Click Here to download information on how you can help Beat the Heat again in Boston on Saturday, October 17th, 2009!
This past summer, the Earthwatch community in the Boston area and around the world came together in the field, online, and in person to support the work of scientists and volunteers grappling with one of the most important environmental challenges of our time, our rapidly changing climate.
From June through September, more than 335 volunteers, including student, teacher, and corporate fellows, participated on 11 different climate change research expeditions at a dozen locations in six countries. From students studying sea level rise on Virginia’s Eastern Shore to families exploring whales’ altered feeding patterns off the coast of British Columbia, from the permafrost of the Arctic Circle to the mangroves of South Africa, Earthwatchers were on the front lines of the effort to Beat the Heat of climate change.
And they were online as well, participating in Earthwatch’s efforts to support ongoing climate change research opportunities for citizen scientists from across the world by following “Tweettheheat” on Twitter. As part of a challenge grant from Massachusetts-based renewable energy company First Wind, Earthwatch needed to get at least 350 followers for its climate change feed on Twitter before the August 13 Beat the Heat event.
Thanks to the enthusiasm of the online Earthwatch community, we reached that goal with a few days to spare—and are still growing. (Be sure to check out Earthwatch’s main Twitter feed, as well.) These efforts not only secured funding for our climate research projects, but also allow Earthwatch to support a Boston area community tree-planting event in October, so the Earthwatch community is beating the heat both globally and locally.
And they’re having a good time doing it, too, as was clear at the Beat the Heat event itself, held at Boston’s Museum of Science, overlooking the Charles River and the Boston summer skyline. More than 175 guests joined Earthwatch President and CEO Ed Wilson, Earthwatch Scientist Dr. Peter Kershaw (Climate Change at the Arctic’s Edge), and event host and Improper Bostonian columnist Jonathan Soroff to celebrate and support Earthwatch’s climate change research and action efforts.
Sponsored by First Wind, Wainwright Bank, and S & H Construction, the event brought Boston’s young professional community together around an environmental cause in a spirit of celebration, with the cool tones of a steel drum band in the background as they bid on unique auction items or posed for a picture with Sunny, the Climate Change Penguin. Dr. Kershaw gave some informal remarks on his research into the rate of permafrost melt and tree line change in the Arctic, and shared his passion for this field of study with the receptive crowd.
Earlier in the day, Dr. Kershaw gave a more formal presentation at the
Lenox Hotel in Boston’s Back Bay. This breakfast talk at the Lenox, a leading green hotel and frequent sponsor of Earthwatch events in the area, a visit the day before to Earthwatch’s US office in Maynard, MA, and the Beat the Heat event itself allowed Dr. Kershaw to reach a wide range of members of the Earthwatch community and inspire all of us to rededicate ourselves to better understanding and combating climate change.