Take a closer look at climate impacts on modern ecosystems with Hellmann—an expert on global change ecology, climate adaptation, and emissions reduction. Hear Hellmann discuss the inspiring road to solutions ahead.

Jonathan Foley talks to Jessica Hellmann

anticipate how climate change will change in the future.

biodiversity loss is a big concern globally a third of current biodiversity will be driven to extinction if not more...

for a place like Minnesota, it is at the boundary of several different kinds of ecosystems butting together. when you live on those boundary locations you are going to see WAY MORE change as things shift right in front of you very quickly.... changes are felt very quikcly in these boundary locations... Liminal ???

drastic changes to hydrolic systems

way more likely to have too much water when you don't want it and too little when you do need it

restore a lot of the wetlands across the midwest

"we drained those wetlands for agriculture, what if we put them back for agriculture AND for climate change"

wetlands capture water when there is a lot, filter and clean it, and because they then hold onto water they can help put water back into the underground aquifers

opportunities for creativity!

intersection of adaptation with prevention?

(5:58) warming is already here, so we do have to talk about adaptation, but! we must also still talk about mitigation

(6:50) big utility scale solar installs, what you do with the land underneath really matters, use the land to produce more pollinators and pollinator habitat AND sequester carbon through restoration. (7:51) When you are tackling climate change with a renewable energy solution WHAT ELSE are you also doing? The Co-benefits of restored habitats.

(8:20) What if in the name of farming electrons we put the natural habitats back

basically how can a solution generate power, but also increase biodiversity, restore water sheds, etc.!?

What benefits will come from tackling this problem? (10:20)

Likens to space race

there are a suite of options that are context dependent. local innovation, local solutions.

There are no one thing solutions

What gets you engaged in the solution? what gets you engaged with a community? Societal change at scale is what is most important... your individual actions can be a way in to a community, or asking for a governmental change?

A few people changing A LOT doesn't do much; a lot of people continuously changing A LITTLE is a great start.

(17:52) when you talk about solutions and common sense things, all the politics/partisan stuff melts away.