Countdown by TEDxLacamas Lake | An Event for People Committed to Climate Change Solutions

Wednesday, November 15 - Magenta Theater, Vancouver, WA

An In Person Event for Pacific Northwest Climate Champions

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OUR SPEAKER LINEUP

Juan Barraza

VertueLab

How do we get proven climate-friendly technology like heat pumps and induction stoves, into every home? It starts by making sure that climate tech teams are radically inclusive from the beginning so that the teams developing climate tech have lived experience with diverse communities with needs that may be very different from those of an affluent suburban homeowner.

Teja Chatty

Synapse Product Development

Explore ways to decarbonize design by finding the biggest opportunities to reduce environmental impact, early enough to find alternatives. When product designers iterate on the product in parallel with a simplified life cycle assessment to understand the impact of their decisions, they can find and reduce sources of impact that are not always easy to see.

Frank Dick

City of Vancouver Public Works Department

What if clean energy came from the sewer? We are amid a profound shift in mindset around sewage. Municipal wastewater utilities across the United States and the world are transforming from waste disposal facilities to carbon and nutrient resource recovery centers. Learn how engaging individuals and communities can help shape understanding and pride in what goes down the drain come back as recoverable energy.

Alex Gamboa Grand

Co-Founder, Way of Being

To solve the climate crisis, we know that action needs to be taken on a large, global scale, but does that mean that our individual actions don’t matter? Quite the contrary. Learn how our seemingly small everyday actions have the power to move the needle and how you can feel good about the difference you’re making without added stress or guilt.

David Kirshbaum

Vital Message Strategic Communications

For environmental action, it’s both the best and the worst of times. Eco-anxiety is at an all-time high as we approach the end of another record-demolishing year for extreme weather. However, there’s also a groundswell of momentum starting to transform how we live — shaping a new paradigm that is clean, healthy, equitable, and sustainable. And you can be part of it!

Kathryn Latham

Latham Business Solutions

The power to champion climate solutions through business is within reach for almost any entrepreneur. When we reimagine our companies as tools to propel us from where we stand today toward a more sustainable future, we open up pathways to change. This presentation will show how real entrepreneurs have optimized their business's operations for climate impact, and open your eyes to the idea that you can too.

Kenny Lee

AIGEN

We dive into the captivating complexities of regenerative agriculture. Discover the hidden layers of this ecological puzzle and the perils of oversimplification. Join us for a thought-provoking journey from the farm to the planet's well-being.

Gina McCoy

C6 Forest-to-Farm

Imbalances in the distribution of carbon are at the core of the climate crisis. This talk describes the pursuit of solutions to the mega-fires destroying our dry forests, and how that led to an essential tool for rebalancing the distribution of carbon in our ecosystems and atmosphere.

John Mead

Solid Carbon

Concrete has a massive carbon footprint, if it were a country it would be the third largest emitting nation after China and the USA. What if we as a society decided to turn the world’s most used human-made material from the largest source of carbon emissions in the construction industry into a carbon sink by incorporating biogenic carbon within it?

Spenser Meeks

Apex Presentations

It makes sense that climate tech companies are trying to address complicated problems that require complicated solutions, but at this stage in the energy transition we can no longer rely on "facts speaking for themselves". Curious, but often unfamiliar, audiences are being confused or out right repelled by technical messaging. We must share more relatable stories to win over the non-technical people that we need to be on our side.

James Metoyer

EnerCity Collaborative

In the journey toward an inclusive clean energy economy, BIPOC, underserved, and frontline communities hold the keys to both economic prosperity and climate-resilient living. By engaging homeowners on climate-friendly upgrades, bolstering minority contractors as trusted community advocates, and providing essential workforce training, we can usher in a sustainable future.

Katherine Rose

Depave

Can unique parties and events present opportunities for enacting social and environmental change? Through tangible, community-driven projects centered around the concept of ripping out asphalt and replacing it with living greenspaces, Depave utilizes a variety of creative, community engagement practices. Learn about how Depave engages communities in design processes for the organization’s transformative work in public space.

Alex Wick

Cascadia Carbon

Where do you start making changes to live a more carbon-friendly lifestyle and offset the emissions you’ve already generated in your time on this planet? Try planting a few trees. It’s not the only thing you’ll need to do, but as an individual action, it’s a great first step that can build momentum for bigger change. Because we need both: a lot more individuals making different choices in their lives, and a lot more trees to store carbon.

Alison Wiley

Electric School Bus Newsletter

Good news can be hard to find as climate change advances. But the rise of electric school buses (ESBs) is good news for reasons most of us have never considered. This talk describes the surprising potential of electric school buses to build energy independence and improve people’s lives, whether we are young or old, parents or childless, white or people of color, urban or rural, by tackling multiple problems with one solution.

SPECIAL PERFORMANCES BY

Sara Tone

Musician, Educator, Activist

Portland based musician, educator, and activist, Sara Tone shares her love songs for the Earth as a multi-instrumentalist. Expressing herself through voice, guitar, baritone uke, kalimba, ocarina, and an assortment of percussion instruments. Her style ranges from deep heart rooted fae-soul, world folk, with an undeniable hip-hop approach.

Emmett Wheatfall

Poet

Emmett Wheatfall lives in Portland, Oregon. He is a published poet and performs poetry to music. He has 3 books of poetry published by Fernwood Press. They are As Clean as a Bone (2018) which is an Eric Hoffer Award finalist and Our Scarlet Blue Wounds (2019). With Extreme Prejudice, Lest We Forget (2022). His chapbook of poems First Among Beautiful Stars published (2023).

Your Producer and Discussion Leader: Katherine Radeka

Accelerate Net Zero Project &
Rapid Learning Cycles Institute

Katherine organized this event for the community of Pacific Northwest climate champions — and climate curious — because she believes we can accelerate our work to achieve Net Zero carbon emissions, and help all of our communities adapt to warmer temperatures and more extreme weather.

About Countdown:

Countdown is a global initiative to champion and accelerate solutions to the climate crisis, turning ideas into action. The goal: To build a better future by cutting greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2030 in the race to a zero-carbon world – a world that is safer, cleaner and fairer for everyone.

The ongoing health and economic crises are reminding us of an important fact: We’re all part of the same fragile system, dependent on nature and one another.

As we look to the future, we must build forward and emerge more sustainable and resilient than before.

We can change climate change – #JoinTheCountdown to a safer, cleaner, fairer future. Countdown invites collaboration from every organization, company, city and nation and from citizens everywhere. It is a movement open to everyone – and everyone has a vital role to play.