Please join us on Friday, February 10 from 3:30 to 5:00 PM for the WRRC’s Annual Chocolate Fest. This year, we are thrilled to be hosting this fun event in-person at the WRRC’s offices! The agenda this year is simple: gather with friends and colleagues, enjoy chocolaty treats, and see the winning photographs from our 2022 Annual Photo Contest. In keeping with tradition, this year’s celebration will be a chocolate potluck! Start thinking about what you would like to bake, concoct, purchase, or brew, then bring your favorite divine chocolate delectation to share.
Brown Bag Webinar: Making Sense of the COP26 Climate Talks - Reporting Back from the Field
Betsy Wilkening, President, Polar Educators International
Kristen Poppleton, Senior Director of Programs, Climate Generation: A Will Steger Legacy
11/19/2021 - 12:00pm to 1:15pm Arizona Time
On November 19, the WRRC hosted Betsy Wilkening, president of Polar Educators International, and Kristen Poppleton, senior director of programs for Climate Generation, for a Brown Bag webinar on their experiences at the United Nations 26th Conference of the Parties (COP26). Wilkening and Poppleton attended COP26 as delegates from Climate Generation, a Minnesota-based organization that works to empower individuals to act against climate change in their communities. The presentation began with an explanation of what the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) does, including organizing the annual COP. Wilkening then outlined the three overarching goals of COP26: to limit warming to 1.5 degrees centigrade, to create a climate finance system to support developing nations hit hardest by climate change, and to develop a whole-of-society approach to solving this global problem. Poppleton then explained Action for Climate Empowerment (ACE), which entails empowering all members of society to engage in climate action.
Poppleton and Wilkening shared stories about their time at COP26, highlighting some of the sessions and events they attended. Sharing videos and photos of the conference and other events, the presenters gave webinar attendees a sense of what it was like on the ground in Glasgow, Scotland. To close out their presentation, Wilkening gave an overview of the Glasgow Climate Pact, and highlighted some of the areas where the agreement fell short. She circled back to the three goals of the conference and discussed to what extent those goals were met, after which Poppleton provided a final overview of the good, the bad, and the ugly from the conference.
Betsy is a learner, engineer, educator, environmentalist, volunteer, wife, mom, and activist. Her career has spanned jobs in industry, PreK-12 classroom teaching, teacher professional development, outreach education, and community engagement. As a teacher, she had the opportunity to work and visit the Arctic, which led her to becoming a founding member and now president of Polar Educators International. Betsy is a 5th generation Arizonan. Her ancestors first occupied lands of the Tohono O’Odham and Yaqui people in Tucson under the Mexican flag. Betsy’s Hispanic roots run deep in the Sonoran Desert, and as members of her community are disproportionately affected by extreme heat, persistent drought, and extreme storm events, she is passionate about empowering all to take action to build a more resilient community.
Kristen develops a vision for and provides strategic coordination, oversight and support for all Climate Generation programs focusing on youth, educator, and community engagement. Kristen served on the Federal Advisory Committee for the Sustained National Climate Assessment, the City of St. Paul’s Climate Action Planning Committee, and Minnesota’s Science Standards Revision Committee. She currently serves as co-chair of the CLEAN (Climate Literacy) Network’s Leadership Board, the Action for Climate Empowerment Leadership Team, and St. Paul’s Climate Justice Advisory Board. She is a 4th generation St. Paulite, and in her spare time loves to be in the boreal forest with her husband, two children and lab, canoeing, hiking, Nordic skiing, or with her nose in a new novel.
To request an alternate format of this webinar for disability-related access, please contact us at wrrc@email.arizona.edu
Upcoming Events
Feb 15 12:00PM
Brown Bag
WRRC Brown Bag Webinar: A Living River – The Santa Cruz River from Mexico to Marana
The Santa Cruz River has long been the backbone of the region’s natural and cultural heritage. Although the river has changed since humans first arrived in the region 12,000 years ago, the river still exists and is a “living” entity that continues to support wildlife and communities along its course. Throughout Arizona, the release of effluent maintains flows of many river reaches. The Santa Cruz River is fortunate to have three stretches with effluent flows—one near Nogales in Santa Cruz County and two near Tucson in Pima County.