Juan Diego CHS continues lecture series on the environment

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Dr. Logan Mitchell, PhD

DRAPER — The impacts of climate change as well as some solutions will be the focus of an Oct. 24 presentation at Juan Diego Catholic High School. The lecture is part of the Skaggs Science Symposium’s Fire & Water in the West. Dr. Logan Mitchell, PhD, a climate scientist and energy analyst, will present “The Convergence of Climate Urgency and Opportunity.”

“We’re seeing two parallel narratives about climate change emerge that will only grow in intensity in the coming years,” Mitchell said in an interview. “On one hand, we’re already seeing severe climate impacts, and they will only get worse as temperatures warm. On the other hand, climate and clean energy solutions are exponentially increasing across the world. Only by holding both of these realities in our minds at the same time will we be able to fully understand the urgency of action and the opportunity to do so. Utah has a unique opportunity to play a leadership role in this future, and the time to act is now.”

In his career, Mitchell has researched everything from greenhouse gases in Antarctic ice cores to evaluating emissions to monitoring urban air quality with TRAX trains, to studying Utah’s history of air quality. He is passionate about solutions to climate challenges that will improve quality of life and be essential for the economic future. He received a Bachelor of Science and his doctoral degree from Oregon State University, and is affiliated faculty at the University of Utah. Mitchell is also a member of Utah Clean Energy.

“In this particular presentation Dr. Mitchell is going to be talking about the urgency but also all of the opportunity there seems to be for solving the problem,” said Gregg Alex, who teaches Earth and Environmental Science at JDCHS.

Mitchell’s presentation is the third in the Fire & Water in the West series. The first, in March 2022, examined wildfire and efforts to mitigate its damage. Presenters were Captain Jon Slatore, Unified Fire Authority fire management officer, and Montana State University professor and U.S. Forest Service chemical engineer Daniel Jiminez. This was followed by an October 2022 presentation by Dr. Ben Abbott, a Brigham Young University environmental science professor. He addressed climate change along the Wasatch Front and its impacts on the Great Salt Lake and Utah Lake.

The series was developed after Dr. Galey Colosimo, JDCHS principal, concerned about the 2021 fire season in the western United States, determined that JDCHS needed to help educate the community about the climate problems the Intermountain West faces and what can be done about them.

Response to the seminars has been positive, Alex said, but he would like to see more members of the public attend.

“If we don’t have an informed community it’s going to be really hard to solve some of these big problems,” he said.

The presentation is open to the wider community.

WHAT: “Fire & Water in the West” Symposium

WHEN: Tuesday, Oct. 24, 7 p.m.

WHERE: Juan Diego CHS  300 East 11400 South, Draper

Free and open to the public.