Colorado Climate Futures: CSU Climate Hub at Spur Launch Event (free registration)

Join Colorado’s leading climate scientists, innovators, and community voices for an engaging conversation about climate and celebrate the launch of CSU’s new Climate Hub at Spur. This free public event invites a bold discussion that includes an update on future climate scenarios by Colorado scientists and encourages participants to imagine alternative futures. A detailed agenda is below the event description on this page.

REGISTER.

Event description

Climate change is the opportunity of our lifetime. According to Pew Research Center, 64% of Americans say it currently affects their local community a great deal or some. While those impacts cause hardship, affect livelihoods, and claim lives, they also open a window to a future that can be radically better or worse, depending on the course of action we take. They also have the potential to rally communities around a common cause and help us rethink our direction as a society.

Public discussion about climate futures remains centered on narrow solutions and quick technological fixes. While every innovation that helps us reduce greenhouse gas emissions or respond to the challenges of a changing climate is important, we also need a broader vision of a positive climate future. We need shared dreams and direction.

Climate change isn’t a problem we cannot solve, but it is a problem that needs to be addressed collectively across partisan and ideological divisions. And above all, it brings opportunities that can benefit us all.

Agenda

Climate Change in Colorado: What’s Changed So Far, and Where Are We Heading?

Climate change has global impacts, but what are the specific implications for Colorado? In this session, participants will be invited to share their expectations for how Colorado’s climate will change over the next century. They will then hear a presentation from the Colorado Climate Center and learn by the numbers just how much Colorado’s climate and hydrology have shifted so far. The Climate Center team will then discuss the changes that are expected to be in store for the state’s climate in the coming decades, including which projections they are most confident in and where questions remain.

—Dr. Russ Schumacher, Professor and State Climatologist
—Dr. Allie Mazurek, Engagement Climatologist
—Peter Goble, M.S., Assistant State Climatologist

Co-Creating Tomorrows: A Guided Session on Envisioning Positive Climate Futures

Join us for an engaging session where we’ll help you envision positive climate futures in Colorado. We’ll start by exploring concepts of radical futures, why we need them, and the importance of understanding diverse perspectives and histories. Then, through an imaginative exercise, we will invite you to think creatively about how we might address and live with climate change, weaving in stories and viewpoints from different dimensions of culture, technology, community, and environmental conditions. We’ll wrap up by brainstorming actionable steps that can emerge from these collective visions, exploring how these ideas can inform real-world change.

—Dr. Courtney Schultz, Director, School of Global Environmental Sustainability & CSU Climate Initiative, Professor of Forest & Natural Resource Policy
—Dr. Lynn Badia, Associate Professor of English

Shaping the Future, CSU Climate Innovation Flash Talks

Colorado State University produces innovative solutions to some of the greatest climate-related challenges. This session showcases some of the work that the CSU faculty is doing to not only understand climate change and its implications but also pave the way towards a more resilient and sustainable future.

—Dr. Gene Kelly, Professor of Pedology and Deputy Director of the Colorado Agricultural Experiment Station (CAES)/Associate Dean for Extension
—Dr. Sara Place, Associate Professor of Feedlot Systems
—Dr. Dan Zimmerle, Director of the Methane Emissions Program (METEC), Director of the Remote and Distributed Energy Center (RADEC)
—Dr. Aaron Brown, Associate Professor of Systems Engineering
—Stefan Haugen, M.S., Analytical Chemist at National Renewable Energy Laboratory
—Dr. Sheryl Magzamen, Professor & Associate Department Head for Graduate and Resident Education

About the CSU Climate Hub at Spur

The CSU Climate Hub is a new initiative of Colorado State University. The Hub provides climate services that connect science and innovation to real-world climate solutions. By helping partners access the knowledge, tools, and expertise they need to make informed decisions and take action, the Hub accelerates meaningful progress in Colorado and beyond.