President Meghan Burton brought the August 29, 2023 club meeting to order at 12:30, and Mike Norcia led all in reciting the pledge of allegiance.
John Pencer provided the inspiration. For some time we have all known the three keys to healthy longevity: exercise, diet and sleep. More and more, a fourth key to healthy longevity is coming to the fore: social connection. Not the Facebook kind, but the kind of in-person social interaction we have at Rotary meetings. John reported that for a senior, loneliness is more harmful to health than the impact of smoking would be. So, connect and come out to a Rotary meeting!
Mike Norcia brought a guest, Teri, who is on the path to becoming a Los Gatos Rotarian. Welcome Teri!
In reviewing club business, Meghan noted:
- The Rotarian in the wild this week was a photo of Tom Picreaux on a tour of Glacier National Park.
- Meghan also thanked the not-so-wild Rotarians: Jeff Blum, Dick Konrad, Jeffrey Barnett and John Walker for representing our club at a Monte Sereno event at Lake Vasona where we were prospecting for new members. DG Hung Wei also stopped by our booth.
- Meghan then showed off the picture of this week’s St. Luke’s eggs by Kathy. This week it was a tropical theme. Meghan noted that the St. Luke’s team specifically commented that these eggs brighten the day of those who receive them each week.
- With a photo of the news article in the The West Valley Outlook, Meghan talked about the value of the SafeRide program - getting kids who need to get home to actually get there, and anonymously. And, pointed out that in the article, it said: “Special thanks to the Los Gatos Rotary Charitable Foundation for its $500 donation to provide partial funding for the SafeRides program.”
- First Tuesday will be at the home of Randy Cobb and Kathie Benko in Los Gatos on September 5th. Members, spouses, significant others and prospective members are all invited! Look at Meghan’s email later this week for more details.
- There is an opportunity to help with food distribution at Second Harvest in Campbell at 8:30AM on Friday, September 15th. Again, look at Meghan’s note this week for more details. The Rotarian contact for this event is Rachelle Lopp.
- Meghan talked about the devastation in Lahaina. Rotary District 5000, which includes Maui, is close to those in need, and partnering with others to get aid where it is needed. Meghan was told that the presidents of all three Lahaina Rotary clubs had their homes destroyed by fire. In a period of about five minutes, generous club members pledged $3,000 to help! If you weren’t at the meeting, and would like to donate, please contact Patti van der Berg.
- Our club received a 2022-2023 Rotary year citation for setting and achieving a variety of goals related to membership, fund raising, etc. Mike Norcia emphasized that this award was earned by the whole club, and that it is something we can all take pride in.
- And, in 30-for-30:
- Patti took pride in her son graduating from USCF with a MPH - and already with a professional job!
- Jean-Marc announced the publication of his most recent book, Chinese Overseas Ports in Europe and the Americas.
- Jeff Blum thanked his fellow volunteers for the membership prospecting at the Monte Sereno event; Dick Konrad, John Walker, and Jeffrey Barnett.
- Tsovo proudly announced that she had achieved U.S. citizenship a few weeks ago, and rang the bell with a $100 donation!
Today’s speaker was Carl Peterson.
Carl lives in Los Gatos, and has a distinguished technology career, including significant engineering and P&L roles at Apple and Tesla’s energy products group.He and his wife currently run a consulting firm in Los Gatos.
The theme of his talk was climate change. Carl started with some basics. While climate change can refer to many things, his primary focus for this talk is on global temperatures, measured as an average across the earth’s surface. The dominant source of new energy absorbed by the earth is the sun. Without an atmosphere, the earth’s average surface temperature would be zero degrees fahrenheit. But with the atmosphere, the modeled average temperature is in the low 60’s.
The atmosphere serves many essential functions, but one is that it moderates the temperature extremes to make our earth habitable. The moon, without an atmosphere, varies 100s of degrees a day. It is an essential function of the atmosphere that it reflect heat back toward earth to keep our climate hospitable.
But carbon dioxide and methane - greenhouse gases in our atmosphere - are an increasing share of our atmosphere, and the rate of increase is also accelerating. Carbon dioxide lasts for about 1,000 years in the atmosphere, and Methane about 40 years. This means that even if the human race stopped adding these greenhouse gases to the atmosphere today, it would be decades before there would be an actual decrease in the percentage of the atmosphere comprised of these gases.
And, small changes in temperature can lead to big changes in outcomes. Using the baseline of pre-industrial society in about 1800, an increase in average temperature of 2 degrees celsius instead of 1.5 degrees celsius could lead to 70% more extreme weather outcomes.
Carl talked about the sources and impacts of climate change outcomes. The greenhouse gas emitters are industrialized countries, many in the Norther Hemisphere, with about 70% of that coming from the energy sector. Those projected to experience the most negative, impactful impacts of temperature rise are in the southern hemisphere, often with fewer resources to mitigate any issues. And, many of these countries still have economic development ahead of them, and it will be difficult for them to both grow and curtail emissions on their own.
Carl said that it is not too late to address this issue, and that we should focus on what we can do. He advocated that we should focus on electrifying everything, emit less, and push for lower emissions everywhere. Additionally, he said that governments need to spend money to build more renewable energy capacity.