Inaugural TEDxLasVegas speakers rally for action on climate change

Climate scientist Kristen Averyt doesn’t think using the words “climate change” is always necessary to communicate how rapidly the planet is warming.

In her TEDx talk on Saturday, the 2007 Nobel Prize recipent laid out what she believes is needed to finally see greenhouse gas emissions lower in an age where some politicians are discouraging the use of the label.

“We need to make sure that climate science is in every nook and cranny of our society: low-income to wealthy, urban to rural and conservative to liberal,” she said onstage at the Keep Memory Alive Center in downtown Las Vegas. “As a scientist, we need to be able to talk to anyone about climate change, even when we can’t say the words.”

Averyt, who was Gov. Steve Sisolak’s adviser on climate change and the president of the Desert Research Institute, was one of about a dozen Nevadans who delivered formal remarks at the first-ever TEDxLasVegas event. TEDx is the local version of TED, the nonprofit organization known for events with short, impactful speeches that regularly garner millions of views on YouTube.

In Las Vegas, speakers ranged from Connor Fields, the BMX Olympian who retold the story of his tramuatic brain injury, to an 11-year-old Nasri Academy for Gifted Children student who discussed research showing that girls are more likely to be overlooked in childhood gifted testing than boys.

And in the country’s second-fastest warming city, environmental challenges were well-represented in two of the talks in particular with Averyt and UNLV professor Ben Leffel.

‘Stand up and meet the moment’

Averyt is no stranger to climate skepticism — something she said she encountered in her work on water issues in the West.

But when she removed the words climate change in a conversation with one water manager, suddenly the manager understood the concept of less available water due to a warming planet. Averyt called for action against what she sees as a current attack on climate science in the U.S. as universities and colleges lose federal funding under the current presidential administration.

“Now is a pretty good time to stand up and meet the moment,” Averyt said. “If we don’t, we risk our science wasting away in the ivory tower or what might be left of it.”

To incorporate climate science into everyday life, Averyt said scientists need to feel supported, while working more on the front end to visualize how real people may tangibly use or implement it. That means consulting water managers, city planners and others to better meet their needs, she said.

She compared it to a doctor addressing a patient’s health issue by handing them a stack of medical journals.

“That is pretty much how a lot of climate scientists actually approach working with people who come asking them for help, but it is not helpful,” she said. “When it comes down to it, climate change is about a lot more than polar bears and penguins. It’s about people.”

Rallying public, private sectors

To Leffel, who teaches UNLV’s first corporate sustainability course, the future of climate change mitigation shouldn’t and can’t be left to the federal government alone.

It’s city governments and billion-dollar businesses that can help move the needle, shielded from the politics in Washington, D.C.

“There’s hope, and that hope is local,” Leffel said. “That hope is our cities — cities where the majority of the world’s population is, where most of the energy is being used, where most of the greenhouse gas emissions that drive climate change are emitted from. That means that cities can save the world from the bottom up if they try.”

Clark County plans to slash its carbon emissions to what’s considered “net zero” by 2050. Net zero refers to a state where the carbon dioxide the county is putting into the atmosphere would be offset by what’s taken out, thus not contributing to warming. UNLV unveiled a similar plan this year to do the same by 2057.

Leffel sees the casino sector in Las Vegas a crucial ally in the fight against climate change, he said, praising both MGM Resorts International and Caesars Entertainment for their commitment to reducing their emissions. He pointed to MGM’s decision to build a solar farm to power its resorts and benefit nearby residents.

“They’re implementing more of their own green projects. They’re lobbying governments to support stronger climate action. And we need to begin conceiving of these companies not as placeless, but as local,” he said. “They’re right here in Las Vegas.”

Las Vegas, the brightest city at night from space, plays a sizable role in setting a standard for how companies can approach climate action, he said.

“If we can power that with all renewable energy, then that is a spectacle to the world of what is possible,” Leffel said.

Contact Alan Halaly at ahalaly@reviewjournal.com. Follow @AlanHalaly on X.