The Eco-Solutions Un-Conference at Foothill College Spring 2018
By Jay Zhao, Foothill College Student
On May 31st, 2018, the Foothill Environmental Action Club hosted “The Solutions: An Eco-Sustainability Un-Conference” on the Foothill main campus. Instead of naming it a “Conference” or a “Seminar” as most of others would do, the coordinators use the “Un-conference” to show their willingness to let the audience, instead of speakers, drive the discussions and the flows of each session, so it can be an “engaging, adaptive and dynamic” experience for most of participants.
A total of thirteen talks were presented during the event which covered a wide range of climate-related topics: energy, waste, food and water, politics, engineering, and the arts. Speakers with different background were invited, including experts in the field, leaders of the industry, and professors and students from Stanford University and Foothill College.
The keynote speech, “Transitioning Homes, Cities, States, and Countries to 100% Clean, Renewable Energy for all Purposes as Fast as Possible,” was given by Dr. Mark Jacobson, who is a world-renowned expert in sustainable engineering, the director of Atmosphere/Energy Program at Stanford, and former advisor to the U.S. Secretary of Energy.
As the title suggests, Dr. Jacobson used concrete data and his former experience in related fields to urge people to “convert the energy infrastructure of homes, cities, states, and countries of the world to those powered by 100% wind, water, and sunlight (WWS) for all purposes, namely electricity, transportation, industry, and heating/cooling, after energy efficiency measures have been accounted for.”
With negligible influence on our current life standard, Dr. Jacobson proved that it is possible for us to switch to renewable and clean energy sources. This very conclusion was then perfectly supported and verified by the talk given by Mr. Guillaume Bazouin, the director of Products and Innovation at BONE structure — a steel construction system leading the way towards high performance, energy efficient homes, designed and built using an integrated process inspired by the aerospace industry — on “Digital Fabrication and Mass Customization as a Path to Net Zero Energy Construction.”
Among the rest of the talks, some are more prone to political and psychological roots and solutions to climate change, like “How to Influence Elected Officials” presented by Bruce Karney and “Is Climate Change Real? Insights into political and psychological reasons why this question is still debated in America” given by Ben Stefonik. . “Energy for Transportation” by Dr. Diana Ginnebaugh, “Nuleaf’s BioFiltering Technology Breakthrough” by Ronnie Miller, “The Clean Electrification Pathway to Sustainable Energy” by Dr. Joseph Stagner leaned more toward the utilization of newly developed technology to solve specific environmental problems in different fields.
As a speaker myself, my partner Sissi and I explored on how and what are Chinese youth climate activists doing on the other side of the Earth in the face of increasingly deteriorated climate. Based on the case studies on one main youth group and several other ones, each with their own approach to climate problems, we tried to provide a big picture for actions and movements undertaking in China to help with the global fight against climate change. For example, a group named Chinese Youth Climate Action Network (CYCAN), the first youth group in China to target on climate change topics, is helping students from over 60 universities to come up with solutions to help their own campuses to become more eco-friendly and sustainable, which greatly brings the awareness of climate issues among youth group and has led to numerous practical projects.
Serving as a call for more awareness, involvement and solutions within the community, this un-conference got warm echo and attention. We hope from this event, more people will take up the cause and the community will collaborate equally to address the serious problems caused by climate change and come up with solutions to help. Together, we can make our own contribution to the Earth and future generations.
Jay Zhao is a current student at Foothill College and was a speaker at Foothill’s “The Solutions: An Eco-Sustainability Un-Conference” in May 2018.
