Seminars

Climate Change, Human Health, and Nutrition

Presenters:

Kristie Ebi, MS, MPH, Ph.D. CLIMATE CHANGE AND THE FOOD YOU EAT

Stephen Jones, Ph.D. CITY WHEAT COUNTRY BREAD

Mark Vossler, MD  HUMAN HEALTH IMPACT

BIOS

Kristie L. Ebi is director of the Center for Health and the Global Environment (CHanGE), and Rohm and Haas Endowed Professor in Public Health Sciences at the University of Washington. She has been conducting research and practice on the health risks of climate variability and change for over twenty years, focusing on understanding sources of vulnerability, estimating current and future health risks of climate change, and designing adaptation policies and measures to reduce the risks of climate change in multi-stressor environments. She has supported multiple countries in Central America, Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Pacific in assessing their vulnerabilities and implementing adaptation policies and programs. She has been an author on multiple national and international climate change assessments, including the IPCC Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5°C https://ipcc.ch/report/sr15/.  She co-chairs the International Committee On New Integrated Climate change assessment Scenarios (ICONICS) that created five scenarios of socioeconomic development over this century.  Dr. Ebi’s scientific training includes an M.S. in toxicology and a Ph.D. and a Masters of Public Health in epidemiology, and two years of postgraduate research at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.  She has edited fours books on aspects of climate change and has more than 200 publications.

Stephen Jones is a wheat breeder and the Director of The WSU Bread Lab in Skagit Valley. Stephen has a Ph.D. in Genetics from the University of California at Davis and teaches graduate courses in advanced classical genetics and in the history and ethics of genetics. His first wheat crop was on five acres at Chico State University’s student farm in 1977. Together with his graduate students, he breeds non-commodity wheat and other grains for local uses to be grown on small farms in the coastal West, the upper Northeast and other regions of the country. The Bread Lab is a combination think tank and baking laboratory where scientists, bakers, chefs, farmers, maltsters, brewers, distillers, and millers experiment with improved flavor, nutrition, and functionality of regional and obscure wheat, barley, other small grains and beans.

http://thebreadlab.wsu.edu/

Mark Vossler is a practicing physician and section chairman of Cardiology at Evergreen Hospital in Kirkland.  After medical school at University of Rochester and Residency at the University of Vermont, he did his fellowship in cardiology at Oregon Health Sciences University.  His clinical practice focuses on congestive heart failure and cardiomyopathy. He and his wife Susan have been longtime activists on issues involving environment and health.  He is the co-chair of the Climate and Health Taskforce of Washington Physicians for Social Responsibility, WA congressional district 1 liaison for Citizens Climate Lobby and an East King County regional hub for the Yes on 1631 campaign.  He has co-authored WPSR’s position statements on the health impacts of oil transport by rail and on the health co-benefits of climate change mitigation. Mark and Susan have three teenage children, Lydia, Eli and Claire and enjoy hiking, Nordic skiing, and fishing in their very precious spare time.

Microbial Allies Beneath Our Feet & In Our Bodies

You are what you eat? We’ve all heard how much diet affects physical and mental health. Now, new science is helping us understand some of the fundamental mechanisms at play, not only in our bodies, but also in food crops. The soil and gut microbiomes, nutrition, and farming practices are among the topics a geologist, a nutritionist, and a biologist will cover during a presentation and panel discussion.

Presenters:

David Montgomery, PhD and Anne Bikle, MLA; authors of The Hidden Half of Nature

Michelle Babb, MS, RD; author of Anti-Inflammatory Eating For A Happy, Healthy Brain

Location: Seattle Town Hall

BIOS

Anne Biklé attended the University of California, Santa Cruz earning Bachelors degrees in Biology and Natural History. She holds a Masters Degree in Landscape Architecture from the University of California, Berkeley. She has over two decades of professional experience in field biology, environmental planning and public health. She co-authored The Hidden Half of Nature: The Microbial Roots of Life and Health with David Montgomery.

David Montgomery is a professor of geomorphology at the University of Washington. He received a Bachelors degree in Geology from Stanford University and a PhD from the University of California, Berkeley in Geomorphology. In 2008 he received a MacArthur Fellowship (known popularly as the genius award).He has just completed a fifth popular-science book, Growing a Revolution: Bringing Our Soil Back to Life.  He has been featured in documentary films, network and cable news and other media.

Michelle Babbs has a private practice in West Seattle where she specializes in mind-body nutrition, weight management and inflammatory digestive disorders. Michelle is a Bastyr-trained functional medicine practitioner. She was  an adjunct professor at Bastyr. Michelle is the author of The Imperfect Perfectionist, Anti-Inflammatory Eating Made Easy, and Anti-Inflammatory Eating for a Happy, Healthy Brain. She teaches nutrition-focused cooking classes at PCC.

A SILVER LINING: HEALTH CO- BENEFITS OF CLIMATE CHANGE POLICIES

The policies that need to be implemented to reduce greenhouse gas emissions will also bring about substantial reductions in air pollution and cardiovascular disease, as well as propelling changes in urban mobility and our built environment. Looking at health co-benefits creates a different paradigm  one that is win-win for most people, and for the planet. The panel will discuss the health co-benefits of climate change policies.

SLIDESHOW AVAILABLE 2-1 Presentations Hess Strange Dannenberg.

Video will be posted when available.

PANELISTS:

• Jeremy Hess, MD, MPH; Univ. of WA Associate Prof, Env & Occ Health Sciences &  Associate Prof, Global Health

• Kathy Strange, P.E., M.S.; Manager, Technical Analysis with Puget Sound Clean Air Agency

• Andy Dannenberg, Affiliate Professor; Univ of WA Dept. of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences, School of Public Health & Dept. of Urban Design and Planning, College of Built Environments

Oil Tanker Traffic In The Salish Sea: Threats Of Spills and Noise Pollution

Ensuring safe shipping through Washington’s waterways is critical to maintaining our region’s economy, culture and environment. With multiple projects proposed that will expand coal and oil exports from ports in British Columbia and Washington, oil spill risks are escalating rapidly.  Evidence shows that ocean noise caused by people is doubling every decade, and the effects of this increased noise on sea creatures are not well understood.

PANELISTS

• Stephanie Buffum, Friends of the San Juans, Executive Director
• Fred Felleman, Friends of the Earth; Commissioner, Port of Seattle
• Rob Williams, Oceans Initiative marine conservation scientist; a 2015 Marine PEW Fellow

Extraordinary Tales From the Salish Sea

Presenters:

Joe Gaydos, Chief Scientist for the SeaDoc Society

Audrey DeLalla Benedict, Director of Cloud Ridge Naturalists

TOPIC: Putting a Price on Climate Pollution in Washington State

SPEAKERS:

• Yoram Bauman – environmental economist, Founder of  CarbonWA 
• KC Golden – Senior Policy Advisor at Climate Solutions and Board Chair of 350.org 
• Nicole Vallestero Keenan – Policy Director, Puget Sound SAGE
• Todd Myers – Director, Center for the Environment, WA. Policy Center
• Moderator: Steve Scher

Our state has taken a regional leadership position on climate change. The panel of experts and leaders on climate change will explore the future of climate policy in our state and the challenges ahead.