ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT COMMITTEE
ABOUT US
We currently have 30 people on the environmental impact committee (EIC) team from the Palo Alto University Rotary club (PAUR). We need YOU to be part of the team!
​
Members of the Palo Alto University Rotary Club wanting to devote focused attention to environmental concerns, particularly the climate crisis. We are also families of PAUR members who attend EIC events, participate in our service projects, and support our work financially.
Meredith L. Warshaw, Ph.D., Co-chair
Don MacKenzie,
Co-chair
WHAT WE DO
-
Educate membership regarding climate change and environmental sustainability. We include weekly Thought for the Week slides with thought-provoking and educational information.
-
We have speakers for both breakfast meetings as well as Environmental Impact Forums in the evenings. During the COVID-19 pandemic, all our meetings are virtual on the Zoom platform.
-
Service days with hands-on events in our community such as planting trees, beach clean up, and Palo Alto May Fete Parade and Art and Wine Festival.
-
Projects for membership involvement to better our planet and understand what each of us can do to reduce waste, decrease climate change, and be part of saving our earth for generations to come.
-
Support organizations financially that work in the area of climate change, tree planting, and environmental sustainability.
WHO BENEFITS?
Everyone benefits! We all have to do our part to help slow the process of climate change. We want a healthy planet for our children to grow up in. Our whole community and the greater world benefits from working on making an impact to help our environment be sustainable for our future. The entire Rotarian membership and greater community benefits from learning and doing more to reduce climate change and making a better environment around us so we and our children have a safe and healthy world to live in.
WHY IS THERE A NEED?
It is clear that climate change and global warming is here. We need to slow down and start to reverse the process of using up our earth’s recourses in order to sustain our globe. We have started to exhaust our environmental resources. Climate change is real and our earth’s temperature is going up. There is so much plastic that we have dumped in our oceans that the animals and fish that live in the ocean are being suffocated and killed by getting entangled in the plastics or even consuming plastics. Plastic waste is found in all parts of our oceans and the air. The number of disasters due to climate change keeps increasing and destroying people’s homes and where we live.
​
The climate crisis has risen to the forefront of attention around the world. We are focusing attention on how to learn more and take effective personal action on these issues. Climate change, plastic and toxic pollution, species extinction are all real problems, demanding creative solutions.
Care for the natural world and species loss are considered priorities for Rotarians around the world. Rotary International has now designated the environment as one of its principal areas of service.
HOW TO GET INVOLVED
There are several ways to have just the right level of involvement for your busy lives. Do what you can, when you can, we will be the conduit to help you engage. This is an opportunity for Rotarians to work together locally and be engaged.
​
We have projects that need man-power to complete. We need funding to make it happen. Contact the EIC chairperson, Meredith L. Warshaw, Ph.D. at mlwarshaw@gmail.com to get involved.