Commentary by Amanda Cross
The executive director of the IU Environmental Resilience Institute will speak at a seminar Sept. 14 at the Carmel Clay Public Library. Gabriel Filippelli will discuss the new book he and the ERI have released, “Climate Change and Resilience in Indiana and Beyond.”
The ERI has a mission to co-create environmental resilience and climate solutions by integrating research, education and community. In addition to being ERI executive director, Filippelli is a chancellor’s professor in the department of Earth Sciences at IU-Indianapolis.
“The ERI was formed in 2017 among IU faculty in response to the overwhelming challenges of climate change here in the Hoosier state,” Filippelli said.
As you can tell from the title, the book is very relevant to Hoosiers. Case in point, chapter 10, “Equitability, Health, and Resilience in the Face of Climate Change,” starts with a description of the very Monon Trail that runs through Indianapolis, Carmel and Westfield.
This book talks about many of the areas of climate concern that you’ve probably heard about — water systems, forests, wildlife, infrastructure and agriculture, among others. Each chapter tackles one of these topics and how we got to the place we are now. However, the book goes beyond that, too.
The operative word is resilience. Filippelli said, “resilience simply means being productively adaptive to whatever pressures are around us.” For example, the book reports how we now face more frequent and severe flooding. In this book and through their other work, the ERI talks about what the state, cities and individuals can do to adapt.
“We help lift communities up and help them find funding and resources to confront climate challenges they are facing every day,” Filippelli said.
The seminar will be from 6 to 7:30 p.m. at the Carmel Clay Public Library, 425 E. Main St. You can purchase a copy of the book during the event and have it autographed.
For more, visit CarmelGreen.org or contact Madelyn Zalon at [email protected] or 317-459-2150.
