UF professors urged about 100 Gainesville residents Friday to consider ways to combat climate change.
Local environmental groups Paddle Florida, Citizens’ Climate Lobby and Alachua Conservation Trust, Inc. hosted the Gainesville premiere of “Facing the Surge,” a 2016 documentary showing the effects of rising sea levels at the Prairie Creek Lodge in Norfolk, Virginia. After the film, a panel including two UF professors answered questions about climate change.
Romain Gloaguen, a researcher with UF’s Agronomy Department, attended the screening to learn how the documentary suggested combating rising sea levels.
“If the message is to scare people about sea level rise, it was a perfect video,” Gloaguen said. “If the message was to say we have solutions, that wasn’t the perfect video.”
People can make environmental changes if they’re taught to consume responsibly and reduce their carbon footprint, he said.
When the researchers answered questions, Brett Scheffers, a UF wildlife ecology and conservation professor, said in order to reduce water use, people can limit their beef consumption to once a week.
“Information is powerful, and so the more you educate yourselves and the more dialogue you have with other people, the better off we will all be,” Scheffers said.
Andrea Dutton, a UF geology professor who also spoke, said it’s difficult to persuade people to care about climate change because the effects are often abstract, but it’s easy to see the damage already caused by sea levels rising.
“One of the most important things that we all can do is to just have conversations with people,” Dutton said.
Bob Tancig, a volunteer with Citizens’ Climate Lobby, said the group spreads awareness in communities across the nation and talks to elected officials about passing a bill addressing climate change.
Tancig said UF students can help fight climate change by contacting their representative in congress.
“We as citizens have to assert our citizenship muscles,” he said.
