Living Well During Climate Change

Conference participants will hear from four community groups working to address community awareness, resilience, and justice in their contexts. From elementary environmental education to holistic neighborhood empowerment and sustainable enterprise hubs, participants will learn how each group understands its work via the broader conversation and action around climate. 

Panelists:

Aaron Musser, Director of Programs and Engagement, Lutheran Outdoor Ministries Center

Carolee Kokola, Director of Enterprise Operations at Bubbly Dynamics, LLC

Naomi Davis, Founder, Blacks in Green

Anissa Camacho, Climate Committee Member, The Puerto Rican Agenda of Chicago

• Excursion A: Art at the SMART: This workshop will display a set of works drawn from the SMART Museum of Art’s permanent collection, curated to complement conference themes. Local climate responded to a piece of their choosing with a written reflection on the relationship between the artwork and their daily experience with climate change. Conference-goers are invited to encounter these works to evoke their own emotions, experiences, and stories about climate change.

• Excursion B: Campus Ecosystems Walking Tour: Led by landscape design manager Kathleen Golomb, this session will highlight the variety of ecosystems on campus and ways that sustainability is incorporated into various aspects of designing an urban university campus. Special attention will be paid to the seasonal changes and particular biota currently present and will end with time for conversation and reflection on one’s experience. *If you need accessibility accomodations, please contact divinityevents@uchicago.edu.

This session brings together local climate scientists whose work interfaces with aspects of daily living. Together they will discuss how engaging across disciplines has enhanced their work and the joys and challenges of working in climate change fields. 

Panelists:

Ping Jing, Associate Professor, School of Environmental Sustainability, Loyola University Chicago

Marc Berman, Professor and Chair, Department of Psychology at University of Chicago; Director of the Environmental Neuroscience Laboratory

Pedram Hassanzadeh, Associate Professor, Department of Geophysical Sciences and Committee of Computational and Applied Mathematics, University of Chicago

Vegan lunch provided to all registrants. 

• Excursion 1: Campus Ecosystems Walking Tour: Led by landscape design manager Kathleen Golomb, this session will highlight the variety of ecosystems on campus and ways that sustainability is incorporated into various aspects of designing an urban university campus. Special attention will be paid to the seasonal changes and particular biota currently present and will end with time for conversation and reflection on one’s experience. *If you need accessibility accomodations, please contact divinityevents@uchicago.edu.

• Excursion 2:  Art at the SMART: This workshop will display a set of works drawn from the SMART Museum of Art’s permanent collection, curated to complement conference themes. Local climate responded to a piece of their choosing with a written reflection on the relationship between the artwork and their daily experience with climate change. Conference-goers are invited to encounter these works to evoke their own emotions, experiences, and stories about climate change.

Emotions have a hard time finding their place in the climate conversation. They can be labeled as ancillary, or too overwhelming. They are, however, central to any climate work. This session explores the close connection between grief and joy, and how moving from simply living with climate change to living well invites us to explore and articulate our own stories and experiences of the twin joys and griefs that are so often present in working in or on behalf of the natural world. 

Panelists:

Cynthia Lindner, Director of Ministry Studies and Clinical Faculty for Preaching and Pastoral Care in the Divinity School

Celeste Kennel-Shank, Pastor and Journalist

Using humor to provide levity, relief, and encouragement is found across justice movements, yet it is mostly absent from the climate movement. Until now? This session will explore the intersection of comedy and climate change, seeing what we can learn from humor in other contexts, and how we might begin to engage our funny bones as we live with the daily realities of the climate crisis. 

Panelists:

Alex Barnes, Pastoral Resident, First Presbyterian Church of Libertyville

Virginia White, PhD in Theological Ethics

Rebecca Anderson, Co-Pastor, Gilead Church Chicago