July 12-18
"Climate Crisis for Weather Influencers"
India
"Wow, that was a cool experience!" remarked one of our weather influencers after a particularly thunderous evening thunderstorm, In a place where monitoring the daily weather is an essential part of everyday life, whaat better place for these weather influencers to spend a few days interacting with journalists, meteorologists, marine scientists, regional planners and climatologists than Tampa Bay?! Add in a Sunset Sail into the Gulf of Mexico and a "Community Hospitality" event, and you'll see why they came here in the stories below.
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Mr. Al Tompkins, retired senior faculty at the Poynter Institute, focused his seminar presentation on AI and disinformation on impacts on the climate debate and weather forecasting, and how artificial intelligence is being developed to predict lightning strikes and wildfires, and reminded the visitors to always learn about and teach climate and weather science to their constituents in India.
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Mr. Max Chesnes, talked about the challenges of reporting on communities devastated by hurricanes, "forever" chemicals in Florida, and coastal ecosystem resilience, and led a lively discussion the impact of social media on the climate crisis in India.
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The "Clean Air Tampa Bay" project of the Tampa Bay Regional Planning Council was presented by Ms. Courtney Wright, LEED GA Senior Planner at TBRPC and Project Lead for Clean Air Tampa Bay, as a case study for how to engage a wide variety of stakeholders, develop solutions, and establish long-term partnerships on climate challenges.
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Next up was a St. Pete Museum of History talk on "Close Calls: 100 Years of Hurricanes" by Mr. Jeff Berardelli, Chief Meteorologist and Climate Specialist, WFLA-News Channel 8, and how new tools of emerging climate science have made weather forecasting more timely and accurate. Afterward, Jeff talked privately with the IVLP participants about how he created a special news segment to help his audience better understand climate change and its impact on the Tampa Bay area, and he stressed the importance of staying current on climate science and communicating it clearly to their constituents.
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Dr. Gary Mitchum, Associate Dean and Professor, Physical Oceanography, at the USF College of Marine Science focused his in-depth discussion on sea-level science, and distilled complex scientific principles into practical examples that the IVLP weather influencers could use to help their audiences understand climate change. He talked about the impact of climate change and increased rainfall on physical infrastructure, a major concern in the Tampa Bay region and in India. Delving deeper into that topic, Dr. Mitchum was joined by Mr. Charles Jacoby, Strategic Program Director of the Florida Flood Hub, a statewide effort housed at USF designed to bridge the gap between scientists, policymakers, practitioners, and the public to help communities mitigate and adapt to flooding risks. The Flood Hub advances our understanding of and ability to forecast flooding due to sea level rise, high tides, storm surge, and changes in rainfall patterns, Resilience — the ability of communities to prepare for, withstand, and rebound from flood events and other natural hazards.
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The Initiative on Coastal Adaptation and Resilience (iCAR) mission is to increase knowledge and awareness of climate impacts on the region, identify research gaps in scholarly understanding of climate issues in Florida, conduct relevant research within the iCAR faculty’s areas of expertise, help local entities develop the skills necessary for climate resiliency, and build local capacity for adaptation to climate change. iCAR co-founder Dr. Barnali Dixon, USF Professor, Executive Director, iCAR & Director, Geospatial Analytics Lab demonstrated her integrated application that combines geographic information and community crowdsourced data with near real-time data on flooding to better inform emergency managers and policymakers. This app is flexible and can be adapted for use in other communities, including in India.
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Last stop in Tampa Bay...A World Partnerships "Community Hospitality" reception at Thrive DTSP for members of the Thrive Community and invited guests! This event was made possible by a grant from Global Ties U.S. and Marriott International, and gave the Indian visitors a relaxed opportunity to engage with folks from the Environmental Defense Fund, EKO, and other organizations that make up the 90-strong Thrive Community!
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Photo by Ms. Kavitha Herle
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