Sustainable BRC – Beyond the Fence – Inspiration and Solutions for the Planet

We have so many events this year that we’re splitting the event postings into multiple postings. This year we have:

• Bike and Nature Tours
• Parties and Gatherings
• Native Voices – Aztec Burners
• Sustainable BRC – Workshops for You
• Sustainable BRC – Energy/Climate Solutions
• Black Rock NCA – Focus on Local
• Inspiration and Solutions for the Planet
• Training and Volunteer Meetings

This post gives you more details about our Sustainable BRC – Inspiration and Solutions for the Planet!  See our full schedule here!   We have so many of these events – that we’ve further broken them down to

1. Inspiration
2. Eliminate or Reduce Plastic Waste
3. Gardening – Food Productions – Eating Sustainably
4. Earth – Night Skies – Space

Inspiration and Solutions for the Planet

Wednesday – August 28, 2019- 11:00 – 11:30 PM – The Lorax– a performance piece – An impassioned recital of Dr. Seuss’ best title, for small and big Burners great pleasure. To gain inspiration for our planet’s salvation come through and partake of this treasure.

Wednesday – August 28, 2019 – 3:00 PM – 4:00 PM – Toxic Waste: Age of Opportunity – In a world that is getting smaller and more interconnected, creating change is easier than ever. The world is the most polluted it has ever been yet the space for opportunity has never been so wide. Is it possible to turn the world’s most common piece of litter, cigarette butts, into something that has economical value? Julian Melcer, Founder of Clean the Butts, will tell us.

Wednesday – August 28, 2019 – 5:30 – 6:00 PM – Adventures of a Nature Conservationist – From Brazil to Congo to Sumatra, the pressures on nature, on our rainforests, oceans and wildlife remain the same – us! It’s is my life purpose to help change this and to help others also to BE the change. Through conservation work, starting a humanitarian charity, teaching yoga, meditation and wellness and seeing the beauty in everything, I aim to spread the love and help the world find its compassion and oneness. Talk by Suzanne Ford.

Friday on the Playa, August 30, 2019 – 4:00 PM – 4:30 PM – Finding Optimism in a Burning World. Kerry Nickols, professor of marine biology at California State University Northridge, will discuss climate change and its impacts on the oceans and share how an all-women expedition to Antarctica pulled her out of climate despair.

Friday on the Playa, August 30, 2019 – 11:30 AM – 12:30 PM -TORQuE PARK DUCKs – Or Science 101. Chris Maloy uses this mnemonic to teach the basics on how to evaluate scientific information that comes your way. He’ll also go over 5 numbers that are constants that can not be violated. Learn how to evaluate scientific claims so you can be a better citizen on the planet.

Eliminate or Reduce Plastic Waste

Wednesday – August 28, 2019 – 3:00 – 4:00 PM Speaking Truth to Plastic, One Sip at a Time – Plastic pollution is a global crisis in our soil, water and air. Plastic pollution affects the health of our planet, animals and ourselves, but solutions abound. Join Jackie Nuñez the founder of The Last Plastic Straw and Program Manager for Plastic Pollution Coalition, learn how to reduce your plastic footprint and become part of the solution to plastic pollution.

Wednesday – August 28, 2019 – 5:00 PM – 5:30 PM – Fighting Plastic Waste in Morocco

and Africa –  Break Free From Plastic – Mamoun Ghallab, has lived a zero waste life-style for 6 years and is a Moroccan activist fighting plastic pollution. He will share the story of how environmental NGOs are acting to reduce plastic waste in countries where there is no separate waste collection and recycling. In Africa, fighting plastic pollution is about proving that other production and consumption models are necessary and possible. That’s how we can #BreakFreeFromPlastic !

Friday, August 30, 2019 – 2:00 PM – 3:00 PM – More Than Just One Word on Plastics – Plastics: we love them and hate them. Rebecca Braslau, organic chemistry professor at UC Santa Cruz, will discuss the history of plastics, what they are made of, health, environmental and societal issues, and exciting developments in emerging biosustainable and biodegradable plastics.

Gardening – Food Productions – Eating Sustainably

Wednesday – August 28, 2019- 10:00 AM – 11:00 AM – Applying Behavioral Economics to eat Less Meat – Even if you are not ready to go vegan. Not only are you what you eat, but the planet is what we eat. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the livestock sector is “one of the most significant contributors to the most serious environmental problems, at every scale from local to global”. Leading behavioral scientist, Kelly Peters,  talks about the shift to plant-based diets using tactics drawn from the field of behavioral science.

Thursday – August 29, 2019 – 11:00 AM – 11:30 AM Playing With Worms: DIY worm farm. Worms are the perfect pets and a great, odorless way to reduce your organic waste at home, no matter if you live on a 900 square meter property in Wyoming or a 1-bedroom apartment in Brooklyn. During the workshop, learn how to build your own worm farm (you can make it as big or as small as you want), where to get your worms from and how to ensure the little critters will have a comfortable life at your place.

Thursday – August 29, 2019 – 12:30 PM – 1:00 PM Permaculture for Any Space – Come learn about vertical, urban/small space farming, what to grow and how. Tips for maximizing your space to grow healthy food in your very own Zen food forest.

Thursday – August 29, 2019 – 1:30 PM – 2:00 PM Bokashi Composting – Bokashi is a technique developed by Japanese scientists to make it easy for city dwellers to deal with their food waste. Bokashi composting is an anaerobic process that relies on inoculated bran to ferment kitchen waste, including meat and dairy, into a safe soil builder and nutrient-rich tea for your plants.

Thursday – August 29, 2019 – 2:00 PM – 3:00 PM – DIY Wick Gardening Demo – Grow veggies in a small area all year round using less water with wick gardening. Build it once with recycled materials and use it for years. Also, plans for composting in a container that gives you compost tea. Your plants will love you!

Friday, August 30, 2019 – 10:30 AM  – 11:30 AM  – Mapping the World for Food and Water Security in the 21st Century – Is there enough fresh water for food?  Danny Foley (USGS) discusses how to use water more efficiently for agriculture.

Earth – Night Skies – Space

Wednesday – August 28, 2019 – 8:00 PM – 8:30 PM – Embracing Darkness –  How changing our relationship with light can impact the trajectory of climate change – Want to know the impact making light has had on the planet? How our superstitious fear of the dark has wreaked havoc on the environment in ways we never see yet it is as plain as the light bulb in front of your face. We all love LED’s on the Playa and even though there have been great advances in the software that programs them, what advances have been made on the LED itself? Here is the opportunity to see the world’s first 2200K, 1900K and 1700K LEDs that are helping preserve the Dark Skies the world over. They are a game changer in the realm of municipal street lighting specifically addressing  the 2016 AMA public statement of the harm to human health being caused by lights that are 3000K and higher.

Friday on the Playa, August 30, 2019 – 12:30 PM – 1:00 PM – Earthquake in Super Slo-Mo  –  It’s the biggest revolution in Earth Science since plate tectonics was figured out in the 60’s. Mel Zhang, University of Colorado Boulder, will talk about the “slow earthquakes” known as slow slip events (SSEs): what they are and why they are important.

Friday on the Playa, August 30, 2019 – 4:30 PM – 5:00 PM – The Kraken is Real: A Mission to Find and Protect the Largest Squid on Earth – Hear Matthew Mulrennan, a marine scientist and ocean conservation technologist from Venice, CA describe innovations to explore and protect the ocean, including diving into an audacious expedition to find and film the colossal squid, the largest invertebrate on Earth, in the deep-sea near Antarctica.

Friday on the Playa, August 30, 2019 – 3:00 PM – 4:00 PM Space Debris: Pollution in the Final Frontier – Since 1958, western civilization’s rapid economic and military evolution has grown the population of stable Earth-orbiting objects from one – the Moon – to tens of thousands. The vast majority of these objects fall around Earth like forgotten cannonballs from an ancient war, ready to strike an unlucky passerby days, months, years, decades, or centuries after being launched. In this talk, Alan Smith, who works in space traffic management, will trace through the history of humanity’s use of space, from Sputnik, to weather satellites, to geosynchronous communications satellites, to the Global Positioning System, and the mega-constellations currently being fabricated. With each object moving in different directions at speeds many times faster than an assault rifle bullet, we’ll also explore what can be done to address this seemingly-intractable problem.