Scholars’ Circle – Birds, insects colony collapse in the current state of climate change – October 28, 2018

First, Bird Colony collapse and crop failures.

  • Josh Tewksbury is Research Professor at the University of Colorado, Boulder and Director of the Colorado Global Hub, Future Earth. He is also Executive Editor of Anthropocene magazine. He is the co-author of the studies Increase in crop losses to insect pests in a warming climate and Defaunation leads to interaction deficits, not interaction compensation, in an island seed dispersal network.
  • Curtis Deutsch is Associate Professor of Chemical Oceanography in the School of Oceanography at Washington University. He is the co-author of the studies Acceleration of oxygen decline in the tropical Pacific over the past decades by aerosol pollutants, Microbial functional diversity alters the structure and sensitivity of oxygen deficient zones, and Increase in crop losses to insect pests in a warming climate.
  • Steven R. Beissinger is Professor of Conservation Biology in the Department of Environmental Science, Policy & Management at the University of California, Berkeley. He is the co-author of the studies Mojave Desert Bird Populations Plummet as Region Warms and Dries and The push and pull of climate change causes heterogeneous shifts in avian elevational ranges.

Then, birds, bees, whales and turtles all use the earth s magnetic field to guide their behaviour. Now scientists have learned much more about how. [ dur: 15mins. ]

This program is produced with contributions from the following volunteers: Ankine Aghassian, Melissa Chiprin, Anaïs Amin, Tim Page, Mike Hurst and Sudd Dongre.

Scholars’ Circle – Preserving fresh waters -/- Memory Entrepreneurs shaping the future – October 21, 2018

First, how water has shaped our past and how new water challenges are shaping the future. We talk with Charles Fishman author of The Big Thirst: The Secret Life and Turbulent Future of Water. [ dur: 30 mins. ]

Then, on the Scholars’ Circle panel, the so-called “memory entrepreneurs” try to change how we remember the past to shape the future. Are they losing the Cold War memory fight? [ dur: 28 mins. ]

This program is produced with contributions from the following volunteers: Ankine Aghassian, Melissa Chiprin, Anaïs Amin, Tim Page, Mike Hurst and Sudd Dongre.

Scholars’ Circle – Side effects of google and facebook businesses -/- Teaching children civics and community – October 14, 2018

First, are Google and Facebook increasing income inequality, harming the arts and damaging democracy? Our guests says yes. [ dur: 44 mins. ]

Then, how one university professor is teaching children about community, civics, empathy and giving. [ dur: 14 mins. ]

This program is produced with contributions from the following volunteers: Ankine Aghassian, Melissa Chiprin, Anaïs Amin, Tim Page, Mike Hurst and Sudd Dongre.

Scholars’ Circle – Refugee Camps -/- Equitable and Sustainable Food System – October 7, 2018

First, why do people remain in refugee camps for decades? [ dur: 28 mins. ]

  • Elizabeth Cullen Dunn is Associate Professor of Geography and International Affairs at Indiana University–Bloomington. She is also the author of No Path Home and Privatizing Poland.

Then, our guests have studied the food system and what it means to have an equitable and sustainable system. What are the problems in the system and what are the solutions? [dur: 30 mins. ]

Raj Patel and Saru Jayaraman are contributors to The Nation magazine’s special issue, “The Future of Food: Setting the table for the next generation“.

This program is produced with contributions from the following volunteers: Ankine Aghassian, Melissa Chiprin, Anaïs Amin, Tim Page, Mike Hurst and Sudd Dongre.