/2018/04/dont-send-nigerian-refugees-back-boko-haram-violence-un-urges-cameroon-2/
Another View on Refugees
Another publication says that Cameroon denies the UN report about sending refugees back to Nigeria. You can read that view from AllAfrica here.
My bias tells me the UN is more likely the truth-teller, but I can imagine it is extremely difficult for the UN or anyone else to be sure. Many thousands are in refugee camps and thousands more have set up their own villages near the camps in Cameroon.
UN Global Compact
Bola Adesola, newly appointed vice-chair of the UN Global Compact
Nigeria was important in a second United Nations story that I read in the last couple of days. Bola Adesola, Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of Standard Chartered Nigeria, has been appointed vice-chair of the board of the United Nations Global Compact.
I had to look up the UN Global Compact. “The world’s largest corporate sustainability initiative,” their website says, continuing, “We are a voluntary initiative based on CEO commitments to implement universal sustainability principles and to take steps to support UN goals.” The specific goals they are referring to are the Sustainable Development Goals.
In 2015 the UN adopted these seventeen goals to, “end extreme poverty, fight inequality and injustice, and protect our planet.” Each goal has a specific focus, like poverty, climate change, and gender equality. The UN Global Compact asks companies to join and agree to work toward these goals.
Earth Day Goal
You can see the 17 goals here. For Earth Day, see “Goal 13: Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts.” When you look deeper, you see examples of what a business might do toward that goal. Here’s the first: “set greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets.”
Ms. Adesola, I read in the article, “holds degrees from Harvard Business School and Lagos Business School, as well as a law degree from the University of Buckingham.” She became head of Standard Chartered Bank Nigeria in 2011 and has over 25 years of banking experience.
CHOGM 2018
Nigeria’s President Buhari was in London last week for CHOGM, the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, AllAfrica reported.
Although the British no longer say, “The sun never sets on the British Empire,” the Commonwealth does include, “a diverse community of 53 nations and more than 80 organisations. . . It is home to a third of the world’s population and nearly 40% of its young people.”
Agbaka cultural group from Kogi State at CHOGM 2003
CHOGM 2003 was held in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital. The opening ceremony, attended by Queen Elizabeth, included masquerades, masked men who represent spirits and ancestors.
I used pictures from that event on April 9, in my next to last of six classes in “Breaking Kola: Nigeria’s Customs and Community.” The course was part of the Lifetime Learners program at Norwalk Community College.
CHOGM and Earth Day
CHOGM 2018 in London issued a statement. Among their agreements: “to work together to combat climate change – particularly with reference to ‘small island developing states.’ ”
I’ll include more of my interview with my friend Margaret Anderson in the next post!
