Following up a sporadic weather pattern over the week, Dr. Audrey Depelteau of East Tennessee State University held a free public education workshop to discuss climate change on Saturday, March 4, inside the Elizabethton/Carter County Public Library.
The event, sponsored by the Carter County Democratic Women’s Club and Carter County Proud, saw a packed-house attend to hear Depelteau speak about the current issues regarding climate change.
Depelteau, who was joined by Samantha Tracey, is a lifelong environmentalist and performed graduate work in environmental toxicology at Albany Medical College and Rensselaer Institute in the 1970s. She moved to Johnson City in 2009 to manage a grant from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute in the Department of Biological Sciences at ETSU. Since then, Depelteau has been the director of ETSU’s Innovation Lab for the past six years. Depelteau trained to be a Climate Reality Leader in 2013, and has since taken a course through the University of California at San Diego on Climate Change and also received a certificate.
While Tracey ran the projector, Depelteau used current data on available and stated that warming trends have been on the rise each month of the year.
Along with current trends, Depelteau talked of how increased heat and pollution has caused the recent strands of both supercells and droughts locally and across the world.
Depelteau encouraged individuals to get active by doing their part to help with the environment and stressed that climate change will be an issue prevalent for the upcoming generation.
Women’s Club President Kristi Carr recently told the Elizabethton Star that having these types of workshops are important for the community and that the club will look at the possibility of having different series throughout the coming months on topics that affect individuals at a local and national level.
Pat Buck, with the Club, also thanked the inclusion of Carter County Proud for assisting by sponsoring the event and for their work in the region.
For more information on the event or how to get involved with the groups, email Women’s Club president Kristi Carr at kcarr59@yahoo.com or visit the Carter County Democratic Party Facebook page. Individuals can also learn more about Carter County Proud by visiting their Facebook page, too.