Tag Archives: Environmental Activism

Scholars’ Circle – IPCC report analyzed, importance of Mitigation to assist Adaptation to new climate realities – August 22, 2021

August 21, 2021 host

The IPCC’s assessment on climate change warns us of the environmental risk if we don’t take dramatic action. We explore the report, the state of scientific research on climate change, and the need for political action. What actions do we need to take to mitigate and adapt to climate change?

Jennifer Allan is Lecturer in International Relations in the School of Law and Politics at Cardiff University. She is the author of The new climate activism: NGO authority and participation in global climate governance and A net-zero emissions economic recovery from COVID-19.
Gabriel Vicchi is Professor in the Department of Geosciences and High Meadows Environmental Institute and Director of the High Meadows Environmental Institute (HMEI) at Princeton University. He is also Deputy Director of the Cooperative Institute for Modeling the Earth System (CIMES). He is the author of Causes of large projected increases in hurricane precipitation rates with global warming, Increased frequency of extreme La Niña events under greenhouse warming and Weakening of the North American monsoon with global warming.
Stephen R. Palumbi is Jane and Marshall Steel Jr. Professor in Marine Sciences at Stanford University and the Harold A. Miller Director of the Hopkins Marine Station. He is the co-author of Using naturally occurring climate resilient corals to construct bleaching-resistant nurseries, Ocean acidification causes variable trait shifts in a coral species, and Impacts of biodiversity loss on ocean ecosystem services.
Pamels Chasek is Professor and Chair of the Political Science Department at Manhattan College. She is the author of Global Environmental Politics and co-editor of The Roads from Rio: Lessons Learned from Twenty Years of Multilateral Environmental Negotiations.

This program is produced by Ankine Aghassian, Doug Becker, Melissa Chiprin and Sudd Dongre.

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Scholars’ Circle – US Rejoining the Paris Climate Accords and Vaccination as human right – January 24, 2021

January 23, 2021 host

The US has rejoined the Paris Climate Accords. What next steps should the US and the world take to mitigate the damage from the climate crisis? [ dur: 31mins. ]

Pamela Chasek is a Professor of Political Science at Manhattan College. Among many publications she is the co-author of Global Environmental Politics.
Shannon Gibson is Associate Professor of Political Science, International Relations, and Environmental Studies at the University of Southern California. She is the author of the forthcoming book Politics of Global Environment.
Larry Schweiger is a former president and CEO of National Wildlife Federation. He is the author of Last Chance: Preserving Life on Earth.

Vaccine distribution for the Covid virus has begun. What human rights issues are raised with the process of distributing the vaccine? How much do wealth and privilege determine who gets vaccinated? We take a global approach to vaccine nationalism and equitable distribution of the vaccine. [ dur: 26mins. ]

Heather Wipfli is an Associate Professor of Clinical Preventive Medicine and International Relations at the University of Southern California (USC). She is the author of Investigating global mental health: Contributions from political science and Network influences on policy implementation: Evidence from a global health treaty.
Joanne Lin is National Director of Advocacy and Government Affairs at Amnesty International, USA.

Amnesty’s report on this topic is Fair Shot: Ensuring Universal Access to Covid-19 Diagnostics, Treatments and Vaccines.
Amnesty’s report on Vaccine for Palestinians
Amnesty’s report on Human Rights Approach to Eradicating Covid-19.

This program is produced with generous contribution from Ankine Aghassian, Melissa Chiprin and Sudd Dongre.

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Scholars’ Circle – Measuring Environmental impact of the US Military – April 5, 2020

April 4, 2020 host

We spend the hour looking at the environmental impact of the US military. How much does the US military pollute the environment? What is their role in climate change causing green house emissions? The military has taken some measures to reduce its impact on the environment and green gas emissions, but our guests say these measures do little to assuage the military’s bigger effects on climate change. What are these effects and what can be done about them?[ dur: 58mins. ]

For a transcript of this interview, please visit: TheBigQ

Benjamin Neimark is Senior Lecturer at the University of Lancaster, United Kingdom. He is the author of Speaking Power to ‘Post-Truth’: Critical Political Ecology and the New Authoritarianism and co-author of Hidden carbon costs of the “everywhere war” Logistics, geopolitical ecology, and the carbon boot‐print of the US military.
Oliver Belcher is an Assistant Professor in Human Geography at Durham University, United Kingdom. He is the author of Anatomy of a village razing: Counterinsurgency, violence, and securing the intimate in Afghanistan, and co-author of Hidden carbon costs of the “everywhere war” Logistics, geopolitical ecology, and the carbon boot‐print of the US military.
Neta C. Crawford is Professor of Political Science and Department Chair at Boston University. She is the author of the book Accountability for Killing: Moral Responsibility for Collateral Damage in America’s Post-9/11 Wars and the research paper Pentagon Fuel Use, Climate Change,and the Costs of War

Produced by the Scholars’ Circle team: Ankine Aghassian, Melissa Chiprin, Anaïs Amin, Tim Page, Mike Hurst and Sudd Dongre.

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Scholars’ Circle – Evidence of Crop Failure and Bird Colony Collapse -/- Earth’s magnetic field and it’s effect on birds, bees, whales and turtles – September 8 , 2019

September 7, 2019 host

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 De-faunation 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 elevation-al ranges.

Then, how do birds, bees, whales and turtles all use the earth’s magnetic field to guide their behavior? [ dur: 15mins. ]

For a transcript of this interview, please visit: TheBigQ.

Andres Vidal Gadea is Professor of Molecular Neuroethology at Illinois State University. He is the co-author of Magnetosensitive neurons mediate geomagnetic orientation in Caenorhabditis elegans and Factors that influence magnetic orientation in C. elegans. JCPA.

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

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Scholars’ Circle -The Environmental Impact of the US Military- July 14, 2019

July 13, 2019 host

For a transcript of this interview, please visit: TheBigQ

Benjamin Neimark is Senior Lecturer at the University of Lancaster, United Kingdom. He is the author of Speaking Power to ‘Post-Truth’: Critical Political Ecology and the New Authoritarianism and co-author of Hidden carbon costs of the “everywhere war” Logistics, geopolitical ecology, and the carbon boot‐print of the US military.
Oliver Belcher is an Assistant Professor in Human Geography at Durham University, United Kingdom. He is the author of Anatomy of a village razing: Counterinsurgency, violence, and securing the intimate in Afghanistan, and co-author of Hidden carbon costs of the “everywhere war” Logistics, geopolitical ecology, and the carbon boot‐print of the US military.
Neta C. Crawford is Professor of Political Science and Department Chair at Boston University. She is the author of the book Accountability for Killing: Moral Responsibility for Collateral Damage in America’s Post-9/11 Wars and the research paper Pentagon Fuel Use, Climate Change,and the Costs of War

Produced by the Scholars’ Circle team: Ankine Aghassian, Melissa Chiprin, Anaïs Amin, Tim Page, Mike Hurst and Sudd Dongre.

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Scholars’ Circle – Feeding Humanity in the Near Future – March 9, 2019

March 9, 2019 host

Today’s program was recorded in front of a live audience. In this symposium about the future of food, we look at food insecurity, food shortages, food justice and sovereignty. We explore the threats to long term availability of health food: climate change, chemical contamination, soil depletion, loss of land, power politics, mass death of pollinators and host of big business practices. We look at solutions and the changes we need to make to be sure of system is just, sustainable and resilient. [ dur: 58 mins. ]

For a transcript of this interview, please visit: TheBigQ

Ann Elizabeth Bartos is a Lecturer in the School of Environment at the University of Auckland. She has authored book chapters including ‘Food sovereignty and the possibilities for an equitable, just and sustainable food system”’in Eating, Drinking, Surviving: The international year of global understanding – IYGU and journal articles including ‘The body eating its food politics: reflections on relationalities and embodied ways of knowing‘ in Gender, Place and Culture.
Gerhard Benjamin McDonald Sundborn is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Population Health at the University of Auckland. His has coauthored journal articles including ‘Low sugar nutrition policies and dental caries: A study of primary schools in South Auckland‘ in the Journal of Paediatrics and Child Health and ‘Sugar, dental caries and the incidence of acute rheumatic fever: A cohort study of Māori and Pacific children‘ in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.
Daniel Carl Henare Hikuroa is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Māori Studies and Pacific Studies at the University of Auckland. He coedited the book Ara Mai he Tetekura: Visioning Our Futures: New and Emerging Pathways of Maori Academic Leadership and has coauthored journal articles including ‘Ensuring objectivity by applying the Mauri Model to assess the post-disaster affected environments of the 2011 MV Rena disaster in the Bay of Plenty, New Zealand‘ in Ecological Indicators.
Mike Joy is a Senior Lecturer at the Institute of Agriculture and Environment at Massey University. He authored the book Polluted Inheritance: New Zealand’s freshwater crisis; authored book chapters including ‘Our deadly nitrogen addiction’ in The New Zealand Land & Food Annual; as well as coauthored journal articles including ‘New Zealand dairy farming: milking our environment for all its worth‘ in Environmental Management.

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

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Scholars’ Circle – Future of Food – May 6, 2018

May 6, 2018 host

For a transcript of this interview, please visit: TheBigQ

Ann Elizabeth Bartos is a Lecturer in the School of Environment at the University of Auckland. She has authored book chapters including ‘Food sovereignty and the possibilities for an equitable, just and sustainable food system”’in Eating, Drinking, Surviving: The international year of global understanding – IYGU and journal articles including ‘The body eating its food politics: reflections on relationalities and embodied ways of knowing’ in Gender, Place and Culture.
Gerhard Benjamin McDonald Sundborn is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Population Health at the University of Auckland. His has coauthored journal articles including ‘Low sugar nutrition policies and dental caries: A study of primary schools in South Auckland’ in the Journal of Paediatrics and Child Health and ‘Sugar, dental caries and the incidence of acute rheumatic fever: A cohort study of Māori and Pacific children’ in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.
Daniel Carl Henare Hikuroa is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Māori Studies and Pacific Studies at the University of Auckland. He coedited the book Ara Mai he Tetekura: Visioning Our Futures: New and Emerging Pathways of Maori Academic Leadership and has coauthored journal articles including ‘Ensuring objectivity by applying the Mauri Model to assess the post-disaster affected environments of the 2011 MV Rena disaster in the Bay of Plenty, New Zealand’ in Ecological Indicators.
Mike Joy is a Senior Lecturer at the Institute of Agriculture and Environment at Massey University. He authored the book Polluted Inheritance: New Zealand’s freshwater crisis; authored book chapters including ‘Our deadly nitrogen addiction’ in The New Zealand Land & Food Annual; as well as coauthored journal articles including ‘New Zealand dairy farming: milking our environment for all its worth’ in Environmental Management.

This program is produced with generous contribution from Ankine Aghassian, Melissa Chiprin, Tim Page, Mike Hurst and Sudd Dongre.

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Scholars’ Circle – Analysis of Ideology, Propaganda and Race -/- Rapid Rate of Extinction, why and what can be done – December 10, 2017

December 9, 2017 host

First, an analysis of ideology, propaganda and race. [ dur: 17 mins. ]

David Livingstone Smith is a Professor of Philosophy at the University of New England. He is the author of Less Than Human: Why We Demean, Enslave, and Exterminate Others, The Most Dangerous Animal: Human Nature and the Origins of War, How Biology Shapes Philosophy and Why We Lie: Evolutionary Roots of Deception and the Unconscious Mind.

Then, what are the causes of the rapid rate of species extinction and what can be done. [ dur: 41 mins. ]

Anthony Barnosky is Executive Director of Stanford University’s Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve, and an Emeritus Professor of Integrative Biology at University of California Berkeley. He is the author of Dodging Extinction—Power, Food, Money and the Future of Life on Earth and co-author of Tipping Point for Planet Earth—How Close Are We To The Edge (with Elizabeth Hadly).
Stuart Pimm is Doris Duke Professor of Conservation Ecology at Duke University. He is the author of A Scientist Audits the Earth, The Balance of Nature? Ecological Issues in the Conservation of Species and Communities, and Patterns in Nature: The Analysis of Species Co-Occurences.
David Wilkie is Director of Conservation Measures for the Wildlife Conservation Society. He is the author of Hunting for consensus: reconciling bushmeat harvest, conservation, and development policy in West and Central Africa, Valuation of consumption and sale of forest goods from a Central American rain forest, and Impacts of protected areas on local livelihoods in Cambodia.

This program is produced with generous contribution from Ankine Aghassian, Melissa Chiprin, Tim Page, Mike Hurst and Sudd Dongre.

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Scholars’ Circle – Insight into Solutions to Climate Change -/- Ways Biology affects Free Will – April 16, 2017

April 15, 2017 host

With unprecedented global warming, wealth disparities and peak everything, we need to act now to meet the power, heating and transportation needs of growing populations, and to do so sustainably, equitably and democratically. What are the obstacles? What are possible solutions? How do we build resilient communities? [ dur: 44mins. ]

Steve Matthewman is a professor of sociology at the University of Auckland. She is the author of Disasters, Risks and Revelation: Making Sense of Our Times and Being Sociological.
Julie MacArthur is a senior lecturer in politics and international relations at the University of Auckland. She is the author of Empowering Electricity: Co-operatives, Sustainability, and Power Sector Reform in Canada (Sustainability and the Environment).
Prue Taylor is a senior lecturer in environmental and planning law at the University of Auckland, Deputy Director of the New Zealand Centre for Environmental Law. She is the author of An Ecological Approach to International Law: Responding to the Challenges of Climate Change
Manuel Vallee is a lecturer in environmental sociology at the University of Auckland. He is a co-author of Resilience, Environmental Justice and the City

We end with the question, is our behavior free will or is it partly due to parasites? New science shows how parasites change behaviors throughout the animal kingdom. What does that mean for human behavior? [ dur: 14 mins. ]

Dr. Dickson Despommier is a Professor in the Department of Environmental Health Sciences at Columbia University. He is the author of The Vertical Farm: Feeding the World in the 21st Century and People, Parasites, and Plowshares: Learning From Our Body’s Most Terrifying Invaders.
Patrick House is Neuroscientist at Stanford University. He is the co-author of Predator Cat Odors Acdivate Sexual Arousal Pathways in Brains of Toxoplasma Gondii infected Rats.

Find book authored by our guest scholars on this Book Shelf .

This program is produced with generous contribution from Ankine Aghassian, Melissa Chiprin, Tim Page, Mike Hurst and Sudd Dongre.

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Scholars’ Circle – Slippery Underworld of Organ Trafficking -/- De-Extinction a new tool – April 9, 2017

April 8, 2017 host

First, the underworld of organ trafficking. [ dur: 10 mins. ]

Nancy Scheper-Hughes, is Professor of anthropology at University of California, Berkeley, editor of Commodifying Bodies and co-author of Violence in War and Peace: An Anthology.
Art Caplan, is Professor and head of the division of Bioethics at New York University Langone Medical Center and award-winning author of books including Applied Ethics in Mental Health Care: An Interdisciplinary Reader, Ethics and Organ Transplants, and Smart Mice, Not so Smart People.

Then, in the face of mass extinction scientists are exploring bringing back species from the dead. Our panel of scientists discuss de-extinction. What criteria should be used to determine which species to bring back? What are some of the ethical considerations? [ dur: 48 mins. ]

For a transcript of this interview, please visit: TheBigQ

Michael Archer is Professor in the School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences at the University of New South Wales. He is the author of Prehistoric Mammals of Australia and New Guinea: One Hundred Million Years of Evolution and From Plesiosaurs to People : 100 Million Years of Australian Environmental History. He’s part of the team that’s working on the de-extinction efforts to bring back Thylacine and Southern Grastric-brooding Frog.
Douglas McCauley is Professor in the Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Marine Biology at the University of California Santa Barbara. He has co-authored numerous research papers including, Megafaunal impacts on structure and function of ocean ecosystems, Marine defaunation: animal loss in the global oceans, Resetting predator baselines in coral reef ecosystems.
Susan Haig is Senior Scientist at U. S. Geologic Survery (USGS) Forest and Rangeland Ecosystem Science Center and Courtesy Professor of Wildlife Ecology at Oregon State University. She is the co-author of many research papers including, Ancient DNA reveals substantial genetic diversity in the California Condor (Gymnogyps californianus) prior to a population bottleneck, and The Conservation Genetics Juggling Act- Integrating Genetics and Ecology, Science and Policy

Find book authored by our guest scholars on this Book Shelf .

This program is produced with generous contribution from Ankine Aghassian, Melissa Chiprin, Tim Page, Mike Hurst and Sudd Dongre.

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Tag Archives: Environmental Activism

Scholars’ Circle – IPCC report analyzed, importance of Mitigation to assist Adaptation to new climate realities – August 22, 2021

Scholars’ Circle – US Rejoining the Paris Climate Accords and Vaccination as human right – January 24, 2021

Scholars’ Circle – Measuring Environmental impact of the US Military – April 5, 2020

Scholars’ Circle – Evidence of Crop Failure and Bird Colony Collapse -/- Earth’s magnetic field and it’s effect on birds, bees, whales and turtles – September 8 , 2019

Scholars’ Circle -The Environmental Impact of the US Military- July 14, 2019

Scholars’ Circle – Feeding Humanity in the Near Future – March 9, 2019

Scholars’ Circle – Future of Food – May 6, 2018

Scholars’ Circle – Insight into Solutions to Climate Change -/- Ways Biology affects Free Will – April 16, 2017

Scholars’ Circle – Slippery Underworld of Organ Trafficking -/- De-Extinction a new tool – April 9, 2017

By Maria Armoudian