Great Lakes Funder Collaboration & HEFN Webinar - Fossil Fuel Development in the Great Lakes Basin: Threats and Opportunities for Collaboration

The Great Lakes Funder Collaboration and the Health & Environmental Funders Network are sponsoring an educational funder webinar:  

Fossil Fuel Development in the Great Lakes Basin:  Threats and Opportunities for Collaboration

Great Lakes and health funders have a shared interest in understanding the environmental and human health impacts facing the bi-national Great Lakes basin due to an increase in fossil fuel development. Together, we will hear from advocates working to protect the Great Lakes, as well as clean energy, environmental health, and social justice advocates highlighting the impacts of the expansion of fossil fuel extraction in the U.S on the Great Lakes and the local communities that depend on them.

Great Lakes advocates have made significant gains in restoration, water quality, and conservation driven by the historic Great Lakes Restoration Initiative and significant investments by Canadian and US foundations and other stakeholders in the health of this vital resource. At the same time, the region is experiencing a marked expansion of the extraction, transportation, and refining of fossil fuels – including tar sands and hydraulic fracturing. Left unchecked, oil and gas development in the bi-national Great Lakes poses a significant threat to the gains made in the basin, as well as public safety and air and water quality. At the same time, the challenge of fossil fuel development in the region offers opportunities for funders working at the intersection of freshwater conservation, clean energy, health, and social justice to collaborate and learn from each other. 

During the session we will hear from advocates working a range of issues related to fossil fuel development in the region, including:

• Ted Auch, FracTracker Alliance
• Susan Christopherson, Cornell University
• Adam Scott, Environmental Defence

The panel will be moderated by John Mitterholzer of the George Gund Foundation.

The session will address a number of critical questions, including:

1. What are the threats posed by fossil fuel development to the Great Lakes in Canada and the United States – both to ecosystem and human health?

2. What are the greatest needs to mitigate these threats?

3. What are the solutions that advocates, experts and researchers are exploring?

4. What might the Great Lakes and Health and Environment funding communities learn from each other?

5. Where do opportunities exist for bi-national collaboration on fossil fuel development?

REGISTER FOR THE WEBINAR