CECE Explores Community Resilience at Climate Week NYC’s House of Scientista
On Thursday September 25th, CECE co-sponsored the House of Scientista event at Climate Week NYC. The event, hosted by Scientista, discussed the future of food, philanthropy, and communications during climate and political change. As people arrived at the event, Dr. Dana R. Fisher, elicited insight from four leaders in community resilience via red carpet interviews. The interviews built off the work CECE is doing with the Workforce Development & the 4R’s project by discussing the need to work across scales, how to build momentum within communities, and the importance of social connectivity and trust.
Dr. Andrew J. Kruczkiewicz from the National Center for Disaster Preparedness at the Columbia Climate School, developed an early alert warning system for natural disasters alongside collaborators that took advantage of both remote sensing data and local on-the-ground observations, emphasizing that making decisions is hard, not because there’s not enough data, but because the data need to be translated both effectively and ethically.
Learn more from the full interview with Andrew J. Kruczkiewicz.
Laurian Farrell, Deputy Commissioner of the Bureau of Coastal Resilience in the NYC Department of Environmental Protection, has had extensive experience in government positions as a water resource engineer. She shared how her experience as part of 100 Resilient Cities reframed the question from “How do we get the public to trust us?” to: “How do we begin to trust the public?” The Bureau is now working mile-by-mile along the coast of NYC to listen to the problems people have so that the City creates solutions that directly respond to community needs.
Learn more from the full interview with Laurian Farrell.
These stories are perfect examples for what Research Social Scientist and Yale Urban Climate Leadership Program Manager, Dr. Erika Svendsen, called the social infrastructure that keeps us going in climate and environmental work. The connections between individual people allow them to become agents of change, giving them new ideas, perspectives, tried and true practices, and strength to carry on during times of adversity.
Learn more from the full interview with Erika Svendsen.
Isabel González Whitaker, Associate Vice President for the Moms Clean Air Force Public Engagement team and Director of EcoMadres, shared that while working at the federal level is hard in this political landscape, there is plenty to be done at the state level. In New Mexico, Moms Clean Air Force has advocated for standards and protections for methane emissions that are already showing important successes.
Learn more from the full interview with Isabel González Whitaker.
