Dr. Jennifer Timmers, IVCC agriculture instructor, gave a presentation on Nov. 1 entitled What is Climate Change & What Can You Do?  This presentation was a part of IVCC’s One Book One College program. 

One Book One College meetings take values from a novel and make them a topic of conversation for students. This year’s selection Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler gets students thinking about the importance of agriculture and adapting to change. 

Timmers is new to Illinois Valley Community College, joining the staff a little over a year ago. However, she has an abundance of knowledge on subject matters such as climate change. Timmers attended Berea College, Western Kentucky University, and the University of Florida. She was able to provide students with her expertise in biology, agriculture, and agronomy in her interactive lecture. 

Climate change can be explained as momentous and long-term changes in our Earth’s climate and weather variation. This can potentially lead to multiple downsides in our way of life. Long-term impacts that Timmers mentioned are increased precipitation levels, temperatures, and amounts of carbon dioxide. 

That might not seem like it would affect humans much. However, it can affect us beyond the surface level, she said. Climate change could become powerful enough to impact photosynthesis, pollination, water supply, flood levels, food security, crop growth, and even our respiration.

According to Timmers, we can stop this by protecting pollination resources and limiting our carbon footprint. Our carbon footprint is the amount of greenhouse gasses we’ve generated by our actions. Recycling, reusing, thrifting, and shopping locally help limit the production of new greenhouse gasses. Even riding a bike once in a while (rather than taking a car ride) can benefit the planet’s health. 

The first step towards a better planet is simple: educate yourself! If you have an interest in protecting the planet or simply reading great literature, continue to support IVCC’s One Book One College program through the spring semester. 

The next scheduled meeting is a Safe Journeys presentation on Jan. 24 of the upcoming year (more details to come). To learn more, visit https://libguides.ivcc.edu/onebookonecollege