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The University of Minnesota's Initiative for Renewable Energy and the Environment recently hosted its 6th annual E3 conference. This was a big event, and in the coming weeks I will make a number of specific posts about E3, but to start off I would like to share some personal reactions:
The E3 website, which will soon include videos and recaps, can be found here.
There's really no such thing as a typical day for University of Minnesota Professor Deborah Swackhamer.
Stepping into her office every morning, she's met with a heap of voicemails, phone calls and e-mails all demanding her attention. Her schedule, filled to the brim with meeting after meeting, leaves her scrambling from one end of the campus to the other.
Read the rest of the article on the blog or click here for the Minnesota Daily.
Is food the weak link? Does business as usual seem like a path to the end of the society and environmental collapse? How many failing states would it take before you have a failing world? On Monday the 16th, Lester Brown, President of the Earth Policy Institute discussed his research to save society, including tackling the previously mentioned questions. MRP broadcast his talk on Midday. Listen here:
Deborah L. Swackhamer is the 2009 recipient of the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry's (SETAC) Founders Award.
The highest honor given by the international organization, the Founders Award recognizes outstanding career accomplishments that promote research, education, communication and training in the environmental sciences. Swackhamer was chosen for her research on the behavior and bioaccumulation of persistent organic pollutants in the Great Lakes, as well as her contributions to environmental education and leadership in key environmental science organizations.
"I am delighted that the 2009 SETAC Founders Award has been awarded to Professor Swackhamer of the University of Minnesota," said SETAC President Mike McLaughlin. "Swackhamer is a highly deserving recipient whose impressive level of commitment, achievement and service deserves the highest recognition. It also gives me great pleasure to announce this award to her as a longstanding SETAC member and superb scientist."
The award will be presented at SETAC North America's 30th annual later this month.
University of Minnesota professor Deborah Swackhamer and the Water Resources Center will help lead a coalition in developing a 25 year plan to manage Minnesota's water....Director of the Water Resources Center (our Denny Chair) and University professor Deborah Swackhamer will help lead the Headwaters Council, a group comprised of business leaders, former state-agency employees and other water experts, in developing the plan.
Click here to read the full article.
On November 16th the Center for Science, Technology, and Public Policy and the Institute on the Environment will welcome Lester R. Brown to the Humphrey Center's Cowles Auditorium for a 9:30am discussion on climate change and the world's food supply.
Mr. Brown, founder and President of the Earth Policy Institute, has recently published his latest book, Plan B 4.0, Mobilizing to Save Civilization. Plan B 4.0 is a continuation of Mr. Brown's work on food supply and climate change, and serves as a reminder of, and purposes solutions to, the challenges that humanity will soon face in feeding itself. As Mr. Brown points out, we are already seeing proof of these impending challenges in the rising cost of basic foods and the recent trend of developed nations buying up large tracts of land in foreign (and often developing) countries in order to grow food for its citizens. There are, however, measures that can be taken to avert these challenges, such as a transition to a clean and sustainable energy economy, as well as careful design and planning of our urban centers.
Mr. Brown's closing call to action summarizes the pressing decision that humanity must make:
"The choice is ours--yours and mine. We can stay with business as usual and preside over an economy that continues to destroy its natural support systems until it destroys itself, or we can adopt Plan B and be the generation that changes direction, moving the world onto a path of sustained progress. The choice will be made by our generation, but it will affect life on earth for all generations to come."
Plan B 4.0 is available free of charge at the Earth Policy Institute.
Details on Lester Brown's upcoming lecture can be found here.
Our friends at Solutions Twin Cities will be hosting an event that examines our past present and future relationship with oil. We partnered with them last year to host Innovation 2008 because they take a very innovative approach to presenting information. The video of the event is available here.
Our society is in love with oil and oil is an essential ingredient to most of our modern machinery. This event traces the historical origins and political consequences of our love for oil, and the prospects of falling out of love into a post-petroleum future.
On Thursday, November 12th at Intermedia Arts they will host a fast paced, media rich program which will combine captivating short presentations, participatory games and new social technology to examine the subject of oil from many vantages. Your vantage point will be included -- the audience will be encouraged to interact in a variety of ways throughout the course of the evening.
The event will showcase four unique insights into our love/hate relationship with this inanimate object:
• Oil Science Theater - George Henderson
• Oil As a Way of Life - Matt Huber
• Oil & the "Technological Unconscious - Bruce Braun
• Peak Oil: Imagining and Planning the Post-Carbon World - Matthew Schneider-Mayerson
The event is free and open to the public. For more information follow this link.
When we discuss dwindling supplies of oil we often focus on gasoline and transportation, but overlook the role of oil in plastics. Oil is a key ingredient in the manufacture of plastic, so it would seem that the fate of plastic is tied to the fate of oil.
Plastic, the material that is as essential to modern life as electricity, faces a bleak future due to the impending shriveling of Earth's oil supply. As Karen Youso recently discovered for her article "Six days without plastic? Good luck", we really can't sustain modern life without plastic. This begs the question, what are we going to do? Fortunately, recent scientific advancements have shown that we can continue to manufacture plastic by replacing oil with biobased sources.
Research has already gone into planning for an age without oil. While a future in which we do nothing leads to gloom, it turns out that acting to prevent this future yields great benefits, especially economically. A 2008 report from the United States Department of Agriculture predicts that the global market for biobased polymers, such as plastics, could be as large as $150 billion dollars, nearly as large as the current American consumer electronics market. Obviously, an investment in this young industry could yield significant benefits.
Fortunately, Minnesota has the potential to be a leader in biobased polymers. Much like Texas during the oil boom, or today's Silicon Valley, tomorrow's Minnesota could be the epicenter of an exciting and profitable industry and could reap the rewards of economic prosperity. Minnesota has a head start on this industry thanks to Twin Cities based NatureWorks and the University of Minnesota's Center for Sustainable Polymers. However, considerable work remains not only in the science and technology of biobased materials, but also in its policy. The state must work to encourage this young industry; to nurse it though its formative years so that it can grow and thrive. To do otherwise is to pass on a perfect opportunity to strengthen Minnesota's economy. And who wants to do that?