Public Events
Catskill Conversation with Dr. James Hansen
Columbia University Climatologist and former NASA astronomer Dr. James Hansen will lead a Catskill Conversation, alerting students and community members to the present day climate emergency, and inaugurating the Ashokan Youth Empowerment and Sustainability Summit (YESS!).
** This event is at KINGSTON HIGH SCHOOL (not at the Ashokan Center) **
7pm talk with Q&A to follow
$10 suggested donation for adults, $5 for children & students
Purchase tickets here.
Dr. James Hansen, formerly Director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, is Adjunct Professor at Columbia University’s Earth Institute, where he directs a program in Climate Science, Awareness and Solutions.
He was trained in physics and astronomy in the space science program of Dr. James Van Allen at the University of Iowa. His early research on the clouds of Venus helped identify their composition as sulfuric acid. Since the late 1970s, he has focused his research on Earth’s climate, especially human-made climate change. Dr. Hansen is best known for his testimony on climate change to congressional committees in the 1980s that helped raise broad awareness of the global warming issue.
Dr. Hansen was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1995 and was designated by Time Magazine in 2006 as one of the 100 most influential people on Earth. He has received numerous awards including the Carl-Gustaf Rossby and Roger Revelle Research Medals, the Sophie Prize and the Blue Planet Prize.
presented by the Ashokan Center and YESS!
Drawdown Learn
Sustainability leaders, innovators and community members gathered at the Omega Institute for more than 16 hours of presentations, discussions, interviews, and other moving moments for this three-day event. CSC Task Force members Chantal Collins, Jennifer Breslin, Scout Pronto, Gary Bassett, and Matt Stinchcomb participated in and spoke at the event.
In order to reverse global warming, it’s time for everyone to get involved—to connect and partner, and to weave together disparate efforts into local, regional, and global solutions-oriented movements.
And what better way than by engaging with and supporting the young people who have the largest stake in our efforts?
Since the nonprofit, environmental organization Project Drawdown published Drawdown: The Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed to Reverse Global Warming in 2017, schools, community groups, nonprofits, governments, businesses, and individuals have been galvanized by the solutions-based blueprint.
See our Resources post about the global Drawdown Eco-Challenge, in which Rhinebeck placed 2nd in the world in 2019. CSC Task Force members along with sustainability leaders in Rhinebeck (shout out to Dorna Schoeter!) created a website to share info most relevant to Rhinebeck residents. Dig in there to apply Drawdown principles to your own life.
Bike-to-School Day
Please fill out this interest form so we can be in touch as we firm up plans.
We’d planned a Spring 2020 Bike-to-School Day but COVID-19 threw a wrench into our wheel.
In 2019, we did a handful of Bike to School Days. Liz Mazzarella organized a big one in April 2019, starting at Lions Mini Park.
Please do reach out and let us know if you’d like to be involved.
Taste of Rhinebeck: Most Sustainable
APRIL 28, 2020
This year 2020, Taste of Rhinebeck was to present a new category, brought to you by Climate Smart Rhinebeck: Most Sustainable. We hope to be able to offer this in 2021, if the pandemic allows for this event to come back.
Find out more about Taste of Rhinebeck and see our tips for greening your establishment.