Pidgin Palace Chats: Environmental Misinformation

Environmental Misinformation

The stage is set: social media echo chambers amplifying anything and everything. A perfect storm of climate change denial narratives and social media networks unable to stem the tide of misinformation is wreaking havoc on global efforts to rationally address Climate Change.

Polly Estabrook will moderate a fired up panel to include:

Michael P. Berman – Gila Resources Information Project
Niamh Peren – Thumbs Up New Zealand
Harold Thomas – Business for Water

This event, which will take place at Pidgin Palace Arts, Tucson Az, will also be live streamed on YouTube. The public is invited to attend and participate.

About the Panel:

Moderator: Polly Estabrook, Climate Activist & Principal Engineer (Retired), Radio Communications, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, CA

Polly Estabrook is an electrical engineer specializing in radio communications for Near-Earth and Deep Space missions. Over the last 25 years that Polly has worked at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, she’s had the incredible fortune to contribute to research and development tasks, communication systems design for Mars rovers, and to deliver hardware for a mapping satellite surveying Earth’s surface water. As the science around climate change has become ever more comprehensive and the impact of global warming more apparent, Polly has become active in supporting local and national policies to curb greenhouse gases, support the health of our planet’s ecosystems, and ensure environmental justice. Reining in the misinformation on the Internet and our virtual social segregation are key to enabling us to meet the climate crisis. She is excited to participate in BRINK Foundation to address these issues.

Jet Propulsion Laboratory
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Michael P. Berman, Gila Resources Information Project, NM

Michael P. Berman’s classically executed black and white photographs participate and extend the tradition of western landscape photography. Berman was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2008 for his work Grasslands: The Chihuahuan Desert Project. Photographs from this project was published in 2009 in the book Trinity, by The University of Texas, Austin. Trinity is the third book of the border trilogy, The History of the Future, with the writer Charles Bowden.

In 2018, Berman wandered the Mexican borderlands occupied by ranchers, wildlife, and narcos and in 2019 Berman released  “Perdido: Sierra San Luis” (Museum of New Mexico Press), photographs and words that explore the meaning of the beautiful and rugged landscape and provides a poetic understanding of how one learns to see the land.

Berman was born in New York City in 1956 and later came west to Colorado College, where he studied biology. He subsequently received an MFA in photography from Arizona State University. Fifteen years ago he settled in southwestern New Mexico, where he now lives in Silver City, New Mexico where he is a board member of GRIP (Gila Resources Information Project).

Gila Resources Information Project
Michael P. Burman Art
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Niamh Peren, Thumbs Up New Zealand, NY

Niamh Peren is a change maker. Best known for founding the environmental movement Tino Pai Aotearoa/ Thumbs Up New Zealand, Peren successfully led her government petition through the corridors of power toward legislation. As an environmental advocate, Peren’s petition paves the framework for a circular economy and designs waste out of the system. She united 47/67 Mayors, who pledged allegiance to her movement, as well as tens of thousands of signatories, and garnered plenty of media attention. Now, the petition is set to be legislated by the House of Representatives in New Zealand’s Parliament later this year.

As the winner of the President’s Scholarship, and the John L. Tishman Scholarship for exemplary commitment to sustainability, Peren currently resides in NYC and is graduating in May 2022 with a Master of Science in Strategic Design and Management at The New School, Parsons School of Design.

Thumbs Up New Zealand
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Harold Thomas, Bonneville Environmental Foundation, AZ

Harold joined BEF in 2021. He’s part of the Arizona Business for Water Stewardship team, responsible for developing and implementing a strategy focusing on statewide water challenges.

Prior to joining BEF Harold worked in the US and internationally on climate adaptation planning, watershed restoration, integrating water resources management and land use planning, and community building. Harold is particularly interested in connecting people with nature and each other to find common ground and local solutions.

Outside of work Harold enjoys Arizona sunsets and stargazing with family and friends. He’s based in Tucson, Arizona where he climbs the Lemmon and hikes to the many creeks and waterfalls in the Santa Cruz Watershed.

Bonneville Environmental Foundation

Business for Water
Watershed Management Group
River Networking