Environmental Studies Colloquia Spring 2010

Evening Lectures

Tuesday, February 16

7 pm in Olin 1

Joel Tickner, Associate Professor, Department of Community Health and Sustainability at the University of Massachusetts

From Reaction to Proactive Solutions: New Approaches to Chemicals Science and Policy

In the past several years, there has been increasing media and government attention being paid to health concerns regarding toxic substances in every day products. These concerns have resulted in new policies in Europe to fundamentally transform the way chemicals are regulated as well as a myriad of state chemicals regulation initiatives, including in Maine. Discussions on reforming a 30 year old federal law regulating chemicals are just beginning. Yet, many companies are beginning to act on their own, instituting their own chemicals policies to advance application of green chemistry. This presentation begins with the premise that current ways in which we manage chemicals in society is incompatible with health, innovation, or sustainability. To achieve a vision of comprehensive chemicals policy there is a critical need to transform not only regulation but also science and markets. The presentation outlines some of the limits of current approaches to chemicals science and policy, some of the initiatives underway to respond to these limits and outlines a vision and set of steps for the future.

Dr. Joel Tickner is Associate Professor in the Department of Community Health and Sustainability at the University of Massachusetts Lowell where he also directs the Chemicals Policy and Science Initiative at the Lowell Center for Sustainable Production. He is a leading expert on chemicals regulation, regulatory science, and application of the precautionary principle and safer materials in science and policy. He has served as an advisor and researcher for several government agencies, international agencies, non-profit environmental groups and trade unions both in the U.S. and abroad during the past twelve years. He teaches and conducts trainings in a variety of environmental health topics including risk assessment, toxic substances policy, children’s environmental health and pollution prevention. He was co-coordinator of the Wingspread Conference on the Precautionary Principle, co-editor of the book Protecting Public Health and the Environment: Implementing the Precautionary Principle and editor of the book Precaution, Environmental Science, and Preventive Public Policy. He has over 100 publications and conference presentations on the topics of chemicals policy, pollution prevention, risk assessment, and uncertainty and the precautionary principle. He serves on the editorial boards of several journals, is a peer reviewer for journals and government documents and served on the EPA’s National Pollution Prevention and Toxics Advisory Committee. He also directs the undergraduate environmental health BS program at the University of Massachusetts Lowell. He holds a Masters of Science degree in Environmental Studies from the University of Montana and a Doctor of Science Degree from the Department of Work Environment at University of Massachusetts Lowell and for three years was an Environmental Protection Agency STAR Fellow.

HOLLIS LECTURE

Tuesday, March 10

7 pm in Olin 1

Steve Coleman, Executive Director, Washington Parks and People

Rediscovering the Village Green: The Power of the Community Parks Movement

Steve Coleman has led Washington Parks & People’s award-winning work since it began as a volunteer neighborhood park crime patrol in 1990. In 25 years of non-profit service, he has been a vice president for development and director of research for a national business association working to reverse the arms race, program director of an international environmental advocacy network founded by Ted Turner, staff officer for a national foundation, a fundraising consultant for environmental media initiatives, a lobbyist with the American Friends Service Committee, and an intern reporter for Public Broadcasting’s MacNeil/ Lehrer Report. Steve has been an elected officer of the Committee of 100 on the Federal City, Washington Innercity Self Help (WISH), the Reed-Cooke Neighborhood Association, and the city-wide Advisory Neighborhood Commissioners Assembly. An inspiring speaker and consultant on urban park revitalization, Steve has appeared in media stories about the urban parks movement across the U.S. and abroad. His recent writings about city parks have appeared in Places: A Journal of Environmental Design, and Urban Parks Online. Steve is a Trustee of the City Parks Alliance, has served on the faculty of the American Planning Association’s City Parks Forum and the Urban Open Space Leadership Institute, and appeared as a keynote speaker at Great Parks/ Great Cities Conferences in New York, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Portland (Oregon), London, and Barcelona. Born in India, Steve has lived in Adams Morgan for 22 years.

Tuesday, March 16

7 pm in Olin 1

Andy Goode ‘80, Vice President, U.S. Programs, Atantic Salmon Federation

Atlantic Salmon Federation’s River Restoration Efforts in Maine

Mr. Goode will focus on the Penobscot River Restoration Project and several small river restoration projects in the watershed. ASF believes the Penobscot Project is the last, best chance to save wild Atlantic salmon in the United States. This is a 10 year, $60 million project to rebalance fisheries restoration with hydropower production. Fully implemented, the two largest dams closest to the ocean will be removed, a third will be decommissioned and vast stretches of free flowing river will once again be accessible to Atlantic salmon and ten other species of migratory fish. “If we can raise the funds and maintain the political support we need to finish the project it will be a great national story for river restoration,” said Andy Goode of the Atlantic Salmon Federation.

Andrew Goode began working for the Atlantic Salmon Federation in 1999 and in 2002, became Vice President of US Programs. Much of Andrew's work is focused in Maine where native salmon ppulations still cling to rivers like the Penobscot, Kennebec, Machias, Denny's and Naraguagus.

He led ASF's fight on the Endangered Species listing of eight salmon rivers and has helped shape aquaculture reforms in the State of Maine. Currently, his principle focus is restoring Maine's Penobscot River, where an innovative agreement may represent the last, best chance to save wild Atlantic salmon in the US. Prior to ASF, Andy was the Conservation Director for the Orvis Company and earlier worked for the Nature Conservancy in North Carolina and the Berkshires of Massachusetts. Andrew holds a Master's degree in ecology from Duke University's School of Forestry and Environmental Studies and a BA from Colby.

Tuesday April 20

7 pm in Olin 1

Joan Saxe, Chair Sierra Club, Maine Global warming & Energy Committee and Chair, Maine Partners for Cool Communities

Community Activists Meet the Carbon Challenge

As coordinator for the Club's Cool Communities initiative in Maine, Joan has brought the U.S. Mayors Climate Protection Agreement to the attention of cities and towns throughout the state and secured their commitment to reduce local greenhouse gas emissions. Joan has been nominated for the Volvo for Life Awards and was recipient of the Sierra Club’s 2008 Environmental Alliance Award,

APRIL 27

7 PM in Ostrove Auditorium, Diamond

Dr. Eric Sanderson, Senior Conservation Ecologist at the Wildlife Conservation Society

Sponsored by the STS Program, the Biology Department, and the Environmental Studies Program

Geographic Approaches to Nature Conservation: Wildlife, Wild Places and Mannahatta

Geographic information systems, satellite imagery, Google Maps, GPS and mobile apps are all providing new ways to see and analyze the ecology of the world around us in ways that inform and motivate conservation. Landscape ecologist, Dr. Eric Sanderson of the Wildlife Conservation Society, will provide an overview of three ways in which these tools are being applied today: through range-wide priority-setting for species like the tiger, through a global analysis of human influence (the “Human Footprint” map), and through the Mannahatta Project, a detailed, block-by-block, reconstruction of the former ecology of Manhattan at the time of European discovery 400 years ago.

Eric W. Sanderson is a Senior Conservation Ecologist at the Wildlife Conservation Society. Sanderson received his Ph.D. in ecology (emphasis in ecosystem and landscape ecology) from the University of California, Davis, in 1998, while studying with Dr. Susan Ustin. Starting at WCS in 1998, he established the “Landscape Ecology and Geographic Analysis” program to bring landscape thinking and geographic analysis tools into the conservation practices of the WCS. In 2002 Dr. Sanderson and colleagues created the Human Footprint map, the first look at human influence globally at less than 1 square mile resolution. He is also an expert on species conservation planning and has contributed to efforts to save lions, tigers, Asian bears, jaguars, tapirs, peccaries, American crocodiles, North American bison and Mongolian gazelle; and landscape planning conservation efforts in Argentina, Tanzania, Mongolia, and the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem and the Adirondack Park, in the USA. He has edited two scientific volumes and written numerous scientific papers. His work has been featured in the New York Times, National Geographic Magazine, CNN, NPR, and The New Yorker. He is also the director of The Mannahatta Project, an effort to reconstruct the original ecology of Manhattan Island at the time of European discovery in the early seventeenth century. In 2009 he published a book, “Mannahatta: A Natural History of New York City,” illustrated by Markley Boyer. From May 20 – October 12, 2009, Dr. Sanderson curated an exhibition based on the Mannahatta Project on display at the Museum of the City of New York.