Tobacco and the Environment...Why We Should All Care
MEETING FOR THE WEEK OF Oct. 16, 2023
This Meeting at a Glance:
Program: Tobacco and the Environment...Why We Should All Care
Speaker: Thomas Novotny
Is this your first time to visit us? If so, welcome to our weekly online meeting! To complete our meeting, please continue reading from here to the bottom of this page. Each Monday our week’s meeting is posted early in the morning, U.S. Pacific Time. These meetings are designed so that you can read and watch what we post anytime during the week. The entire meeting takes about 60 minutes to complete, with the video conference recording of the program being the bulk of the time. Note that you can easily read this meeting with your favorite device, so feel free to take our meeting on the go with you. Please also make sure to complete the attendance form at the bottom and leave a comment. Enjoy!
To properly attend this meeting, please:
Read and watch the content below in its entirety.
Complete the attendance survey.
Everyone is also encouraged to leave a comment in the Disqus section at the bottom of the page.
Message from our President
Greetings Members and Friends of Rotary e-Club of Silicon Valley. As President of our Club, I want to welcome you all today.
WEEKLY FUNNY WITH SHAGS
We believe laughter is an important part of life, and we should all make time to laugh a little. This segment of our meeting is meant to tickle you just enough. These funnies are curated by member Steven "Shags" Shagrin!
How Bad Is It?
My wife's cooking is so bad...
How bad?
So bad the flies are taking up a collection to get the screen door fixed.
INSPIRATION
Every week we share a short video highlighting innovation, education, entrepreneurship, or whatever we think might inspire you to see the world in new ways.
Piplantri is a village in rural India that is home to a special combination of valuing the environment and encouraging the value and self-dependence of girls. What festival or event tells something of the story of your community?
LEARN SOMETHING NEW
Nature's Record Setters
We learn so much from studying the world around us. Here's an interesting video. Hope you enjoy it!
Club News
Members
Is your latest information posted on our ClubRunner Members site at: https://portal.clubrunner.ca/8370/Page/ShowHomePage. After logging in, please be sure to access the MyClubRunner tab, and select My Profile. Please update your personal information here, which automatically updates our club directory.
It’s time to consider your gift to Rotary for the annual TRF Fund. There are several ways to give: outright payment (Check or Credit Card), monthly payments billed to your credit card, allocation to several funds, etc. Our TRF Chair, Phil Dean will be in touch with us soon regarding your pledge and methods for collecting. But first, Phil thought it might be helpful to provide some reasons why you should consider pledging a gift to TRF. We are striving to be designated as part of “Every Year, Every Rotarian”. Your gift matters, either a small amount or a large amount (that is up to you - we will never tell you how much to give). Here are some reasons to consider:
The Rotary Foundation of Rotary International
The Rotary Foundation transforms your gifts into service projects that change lives both close to home and around the world. During the past 100 years, the Foundation has spent $3 billion on life-changing, sustainable projects. With your help, we can make lives better in our community and around the world.
Why should I donate to The Rotary Foundation? Your donation makes a difference to those who need our help most.
How does The Rotary Foundation use donations? Our 35,000 clubs carry out sustainable service projects that support our six causes. With donations like yours, we’ve wiped out 99.9 percent of all polio cases. Your donation also trains future peacemakers, supports clean water, and strengthens local economies.
What impact can one donation have? It can save a life. A child can be protected from polio with as little as 60 cents. Our partners make your donation go even further. For every $1 Rotary commits to polio eradication, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has committed $2.
Quality – The Rotary Foundation has received its 9th straight 4-star rating from Charity Navigator
Accountability – About 90 cents of every dollar donated to TRF goes directly to work on the ground.
Influence the Future – Donors to the Rotary Foundation are a special group of people who are supporting the next generation of children from across the globe.
Why become a donor to The Rotary Foundation?
The mission of The Rotary Foundation of Rotary International is to enable Rotarians to advance world understanding, goodwill, and peace through the improvement of health, the support of education, and the alleviation of poverty.
The Rotary Foundation transforms your gifts into service projects that change lives both close to home and around the world.
Since it was founded more than 100 years ago, the Foundation has spent more than $4 billion on life-changing, sustainable projects.
With your help, we can make lives better in your community and around the world.
What impact can one donation have?
For as little as 60 cents, a child can be protected from polio.
A donation of $25 will immunize 40 children
$50 can provide clean water to help fight waterborne illness.
$500 can launch an antibullying campaign and create a safe environment for children.
What are the personal benefits of donating to The Rotary Foundation?
These are the benefits that also retain members and are best described as opportunities to:
· Belong to a reputable world organization with its associated esteem and to be associated with ‘game changing’ major projects such as the elimination of polio
· Gain a sense of achievement with appropriate recognition of contributions
· Achieve a sense of belonging with associated fun and friendship
· Benefit from vocational acquaintances through a trusted business network with shared social and ethical values
· Develop personal and leadership skills through access to training programs, mentoring, conference attendance, and hearing quality speakers.
Watch this space over the next several weeks as Phil will be giving you more information about our TRF fundraising projects.
District 5170
It is with a heavy heart that we’re sharing with you the sad news of a tremendous loss to Rotary, and to our District - our fearless and beloved leader, Past Rotary International President Rick King, has passed away. Rick represents the best of Rotary and has been a guiding star in District 5170! We will miss him dearly.
SERVICE REPORT
Tell us about the service you’ve done recently in your community. Also post here if you attended another Rotary Club’s meeting this week
Click here to fill out The Rotary eClub of Silicon Valley Service Form
SERVICE PROJECT OPPORTUNITIES
For upcoming club projects in District 5170, check out the District 5170 website. Also, if you have some time available for projects, be sure to let your local area Rotary Club know that you are available to volunteer for their upcoming projects.
HAPPY DOLLARS: Do Good by Sharing Something Good
Each week we ask our members to share stories with the club and toss in a few dollars to support our efforts. The primary goal of this section is to provide a fun way of getting to know each fellow members and guests, while giving back to a good cause.
Happy dollars is an opportunity to share something positive that has happened in your life whether it is personal or business. Think of it as your opportunity to brag a little, but also put a little bit into a karma jar. The money donated through happy dollars is put to charitable use.
PROGRAM: Tobacco and the Environment...Why We Should All Care
SPEAKER: Thomas Novotny
Every week we bring to you a new program on innovation, entrepreneurship, and education, and how those contribute to service to others.
The Rotary eClub of Silicon Valley seeks to explore perspectives on service from across the world. The views of the speakers in our programs are their own, and unless stated otherwise, are not necessarily reflective of the views of our eClub or Rotary International.
If you have an idea for a cool speaker, please feel free to reach out to them directly or submit THIS FORM so our Program Committee can contact them!
Although the harms of tobacco use are well-known to almost everyone, the harms that tobacco causes to the environment are less recognized. These harms start with tobacco growing, which is very hard on soils and woodlands, diverts agricultural efforts away from food production, and harms farmers and their children who are engaged with this cash crop. Tobacco product manufacturing is a dirty business, now moving away from the US and to countries where environmental regulations may be lacking. Smoking itself creates health risks through environmental contamination of air (secondhand smoke) and living spaces (thirdhand smoke). The aftermath of smoking, both for traditional and for many types of electronic cigarettes, is a huge, preventable source of waste made up of plastics, metals, packaging, toxic chemicals, and in the case of e-cigarettes, lithium batteries. Now, there are international efforts involving environmental groups, public health advocates, multinational organizations, and governments to do something about this unnecessary environmental insult. This effort involves countries, advocates, and scientists who have come together under a United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) treaty negotiation to address the enormous and growing problem of environmental plastic waste. Filtered cigarettes are part of this problem, and if they can be eliminated as a single-use, toxic plastic product, there will be significant benefits to both human health and the environment.
Our speaker, Dr Thomas Novotny, is Professor Emeritus of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the San Diego State University (SDSU) School of Public Health. He is a graduate of the University of Nebraska Medical Center (MD 1973) and Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health (MPH Epidemiology 1992). Previously, he served as an epidemiologist in the CDC's Office on Smoking and Health and as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Health in the US Department of Health and Human Services. He co-directed the Joint Ph.D. program in Global Health at SDSU/UCSD from 2009-2015, and he has done extensive research on tobacco and the environment. In 2010, he founded the Cigarette Butt Pollution Project, a research, educational, and advocacy non-profit organization that addresses tobacco's impact on the environment. He is a member of the American Public Health Association, the American College of Preventive Medicine, the US Public Health Service Commissioned Officers Association, and the Council on Foreign Relations.
Members and guests, please welcome Dr Thomas Novotny!
Important Announcement - “Digital Rotarian” Full Meeting Podcasts
Announcing: Our main program speakers are now available as audio podcasts in addition to YouTube videos! Each week they are available on Spotify, Google, and Apple podcasts.
Or you can simply click below for this week’s speaker:
And our original podcast, featuring Some of the best of our previous speakers is still available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Google Podcasts
UPCOMING PROGRAM RECORDING SCHEDULE
All of our guest speakers and programs are recorded live online over Zoom video conference. We welcome members and guests to join us in one of these upcoming recordings. Recordings are approximately 30 minutes long and are subject to change without notice.
Our online video conference room link for these recordings is always http://zoom.siliconvalleyrotary.com/. You are welcome to join us! Please note the timezone listed for all recordings is US Pacific Time (San Francisco, California, USA).
If you can’t join the live recording, please send your questions for an upcoming speaker to programs@siliconvalleyrotary.com.
THE ATTENDANCE SURVEY
Thanks for reading and watching this week’s meeting. You have two last things to do before you’re done.
We have a very short attendance survey below for you to fill out to record your attendance.
Visiting Rotarians, this is how you can get an email receipt to pass along to your club’s secretary as proof that you’ve attended our meeting if you need it for makeups.
Non-Rotarian Guests, we would love to see who is dropping by our meetings! This part is optional for you. If you think you may want to join our eClub at some point in the future, we would strongly recommend you fill out the attendance form as it will improve your chances of success for your membership application.
For all members and guests — we strongly recommend and ask that you leave a comment in our comments area below. Tell us how you enjoyed the program. Ask this week’s speaker any questions you might have. Or just stop by and say hello and tell us where you’re from!
Important: Once you submit the Attendance Survey below, please make sure you see the confirmation message. If you get an error message instead, please try the 'submit' button again, and if that doesn't work, please refresh the page and fill out the form again. Thanks!
