FCCB Goes Local!

The Climate Action Ministry Team at First Congregational Church of Berkeley (FCCB: 2345 Channing Way, Berkeley) will be hosting a 100-mile potluck in the FCCB large assembly on Saturday March 8 at 5:30 pm. Most of our food travels hundreds if not thousands of miles before it reaches our plates. We challenge you to create a meal made with ingredients grown within 100 miles of your home. This is a challenge so don't feel bad if you can't do it. Prizes will be awarded to the best tasting dish with the most local ingredients.


Following the potluck, we will be showing the documentary film, "What a Way to Go: Life at the End of Empire" at 7 pm on March 8. The threat of nuclear annihilation first brought the very real thought that humans could destroy the planet. While nuclear weapons are still a very real threat, we now face planetary crisis brought to us by climate change and resource depletion.

What a Way to Go looks at the current global situation and asks the most important questions of all:
· How did we get here?
· Why do we keep destroying the planet?
· What do we truly want?
· Can we find a vision that will empower us to do what is
necessary to survive, and even thrive, in the coming decades?

Join us for this powerful film followed by a short discussion.

The Future of the Earth's Climate: Frontiers in Forecasting

Bill Collins
The Future of the Earth's Climate:
Frontiers in Forecasting
St. Stephen's Episcopal Church, Tuesday, April 8, 7:30PM

Leading climate modeler Bill Collins joined the Earth Sciences Division in April to form a new department dedicated to atmospheric and climate science. Collins is also teaching at UC Berkeley's Department of Earth and Planetary Science. At Berkeley Lab, he heads an initiative to create a new kind of climate model that integrates cutting-edge climate science. He'll discuss how observations show that the Earth is warming at a rate unprecedented in recent history, and that human-induced changes in atmospheric chemistry are probably the main culprits. Climate models suggest that patterns of global warming will amplify over the 21st century, impacting plants, animals, and society. Improvements in the scientific foundation of climate forecasts will require better observations and understanding of the carbon and hydrological cycles.

Dr. Collins is is a senior scientist and department head at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and a Professor in residence with the Department of Earth and Planetary Science at the University of California, Berkeley. Dr. Collins is also a senior scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder Colorado. He received his M.S. and Ph. D. in astronomy and astrophysics from the University of Chicago in 1984 and 1988, respectively. His research has focused on the interactions of solar and terrestrial radiation with the climate system and on the implications of these interactions for present and future climate. He has authored or co authored 64 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters and delivered over 60 invited presentations at scientific conferences, universities, laboratories, and colloquia. He has organized five and chaired nine international meetings on subjects spanning radiation and climate. Bill served as the chair of the scientific steering committee for the Community Climate System Model project from 2003 to 2005. He is currently a lead author and expert reviewer of the Fourth Assessment Report on the science of climate change commissioned by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, for which his team was awarded the Nobel Prize.

Location: St. Stephen's Episcopal Church, 66 St. Stephen's Drive, Orinda (Hwy 24, exit St. Stephens Drive). Contact: Barbara Bisel, Commission for the Environment, Diocese of California, 925-377-5953, bsmithbisel@cs.com.