Loyola’s Annual Climate Conference Takes On Water Crises

Loyola’s Office of Sustainability hosted its 10th annual Climate Conference. Beginning March 12, the event focused on a worldwide water crisis causing water scarcity and how to aid communities facing resource depletion as a result of climate change.

The four-day conference included speakers with backgrounds in climate related work and a variety of events ranging from art exhibitions to campus sustainability tours. 

Participants were invited to Damen Cinema March 12 for a film screening of “We are Tuvalu,” a 2022 student film directed by Senior Professional in Residence School of Communications professor John Goheen. 

A discussion on the film led by Goheen and students involved in the film followed, allowing the audience to ask questions about the remote country featured in the film and its experience with rising sea levels as a result of climate change.

A March 13 staff-led tour of the School of Environmental Sustainability explored the university’s facilities and the efforts which helped it achieve carbon neutrality. 

After a preview of a March 13 musical performance by the School of Fine and Performing Arts calling for climate action through singing of Latin Mass text and poems describing nature’s degradation was a keynote address by Peter Gleick, scientist and co-founder of the Pacific Institute, a non-federal research center focused on finding solutions to water challenges affecting the continued prosperity of communities. 

Gleick began the conference’s discourse on the water crisis by addressing the known causes of climate change and the resulting issues, like rising sea levels and increased flooding. Through the alternation of rainfall patterns and intensity of weather events, climate change disturbs the management of water resources around the globe. 

The water cycle’s natural progression is changing due to increased air temperature, which causes shifts in water runoff and complicates operations in water resorvoirs, according to Gleick. 

Many areas are affected by water issues, either through natural disasters or through agricultural, infrastructural or socio-economic ways, according to Gleick. A main issue he discussed was water poverty — the scarcity of water or a community’s inability to access a clean and sustainable water supply.

Gleick presented findings from NASA’s GRACE satellite, which detects Earth’s water presence through mass calculations, and said it observed ice sheets melting and an abnormal absence of water in drier areas of the world.

Gleick said warming temperatures in the Arctic are causing ice sheets to melt, resulting in rising sea levels, and dry climates are becoming drier due to global warming and causing groundwater overdraft — the heavy extraction of underground water which exceeds the amount that can be naturally replenished. 

While Gleick acknowledged his speech centered on the harsher realities of climate change and the urgent actions which should be taken, he also reminded his audience the ultimate solution to these issues is science.

While answering questions posed by students and faculty related to the lack of government action toward climate efforts, Gleick said there were many issues with having climate policies be driven by political beliefs or affiliations and they should instead reflect a research-based need for funding and advocacy toward solving climate change.

He said federal funding, research and policy are necessary to drive society toward a determent for climate change.

“We should separate our science from politics but understand they’re related in important ways,” Gleick said.

Gleick ended his address by cautioning against the spread of misinformation found in the media.

“Defend and support science, reject censorship, be skeptical of those that produce results inconsistent with well understood science,” Gleick said.

Various speakers lined panel presentations March 14 to expand on global water challenges and explain how the communities dependent on the Great Lakes are impacted by damages to infrastructure caused by an increase in extreme flooding — including the city of Chicago. 

The first panelists —  physical scientist with the International Joint Commission’s Great Lakes Regional Office Matthew Child, Deputy Director of Earth Sciences for Hydrosphere, Biosphere and Geophysics for NASA Matt Rodell and Manager for Strategy and Performance of the World Resource Institute Eliza Swedenborg — talked about the global management of water resources and water systems.

The panel discussed the importance of finding adaptation strategies for the conservation of water in view of a climate that’s growing warmer and more unpredictable.

Another panel, centered on the significance of the Great Lakes to their surrounding areas, featured environmental author and journalist Dan Egan, Indigenous lead for the Global Center for Climate Change and Transboundary Waters Dawn Martin-Hill, Director of Clean Water and Equity for the Great Lakes Alliance Meleah Geertsma and a climate resilience specialist Cheryl A. Watson. 

They discussed how the Great Lakes are being affected by climate change with fluctuating temperature patterns, causing extreme storm events like heavy rain and flooding.

The third panel discussed current and future solutions for local communities battling flooding and heavy water runoff around Lake Michigan. 

The panelists shared the importance of adaptive infrastructure for urban and suburban communities enduring flood damage. Although a warmer climate is expected to raise Lake Michigan’s water levels, Chicago has already faced heavier rainfall and extreme flooding in the last decade, according to former Environmental Protection Agency Regional Administrator for Region 5 for the Biden administration Debra Shore.

Restoring the land’s ability to capture and absorb water, building rain gardens and developing green infrastructure are all potential solutions the city could apply, according to Shore.

“I think there’s enormous opportunity right here in Cook County,” Shore said.

The Transportation Resilience Improvement Plan for Northeastern Illinois was presented by Kate Evasic, a program lead in the Climate Resilience Program for the Chicago Metropolitan Agency. She introduced the idea of surface transportation systems’ — particularly the Chicago Transit Authority — ability to anticipate and prepare for climate disruptions.

Transportation is also affected by climate change, since prolonged flooding and extreme temperatures add further stress which can weaken infrastructure and reduce safety, according to Evasic.

In preparation for changing conditions, Evasic said the solution is to update infrastructure. The Climate Resilience Project with CMAP, introduced by Evasic, centers on learning how to adapt infrastructure to future conditions.

“If we are expecting that the infrastructure we build today will serve us for decades to come, we must consider those future conditions,” Evasic said.

Evasic said the need for federal funding is important to continue climate change research and for communities already suffering, especially during a time of uncertainty due to the current administration’s retraction from significant research funding, The Phoenix reported. 

“If we don’t get funding in the next four years, we have to continue to put pressure so that we can get that support in the future,” Evasic said.

Evasic said community coordination and maintaining active collaboration is also necessary to fund research and identify the most beneficial solutions for communities in Northeastern Illinois as weather events become more severe. 

The idea of community building to find a solution was discussed by Anna Jentz, 2020 Loyola graduate and a Climate Equity Planner with Greenprint Partners, who attended the March 14 panel to talk about different communities’ engagement with potential water and green infrastructure projects. 

Jentz said governments should prioritize green stormwater infrastructure, which refers to stormwater management practices that aim to reduce the speed and volume of stormwater entering sewer systems.

By using plants and soil, green stormwater infrastructure can mimic natural water cycles and help water infiltrate into the ground right where it falls, which helps reduce runoff. This idea is especially beneficial because plants attract pollinators and create new green spaces for ecosystems and communities, according to Jentz.

Before implementing the project, Jentz said Greenwater Partners visited different communities to teach them about green stormwater infrastructure and receive feedback. Hearing residents’ frustrations on their financial and emotional losses due to urban flooding was very meaningful to the process, according to Jentz.

“We were able to have this really open, transparent dialogue with these amazing humans that were showing up to these meetings,” Jentz said.

Following the final panel, attendees were invited to an exhibit for sustainability organizations at Loyola, including Restoration Club, Net Impact and SGLC, who shared their own efforts toward combating climate issues on-and-off campus.

The last event of the conference was reserved for a discussion and musical performance March 15 by Ignatian Voices, University Chorale and student singers, with guests from the EcoVoice Project, an arts organization connecting musicians and scientists to perform music calling for climate action.  

The performance “Missa Laudato Si’” used Latin mass text and addressed the contamination of the planet and humanity’s responsibility to care for it. Vocalizing the widespread threat of climate change, the musical performance represented vulnerable populations and how they’re impacted by the earth’s degradation.

Gleick had talked about the privilege it is to be able to discuss climate change issues, as he said it’s important for everybody that science prevails.

“For those able and willing to speak up, we have a responsibility to do so, as not everyone can,” Gleick said.