Dear John,

I wanted to be sure you saw Will’s note about our August Lunch & Learns! We have a great line-up, beginning with this Friday’s presentation on Community Resilience in the Face of Climate Change. Judy East, Co-Chair of the Community Resilience Planning, Emergency Management, and Public Health Working Group of the Maine Climate Council, will present the working group's recommendations that it submitted to the Maine Climate Council on June 18, 2020. Register here!

Kathleen

Dear John,

It is hard to believe it’s August already! Our weekly Lunch & Learn series has really shaped my summer: Thanks to our session on sustainable gardening, my pepper plants are booming and fermented hot sauce is in my sights for September!; I voted by mail in the July 14 primary election; and I’ve signed up to participate in the Atlantic Black Box project. I hope you’ve found the Lunch & Learns helpful as well. 

In the last four months, 1,463 of you have tuned in to our Friday Lunch & Learns and over 460 have viewed programs from the full archive on our YouTube channel. THANK YOU! This series began as a way to stay connected during lockdown and rapidly became one of my favorite parts of the week. As always, please spread the word and email me with ideas!

I’m excited to share the August schedule, but first, a quick PSA: the State of Maine’s absentee ballot request page went live today for the November 3rd election. Please pledge to vote absentee and request your absentee ballot today. Town clerks will mail your absentee ballot to you one month before the election.

Here are our August Lunch & Learns. We hope to see you at one or all of them next month!

Friday, August 7th, 12-1 PM: Community Resilience in the Face of Climate Change

• Judy East, Co-Chair of the Community Resilience Planning, Emergency Management, and Public Health Working Group of the Maine Climate Council, will present the working group's recommendations that it submitted to the Maine Climate Council on June 18, 2020. This presentation is part of several outreach efforts underway during the summer of 2020 to connect with the general public. They are collecting input from Mainers this summer which will be included in the September 9, 2020 Climate Council deliberations, with the final report due to the Legislature in early December. Register here!

Friday, August 14th, 12-1 PM: Holding Big Oil Accountable

• Megan Matthews, Research Associate at the Center for Climate Integrity, will join us to present on Maine's climate impacts, the associated financial costs, and the fossil fuel industry's history of disinformation and climate denial, which should help answer the question: who should be held accountable for these costs: corporate polluters or taxpayers? The Center for Climate Integrity convenes partners in law, science, and advocacy to hold Big Oil accountable for their fair share of climate damages. Register here!

Friday, August 21st, 12-1 PM: A People’s (Virtual) Walking Tour of Portland

• Seth Goldstein, Professor at the Maine College of Art, will join us to present “A People’s (Virtual) Walking Tour of Portland.” Professor Goldstein will start at the statue of George Cleeves on the waterfront and will walk us through the history of the First Peoples in the region; the French and Indian Wars and the virgin soil epidemics that killed many of the First Peoples; the African Diaspora and Maine’s maritime industry; and Portland’s role as a hub of the Underground Railroad. Register here!

Friday, August 28th, 12-1 PM: The Northeastern Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument

• Kelly Kryc, Ph.D., New England Aquarium’s Director of Ocean Policy, will join us to discuss President Trump’s recent proclamation regarding the Northeastern Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument. On June 5, President Trump visited Maine and convened a commercial fishing roundtable where he signed a proclamation to open the monument to commercial fishing—an action highly unlikely to benefit Maine's fishing community. Spanning nearly 5,000 square miles, the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument comprises three deep-sea canyons and four ancient, underwater volcanoes that anchor a deep-sea habitat rich in life important to New England. Recently published science affirms the monument as a highly interconnected biological hotspot with great potential for scientific discovery. The beauty of the underwater landscape, coupled with its rich marine ecosystem, mark the monument as an important piece of our country’s natural heritage that we must do our best to preserve and protect. Join Kelly to learn more about this remarkable underwater seascape and why it’s just as important to protect special places in the ocean as it is on land. Register here!

We’re always looking for new speakers and issues to feature, so e-mail me with your ideas and suggestions.

--Will