Facing Climate Change & Building Resilience in Mountain Towns, 3/6

01 Mar Facing Climate Change & Building Resilience in Mountain Towns, 3/6

In the face of climate change, building resilience in mountain towns is a subject near and dear to the hearts of Telluride locals. Author and dean of the School of Environment & Sustainability at Western State Colorado University in Gunnison, John Hausdoerffer will address ‘The Future of Wildness” at an event co-sponsored by the Telluride Institute and the Telluride Library. The talk takes place Tuesday, March 6, 6 p.m., at the Library. For further information, please contact Pam at pam@liftonzoline.com

 “It is in vain to dream of a wildness distant from ourselves,” Henry David Thoreau.

Here is a link to a great radio interview Hausdoerffer did with Wyoming Public Radio.

Scroll down to watch a video preview of the talk.

Living through one of the driest winters in living memory, Telluride locals are already worried about the future. We grumble to each other: less fun on the hill; compromised economic activity; much lower rivers and reservoirs. And across the planet, mountain areas are experiencing similar warming and melting, with dire effects downstream.

We are living through what could play out as a gigantic emergency.

What can be done?

Come to Telluride’s five-star Wilkinson Public Library (100 West Pacific Avenue) on Tuesday, March 6, 6 p.m. to hear about a major initiative that addresses just those concerns.

Author John Hausdoerffer will lead a discussion on “The Future of Wildness” and read from essays dedicated to wildness in mountain communities from his new co-edited volume “Wildness: Relations of People and Place,” (U of Chicago Press, 2017). Hausdoerffer will also introduce a new coalition of mountain towns working to forge global solutions to climate change.

Hausdoerffer is dean of the School of Environment & Sustainability at Western State Colorado University in Gunnison, where he also directs the Master in Environmental Management Program and serves as a professor of Environmental Sustainability and Philosophy.

Hausdoerffer is also a fellow with the Center for Humans and Nature in Chicago, where his co-editor Gavin Van Horn works.

Author /dean John Hausdoerffer to address ‘The Future of Wildness’ March 6 at WPL.

“Wildness” features creative nonfiction essays that explore the spectrum of wilderness found in wilderness areas, on working landscapes and in urban communities and merges culturally diverse voices to delve into the evolution of “wildness,” including those of Hausdoerffer and Van Horn, as well as Gary Snyder, Vandana Shiva, Wes Jackson, Robert Michael Pyle, Robin Kimmerer, Aaron Abeyta, Winona LaDuke and Roderick Frazier Nash.

In addition to selections from his book, Hausdoerffer will share mountain-focused scenes from his co-produced documentary series “Wildness.”

Hausdoerffer will be joined in Telluride by Western State climate action specialists Corrie Knapp and Abel Chavez, as well as by representatives of the the Aspen International Mountain Foundation (AIMF) and the Telluride Institute. This newly fashioned team, collectively called the Mountain Resilience Coalition, actively builds an energized network to connect mountain communities for the sharing of resources and solutions to urgent problems.

The Mountain Resilience Coalition recently joined over 50 mountain nations at the United Nations Mountain Partnership meeting in Rome, and collectively leads the North and Central American and Caribbean region of the UN Mountain Partnership.

Karinjo Devore, President of AIMF, said AIMF is proud to be selected for the UN Mountain Partnership Steering Committee.

“As Chair of the North and Central American and Caribbean region, we are eager to join our Colorado partners in completing vital projects for our UN region’s mountains.”

During Hausdoerffer’s visit to Telluride, he will detail how the Telluride Institute and AIMF will set strategies for Western master’s projects to fulfill, creating results that model possibilities for both the North and Central American and Caribbean region and for all UN Mountain Partnership members.

“Mountain regions provide up to 80 percent of water consumed by humans,” Hausdoerffer said. “It is time to look to the world’s mountain communities as beacons of a more sustainable story, stretching from the planet’s headwaters to all communities downstream. We hope to elevate that hope by building support for a global network of place-based mountain projects.”

“Our collaboration with Western State Colorado University and the pioneering organization, AIMF, represents a new chapter for the Telluride Institute,”  Telluride Institute President Dan Collins said. “We see our combined efforts as advancing the critical role that mountain communities play in eco-system health. We encourage the public to join us for John Hausdoerffer’s talk at the Library on March 6, which will provide an ideal introduction to the issues.”