Roy F. Weston Distinguished Global Sustainability Lecture Series

All lectures are free and open to the public. Contact Tracey Holloway for more information

2008-2009 Speakers

Andreas von Brandt, UN Food and Agriculture Organization Topic: Bioenergy
"Food Security and Bioenergy: Approaches to assess a complex relationship – Experiences from FAO’s work in Tanzania"
photo credit: ©FAO/Giulio Napolitano

Abstract: The importance of agriculture and energy in developing countries are crucial for growth. While bioenergy provides the cheapest and most accessible energy carrier for rural areas, the world's attention is focused on liquid biofuels. Although these competing demands for agricultural production may present a conflict of interest, it is also one of the few opportunities for investment in many poor countries. Therefore, in cooperation with government, private sector and affected farmers, FAO has taken a pragmatic approach in strengthening developing countries' capabilities to make the best out of these opportunities. The Bioenergy and Food Security Project (BEFS) has developed an analytical tool to quantify the bioenergy impact on a country's food security. The interdisciplinary methodology assesses in different stand-alone modules such diverse elements as land suitability, land use planning and administration, biofuel production costs, forecasts on future food needs, sector-wide macroeconomic effects and the implications for food availability and access at the household level. The lecture will present FAO's approach and put the initial results into the socio-economic context of Tanzania, the first of four pilot countries for the BEFS project

Bio: Andreas von Brandt, MA, LLM is Coordinator of the Bioenergy and Food Security Project (BEFS) at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in Rome (Italy). Andreas joined FAO in June 2006 as Assistant Project Manager of the Right to Food Unit. Before coming to FAO, Mr. von Brandt negotiated the Right to Food guidelines on behalf of the German Foreign Office, headed the public diplomacy and economic section of its mission to Pakistan and was in charge of UN Specialized Agencies, rural development and food security in the German Foreign Office (2001-06). Prior to that he has been consulting for the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank and InWent on rights-based approaches to development, public sector and justice reform and human rights. Andreas holds two 5-year degrees, in Political Science and in Law and a Masters in International Law. He was a Fulbright scholar at the Washington College of Law at American University in 2000.

Professor Diana Liverman
Director of the Environmental Change Institute
Oxford University Centre for the Environment
"Communities, climate change, and development: can the international climate regime deliver mitigation and adaptation that benefit the poor?"

Listen to the Lecture

Abstract: Climate change poses considerable risks to vulnerable people and places. International organisations, national governments, and local and non state actors are mobilizing and negotiating to respond to climate change, both in terms of reducing emissions and adapting to environmental changes that are already occurring. This lecture asks how the response to climate change might reach the poor, especially through emission reduction programmes such as carbon offsets, forest protection and the mainstreaming of adaptation into development policy and identifies some of the gaps in scholarship that are needed to make informed decisions.. There are tremendous challenges for the new US administration to internationalize its response to climate change and for the international community to craft an agreement in Copenhagen this year that is just and effective.

Bio: Professor Diana Liverman is well known for her work on the impacts of climate change in developing countries. She has recently accepted a position as co-director with the University of Arizona's Institute of the Environment and Society. She has also served as the director of Oxford University's Environmental Change Institute. With a background in geography, much of her professional career has focused on the societal impacts of climate change. She is especially interested in climate change impacts in Mexico and other parts of Latin America and has participated in many research projects in these regions.

Dr. Liverman has served on committees for the US Social Science Research Council, the US National Academy, the NOAA, and the Scientific Advisory Committee of the Inter American Institute for Global Change Research. She is also an editorial board member for the Annual Review of Environment and Resources, Global Environmental Change, Annals of the Association of American Geographers, and Climatic Change.

Dr. Brad Allenby
Arizona State University
"Technology and Sustainability in the Age of the Anthropogenic Earth"

View the Lecture PowerPoint slides
View the class lecture also given by Professor Allenby during his visit

Summary:
The Industrial Revolution and associated changes in human demographics, technology systems, cultures, and economic systems have led to the evolution of a planet fundamentally different than anything humans have experienced in the past. Characterized by the integration of built, natural, and human systems at local, regional and global scales, and emergent behaviors which are uncertain and unpredictable, our current world is increasingly contingent and complex, and yet change continues to accelerate. Technology systems are major contributors to this anthropogenic earth, but their dynamics and power are poorly understood, especially in relationship to popular concepts such as sustainability.

Biography:
Dr. Allenby is a Professor Civil and Environmental Engineering at Arizona State University specializing in industrial ecology, environmental design, earth systems engineering and management, NBIC (nanotechnology, biotechnology, information and communication technology), and technological evolution. Before joining ASU, Dr. Allenby served as the Senior Environmental Attorney for AT&T, as well as Director of Energy and Environmental Systems at Lawrence Livermore National Labs. In 1991, he was awarded the J. Herbert Holloman Fellowship by the National Academy of Engineering. He is also a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce, as well as President of the International Society for Industrial Ecology and Chair of the AAAS Committee on Science, Engineering, and Public Policy.

Previous Speakers

Prof. Kirk Smith, "Energy and World Development – Challenges for Health and Climate" - listen to the talk (Quicktime)
Professor of Global Environmental Health, University of California Berkeley

Lisa Curran, "From Timber to Palm Oil: Effects of Bornean Land Use Change on Carbon Emissions, Rural Livlihoods and Biodiversity"
Professor of Tropical Resources, Yale University

John Rowe, "Kilowatts, Carbon and Competition”

Chairman and CEO of Exelon Corporation
listen to the talk (Quicktime)

Dr. Rosamond Naylor, "Food Security and the Environment"
Associate Professor of Economics
Director, Program on Food Security and the Environment
Wrigley Senior Fellow in Environmental Science and Policy
Stanford University
listen to the talk (Quicktime)

Prof. Kerry Emanuel, “Is Global Warming Affecting Hurricanes?”
Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Science
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
listen to the talk (Quicktime)

Dr. Jonathan Koomey, "Creating the Future: Cost effective options for minimizing climate change and oil dependence"
Staff Scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab and Consulting Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering Dept, Stanford University
• View the Lecture and Slidshow Online (courtesy of the UW Engineering MediaSite).
listen to the talk (Quicktime)

Andy Revkin, "The Daily Planet: A Journalist's Search for Sustainability, from the Amazon to the Arctic"
Science Writer for the New York Times
listen to the talk (Quicktime)

Jeffrey Christian, "Zero Energy Houses: A Promising Grand Challenge for the U.S."
Director of the Building Technology Center, Oak Ridge National Laboratory
• SAGE Graduate student David Zaks interviews Jeffrey Christian for WorldChanging.com

Rita Colwell, "Water Pollution and Human Health"
Chair at Canon US Life Sciences, Incorporated and Distinguished University Professor at the University of Maryland at College Park and Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health

Ken Cassman, "Agricultural Production and Long-term Sustainability of Soil and Water Resources"
Professor of Agronomy, Department of Agronomy and Horticulture, University of Nebraska

Eric Lambin, "Impact of Land Use Policies on Changes in Masai Mara Wildlife (Kenya): Analyzing Coupled Human-Environment Systems"
Professor, Department of Geography, University of Louvain, Belgium
UW Lambin News release

Pat Kinney, "Climate Change, Air Quality, and Public Health"
Associate Professor of Environmental Health Sciences, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University

Steven Wofsy, "Emergent Properties of Ecosystems: from Individual Tree to Continental Scales"
Abbott Lawrence Rotch Professor of Atmospheric and Environmental Chemistry, Harvard University

Roy Weston – Sustainability Visionary, 1911-2007
Roy F. Weston, a major benefactor of the Nelson Institute and an original member of its Board of Visitors, died Saturday, August 18th, at his home in Pennsylvania. He was 96.

Five years ago, Weston gave $1 million to the Institute to help create two annual graduate fellowships, establish the Roy F. Weston Distinguished Global Sustainability Lecture Series, and support other sustainability initiatives. This gift established the Roy Weston Program in Sustainability, which is operated by the Institute's Center for Sustainability and the Global Environment (SAGE), in collaboration with the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE). He also set aside another $1 million in a trust fund earmarked for the Institute as part of his and his wife Madeleen’s estate.

A Wisconsin native and 1933 UW-Madison civil engineering graduate, Weston founded Weston Solutions, Inc., a leading international environmental and redevelopment consulting firm. He led the company for more than three decades until his retirement in 1991. (Read the company’s obituary.)

Described by his colleagues as a visionary, Weston was an early champion of the idea that environmental problems are complex and that their resolution requires multidisciplinary, rather than piecemeal, approaches. He also maintained that prevention of environmental problems is preferable to abatement or remediation and insisted that his company’s engineers place the public good ahead of the wishes of individual clients.

Weston was among the first engineers to use environmental sustainability as a central criterion to evaluate human activity. He also became a strong advocate for environmental thought and action from a global perspective.

"Mr. Weston was an intellectual giant, and saw the need for sustainability decades before others. His vision, leadership and generosity have made a profound impact on the University and the world.", says Jonathan Foley, Director of SAGE. "Thanks his support, we will be continuing to build upon Mr. Weston's vision for years to come."

Weston’s many awards and citations included an honorary doctorate from UW-Madison in 1995.