MARCH 26, 2013 ROTARY IN REVIEW:
Challenges and Opportunities of Living on a Human Dominated Planet

Club 10 Business Report

President-elect the Hon. John Guthmann brought the meeting to order at 12:30 p.m. on a cloudy and cold early spring Tuesday in downtown Saint Paul.  Jim Field led the assembled Rotarians in singing God Bless America accompanied by Bob Jones on the piano.  Carol Bufton provided today's invocation.  Armando Camacho facilitated the introduction of visiting Rotarians and guests.  Today's Greeters were Henning Schulze-Lauen and Donovan Schwichtenberg.

Michael-jon Pease reminded everyone of the "Rotary After Hours" to take place on Thursday, March 28th from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. at Camp Bar at 490 N. Robert Street.  Carla Hauge pitched the Feed My Starving Children meal packing event at Summit Brewery on April 27 and 28.  The first shift on Sunday will primarily be covered by campers from Camp RYLA.  Members can sign up for shifts at the FMSC website or through the Rotary office.  Sue Cammack introduced new member Thomas Tolbert of IGI Inc., a solar energy firm.  Thomas came to the U.S. from Liberia in 1999.  At the first Club 10 meeting he attended, the success of the polio eradication effort in Liberia was mentioned.  He feels that this is proof of the global family.  He said that Rotarians should congratulate themselves for these efforts.

Sarah Kolar collected Happy Dollars.  A note-worthy donation: Michael-jon Pease donated Happy Dollars to recognize a recent Club 10 member donation of $10,000 to the "Andy Boss Stage" commemoration at Park Square Theater.  Rotarians have contributed $225,00 to this special commemoration.  Michael-jon asked Club 10 members to watch for the announcement of a special Rotary Thank You event to be held on June 30 at Park Square Theater.  Andy and Linda Boss will be guests of honor at the event.  Several other notable Happy Dollars donations were given today!

John Marshall introduced today's program. Patrick Hamilton, Director of Global Change Initiatives at the Science Museum of Minnesota (SMM), started with SMM twenty-nine years ago.  He was born in Detroit Lakes, MN.  He developed a love of the environment at a young age.  His early work at SMM revolved around understanding the connection of rivers to our well-being.  An early grant proposal funded the National Center for Surface Dynamics which synthesized several sciences to improve the understanding of the global affect of rivers.  During this work, Mr. Hamilton observed that humans move more earth than all rivers and glaciers combined.  Since humans are the dominant agent of global change, he proposed to evaluate this through a grant-funded study called the ""Future Earth Initiative" beginning in 2009 sited at SMM.

The founding principles of "Future Earth" are: humans dominate the planet; we have tremendous assets; and, we must innovate now.  Mr. Hamilton described the interaction of fossil fuels, the land masses, the oceans and the atmosphere.  He noted that in recent years, the volume of sea ice has been declining dramatically.  As this has occurred, less solar energy is reflected from the earth's surface.  This causes heat to increase in the atmosphere.  The atmosphere is a heat engine.  If heat is added, its behavior changes.  As evidence of this behavior change, Mr. Hamilton noted that three "once-in-a thousand-year" rain events have happened in southern Minnesota since 2004.  The world has the healthiest, wealthiest, most creative population ever.  He laid out the challenges and opportunities to create, design, build, implement and realize the global future that we all want in light of these atmospheric changes.  An indication of the possible:  the "Energy Innovation Corridor," an effort sponsored by twenty-one companies focused on the Central Light Rail Corridor, which is one of the largest efforts of its kind in the world to showcase the future innovations that will be needed.  Also, Xcel Energy recently performed an energy analysis for SMM of its building and suggested changes could be made (in a relatively new commercial building) that would reduce purchases of heat energy by 90%. 

President-elect John thanked Mr. Hamilton for his remarks and noted that a donation in his name would be made to the Saint Paul Public Library's "Read With Me" program. He adjourned the meeting at 1:24 p.m.

Chuck Standfuss, Scribe