NAPLES, Fla. (Jan. 15, 2021) – Growing Climate Solutions: Path to Positive Southwest Florida has announced a new speaker series to address the changing climate and its impact on the region.
The SWFL Climate Compass Series will feature prominent national speakers discussing critical aspects of the changing climate, including politics, maritime activity and real estate. The Climate Compass Series is free to attend and will start as a three-part virtual event:
- Feb. 24: A Conservative Approach to Solving Climate Change (presented by former U.S. Congressman Bob Inglis)
- March 24: The Nexus of Our Climate, Oceans, and Security: Challenges and Opportunities (presented by Ret. Rear Admiral Jonathan White)
- April 21: The Coastal Real Estate Reckoning is Already Happening (presented by Wharton School of Business Professor Benjamin Keys)
“The goals of the SWFL Climate Compass Series are the same as Growing Climate Solutions’ principles: build climate awareness, protect natural assets, engage and empower community leaders, ensure a prosperous and healthy community, and increase the visibility of local climate action,” said Ana Puszkin-Chevlin, Ph.D., regional director for Growing Climate Solutions. “Inviting these national thought leaders into local conversations will help broaden our perspectives and knowledge as we develop climate solutions that ultimate will protect our communities for generations to come.”
Growing Climate Solutions formed in 2019 as a partnership between the Community Foundation of Collier County, Southwest Florida Community Foundation, Florida Gulf Coast University and Conservancy of Southwest Florida. It has since expanded to include community leaders from the business, health, civic, faith and nonprofit sectors across the five-county region.
The three speakers each bring a unique expertise to the virtual conversations.
Inglis is executive director of republicEn.org, a growing online, grassroots community of more than 10,000 Americans educating the country about free-enterprise solutions to climate change. A former U.S. Congressman representing the Fourth District of South Carolina, Inglis launched the Energy and Enterprise Initiative in 2012 at George Mason University, which rebranded to republicEn.org in 2014. The organization is building an “#EcoRight” community of conservatives who believe free enterprise can deliver the innovation to solve climate change.
White is president and CEO of the Consortium for Ocean Leadership and is an advisory board member for the Center for Climate and Security. A retired rear admiral with the U.S. Navy, White leads a consortium that includes more than 90 organizations from academia, industry and the nonprofit sector striving to advance ocean science and technology through discovery, understanding and action. At the conclusion of his distinguished 32-year career in the Navy, White directed a Navy task force researching climate change.
Keys is a Rowan Family Foundation Associate Professor of Real Estate at the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania, as well as a faculty research fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research. Keys studies issues related to household finance, mortgage finance, real estate, applied econometrics, labor economics and urban economics. Prior to his current professorship, Keys was an assistant professor at the Harris School of Public Policy and co-director of the Kreisman Initiative on Housing Law and Policy at the University of Chicago.
The SWFL Climate Compass Series is supported by media sponsors WGCU and LOCALiQ.
Registration is complimentary and available by visiting GrowingClimateSolutions.org/events.
