Michal Kravčík on Reversing Floods, Droughts and Global Warming

https://a248.e.akamai.net/secure.meetupstatic.com/photos/event/e/1/6/e/600_459117710.jpeg

Come join us for a potluck/discussion with innovative hydrologist Michal Kravčík, author of Water for the Recovery of the Climate - A New Water Paradigm (http://www.waterparadigm.org/download/Water_for_the_Recovery_of_the_Climate_A_New_Water_Paradigm.pdf). He received the Goldman Prize in 1999 for eco-restoration work in his native Slovakia, and has since promoted managing water cycles to bring life back to desertified land, rehydrate the continents and cool the biosphere.

http://photos1.meetupstatic.com/photos/event/e/1/b/2/600_459117778.jpeg

Before proper water management . . .

http://photos4.meetupstatic.com/photos/event/e/1/c/4/600_459117796.jpeg

. . . and after - two years later!

A "new water paradigm" is necessary to address heat waves, drought, floods, and severe storms that are increasingly wreaking havoc in the US. Michal Kravčík argues that the "old water paradigm" of conventional rainwater management calls for wastefully draining precipitation from rural and urban lands directly to streams, thus disrupting nature's small, local water cycles.

The urgent task now is to retain as much rainwater as possible in cities, agricultural lands, forests and deserts — indeed in all of the world's landscape ecosystems — so that life-giving moisture can permeate soil, replenish groundwater, and rise into the atmosphere to regulate temperature and rainfall, instead of ultimately draining into the oceans and contributing to sea level rise. Plants influence the climate greatly by regulating the water cycle and the huge solar energy flows linked to it.

Potuck 6:00-7:00 p.m. followed by discussion 7:00-9:00 p.m. at Helen Snively's place near Central Square.

Biodiversity for a LIvable Climate is a small non-profit so a $10 donation is requested, but no one will be turned away based on ability to pay.

Helen Snively's house is about halfway between Central Square and Inman Square. Take the MBTA red line to Central Square, exit the station walking down Massachusetts Avenue in the direction of Harvard Square (away from Boston). Walk five blocks and make a right on Lee Street, then walk two blocks past Harvard Street and Broadway. Cross Broadway onto Fayette Street (which will be in front of you), walk down Fayette and make your first left onto Fayette Park (a private way). If you're coming by car, there's ample free parking on Sundays in Cambridge.

The address is One Fayette Park, immediately past the first driveway on the right. It's a green 4-family. Come up on the first porch and look for a number 1 on the door. If you have questions please post to this Meetup, or call Helen at 617-547-1326.