Executive Director Lori Walters shut down a lively conversation to make a couple of announcements. Please pay your Community Service Assessment if you have not done it. Here is the link: a2rotary.org/donate. And she gave a few reminders about Zoom etiquette.
Tom Strode started us off with God Bless America. Christina Ferris lit a candle and offered us hope that the coming days will be less stressful and unsettling as the last several months. Richard Ingram shared Louis Armstrong’s “What a Wonderful World”, accompanied with beautiful pictures of Nature. President Joanne announced that Wednesdays always lift her spirits, and then thanked the people who make the meetings run smoothly.
Dawn Johnson, current chair of the Program Committee and incoming Director, reviewed the work and procedures of the Program Committee and invited us all to nominate speakers, using the website form in the Program Committee summary. (Click here for the form.)
Shelley MacMillan representing the Social Committee (no hat!) invited us to the 20th Annual Wine, Women and Song on Thursday, January 28. There will be virtual wine and cheese at 7:30, with the show beginning at 8:00pm. Contact Shelley to sign up: shelleymacmillan@mac.com. Participants are asked to make a donation close to the amount of the annual tickets, $25.00. WWS is fundraiser for Kerrytown Concert House.
Karen Gladney updated us about the Peace Committee. In the four years since the Peace Conference we hosted, out club in partnership with Dexter Rotary has become one of four Peace Builder Clubs in the Rotary Action Group. There will be another World Peace Conference later this year or early next. We will plant a Rotary Peace Pole in Gallup Park some time this spring. Finally, Karen alerted us to a PBS special on March 21 about Warrior Lawyers, showing the work of Native American attorneys. And Karen invited us all to join this very active committee: kogladney@gmail.com.
President Joanne finished the Business portion of the meeting with three announcements. First, another reminder of Community Service Assessments being due. Second, earlier that morning the Board embarked on a mini vaccine campaign focusing on communities of color. She showed a poster featuring eight Rotarians attesting to the safety and efficacy of the vaccine and urging all American to get vaccinated! Finally, bite sized jobs are available to keep you engaged during this shutdown. We had 52% engagement in December, which is great. Join the gang to keep our Rotary running – short, discrete jobs require little or no special training. Go to our website and type in Bite Sized Jobs in the search box to find a list and short description of the opportunities.
Notes from the Program
John White introduced our speaker, David Uhlmann. Mr. Uhlmann is the Jeffrey F. Liss Professor from Practice, the director of the Environmental Law and Policy Program, and a Distinguished Faculty Fellow in Sustainability.His research and advocacy interests include corporate crime, criminal and civil enforcement of environmental laws, and climate change and sustainability. Prior to joining the Michigan faculty, Professor Uhlmann served for 17 years at the U.S. Department of Justice, the last seven as chief of the Environmental Crimes Section, where he was the top environmental crimes prosecutor in the country. Professor Uhlmann grew up in Michigan and he cites Michigan as an environmental law success because of the Clean Air and Clean Water Acts
Professor Uhlmann’s talk was titled Back to the Future. Environmental action used to have bipartisan support. The global climate crisis is raising temperature at an alarming rate. There were 22 climate events in 2020 alone. We need to act now to reduce carbon emissions and be completely decarbonized by 2045 to evade catastrophic environmental events.
The action has to be bipartisan. In the 1970s more than twenty laws were passed with large consensus majorities. There were four major laws passed in the 1980s. Since then interest and enforcement have been in retreat. Economic concerns over shadowed health and safety concerns. And progress was accomplished by regulation rather than legislation.
Professor Uhlmann is optimistic that bipartisanship can be fostered and brought to bear on environmental issues. He has four reasons for optimism. First, clean energy is becoming economical. State and local governments are leading the charge since national government is paralyzed. Business is joining the chorus demanding action. And finally, faith leaders and young people are very vocal in support of environmental legislation and regulation. So the outlook for the environment is looking up.
President Joanne closed the meeting with the words from a Rotary tee shirt:
