This interdisciplinary speaker series is intended to stimulate cross disciplinary discussion, debate, and collaboration around issues related to energy, the environment, and society. The series is sponsored by SERC and the Environment & Community Graduate Program. Videos are available to check-out from the HSU Library - click here to view the speakers series video collection - or watch online via Humboldt Digital Scholar.
February 16
Antwi Akom
“Race, Power, and the Environment: Using Participatory Mapping and New Media to Build a Community-Based Climate Justice Movement”
Dr. Akom is an Associate Professor of Environmental Sociology, STEM Education, and African American Studies at San Francisco State University and during 2011 has been a Visiting Research Scientists at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. In 2011 he founded the Institute for Sustainable Economic, Educational, and Environmental Design (ISEEED) which focuses on creating sustainable cities and schools so that people do not have to leave their communities in order to live, learn, work, and thrive. As a national leader in integrating youth development, workforce development, STEM education, and culturally responsive pedagogy, Dr. Akom’s solution-driven models help train the next generation of climate scientists and introduce new frameworks for reducing health and educational disparities, alleviating poverty, and competing in the 21st century clean energy economy. Dr. Akom has received numerous national awards. His forthcoming books are Building Sustainable Cities and Schools and Redemptions Songs: New Visions of Race, Schooling, and Sustainability.
February 23
Zack Zoller
“Solar Makes it Big: Scaling Up Solar Photovoltaics for Large Systems”
Zack Zoller is an Engineering Project Manager at Blue Oak Energy in Davis, California. He is a graduate of UC Davis with a BS in Mechanical Engineering and a Masters in Engineering. Zack has 5 years of experience in the Solar Photovoltaic Industry designing small and large commercial and utility scale generation systems. He was the lead designer on the 36 MW Long Island Solar Farm, which was recently commissioned and is feeding power into the grid. His current project is in Illinois with a 20MW plant selling power to the local utility company.
March 1
Lindsay Magnuson
"Land Conservation on the North Coast Using the Land Trust Model"
Lindsay has been the Executive Director of the Northcoast Regional Land Trust (NRLT) for the last two years. NRLT is dedicated to the protection and economic viability of working landscapes, farms, forests and grazing lands, and to the preservation and protection of land for its natural, educational, scenic and historic values. NRLT is focused on the nearly five million acres on California’s North Coast encompassing Humboldt, Del Norte, and Trinity Counties. Lindsay was born and raised in Humboldt County and has a unique perspective on the opportunities and challenges of working to conserve land while preserving the rural culture of this region. She brings a wealth of leadership experience to NRLT spanning community development and conservation projects in West Africa to lecturing for five years at Humboldt State University and College of the Redwoods. Lindsay earned her Bachelor's degree in Wildlife Management from Humboldt State University and a Master's degree in Natural Resources from HSU while focusing on the ecology and conservation of Roloway monkeys in Ghana (2002). Lindsay was given the Koplin award for outstanding Wildlife graduate of the year in 2003.
March 8
Simone Pulver
“Addressing Climate Change through Carbon Markets: Lessons Learned in Brazil and India”
Simone Pulver is an Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara. She received her doctorate in Sociology from the University of California, Berkeley. Pulver has been analyzing international climate policy for the past 15 years, including a year as a Fulbright fellow at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi, India. Her current research examines private sector responses to climate change in emerging economies.
March 22
Robin Kimmerer
“Restoration and Reciprocity: Finding Common Ground Between Traditional and Scientific Ecological Knowledge”
Dr. Kimmerer is a mother, scientist, writer and Distinguished Teaching Professor of Environmental Biology at the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry in Syracuse, New York and the founding Director of the Center for Native Peoples and the Environment whose mission is to create programs which draw on the wisdom of both indigenous and scientific knowledge for our shared goals of sustainability. Her research interests include the role of traditional ecological knowledge in ecological restoration and building resilience for climate change. In collaboration with tribal partners, she and her students have an active research program in the ecology and restoration of plants of cultural significance to Native people. She is active in efforts to broaden access to environmental science training for Native students, and to introduce the benefits of traditional ecological knowledge to the scientific community, in a way that respects and protects indigenous knowledge.
April 5
Garvin Heath
"Environmental Impacts of Energy Technologies: A Life Cycle Perspective"
Garvin Heath is a senior scientist in the Strategic Energy Analysis Center of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). At NREL he specializes in analyzing the environmental impacts of energy systems using the tools of life cycle assessment, air quality modeling, and sustainability analysis. He received his PhD in Energy and Resources from the Energy and Resources Group of the University of California, Berkeley in 2006. He also holds an MS degree in Environmental Engineering from UC Berkeley. His previous professional experience includes five years with the Indoor Environments Division of the US EPA, in addition to various assignments with researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and Environmental Defense. He currently resides in Boulder, CO where he also holds an adjunct research position at the University of Colorado at Boulder.
April 12
Kathleen McAfee
“Cooling the Planet or Feeding the World: Do We Have To Choose?”
Kathleen McAfee is a geographer (UC Berkeley) who has been a policy analyst for Oxfam and a consultant to UN agencies. She has authored a book, Storm Signals: Structural Adjustment and Development Alternatives, and many articles on environment, hunger, agriculture, trade, and development. Before joining the International Relations Department at San Francisco State University, Dr. McAfee taught at Yale and held the Fulbright Canada Research Chair in Sustainability. She maintains ties with NGOs and farmers organizations working to end hunger worldwide.
April 19
Seth Wilson
“Conservation on the Edge: Large Carnivores and Building Communities of Coexistence”
Seth Wilson is a Visiting Fellow at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. His research and applied conservation efforts focus on large-carnivore conservation, policy, human-wildlife conflict, landscape-scale conservation, and conservation planning on private lands. He is currently working on a multi-year research project involving a community-supported conservation plan to reduce human-grizzly bear and wolf-livestock conflicts on private agricultural land in Montana. In addition to conducting research, he works with conservation organizations including the Blackfoot Challenge and People and Carnivores. He holds a B.A. in Environmental Studies and Government from St. Lawrence University, a M.S. in Science from the Environmental Studies Program, and a Ph.D. from the College of Forestry and Conservation at the University of Montana. He is a Team Member of the IUCN Human-Bear Conflict Specialist Group and member of the Yale Large Carnivore Group.
May 3
Miguel Altieri
"Who Will Feed Us in a Planet in Crisis?"
Dr. Miguel A . Altieri is a professor of agroecology in the Department of Environmental Science, Management and Policy at the University of California, Berkeley. Dr. Altieri has served as a Scientific Advisor to the Latin American Consortium on Agroecology and Development (CLADES) Chile, an NGO network promoting agroecology as a strategy for small farm sustainable development in the region, and as the General Coordinator for the United Nations Development Programme's Sustainable Agriculture Networking and Extension Programme which aimed at capacity building on agroecology among NGOs and the scaling-up of successful local sustainable agricultural initiatives in Africa, Latin America and Asia. In addition, he was the chairman of the NGO committee of the Consultative Group on International Agriculture Research whose mission was to make sure that the research agenda of the 15 International Agricultural Research Centers benefited the poor farmers of the world. Currently, he is advisor to the FAO-GIAHS program (Globally Indigenous Agricultural Heritage Systems), a program devoted at identifying and dynamically conserving traditional farming systems in the developing world. He is the author of more than 200 publications, and numerous books including Agroecology: The Science of Sustainable Agriculture and Biodiversity, Pest Management in Agroecosystems, and Agroecology and the Search for a Truly Sustainable Agriculture.
September 22-23, Traditional Ecological Knowledge Symposium
Jeff Mapes, “How the Bicycle is Changing American Cities”
Evan Mills, “The Carbon Footprint of Indoor Cannabis Production”
Arne Jacobson, “Super Efficient Appliances, International Cooperation, and the Climate Challenge”
Amol Phadke, "Low Carbon Strategies for the Indian Electricity Sector: Opportunities for Leapfrogging"
Geeta Chowdhry, "To Bt or not to Bt? Transnational Capital, the State, Civil Society and the Struggle over Food Sovereignty in India"
Noah Zerbe, "Reshaping Globalization from the Ground Up: Community Resilience and Transformation in Durban, South Africa"
John Elliot, "UC Merced: Achieving Zero Net Energy and Zero Landfill Waste by 2020"
Jim Hight, "Climate Change Policy in North America: Reasons for Optimism"
Steven Hackett and Luke Scheidler, “The Economics of Clean Energy in Humboldt County”
Tom Fee, “Leadership Patterns in Environmental & Public Policy Dispute Resolution 1970- 2010 - 2050: Reflections & Explorations
Mary Crowley, “Solutions to Plastic Proliferation In Our Oceans”
David Rubin, "The Challenges and Opportunities of Renewables from a Utility Perspective"
Judith Mayer, "Borneo to California and Back"
Eric Holt-Giménez, "Food Rebellions: Crisis and the Hunger for Justice"
Tim Palmer, "Rivers of America"
Nick Goulette and Lynn Jungwirth, “Community-based Forestry: Past, Present, and Future”
Dr. Alexandra “Sascha” von Meier, "Integrating Renewable Resources: Making the 'Smart Grid' Work"
Aldaron Laird, “Is Humboldt Bay Municipal Water District’s Water System Sustainable? Is California’s Water Use Sustainable?”
Peter Dauvergne, "Big Box Stores and Global Environmental Governance”
Elizabeth "Betsy" Watson, "Working in the Political Dead Zone"
Peter Alstone and Colin Sheppard, "Humboldt County's Renewable Energy Futures: Preliminary Results from a Renewable Energy Secure Communities (RESCO) Study"
Watch the presentation
Kim Berry,"Disowning Dependence: Single Women's Collective Struggle for Land Rights in Northwestern India"
Garvin Heath, “Environmental Impacts of Energy Technologies: A Life Cycle Perspective”
Cynthia Chandler, "Democracy Across Prison Walls"
Timothy Lipman, “Low Carbon Vehicle Research at UC Berkeley's Transportation Sustainability Research Center”
Omar Masera, “Efficient Cookstoves - Mitigating Climate Change While Advancing Sustainable Development Priorities: The Case of Efficient Cookstoves”
Jane Nielsen and Howard Wilshire, "The American West at Risk: Science, Myths, and Politics of Land Abuse and Recovery"
Andrea Tuttle, "After Copenhagen, What Next for Forests? An Update of COP 15, the Copenhagen Accord, and Tropical Deforestation"
Sandra Steingraber, "Environmental Health: A New Civil Rights Movement"
Jerry Moles and Karen Brisbane, "LandCare In Australia and the USA"
Arne Jacobson, "Energy and the Environment at HSU"
Riki Ott, "The Impacts of the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill on Ecology and Community"
Llyn Smith," "A Just Peace? The Sri Lankan Civil War and Minority Politics in the Sinhalese Buddhist State"
Stephen Most, "Fixing the World: Conflict and Consensus in the Klamath Basin"
Jamie Levin, "The Future of Public Transport - In Pursuit of Zero Emissions"
Richard L. Corsi, "Smog and Lemons: American Homes as Chemical Reactors and the Role of Energy Conservation in Reactor ‘Design’”
Heidi Ballard, "Environmental Learning and Participatory Research in Community-Based Forestry"
Dustin Poppendieck and Arne Jacobson, "Kerosene Lamps, Solid-State Lighting, and Possibilities to Improve Public Health in Kenya"
Adam R. Brandt, “Avoiding High Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Future Transportation Fuels: The Case of Oil Shale"
Jessica Urban, “Demystifying and Deconstructing Disinformation: Population Issues and Environmental (In)Security”
Chris Greacen,"Renewable Energy Policy and Planning in Thailand"
Richard Varenchik,"California's Efforts to Control Climate Change"
Steven Hackett,"Economic and Social Considerations for Wave Energy Development in California"
Jeff Romm,"Moments of Reservation: Racial Foundations of Environmental Policy"
Tom Stokely, "The Trinity River, the Peripheral Canal, and the Future of Water in California"
Zoe Hammer, "Inventing Just Futures: Organizing for Human Rights in the Sonoran Desert"
Matthew St. Clair, "Campus Sustainability at California Universities"
Betsy Hartmann, "Rethinking the Population Problem: The Terror of False Assumptions"
Rick Duke, "The Five Trillion Dollar Challenge: A Roadmap for Containing Climate Change"
John Meyer, "The Environmental Politics of Sacrifice"
H.I. Bud Beebe, "SMUD's Utility Planning for Climate Change: Mitigation, Adaptation, Regulation"
Allison Rogers, "Go Green! Global Warming Awareness"
Andrea Tuttle, "California Climate Protocols and Politics- Through the Lens of Forest Carbon"
Peter Lehman, "Hydrogen in a Renewable Energy Future"
Michael Shellenberger,
"Beyond Environmentalism: Creating a Politics Capable of Dealing with Global Warming and Other Ecological Crises"
Alex Farrell, "The Race for 21st Century Fuels"
Morgan Varner,
"Changing Climate, Changing Fires: Predicting Future Fires in a Carbon-rich Atmosphere"
Jeffrey Jacobs,
"Future Fuel Sources: Options and Opportunities"
Holmes Hummel,
"Interpreting Technology and Policy Implications of Global Energy Scenarios for the 21st Century"
Anna Zalik, "Clean Energy and Armed Insurgency: Representing Security and Threat from the Nigerian Delta to the Mexican Gulf"
Evon Peters,
"Indigenous Peoples Rights and Environmental Justice"
Evan Mills,
"The Specter of Fuel Based Lighting"
Patrice O'Neill,
"The Fire Next Time: Using Film to Address Community Conflict"
Sarah Goldthwait,
"Plankton and CO2: The Role of Marine Organisms in Global Climate"
Ashanti Alston, "All Power to the People: The Black Panther Party and Beyond"
Tyrone Hayes, "From Silent Spring to Silent Night: What do hermaphroditic frogs tell us about environmental and human health?"
Roundtable- Sustainable Community Design: "Why Does it Matter? How do we do it?"
Victoria Sturtevant,
"Collaborative Planning for Wildfire: Community Matters"
Arne Jacobson,
"Connective Power: Solar Electrification and Social Change in Kenya"
Mark Lakeman,
"The Village Lives"
Carolina Simunovic,
"Environmental Health in the San Joaquin Valley"
Alan Lloyd, "The Fight for Air Quality in California: A 30 Year Retrospective and Visions for the Future"
Jim Zoellick, "Humboldt County's Energy Picture"
Joan Ogden, "The Outlook for Hydrogen as an Energy Carrier"
Michel Gelobter, "The Soul of Environmentalism"
Mark Hankins, "Approaches to Rural Electrification in East Africa: Donors, Projects, Rural Electrification"
