June 2018

In order for California to meet its ambitious climate adaptation goals and to prevent significant, negative impacts on California’s economy and environment, we must build the capacity of critical change agents to take aggressive action. Local governments—California’s cities, counties, and other regional public agencies—are critical to addressing these goals, yet they lack the capacity needed…

“The students of today will be the architects of future climate strategies and our champions for achieving greenhouse gas reduction targets.” – State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson 2015 was a big year for environmental and sustainability education, and a critical pivot point. Superintendent Torlakson’s Environmental Literacy Task Force had spent all of 2014…

I was drawn to climate adaptation because I wanted to think holistically. I wasn’t satisfied by addressing systemic problems within any single sector, such as energy or water. I wanted to examine through a wide lens the ways in which we currently meet human needs, and how our approach must shift in order to continue…

Now, more than ever, our communities and livelihoods are vulnerable to the imminent consequences of climate change- but there is still time. If we are to manage and restore our life support system, we must foster a new culture. We must think differently, we must act differently, and we must engage differently. Addressing these challenges…

Virgil Dupuis, Extension Director for Salish Kootenai College in Montana, speaks to tribal high school students from the Flathead Reservation in the SKC garden at the Native Waters on Arid Lands Youth Day event, May 3, 2018. On a sunny Thursday morning in early May, twelve students from local high schools from the Confederated Salish…