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- Chasing Water in a Rapidly Changing WorldRichter, Brian D. (Virginia Tech. University Libraries, 2017-04-07)Water shortages are now affecting half the world’s population, disrupting food and energy security as well as urban water supplies in many cities. The overuse of water and associated drying of rivers, lakes, and aquifers has become a leading cause of freshwater species imperilment. Climate change forecasts foretell even greater challenges in many water-scarce regions. These threats to our water future can be ameliorated, but it will require bold and concerted action on the part of governments, city leaders, and farmers. This presentation will highlight the key solutions that must be implemented. “Brian Richter has been a global leader in water science and conservation for more than 25 years. He is the Chief Scientist for the Global Water Program of The Nature Conservancy, an international conservation organization, where he promotes sustainable water use and management with governments, corporations, and local communities. He is also the President of Sustainable Waters, a global water education organization. Brian has consulted on more than 120 water projects worldwide. He serves as a water advisor to some of the world’s largest corporations, investment banks, and the United Nations, and has testified before the U.S. Congress on multiple occasions. He also teaches a course on Water Sustainability at the University of Virginia. Brian has developed numerous scientific tools and methods to support river protection and restoration efforts, including the Indicators of Hydrologic Alteration software that is being used by water managers and scientists worldwide. Brian was featured in a BBC documentary with David Attenborough on “How Many People Can Live on Planet Earth?” He has published many scientific papers on the importance of ecologically sustainable water management in international science journals, and co-authored a book with Sandra Postel entitled Rivers for Life: Managing Water for People and Nature (Island Press, 2003). His new book, Chasing Water: A Guide for Moving from Scarcity to Sustainability, was published by Island Press in June 2014.” - National Geographic, http://voices.nationalgeographic.com/author/brichter/
- Living in the Anthropocene: Science, Sustainability and SocietyTewksbury, Joshua (Virginia Tech. University Libraries, 2016-04-21)Dr. Joshua Tewksbury is an ecologist, conservation biologist, and planetary health scientist with experience both in academia and in civil society. In addition to his appointment at Future Earth, Tewksbury is also a research professor at the University of Colorado, Boulder, and a senior scholar in the School of Global Environmental Sustainability at Colorado State University. During his visit, Tewksbury met with students in the Interfaces of Global Change Interdisciplinary Graduate Education Program. "Dr. Tewksbury is leading the charge to advance conservation and sustainability initiatives on a global scale," said William A. Hopkins, director of the Global Change Center. As director of the U.S. office of Future Earth, he is working with a broad international coalition of groups like the United Nations to pursue what has been called "possibly the largest, most ambitious international research program ever undertaken. As Virginia Tech is poised to advance its collective strengths in the environmental sciences, we are thrilled to have such an outstanding leader visit Blacksburg to engage in a community-wide discussion about critical issues facing our planet." Tewksbury was previously the Walker Professor of Natural History at the University of Washington, with appointments both in the department of biology and the College of the Environment, where his work focused on major global change issues, including the impacts of climate change on biodiversity, the potential of landscape connectivity to mitigate the impacts of climate change, and the impacts of species loss on ecosystem function. In addition to more than a decade of academic work, Tewksbury also served as the founding director of the Luc Hoffmann Institute at WWF, a global research center based in Switzerland focused on the co-creation of multi-disciplinary research. As director, Tewksbury launched over a dozen research projects, including work on the Food-Energy-Water nexus in South-East Asia, development corridors in East Africa, global mapping of threats to biodiversity, and the development of regionally-appropriate low-carbon sustainability targets for urban areas. Tewksbury's current research interests include studies of direct and indirect effects of climate change on food security at large spatial scales, the potential of large-scale restoration to serve multiple human and biodiversity goals, and the contribution of science to large scale planetary health issues.
- Should We Trust Science? Perspectives from the History and Philosophy of ScienceOreskes, Naomi (Virginia Tech. University Libraries, 2015-09-02)The Global Change Center at Virginia Tech welcomed Dr. Naomi Oreskes, Harvard historian and author, for a Distinguished Lecture on September 2, 2015, at 4:00 p.m. at the Lyric Theatre in Blacksburg, VA. Dr. Oreskes is a professor of the history of science and affiliated professor of Earth and planetary sciences at Harvard University. Her research focuses on the earth and environmental sciences, with a particular interest in understanding scientific consensus and dissent. Dr. Oreskes has received international acclaim for her 2010 book, "Merchants of Doubt, How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco to Global Warming," co-authored with Erik M. Conway. It was shortlisted for the Los Angeles Time Book Prize, received the 2011 Watson-Davis Prize from the History of Science Society, and was recently adapted into a documentary film. Dr. Oreskes' visit represents the second in a Public Distinguished Lecture Series sponsored by the Global Change Center at Virginia Tech. The lecture series is designed to bring some of the world's leading scholars to the Blacksburg community to discuss critical environmental and societal issues in an open forum.