Omolade Adubi, ASC director and professor of African and Afroamerican studies, took part in a panel led by Janet Napolitano, former University of California president, U.S. secretary of homeland security, and Arizona governor, joined University of Michigan sustainability experts for a panel discussion on climate action. Also on the panel are Andy Hoffman, Holcim (US) Inc. Professor of Sustainable Enterprise and professor of management and organizations in the Stephen M. Ross School of Business, and professor of environment and sustainability in the School for Environment and Sustainability, and Margaret Wooldridge, Arthur F. Thurnau Professor; Walter J. Weber Jr. Professor of Sustainable Energy, Environmental and Earth Systems Engineering, and professor of mechanical engineering and aerospace engineering in the College of Engineering; and director of the Institute for Energy Solutions.
The panel took place on March 7 at Stamps Auditorium and was moderated by Chris Kolb, vice president for government relations. The discussion titled “Working Together to Tackle the Climate Crisis was part of the Presidential Inauguration Symposium and centered around mobilizing government, higher education, the private sector, community stakeholders, and individuals toward addressing the climate crisis.
The group discussed the intersection between the climate crisis and equity, noting climate change’s reverberations beyond temperature and sea level.
Adunbi said,
We have to begin to think about global inclusivity. Many of the conflicts that we see in many African countries today are climate-related, although sometimes some of those conflicts are either tagged as ethnic or religious conflicts.
Lakes that provide livelihood to many of these communities are drying up, farmers are in conflict with herders. … How do we engineer a new form of technology that is inclusive, and that also brings a lot of disenchanted and disenfranchised communities to the table to be part of the solution to the crisis.
Presidential Inauguration Symposium Watch a video of the panel discussion on “Working Together to Tackle the Climate Crisis.”
Click here to visit The University Record page, learn about the other panelists, and read the story.