Free Lecture on Greening Cities at UC Berkeley Extension

WHAT: Free public lecture, “Greening Cities in Response to the Climate Crisis”
WHEN: June 23, Saturday, 10 am-1 pm
WHERE: UC Berkeley Extension South of Market Center, 95 Third Street, San Francisco

BERKELEY – Free or very low-cost public events are part of how UC Berkeley Extension fulfills its mission to bring exceptional educational opportunities to the community. This summer’s free lecture focuses on a truly “hot” topic: how to make cities more eco-friendly in a time of global warming.

Greening Cities in Response to the Climate Crisis, scheduled for Saturday, June 23, in San Francisco, is a three-hour program examining possible solutions to the problem of how to minimize urban development’s negative impact on the biosphere.

The lecture comes as a number of high-profile initiatives to address the effects of industrial activity and energy production on climate change—including a recently announced $500 million partnership between UC Berkeley, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and British Petroleum—evidence a broadening acceptance of the urgent need for environmental action.

A number of “green” options for cities are examined in the Extension lecture. Among them: limit urban expansion and reliance on fossil fuels; adopt patterns of development that lay soil on top of concrete, instead of concrete on soil; look to alternative transportation solutions pursued by high-density, medium-rise cities.

Solutions need not all be on the macro level, as the lecture indicates. Tactics can be adopted neighborhood by neighborhood. Creating community gardens in shared spaces, for example, can enlarge the “carbon sink”—the biomass that naturally absorbs carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

This event is presented by UC Berkeley Extension’s Landscape Architecture program. The lecture is free, but space is limited. To reserve seats, call (510) 642-4111 and reference EDP 015404.

WHAT: Free public lecture, “Greening Cities in Response to the Climate Crisis”
WHEN: June 23, Saturday, 10 am-1 pm
WHERE: UC Berkeley Extension South of Market Center, 95 Third Street, San Francisco

Founded in 1891, UC Berkeley Extension is the continuing education branch of the University of California Berkeley. Today, Extension offers 1,500 courses each year, including online courses, along with more than 30 certificate and professional programs. Free and low-cost public programs are also frequently offered as a community service.

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