Explorer to Discuss Arctic Warming at Conservation Alliance Breakfast

SALT LAKE CITY – National Geographic Adventurer Jonathan Waterman will be the featured speaker at The Conservation Alliance Breakfast on Friday, August 10, 7:30-9:00 AM at the Salt Lake City Marriott. Waterman’s talk, Arctic Warming, will focus on the impacts global warming is having on the Arctic environment.

Waterman, who has explored the Arctic 18 times over the past two decades, recently visited the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge with famed biologist George Schaller. Together, Waterman and Schaller surveyed the impacts global warming on the region. The expedition discovered melting permafrost, unnatural predation of nesting birds, brushed-over tundra, disappearing glaciers, and dying forests.

“Global warming is the defining environmental challenge of our time,” said John Sterling, Executive Director of The Conservation Alliance. “It is important that we look at the impacts this crisis is having on our special wild places. We are lucky that Jon Waterman has made the effort to quantify global warming’s effect on the Arctic.”

Waterman’s story-presentation explains global warming with objectivity and scientific credibility, as well as sharing his journey trekking, rafting, and solo kayaking through the Arctic Refuge. He meets bears, Inupait hunters, and caribou and conveys his experiences with artful still photography.
“The Conservation Alliance has made major financial contributions to protect the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge from oil development,” said Sterling. “Now the region faces a much more challenging threat.”

Prior to Waterman’s talk, The Conservation Alliance will provide a summary of the $350,000 in grants the organization made in April. The Alliance will also recognize the companies that have joined the organization since the January OR Show.

“The Conservation Alliance continues to grow in size and effectiveness,” said Sterling. “We just completed our largest funding cycle ever, and have added ten new member companies since January .”

The Conservation Alliance Breakfast is open to the public. The Alliance will serve a continental breakfast at 7:30 AM, and the program starts promptly at 8:00 AM.

The Conservation Alliance is an organization of outdoor businesses whose collective contributions support grassroots environmental organizations and their efforts to protect wild places where outdoor enthusiasts recreate. Alliance funds have played a key role in protecting rivers, trails, wildlands and climbing areas.

Membership in the Alliance is open to companies representing all aspects of the outdoor industry, including manufacturers, retailers, publishers, mills and sales representatives. The result is a diverse group of businesses whose livelihood depends on protecting our natural environment.

Since its inception in 1989, the Alliance has contributed more than $5.6 million to grassroots environmental groups. Alliance funding has helped save over 35 million acres of wildlands; 26 dams have either been stopped or removed; and the group helped preserve access to more than 16,000 miles of waterways and several climbing areas.

For complete information on the Conservation Alliance, see www.conservationalliance.com.

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