Join us at All Saints Episcopal Church, Austin, on Saturday, October 22nd at 9:00 a.m. for a Community Conversation on Climate Change, featuring the President and Founder of Interfaith Power and Light, Reverend Sally Bingham, and including three other great speakers: Dr. Camille Parmesan of the University of Texas at Austin, Ilan Levin of the Environmental Integrity Project, and Amanda Yaira Robinson of Texas Interfaith Power & Light. Read on for more information about all four participants, and we hope to see you on Saturday!
Rev. Canon Sally Bingham is president and founder of Interfaith Power & Light and continues to bring widespread attention to the link between religious faith and the environment through her work with The Regeneration Project. As one of the first faith leaders to fully recognize global warming as a core moral issue, she has mobilized thousands of religious people to put their faith into action through energy stewardship. Sally serves as Canon for the Environment in the Episcopal Diocese of California and is the lead author of Love God, Heal Earth. Interfaith Power & Light is a national movement connecting people of faith with energy and environmental stewardship. There are 39 state IPL affiliates, including Texas.
Dr. Camille Parmesan is a professor of Integrative Biology at University of Texas, Austin and National Aquarium Chair in the Public Understanding of Oceans and Human Health at the University of Plymouth, UK. Dr. Parmesan's research focuses on the current impacts of climate change on wildlife, from field-based work on American and European butterflies to synthetic analyses of global impacts on a broad range of species across terrestrial and marine biomes. Reuters ISI Web of Science ranked Parmesan the second most highly cited author in the field of Climate Change in 2010. She works actively with governmental agencies and NGOs to help develop conservation assessment and planning tools aimed at preserving biodiversity in the face of climate change. In 2007, she was awarded the Conservation Achievement Award in Science by the National Wildlife Federation, named "Outstanding Woman Working on Climate Change," by IUCN, and named as a “Who’s Who of Women and the Environment” by the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP). Parmesan has been involved as an author and reviewer in multiple reports for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and shares in the Nobel Peace Prize awarded to IPCC in 2007. Dr. Parmesan is a Professor in Integrative Biology at the University of Texas at Austin and holds the National Aquarium Chair in the Public Understanding of Oceans and Human Health at the Marine Institute, University of Plymouth, UK. Dr. Parmesan is also a participant in the Scientists/Evangelical expedition to Alaska, organized by PBS and the Harvard Center for Global Change.
Ilan Levin is the Associate Director of the Environmental Integrity Project, a watchdog organization that advocates for effective enforcement of environmental law. Prior to that, Ilan practiced environmental law with the Austin firm Henry & Levin, where he represented landowners and conservation groups on water issues. Ilan has also worked for the Texas Legislature’s Sunset Commission, where he played a key role in developing and drafting state anti-pollution laws. Ilan has authored or presented numerous reports and articles including Texas State Review of Oil and Natural Gas Environmental Regulations, Salt Lake City, August 2003 (co-author), and Environmental Water Rights in Texas, 12th Annual Texas Water Law Conference, Water Law Institute, October 2002. Ilan serves on the board of the non-profit Texas Campaign for the Environment, and has been appointed by the Austin City Council and Mayor to local boards and commissions, including serving as Vice Chairperson on the City of Austin Ethics Review Commission (2001-2003).
Amanda Yaira Robinson is the Coordinator for Texas Interfaith Power and Light (TXIPL), the environmental program of Texas Impact and one of 39 state Interfaith Power & Light programs. Prior to that, Amanda served as Director of Religious Education for two Unitarian Universalist churches. Amanda is working on a Masters in Theological Studies at Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary. She is a Fellow in the 2012 Fellowship Program of GreenFaith, an interfaith environmental coalition whose mission is to educate and mobilize diverse religious communities for environmental leadership, and is a Contributing Scholar for State of Formation, an online forum for emerging religious and ethical leaders founded by the Journal of Inter-Religious Dialogue.
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To register for the Saturday workshop, click here. For more information about the event, please contact Amanda at amanda@texasimpact.org or call: (512) 472-3903.