Tag Archives: Environment

Scholars' Circle Interviews

The Scholars’ Circle Radio- May 11th, 2014

How water has shaped our past and how new water challenges are shaping the future. We talk with Charles Fishman. [ dur: 28 mins. ]

  • Charles Fishman, journalist and author of The Big Thirst: The Secret Life and Turbulent Future of Water

Then, on the Scholars’ Circle panel, in the wake of President Obama’s new climate plan, three of the world’s top scientists assess how to heal this planet [ dur: 30 mins. ]

  • Mark Z. Jacobson is Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Director of Atmosphere/Energy Program at Stanford. He is the author of Air Pollution and Global Warming: History, Science, and Solutions and  Atmospheric Pollution: History, Science, and Regulation
  • Michael E. Mann is a Professor of Meteorology at Penn State University, and the Director of the Penn State Earth System Science Center. Dr. Mann is author of more than 150 peer-reviewed and edited publications, and two books including, Dire Predictions: Understanding Global Warming, and The Hockey Stick and the Climate Wars: Dispatches from the Front Lines. He is also a lead author for the 2007 Intergovernmental Panel on climate change for which he, his coauthors, and VP Al Gore won the Nobel prize.
  • Peter Ward is Professor of Biology at the University of Washington. He is the author of The Flooded Earth: Our Future In a World Without Ice Caps, Under a Green Sky: Global warming, the mass extinctions of the past and what they can tell us about our future mass extinctions, and  Out of Thin Air: Dinosaurs, Birds, and Earth’s Ancient Atmosphere.

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Scholars' Circle Interviews

The Scholars’ Circle Radio- May 4th, 2014

First, we speak with Naomi Oreskes co-author of, Merchants of Doubt: How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Global Warming. [ dur: 25 mins. ]

  • Naomi Oreskes is Professor of the History of Science Studies at University of California, San Diego.

Then, on the Scholars’ Circle panel, amid the turmoil in Syria, we analyze the psychology that drives human atrocities and the means of preventing them. [ dur: 32 mins. ]

  • Ervin Staub is Professor of Psychology at University of Massachusetts Amherst. He is the author of Overcoming Evil: Genocide, Violent Conflict, and Terrorism and The Psychology of Good and Evil: Why Children, Adults, and Groups Help and Harm Others.
  • David Livingstone Smith is Professor of Philosophy at the University of New England. He is the author of Less Than Human: Why We Demean, Enslave, and Exterminate Others.
  • John Kaag is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Massachusetts at Lowell. He is the author of Neoconservative Images of the United Nations: American Domestic Politics and International Cooperation.

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Scholars' Circle Interviews

The Scholars’ Circle Radio- April 27th, 2014

First, droughts all over the world are driving the prices of food and costing jobs as farmers are forced to cut crops from water shortages.  [ dur: 16 mins. ]

  • Lynn Ingram, professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences at University of California, Berkeley. She is the co-author of The West without Water: What Past Floods, Droughts, and Other Climatic Clues Tell Us about Tomorrow.

Then, a conversation between four Nobel Laureates about science and society, and the importance of public education. Hosted by UC Berkeley. [ dur: 44 mins. ]

  • Randy W. Schekman, professor of molecular and cell biology, won the 2013 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his role in revealing the machinery that regulates the transport and secretion of proteins in our cells.
  • Saul Perlmutter, professor of physics and a faculty senior scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), led one of two teams that simultaneously discovered the accelerating expansion of the universe and was awarded the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physics.
  • George Smoot, professor of physics and an astrophysicist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), led a team that obtained the first images of the infant universe ” findings that confirmed the predictions of the Big Bang theory ” and was awarded the 2006 Nobel Prize in Physics.
  • Daniel L. McFadden, professor of economics, was awarded the 2000 Nobel Prize in Economics for his development of statistical methods relating to the economic theory of “discrete choice,” tools that have been used to determine how people and organizations make choices from a distinct set of alternatives.

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Scholars' Circle Interviews

The Scholars’ Circle Radio- April 20th, 2014

First, planet earth is facing a sixth extinction. Can humanity rescue the planet that it has imperiled? [ dur: 30 mins. ]

  • Annalee Newitz is journalist and author of Scatter, Adapt, and Remember: How Humans Will Survive a Mass Extinction. She is the founding editor of the science and science fiction website i09.com.
  • Elizabeth Kolbert is a staff member at The New Yorker. She is the author of Field Notes from a Catastrophe: Man, Nature, and Climate Change, and her latest book The Sixth Extinction.

Then, on the Scholar’s Circle panel, we look at genocides. What are the causes and how we can prevent it. [ dur: 28 mins. ]

  • Ben Kiernan is Whitney Griswold Professor of History and Director of the Genocide Studies Program at Yale University. He is the author of, Blood and Soil: A World History of Genocide and Extermination from Sparta to Darfur, and The Pol Pot Regime: Race, Power, and Genocide in Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge, 1975-79.
  • Alex Hinton is Executive Director of the Center for the Study of Genocide, Conflict Resolution, and Human Rights, and Professor of Anthropology and Global Affairs at Rutgers University. He is the author of, Why Did They Kill?: Cambodia in the Shadow of Genocide, and is the editor of Genocide: Truth, Memory, and Representation (The Cultures and Practice of Violence), and Annihilating Difference: The Anthropology of Genocide.
  • Simon Baron-Cohen is Professor of Developmental Psychopathology at the University of Cambridge and Fellow at Trinity College, Cambridge. He is the author of, Zero Degrees of Empathy, and he is the editor of Understanding Other Minds: Perspectives from developmental social neuroscience, and The Maladapted Mind: Classic Readings in Evolutionary Psychopathology.

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Scholars' Circle Interviews

The Scholars’ Circle Radio- April 13th, 2014

Scientists are saying the earth is changing more rapidly than we expected. Ecosystems are shifting and some species are dying out. What exactly is occurring and where are we headed? We speak with Larry Schweiger. [ dur: 27 mins. ]

  • Larry Schweiger is president and CEO of the National Wildlife Federation, America’s largest conservation organization. Author of Last Chance: Preserving Life on Earth

On the Scholars’ Circle panel, the global refugee crisis has reached epic proportions with tens of millions being forced from their homes. We’ll explore what can be done. [ dur: 31 mins. ]

  • Elizabeth Ferris is a senior fellow in Foreign Policy and co-director of the Brookings-LSE Project on Internal Displacement in Washington, D.C., where her work encompasses a wide range of issues related to internal displacement, humanitarian action, natural disasters and climate change. She is the author of, The Politics of Protection:The Limits of Humanitarian Action.
  • Karen Musalo is clinical professor of law at UC Hastings College of Law. and is founding Director of the Center of Gender and Refugee. She was the lead attorney of the landmark case, Matter of Kasinga. She is the co-author of Do They Hear When You Cry, and Refugee Law and Policy: A Comparative and International Approach
  • Dr. Gilbert M. Burnham is the co-director of the Center for Refugee and Disaster Response at Johns Hopkins. He has extensive experience in emergency preparedness and response. He has worked with numerous humanitarian and health development programs for multilateral and non-governmental organizations, regional health departments, ministries of health (national and district level), and communities in sub-Saharan Africa, Asia, and Eastern Europe. A major current activity is the reconstruction of health services in Afghanistan.

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Scholars' Circle Interviews

The Scholars’ Circle & Insighters Radio- Jan. 19th, 2014

In this hour, is humanity outgrowing planet?

  • Paul R. Ehrlich is president of the Center for Conservation Biology and Bing professor of population studies at Stanford University, author of the Population Bomb, Human Natures: Genes, Culture, and the Human Prospect and A World of Wounds: Ecologists and the Human Dilemma.

Then, while much of the country remembers Martin Luther King, Jr. as primarily a leader of civil rights and desegregation and a great orator, our next guests say he stood for so much more. Many aspects of his life, legacy & philosophy remain either unknown or conveniently forgotten

  • David Garrow, Professor of History and Law at University of Pittsburgh, author of FBI and Martin Luther King, Jr: From “Solo” to Memphis
  • Joshua Inwood is Professor of Geography and Africana Studies in Geography Department, University of Tennessee. His publications include, Nonkilling Geography, Searching for the Promised Land: Examining Dr. Martin Luther King’s Concept of the Beloved Community,and Street naming and the politics of belonging: spatial injustices in the toponymic commemoration of Martin Luther King Jr.
  • Thomas Jackson, Professor of History at University of North Carolina, Greensboro. He is the author of, From Civil Rights to Human Rights: Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Struggle for Economic Justice

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Scholars' Circle Interviews

The Scholars’ Circle & Insighters Radio- Jan. 5th, 2014

Can the Lord of the Rings trilogy act as a means to understand complex politics and international relations? Our guest says, indeed, it can. [ dur: 28 mins. ]

  • Patrick James, Professor of International Relations, USC. Author of, The International Relations of Middle-earth: Learning from The Lord of the Rings.

Then, on the Scholars’ Circle panel, with dozens of species going extinct every day, we look at the science and ethical issues of de-extinction – cloning using DNA of extinct species – and conservation. [ dur: 30 mins. ]

  • Dr. Michael Archer is professor of Biological, Earth & Environmental Sciences at the University of New South Wales. He has published over 300 scientific journal articles and books focused on the ecology and evolution of past and present. He has been working to bring back some extinct animals. His latest work includes contributions to two encyclopedias: Fossil mammals of Australia and New Guinea and Evolution and Zoogeography of Australasian Vertebrates. He has authored books including Australia’s Lost World: Prehistoric Animals of Riversleigh
  • Dr. John Wiens is professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Arizona. He is also a former curator at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History and has served as editor of a number of scientific journals. He is the author of many books including, The Ecology of Birds Communities.
  • Carl Zimmer is an award winning lecturer at Yale University and author of thirteen books including, Evolution: Making Sense of Life and More Brain Cuttings: Further Explorations of the Mind. His articles have appeared in the New York Times, Time Magazine, National Geographic, and Scientific American. Here is a list of other books by Carl Zimmer

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Scholars' Circle Interviews

The Scholars’ Circle & Insighters Radio- Oct. 6th, 2013

First, A House Divided: The real forces of a divided congress & the consequences on democracy in America. [ dur: 20 mins. ]

  • Christian Grose is a professor of Political Science at University of Southern California. Christian is the author of Congress in Black and White: Race and Representation in Washington and at Home.
  • David Parker is a professor of political science at Montana State University. He is the author of The Power of Money in Congressional Campaigns, 1880-2006

Then, Change they Can’t Believe in: a new thorough study of the Tea Party and Reactionary Politics in America. [ dur:  20 mins. ]

  • Matt Barreto is a professor of political science at the University of Washington and the director of the Washington Institute for the Study of Ethnicity and Race. He is the author of Ethnic Cues: The Role of Shared Ethnicity in Latino Political Participation and co-author of Change They Can’t Believe In: The Tea Party and Reactionary Politics in America

Finally, How to sustain and restore the Green Equilibrium that’s necessary support life on earth. [ dur: 18 mins. ]

  • Christopher Wills is Professor Emeritus of Biological Sciences and member of the Center for molecular Genetics at the University of California San Diego. He is the author of Green Equilibrium The vital balance of humans & Nature and The Darwinian Tourist Viewing the World Through Evolutionary Eyes.

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Scholars' Circle Interviews

The Scholars’ Circle & Insighters Radio- Sept. 22nd, 2013

This week we cover following issues:

1) The house voted on Friday to de-fund President Obama’s signature Affordable Health Care act. What does this polarization mean for the future of US Policy? [ dur:  13 mins. ]

  • Sean Theriault, Professor of Government at Univ. of Texas at Austin. Author of  The Gingrich Senators: The Roots of Partisan Warfare in Congress and The Power Of The People: Congressional Competition, Public Attention, And Voter Retribution
  • Peter Hanson, Professor of Political Science Univ. of Denver;

2) Climate change, receding glaciers and melting ice sheets are causing the oceans to rise dramatically. What does that mean for the world’s coastal cities? [ dur: 14 mins. ]

  • Andrea Dutton, Professor of Geological Sciences at Univ. of FL; Author of Journal Science article Ice Volums and Sea level During the last interglacial
  • Brian Fagan. Professor of Anthropology at UC Santa Barbara; Author of The Attacking Ocean: The Past, Present, and Future of Rising Sea Levels

3) What most of the world has gotten wrong about Muslim fundamentalism. [ dur: 27 mins. ]

  • Karima Benoune, Professor of Law  at UC Davis, School of Law; Author of  Your Fatwa Does Not Apply Here: Untold Stories from the Fight Against Muslim Fundamentalism
  • Ousseina Alidou, Professor at Center African Studies, Rutgers University; Author of Engaging Modernity: Muslim Women and the Politics of Agency in Post-colonial Niger (Women in Africa and the Diaspora)
  • Sadia Abbas; Professor of English at Rutgers University; Echo Chamber of Freedom: Muslim Women and Pretext of Agency

 

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Scholars' Circle Interviews

The Scholars’ Circle & Insighters Radio- Aug. 11th, 2013

First, we look at the gap between the American Dream and reality, with Miles Corak

  • Miles Corak is professor of economics with the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Ottowa. He is the author of, Generational Income Mobility in North America and Europe and The Intergenerational Transmission of Employers.

Then, are high alerts, embassy closures, and national surveillance state reasonable reactions to the threat of terrorist acts?  Joining us are John Mueller and Mark Stewart, together, they coauthored Terror, security, and Money: Balancing the Risks, Benefits and costs of Homeland Security.

  • John Mueller is a research scientist and professor of political science at Ohio State University and author of Retreat from Doomsday and War, Presidents and Public Opinion.
  • Mark Stewart is a professor of civil engineering and director of the Center for Infrastructure , Performance and Reliability at the University of Newcastle in Australia.

Finally, on the Scholars’ Circle panel, with climate change, depleted natural resources, and more than 9 billion people. What will the world look like in 2050?

  • Deepak Ray is Postdoctoral Research Scholar at the Global Landscapes Initiative Institute on the Environment at the University of Minnesota. He is co-author of the study, “Yield Trends Are Insufficient to Double Global Crop Production by 2050,” and “Solutions for a Cultivated Planet.”
  • Eward Miguel is Professor at University of California, Berkeley and Director of the Center for Effective Global Action. He is the author of, Africa’s Turn? He is co-author of Economic Gangsters: Corruption, Violence and the Poverty of Nations, and the study, “Quantifying the Influence of Climate on Human Conflict.?
  • Laurence C. Smith is Professor and Chair of Geography at UCLA and author of The World in 2050: Four Forces Shaping Civilization’s Northern Future.

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