The 2016-17 UC Davis Humphrey Fellows present:

The Challenges of Climate Change in Mexico, Morocco, Pakistan and Tunisia on Friday, March 24 at 7 p.m. at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Davis  (27074 Patwin Road).  Each Humphrey Fellow will talk about climate impacts in his or her own country.

Yolo Interfaith Alliance for Climate Justice presents the first of a series of ongoing Climate and Sustainability Speaker Forums. Each speaker will provide information on timely matters regarding climate change and how to live in healthy, sustainable ways, both for us and for the earth.  The speakers welcome questions on the issues raised and moderators will encourage discussion on what is possible for our own community and beyond.

4 Humphrey Fellows tell their stories

The first speaker forum features four of the 2016-2017 Humphrey Fellows at UC Davis, all recently returned from Al Gore’s Climate Reality Leadership Corps training.  Climate Change already poses serious challenges for each of their countries.

Mexico

Itzel Morales comes from Carmen, an island of 170,000 along the Caribbean coast of the Yucatan Peninsula that is feeling that impacts of climate change already.  Her own sea-level city is vulnerable to sea level rise.  The warming temperatures have increased mosquito-borne diseases while heavier rains have increased erosion.  Since she became a Climate Reality Leader a few years ago, she has already spoken to more than 4,000 people to raise awareness about climate change, empowering audiences to reduce CO2 emissions and conserve forests. Itzel is passionate about caring for this Earth and plans to devote her life to improving our chances of surviving climate change threats.

Morocco

Adnane Labbaci studied forestry in Morocco and holds a PhD in GIS and remote sensing.  He worked in the High Commission of Water Forests and Combating Desertification of Morocco, implementing government decisions on forests and watershed management, desertification mitigation and climate change adaptation.  Labbaci developed a regional geospatial database to establish baselines for forest ecosystems assessment and methodology to combat desertification. His interest is sustainable development of natural resources. He hopes forest ecosystems can help sequester carbon and mitigate the climate change effects in his country.  Additionally, he wants to gain more technical experience in web mapping, climate change modeling and developing partnerships with international organizations.

Pakistan

Khush Bakht Aalia holds a Master’s degree in Economics and has experience in the field of capacity building and community development for rural communities in Pakistan.  She has extensive experience in project planning management, poverty alleviation, participatory development, and monitoring and evaluation with special attention to intersectional aspects of gender issues. In Davis, she is interested in learning how to include and build the capacity of rural women in agri-based enterprise development. Climate change is an obvious player in any project she undertakes having to do with agriculture.

Tunisia

The last Humphrey Fellow, Tarek Rabai, comes from Tunisia, where he is a marketing manager for crops of dates.  He has initiated the development and expansion of new markets for Tunisian dates in many countries. He hopes to learn from UC Davis about CA dates and set up a cooperative program between Tunisian exporters and American importers and processors. His interests extend also to Ecotourism and now to being a Reality Climate Leader.

The evening presentation includes time for questions and discussion.

Second Climate and Sustainability Speaker Forum

The second Speaker Forum will be Soils: the Forgotten Gift under Foot, a talk by Tony Rolfes of the US Dept. of Agriculture Natural Resources Conservation Services on April 30 at Congregation Bet Haverim at 3pm.

Get info for each speaker at www.cooldavis.org/news

Other speakers on a wide variety of climate and sustainability topics will follow.