January 25, 2013

Spring 2013 Environmental Speaker Series

We are excited to welcome the following spakers to Davidson this spring as part of the Spring 2013 Environmental Speaker Series.

CODEP: A Case Study of a Successful Agricultural Sustainability Project in Haiti
John Winings and Clement Tercelin, CODEP and the Haiti Fund, Inc.
PUBLIC LECTURE: Tuesday, January 29th, 2013 4:30 pm, Carolina Inn
CODEP works with 30 small communities and 600 Haitian farmers (200 of whom are women) to improve their lives and those of their families. Accomplishments include planting over 7 million trees since 2000, digging over 1,000 miles of contour ditches to prevent further erosion, installing/building over 100 cisterns and almost 90 houses since 2000, and installing over 30 fishponds as aids to protein dietary enrichment.

Recycling for Victory: Wartime Conservation and Patriotism in Britain, 1939-1945
Peter Thorsheim, University of North Carolina, Charlotte
PUBLIC LECTURE: Wed., January 30, 2013, 7:00 pm, Carolina Inn
Peter Thorsheim is an environmental historian at the University of North Carolina, Charlotte. He received his PhD from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and has published on coal, smoke, and culture in Britain since 1800, green space and class in imperial London, and the London Fog disaster of 1952. The topic of his public lecture at Davidson will be British salvage and recycling campaigns during World War II.
Co-Sponsored by the History Department, Environmental Studies Department, and Political Science Department.

From Molecules to Metapopulations: Assessing Endocrine Disruption in Aquatic Life
Susanne Brander, University of North Carolina, Wilmington
PUBLIC LECTURE: Thursday, February 14, 2012, 11:05 am, Dana 146
Susanne Brander is a biologist whose research integrates the responses of aquatic organisms to endocrine disrupting compounds (EDCs) across biological scales. Her work focuses on discerning mechanisms of toxicity and linking results of laboratory experiments to ecosystem responses. She is currently examining the impact of EDCs on gene and protein expression, reproductive behavior, sex ratio and population dynamics, with a particular focus on compounds of concern that include pyrethroid pesticides and pharmaceuticals.
Co-Sponsored by the Biology Department and the Environmental Studies Department.

A Story of Mountaintop Mining and Citizen Action Along North Carolina's Appalachian Trail
Jay Leutze, Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy
PUBLIC LECTURE: Monday, February 18, 2013, 7:30 pm, Sloan Music Center, Tyler-Tallman Hall
Jay Leutze is the author of "Stand Up That Mountain: The Battle to Save One Small Community in the Wilderness Along the Appalachian Trail," which was published by Simon and Schuster in June of 2012. The book chronicles the work of Mr. Leutze and a small community in the Appalachian mountains of North Carolina to stop mountaintop mining along the Appalachian Trail. Leutze not only details the difficult but ultimately successful legal drama that unfolded in the case, but also the people and personalities involved in it. As a trustee of the Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy, Mr. Leutze will also discuss the importance of values and music in environmental activism. He will also perform a reading with musical accompaniment from Asheville singer-songwriter, and Davidson graduate, David Ray.
Co-Sponsored by the Public Lectures Committee, Environmental Studies Department, Music Department, Center for Interdisciplinary Studies, and the Political Science Department.

Using Decision Analysis to Improve Environmental Rating Systems
Lynn Maguire, Duke University
PUBLIC LECTURE: Tuesday, March 12, 2013, 11:05 am, Dana 146
Lynn Maguire is Professor of the Practice of Environmental Decision Analysis at Duke University's Nicholas School of the Environment. Dr. Maguire is an expert on the use of decision analysis and dispute resolution tools to environmental decision-making, and particularly in the fields of biodiversity conservation and watershed management. This is a critical and increasingly popular approach to problem solving that is being applied across a wide range of environmental domains and issues. Dr. Maguire will provide an introduction to decision analysis and discuss how it can be used to improve environmental rating systems.
Co-Sponsored by the Public Lectures Committee, Economics Department, Environmental Studies Department, Biology Department, Political Science Department, Center for Interdisciplinary Studies, and the Psychology Department.

Consuming Choices: Ethics in a Global Consumer Age
David Schwartz, Randolph College
PUBLIC LECTURE: Wednesday, April 3, 2013, 7:30 pm, Hance Auditorium
David Schwartz is the Chair of the Philosophy Department at Randolph College in Lynchburg, VA. He received his PhD from Rice University, and teaches courses in Ethics, Environmental Philosophy, Philosophy of Art, and Classical Greek Philosophy. He will be discussing his book, published in 2010, entitled, "Consuming Choices, Ethics in a Global Consumer Age." The book "explores whether consumers have moral obligations to boycott products made with immoral practices such as slave labor, animal cruelty, or environmental harm." Dr. Schwartz will be sharing the insights from his book and discussing these difficult ethical issues with the audience.
Co-Sponsored by the Public Lectures Committee, Vann Center for Ethics, Environmental Studies Department, Political Science Department, Center for Interdisciplinary Studies, and Philosophy Department.

Our Stolen Future: Endocrine Disruptors and Environmental Health
Pete Meyers, CEO and Chief Scientist of Environmental Health Sciences
PUBLIC LECTURE: Wednesday, April 10, 8 pm, Dana 146
Pete Myers is founder, CEO and Chief Scientist of Environmental Health Sciences. He holds a doctorate in the biological sciences from UC Berkeley and a BA from Reed College. For a dozen years beginning in 1990, Myers served as Director of the W. Alton Jones Foundation in Charlottesville, Virginia. Along with co-authors Dr. Theo Colborn and Dianne Dumanoski, Myers wrote Our Stolen Future, a book (1996) that explores the scientific basis of concern for how contamination threatens fetal development. Dr. Meyers will speak about the issues of endocrine disruptors and environmental health.
Co-Sponsored by the Environmental Studies Department and the Center for the Environment at Catawba College.