The Bay Area Sierra Club was most pleased to host Dr. Shahir Masri and Athina Simolaris while in Houston on their 30 state 10 week speaking tour, a journey to educate and inspire. About 50 people attended our two Houston area events, 15 at the Freeman Branch Library and 35 the next evening at our regular monthly meeting at the Bay Area Community Center.

Although their talk primarily was based on Dr. Masri’s book, Beyond Debate: Answers to 50 Misconceptions on Climate Change, it also included what they had seen and learned on their road trip. For example, in the Northwest a slide of them with forest rangers in the foreground  and in the background mountain after mountain of dying and dead trees showed the heart-breaking ravages of bark beetle disease. Previously, the beetles were controlled by colder winter weather. Diagonally across the US in southern Florida, Shahir and Athina experienced rising water in the streets on a sunny day.

We were all curious about the road trip itself.  Here is a small slice of their activities. After morning meetings on a Tuesday in New Orleans, Shahir and Athina drove directly to Clear Lake, arriving in late afternoon for our event at the Freeman Library.  As serendipity would have it, they met Stacy Shutts who invited them to tour NASA’s green initiatives the next day. Although they had other meetings planned, they were able to spend two hours with Stacy at NASA on Wednesday afternoon.  Then on to our monthly meeting that evening. Half way through the talk, Dr. Masri gave the attendees an opportunity to choose between five misconceptions to discuss. 

On Thursday morning five of us met with Shahir and Athina for an 8 a.m. breakfast sendoff before they drove to San Antonia to attend meetings scheduled that afternoon.  On Friday, they drove for 11 hours to Santa Fe to be on a panel for a vegan event the next day. 

Clearly, Shahir and Athina are highly dedicated and energetic as they pack in lots of events and meetings during their road trip.  We were fortunate they included us on the road for climate action. Shahir in his knowledgeable, friendly and unassuming manner is popularizing the basics of climate change in the same way that Carl Sagan popularized astronomy.

Photo by Peter Bowman, showing, from left to right: Peter Bowman, Candy Anderson, author and speaker Dr. Shahir Masri, speaker Athina Simolaris, Linda King, and Doug Yazell