Rotary Minute

I, Kay MacDuffee, have made presentations to Rotary Clubs over the years, mostly to the Palgrave Club of which (full disclosure) I am an Honorary Member.  But this one was different.  It was quick, to the point and devoid of all and any technical assists.  DrawDown was a 20 minute fast paced presentation and I was thrilled to have as my co-presenter, Cher Dignan, who was way less than half my age and a marine engineer with a Master's degree in science

We represent ecoCaledon and how we feel about global warming. The formula for the talk was four questions by us fielded by four answers from the audience. But first some background. Greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) in the atmosphere have shot up to 400 ppm and rising since pre-industrial days where they sat at around 200 ppm.  DrawDown is the point at which GHGs peak and begin to decline on a yearly basis. So we began our questions.

Question 1: Can we reverse global warming? Yes! Over 200 scientists and researchers from over 25 countries collaborated to develop the model of 100 solutions that must be implemented together to achieve DrawDown by 2050.

Question 2: Do we know what to do?  Yes! These solutions are divided into sections (energy, food, women & girls, buildings & cities, land use, transport, materials, coming attractions) and ranked by the GHGs they reduce.

Question 3: Are we already doing it?  Yes! 80 credible, economically viable solutions to reverse global warming are already underway in communities all over the world.

Question 4: How can you help? You can choose from four levels of impact: personal, family, community and global.  Rotary is active at both community and global levels.

Imagine if Rotary were to take on DrawDown at the community level.

What about Rotary International taking on DrawDown as its next ‘big project' since eradicating polio is just about accomplished and there are few things more important than saving the human (and other) species from extinction.

We were pleased to share our plan for DrawDown in Caledon.

For more information check out  www.ecoCaledon.org  and  www.drawdown.org