Addressing Climate Change at the Community Level
Climate Change is provoking humanity’s ultimate existential crisis. Heat waves, wildfires, mudslides, hurricanes, tornadoes, and other extreme weather events are keeping us awake at night. Drought, famines, and floods are driving mass migrations and political instability. It’s not surprising that many people just don’t want to hear about it anymore. But the situation is not hopeless. The solution to climate change is, like its cause, all about human activity. We can mitigate further climate change and we can take steps to adapt to the changes that are inevitable. Join Erie Mayor Joe Schember, Erie County Executive Kathy Dahlkemper, and retired Erie Art Museum Director John Vanco for a presentation about climate change and learn what we can do as a community to address it.
John Vanco, B.A. led the Erie Art Museum through repeated expansions from 1968 to 2017, including development of the 2010 LEED Gold-certified building that connects five historic buildings into one complex. He developed a comprehensive green operations policy for the Museum, as well as an exhibit explaining the building’s green aspects. In 2011 the Museum received the nation’s highest honor, the National Medal for Museum Service, and in 2015 was honored with the Sustainability Excellence Award in Programming in 2015 by the American Alliance of Museums. He founded and continues to direct Erie’s Blues & Jazz Festival, the community’s only green festival, now in its 26th year and has devoted his time to building a better community with emphasis on environmental awareness, especially efforts to cope with the effects of global climate change.
