Webinar Topics

• The Economic Value of Preparedness and Resilience
  Held June 10, 2020
• Communicable Diseases and Environmental Change - Is There a Connection?
  Held May 13, 2020
• Effectively Communicating with the Public During a Crisis
  Held April 8, 2020 
• Responding to Floods
  Held March 11, 2020
• Zoning Code and Comprehensive Plan Strategies for Climate Resilience
  Held December 11, 2019
• The Hoosier Resilience Index: Understand Your Community's Preparedness
  Held November 13, 2019
• Identifying Public Health Solutions for Climate Change Impacts
  Held October 9, 2019
• Ticks, Asthma and Allergies: How the Changing Climate Affects our Health
  Held September 11, 2019
• Lessons from North Carolina: The Unexpected Consequences of Urban and Rural Flooding
  Held August 14, 2019
• Planning for Electric Vehicles
  Held July 10, 2019
• Funding and Installing Solar Energy in Your Community
  Held June 12, 2019
• Achieving Flood Resilience in Indiana Rural Communities in the Face of a Changing Climate 
  Held May 8, 2019
• Installing Wind Energy in Your Community
  Held April 10, 2019
• Managing Storm Sewer Flooding
  Held March 13, 2019
• Using Greenspace and Vegetation as an Adaptation Strategy
  Held February 13, 2019
• Identifying your Community's Vulnerabilities to Environmental Change
  Held January 8, 2019
• An Introduction to ERIT
  Held November 13, 2018
• Planning for More Frequent River Flooding
  Held October 9, 2018
• Environmental Change in Indiana
  Held September 20, 2018

View past webinars

James Balog is a visionary photographer whose work extends far beyond the camera to the international stage, where he educates audiences about humans’ relationship with the environment. Balog founded the Earth Vision Institute in 2012 with the mission of “integrating art and science to reveal environmental change and inspire a balanced relationship with nature.” He was in in Bloomington for two events focusing on his films.

On April 9, 2019, Balog held a public lecture and reception, which can be viewed online, focusing on his project “The Human Element,” a documentary about human interaction with earth, air, fire and water. It was followed with a screening of the film at the Buskirk-Chumley Theatre. 

On April 10, 2019, Balog held a question and answer session with a screening of his Emmy Award-winning documentary “Chasing Ice” looking at the work of the Extreme Ice Survey, which placed more than 40 cameras on two dozen glaciers to capture time-lapse images of climate-induced change. You can see James balog present "Chasing Ice" and also see the Q&A with Jon Vickers, the director of IU Cinema 

For more information on James Balog and free climate change resources see lesson plans for "The Human Element" and the Earth Vision Institute's Getting the Picture multimedia tool.

Ryan Gunderson received his Ph.D. in Sociology from Michigan State University in 2014 with Specializations in Environmental Science and Policy, Animal Studies, and Gender, Justice and Environmental Change. His primary interests are in environmental sociology, social theory, political economy, animal studies, and the sociology of technology. Ryan's current research projects include a sociological examination of geoengineering, an integrative study bringing together research on deliberative environmental decision-making and models of global environmental governance, and a conceptual investigation of how classical sociological theory can shed light on the social aspects of contemporary technologies. Ryan teaches introduction to Social Justice Studies, Research Methods, and Social Stratification.

Dr. Gunderson's talk was on how there are paradoxes and risks associated with technological approaches to addressing climate change. Renewable energy development may increase total energy use and increases in efficiency are associated with increases in total resource use. Geoengineering comes with environmental and social risks. Along with explaining the political-economic reasons for the limitations of “techno-fixes,” this talk proposes concrete social changes that reduce carbon emissions and increase social wellbeing while better realizing the environmental gains of renewables.

This presentation was free and open to the public and was part of the Institute's Fellow Speaker Series. 

• "Limits to Technological Solutions: Why Mitigation also Requires Social Change" on March 28, 2019 at 4:00pm in Woodburn Hall

Dr. Hayhoe, an atmospheric scientist at Texas Tech University, is known for her work on regional climate impacts and for sharing her research with faith-based communities. In this talk, Dr. Hayhoe explored pathways to productive discussion about climate change: moving past the smokescreens to address the real objections and beginning conversations with values we share, rather than facts we may disagree on. The talk was free and open to the public. If you missed her lecture, there is a recording of her lecture at Purdue. 

The Institute invited IU faculty, staff and students to a community discussion on the development of the Hoosier Resilience Index. The event included a presentation on project goals, the current draft of the index, and opportunities for members of the IU community to plug in. We also held an open discussion to receive feedback on the current direction of the project.

The Institute seeks subject matter experts to advise the Hoosier Resilience Index project. If you would like to become involved, and have expertise in the following areas, please contact us.

• Adaptation
• Agriculture
• Applied statistics
• Aquatic ecology
• Data science
• Energy
• Environmental engineering
• Forest ecology
• Hydrology
• Limnology
• Public health
• Public health systems
• Urban heat
• Urban ecology

More About the Index

The Institute is developing the Hoosier Resilience Index to help local government officials and employees understand the path to making their communities more resilient to climate change impacts. This decision-making tool will:

• Present the risks specific to individual Hoosier cities, towns and counties;
• Provide information on which risks may be most harmful;
• Evaluate progress towards resilience; and
• Offer assistance in making decisions that lead to greater resilience.

The Institute intends for the Hoosier Resilience Index to be easy to use and understand, informative, objective, inspiring and accessible to the diverse array of cities, towns and counties within the state and beyond.

The Environmental Resilience Institute hosted a day-long series of presentations about ongoing research and accomplishments that help prepare Indiana for environmental change. We heard from the Institute's fellows, steering committee, affiliated researchers and staff.

Joel Clement, Science Advocate & Whistleblower, visited IU Bloomington for a seminar on science and public advocacy hosted by the School of Public and Environmental Affairs, Concerned Scientists at IU, and the Environmental Resilience Institute.

Joel Clement is a Senior Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School with a background in resilience and climate change adaptation, landscape-scale conservation and management, and Arctic social-ecological systems. Prior to joining the Kennedy School, Mr. Clement served as an executive for seven years at the US Department of the Interior. In July, 2017, he became the first public whistleblower of the Trump Administration, accusing Secretary Zinke of stifling science, ignoring climate change, wasting taxpayer dollars, and risking the health and safety of Americans in the Arctic. He was awarded The Joe A. Callaway Award for Civic Courage and resigned from public service in October of that year. Since then he has been on a national speaking tour and has received multiple awards for ethics, courage, and his dedication to the role of science in public policy. In addition to his role at Harvard, he is an Associate with the Stockholm Environmental Institute and a Senior Fellow with the Union of Concerned Scientists.

Clement's presentation was free and open to the public:

• "Taking it Personally: Public Service in the Age of Trump" on October 3, 2018 at 5:30pm in Jordan Hall

The Environmental Resilience Institute hosted Dr. Josh Tewksbury, director of Future Earth’s Colorado Global Hub and executive editor for Anthropocene magazine, for talks Feb. 27 at Indiana University Bloomington.

Tewksbury is an ecologist, conservation biologist, and planetary health scientist. During his presentation, Tewksbury explored the challenges posed by global change, the institutional hurdles we face, and the emerging structures, communities, and networks that are tackling these challenges. The presentation was free and open to the public:

• “Sustainability and Science in the Anthropocene,” 4 p.m. Feb. 27, Fine Arts Building, Room 015, IU Bloomington

The Institute welcomed Gina McCarthy, formerly an administrator at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, for talks Jan. 16 at Indiana University Bloomington and Jan. 17 at IUPUI. (See the video on the ERI Facebook page.)

McCarthy has spent 35 years in public service. Currently, she is director of the Center for Health and Global Environment at Harvard's T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

The talks were free and open to the public:

• Discussion: U.S. Environmental Policy, 3 p.m. Jan. 16, School of Public and Environmental Affairs, First Floor Commons, O’Neill Center, IU Bloomington.
• “The Future of EPA and Our Planet,” 5 p.m. Jan. 16, Whittenberger Auditorium, IU Bloomington.
• "Reversing an Environmental Agenda: Will it Stick?,” 11:40 a.m. Jan. 17, IU McKinney School of Law, Indianapolis, Room 300/Inlow Hall. 

Learn more about McCarthy and the talks on the News at IU website. 

Co-sponsors for McCarthy's visit included the IU School for Public and Environmental Affairs, Concerned Scientists@IU and the McKinney School of Law at IUPUI.