Things are going well for me, during this week of public speaking. It all started Tuesday, when I spoke to the Heart of the Lakes Land Conservation Policy Summit in Lansing. My talk on carbon sequestration was scheduled for 30 minutes but ran to 45 minutes, after questions. While I was answering questions and getting skeptical looks from people, I remembered things that Prof. Firestone taught in Environmental Law. In fact, I don’t think that I would have been able to answer the tought questions without the knowledge I gained in Prof. Firestone’s class. Also, when you have survived two semesters under Prof. Firestone’s unrelenting, confidence-robbing stare, standing in front of an audience answering questions becomes easier.
My carbon sequestration tour took me to the beautiful city of Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan. The “Soo” as it is know in Michigan, is one hour north of the Mackinaw Bridge, along Lake Superior and the Canadian border. Four hours after I arrived yesterday, I found myself explaining carbon sequestration in TWO sessions. Both times, my discussion was impromptu and unaided, i.e. no powerpoint slides to guide the discussion. Ironically, both of those presentations were bonus talks, as my ‘real’ presentation is tomorrow morning. I have one hour and 36 slides in which to introduce cap-and-trade mechanisms, the Chicago Climate Exchange and the role of carbon offset credits. I’m speaking to a bunch of agriculture professionals, so I’m sure to get lots of technical questions on how no-till agricultural practices sequester carbon. I’m excited for the talk. Interestingly, I’m beginning to make a name for myself in carbon sequestration. After my Heart of the Lakes talk, I’ve received several emails from Land Trusts who are interested in enrolling land. (Ironically, some of these land trusts are the very organizations that denied me job interviews 2 months ago!). My boss also tells me that the State Director of the Nature Conservancy, Helen Taylor, gave me a 10 out of 10 on my presentation on Tuesday. It’s great to get those nice comments, especially with my 90 performance review approaching in 3 weeks.
I wish I could say that my work on the pollution prevention and energy efficiency project was going as well. To date, I have yet to secure any contracts for P2E2 projects. I’m supposed to have 11 by June.. I have (or will have) submitted 4 proposals by the end of this month, but none have been accepted yet. The biggest proposal was rejected by the company. I’m trying to talk with them about scaling it down, but they won’t return my calls. I’m hopefully that something will come from the other three. Whatever the case, I need some success in this part of my job, because the grant, which partial funds my job, expires in June.
Alright, I’m going to read through my presentation one more time and prepare myself for lots of questions. Wish me luck!
Todd
