Category: Speaker

Glenn Branch

11 a.m., July 24, 2022

Controversies over the teaching of evolution in the public schools have rocked the nation over the past century. Evolution’s foes have consistently used the same arguments, but their ambitions have shifted, from banning the teaching of evolution, through balancing it with a supposed alternative, to blunting it by misrepresenting evolution as scientifically controversial. In his talk, Glenn Branch, Deputy Director of the National Center for Science Education, will discuss the causes, history, and consequences of these controversies, with a special emphasis on events in California.

Glenn Branch is a coeditor of Not in Our Classrooms: Why Intelligent Design Is Wrong for Our Schools. He is the author of numerous articles on evolution education and climate education in such publications as Scientific American, The American Biology Teacher, and Annual Review of Genomics and Human Genetics. He received the Evolution Education Award from the National Association of Biology Teachers in 2020.

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220724 Glenn Branch.mp4 from Humanist Community-SiliconValley on Vimeo.

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Sudhanshu “Suds” Jain

11 a.m., May 22, 2022

According to many experts, we have fewer than 10 years to eliminate greenhouse gas emissions if we want to stay below 1.5 degrees C of global temperature rise. Achieving this goal seems highly unlikely. We do know that the Earth cools for about 2 years after every major volcanic eruption. This effect has caused famines in Europe. We know now that volcanos inject millions of tons of sulfur into the Stratosphere which reflects sunlight back into space. Some people have proposed injecting particles in the Stratosphere to cool the earth. Suds Jain has been working for almost 10 years on a different scheme to make Marine boundary Layer clouds brighter by spraying purified seawater into the air. He considers these schemes as purely insurance policies to avoid catastrophic effects of global heating. He advocates for research but not deployment as he prefers first Herculean efforts to eliminate fossil fuel use. He will also discuss other GeoEngineering schemes to capture CO2 from the air and sequester it.

Background Info: NOVA episode on GeoEngineering: https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/video/can-we-cool-the-planet/

Bio
Sudhanshu “Suds” Jain designed integrated circuits for 25 years. In 2008 he decided that the impending Climate crisis was far more important than designing the next switch chip for computer networking and he “retired” from Broadcom Corporation to become a “professional volunteer”. He also coached a FIRST Lego League team for 5 years and he cofounded the high school FTC robotics team at Wilcox High School and has coached it for the past 8 years. He currently serves on the Santa Clara City Council.

He’s active with Citizen’s Climate Lobby which advocates for a Carbon Tax with 100% revenue recycling (dividends to consumers). He’s taught a weekly “Climate Change Science” class to middle school students at Discovery Charter School since 2011. He has been working with Silver Lining Marine Cloud Brightening team since 2012. Sudhanshu holds BSEE and MSEE degrees from MIT.

———-
Because of the coronavirus situation, this Forum will be held online.

To see the Forum, and to ask questions or make comments, if you wish, click here.
Our host will admit you from the waiting room. Joining the meeting via the above link will download and install the Zoom app on your desktop computer, if it’s not already installed, and then take you to the meeting. You can also install the Zoom app on your computer or smart phone, and then enter:
 Meeting ID: 816 5389 0712
Passcode: 250634

You can also call any of the following phone numbers and then enter the above Meeting ID and the Passcode in order to join the meeting by phone.
+1 669 900 6833 US (San Jose)
+1 408 638 0968 US (San Jose)
+1 346 248 7799 US (Houston)
+1 253 215 8782 US (Tacoma)
+1 301 715 8592 US (Washington DC)
+1 312 626 6799 US (Chicago)
+1 646 876 9923 US (New York)
You can find international phone numbers to call here.

GeoEngineering for Climate – Suds Jain
from Humanist Community-SiliconValley on Vimeo.

———-

RSVP on Meetup here.
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See videos of our past Forums here.
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To help our Forum series continue, please consider making a donation or becoming a member (http://www.humanists.org/blog/membership/) of the Humanist Community.

Do your online shopping at https://smile.amazon.com/ch/94-6173979, and Amazon donates to the Humanist Community every time you do.

Nadya Dutchin

11 a.m., May 8, 2022

This Sunday, Nadya Dutchin will give her views on the current state of society, and then open a discussion on the opportunities and challenges that we as Humanist chapter members see ahead of us.

Nadya Dutchin is the new Executive Director of the American Humanist Association with more than 10 years of community engagement, strategic partnership, youth program development, multi-method fundraising, and change management experience. She is new to the humanist movement and is working to transform the AHA and humanist movement into one that focuses on protecting civil rights and building a more youthful and vibrant humanist community. She currently serves as the Board President of The Common Good Generation and is the Board President of Our Climate for Education. Nadya is of Guyanese descent and a proud Alumna of Florida A&M University where she studied Molecular and Cellular Biology. She loves The Muppets, reading fiction, supporting local restaurants, visiting museums, the thrill of live music, and most of all, watching movies and cuddling with her daughter.

———-
Because of the coronavirus situation, this Forum will be held online.

To see the Forum, and to ask questions or make comments, if you wish, click here.
Our host will admit you from the waiting room. Joining the meeting via the above link will download and install the Zoom app on your desktop computer, if it’s not already installed, and then take you to the meeting. You can also install the Zoom app on your computer or smart phone, and then enter:
 Meeting ID: 816 5389 0712
Passcode: 250634

You can also call any of the following phone numbers and then enter the above Meeting ID and the Passcode in order to join the meeting by phone.
+1 669 900 6833 US (San Jose)
+1 408 638 0968 US (San Jose)
+1 346 248 7799 US (Houston)
+1 253 215 8782 US (Tacoma)
+1 301 715 8592 US (Washington DC)
+1 312 626 6799 US (Chicago)
+1 646 876 9923 US (New York)
You can find international phone numbers to call here.

———-

The Current State of the Humanist Movement – Nadya Dutchin from Humanist Community-SiliconValley on Vimeo.

———-

RSVP on Meetup here.
Like us on Facebook here.
Follow us on Twitter here.
See videos of our past Forums here.

Add this event to your Google Calendar  here.

To help our Forum series continue, please consider making a donation or becoming a member (http://www.humanists.org/blog/membership/) of the Humanist Community.

Do your online shopping at https://smile.amazon.com/ch/94-6173979, and Amazon donates to the Humanist Community every time you do.

Jeff Justice

Our Choose-One voting method often elects candidates that represent a vocal minority. It causes partisanship and distrust of government. This Sunday, April 24, Jeff Justice will give real-world examples of how Choose-One voting failed, and how switching to Approval Voting improved the outcomes.
Jeff Justice is a board member of The Center for Election Science which is a national nonprofit that advocates for better voting methods. He is also an organizer for California Approves, which is moving to bring Approval Voting to California.

220424 Jeff Justice.mp4 from Humanist Community-SiliconValley on Vimeo.

———-
Because of the coronavirus situation, this Forum will be held online.

To see the Forum, and to ask questions or make comments, if you wish, click here.
Our host will admit you from the waiting room. Joining the meeting via the above link will download and install the Zoom app on your desktop computer, if it’s not already installed, and then take you to the meeting. You can also install the Zoom app on your computer or smart phone, and then enter:
 Meeting ID: 816 5389 0712
Passcode: 250634

You can also call any of the following phone numbers and then enter the above Meeting ID and the Passcode in order to join the meeting by phone.
+1 669 900 6833 US (San Jose)
+1 408 638 0968 US (San Jose)
+1 346 248 7799 US (Houston)
+1 253 215 8782 US (Tacoma)
+1 301 715 8592 US (Washington DC)
+1 312 626 6799 US (Chicago)
+1 646 876 9923 US (New York)
You can find international phone numbers to call here.

———-

RSVP on Meetup here.
Like us on Facebook here.
Follow us on Twitter here.
See videos of our past Forums here.

To help our Forum series continue, please consider making a donation or becoming a member (http://www.humanists.org/blog/membership/) of the Humanist Community.

Do your online shopping at https://smile.amazon.com/ch/94-6173979, and Amazon donates to the Humanist Community every time you do.

Jessica Kemper-Lytle, Evan Clark, and Brett Parker

11 a.m., April 3, 2022
This Sunday, Jessica Kemper-Lytle will speak on American Atheists’ California State Advocacy Team. Jessica is the state director of American Atheists, as well as chair of the Advocacy Team. She’ll be joined by co-chair Evan Clark of Atheists United in Los Angeles, and Brett Parker, State Policy Manager with American Atheists.

The California State Advocacy Team is building a team of atheist/humanist/secular Californians interested in advocating for church/state separation legislation at the state level. They focus on health care, education, and special privileges for religion, and other forms of religious discrimination. Consider joining these efforts. The commitment at this time is a once-per-month Zoom meeting.

220403 Jessica Kemper-Lytle.mp4 from Humanist Community-SiliconValley on Vimeo.

———-

Because of the coronavirus situation, this Forum will be held online.

To see the Forum, and to ask questions or make comments, if you wish, click here.

No password is needed – our host will admit you from the waiting room.

If you don’t have the Zoom app installed on your desktop computer, then joining the meeting via the above link will download and install the Zoom app on your desktop computer, and then take you to the meeting.

You can also install the Zoom app on your smart phone, and then enter:

Meeting ID: 970 2303 6687
Passcode: 200382

You can also call any of the following phone numbers and then enter the above Meeting ID and the Passcode in order to join the meeting by phone.

+1 669 900 6833 US (San Jose)
+1 408 638 0968 US (San Jose)
+1 346 248 7799 US (Houston)
+1 253 215 8782 US (Tacoma)
+1 301 715 8592 US (Washington DC)
+1 312 626 6799 US (Chicago)
+1 646 876 9923 US (New York)

You can find international phone numbers to call here.

———-

RSVP on Meetup here.
Like us on Facebook here.
Follow us on Twitter here.
See videos of our past Forums here.

To help our Forum series continue, please consider making a donation or becoming a member (http://www.humanists.org/blog/membership/) of the Humanist Community.

Do your online shopping at https://smile.amazon.com/ch/94-6173979, and Amazon donates to the Humanist Community every time you do.