Environment

��ֱ�� Boulder Grad Students Make a Mark in Cañon City

Anonymous — Mon, 06 Nov 2023 07:00:00 +0000

��ֱ�� Boulder Grad Students Make a Mark in Cañon City Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 11/06/2023 - 00:00

Sarah Kuta

The stoke is high in Cañon City, ��ֱ��, which has developed 62 miles of new, purpose-built hiking and mountain biking trails within the last decade. Residents hit the trails during lunch, after work and on weekends, and travelers visit the area for outdoor recreation-themed vacations.

As Rick Harrmann, the city’s economic development manager, said: “We love the trails, and we know visitors do too.”

But actually quantifying their value to the community — and showing city council a return on their investment — is a much harder task.

Fortunately, three ��ֱ�� Boulder graduate students in the university’s Master’s of the Environment (MENV) program are up to the challenge. Nathan Boyer-Rechlin (MEnv’24), Joshua Corning (MEnv’24) and Eric Howard (MEnv’24) are partnering with Cañon City trail advocacy nonprofit Fremont Adventure Recreation to help determine the socioeconomic impact of trails in Cañon City.

Since building new trails requires time, money and labor, the nonprofit — and the city more broadly — will use the students’ findings to help inform future decisions.

“A socioeconomic impact report hasn’t been done in this area — especially in regards to the value of recreation amenities,” said Ashlee Sack, Fremont Adventure Recreation’s coordinator. “In the wake of COVID-19 and the nationwide emphasis on work-life balance, as well as in the interest of attracting and retaining residents in our rural community, we’d like to be able to address trends, issues and opportunities in this arena.”

The three students are undertaking the ambitious project as their master’s capstone, an applied professional project that takes the place of a traditional master’s thesis. As MENV students prepare to pursue a wide variety of careers related to the environment, the capstone gives them hands-on experience with real partners and problems.

Even if they don’t end up working in an area that’s specifically related to their capstone, the project gives them experience with everything from financial planning to community engagement.

Throughout their work, the students have found a common lesson.

“There is so much pivoting,” said Boyer-Rechlin, a 31-year-old who came to the program after working in conservation ecology. “It’s constant learning and adapting as we encounter new challenges. It’s messy, and you have to be ready to adjust.”

Meanwhile, organizations that partner with ��ֱ�� Boulder’s capstone projects get the benefit of working with highly motivated students who, acting as external consultants, can provide innovative solutions to their challenges.

“Harnessing the experience and education of the master’s students is a natural fit for our community as we navigate this first round of data collection and analysis,” said Sack.

Each year, MENV students undertake roughly 30 capstone projects in partnership with ��ֱ��-based nonprofits, government agencies and companies. This year, for example, some students are working with the footwear company Crocs while others are working with Growing Gardens, a nonprofit focused on local food systems.

This diversity of projects is also reflected in the MENV students’ career aspirations. Some will pursue roles in renewable energy, while others may specialize in urban resilience. No matter what field they choose to enter, they’re poised to make a difference in ��ֱ�� and beyond.

“The breadth of what you can do with a master’s in the environment these days is as broad as the environmental problems that we’re facing,” said Boyer-Rechlin.

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Photos by Joshua Corning; Illustration by Sierra Walton

Students partner with ��ֱ�� organizations to help identify solutions to environment-related challenges.

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The Sustainable Runner

Anonymous — Fri, 01 Sep 2023 15:38:52 +0000

The Sustainable Runner Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 09/01/2023 - 09:38

Christie Sounart

As a writer living in Arkansas nearly a decade ago, Zoё Rom (MJour’18) was frustrated with the lack of variety in climate-related stories in the news.

“Climate change stories were just preaching to the choir,” she said. “I wanted to bring environmental writing to new people. I wanted to take seriously their concerns and their desires and their passions.”

She decided to hone her skills and jump into environmental writing full time, which brought her to ��ֱ�� Boulder’s environmental journalism graduate program within the College of Media, Communication and Information.

At ��ֱ��, she was exposed to an intellectual community who brought knowledge in areas ranging from snow leopards to fire ecology, she said, but also pushed her to challenge her perspectives on things like environmental ethics, justice and racism.

“They’ve all become such a part of my DNA of how I approach things,” said Rom, who moved to Aspen after she graduated from ��ֱ�� Boulder to cover the environment and ski industry for NPR.

After leaving NPR, Rom moved to Carbondale, ��ֱ��, and decided to continue telling stories in the endurance sports industry as she could weave in environmental angles while writing about athletes in areas like running, climbing or skiing.

Today Rom is the editor-in-chief of Trail Runner magazine, managing editor for Women’s Running magazine and a contributing editor and writer for Outside Run magazine. She’s written about how hotter temperatures affect the Olympic marathon; how climate change has forced new climbing routes in mountaineering; or how gear companies are turning to bizarre technology to adjust to changing weather (a cooling race vest from Nike, for instance).

During the pandemic, Rom — who is a trail runner — drew the attention of Tina Muir, CEO of Running for Real, which uses the stories of top runners to spur social and environmental change. The two originally connected over a tweet about composting, but then forged a friendship centered on environmental activism.

“Zoë puts in the time and diligence to make sure she has considered all variables, all perspectives in a situation,” said Muir, who lives in St. Louis, Missouri. “She knows that words matter, and she puts forward a lot of energy to make sure what she is sharing is impactful and accurate.”

Muir suggested the duo write a book. They spent the next two years conducting interviews and research to craft Becoming a Sustainable Runner, which caters to runners of all levels and is a solutions-focused guide to climate advocacy. The book was released in August.

“A primary challenge I found in interviews was that many people didn’t see themselves as ‘activists’: They didn’t want to go vegan, they didn’t really want to stop flying,” said Rom. “So we just wanted to head-on address those concerns in a compassionate and evidence-based way.”

The book garnered the attention of runner and best-selling author of The Tipping Point, Malcom Gladwell.

“I’ve been waiting a long time for a book that puts running in the broader context of our bodies, our minds and the world around us,” he said. “Becoming a Sustainable Runner is that book.”

Rom hopes the book inspires people to become politically active in their local communities and generate curiosity about where they can make the most impact. And while the book aims to draw attention to larger climate issues, it focuses on the importance of self care, too, Rom said, who finds solace in her own mountain runs and quiet connections with nature.

“It’s necessary to care for your community and planet in the same way it’s essential to care for yourself,” she said. “And on the flip side, I wanted to demonstrate for folks who already are doing a lot of climate or community work that it’s important to take that time to take care of themselves and sustain themselves as well.”

Photos courtesy Zoё Rom

Journalist Zoё Rom leverages stories from running and other endurance sports to start climate discussions.

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Campus News Briefs — Fall 2022

Anonymous — Mon, 07 Nov 2022 07:00:00 +0000

Campus News Briefs — Fall 2022 Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 11/07/2022 - 00:00

Pollution’s Impact on Babies

Air pollution can alter the gut microbiomes of babies during their first six months of infancy, according to first-of-its kind ��ֱ�� Boulder research. These pollutants — which can include exposure to traffic, wildfires or industrial zones — could affect the baby’s collection of resident microorganisms in ways that promote inflammation, influence brain development and increase risk of allergies, obesity and diabetes. The study was published in August in the journal Gut Microbes.

Palm Trees Inspire New Wind Turbines

In a move away from the traditional upwind turbine design that can result in heavy blades breaking in extreme winds, a team of ��ֱ�� Boulder researchers — in conjunction with collaborators at the University of Virginia, the University of Texas at Dallas, the ��ֱ�� School of Mines and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) — developed a two-blade downwind turbine modeled after the flexible and bendable nature of palm trees. The team presented the results of four years’ worth of research with their SUMR (Segmented Ultralight Morphing Rotor) turbine at the American Control Conference in Atlanta in June 2022. The turbine performed consistently and effectively during peak wind gusts at NREL’s Flatirons campus in Arvada, ��ֱ��, they said. The team hopes to continue its research with large-scale, offshore downwind turbines.

The Misinformation of Marijuana Labels

In the largest analysis to date of the chemical composition of marijuana products, ��ֱ��-involved research found that product labels can be confusing or misleading to consumers. Brian Keegan, ��ֱ�� Boulder assistant professor of information science, teamed up with three cannabis scientists to study nearly 90,000 samples across six states. Cannabis labels with categories such as indica, sativa and hybrid did not accurately convey enough information about the chemical composition of the product, the researchers found. Their study, which calls for a more rigorous labeling system, was published in the journal PLOS One in May.

Heard Around Campus:

“History set us up for a poor response to the pandemic.”

— Jose-Luis Jimenez, ��ֱ�� Boulder distinguished chemistry professor and lead author of an assessment published in August in the journal Indoor Air that examined historical medical mistakes in respiratory disease research.

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The Sharkive In 2018, the ��ֱ�� Art Museum acquired a massive collection of printmaking artwork known as the “Sharkive” from master printer Bud Shark of Shark's Ink, a printer and publisher of contemporary prints.

1976

Bud Shark opened his original studio in Boulder, before relocating it to Lyons, ��ֱ��, in 1998

$1.35M

Cost of the acquisition by ��ֱ�� Boulder, one of its biggest art purchases to date

~850

Original artworks in the Sharkive, along with over 2,500 related materials

Shark’s Ink prints on view in the art museum’s new exhibition

Four

Years of planning went into the exhibition

July 15, 2023

Date exhibition closes

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Photo by Kelsey Simpkins

Pollution and babies, palm tree-inspired wind turbines, marijuana labels and more.

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Alum Dedicated to Improving Indoor Air Quality

Anonymous — Mon, 07 Nov 2022 07:00:00 +0000

Alum Dedicated to Improving Indoor Air Quality Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 11/07/2022 - 00:00

Alexx McMillan

Max Kiefer (Mgmt’04; OrgMgmt’21) spent the last two decades building a career as a sustainability professional, holding positions at Costar, CB Richard Ellis and Healthy Buildings International. Today he serves as the sustainability director at Wynd, an air monitoring and purification technology company operating in over 100 countries around the globe.

What was your favorite part about your time at ��ֱ��?

The highlight has to be a business class I took called “Profiles in American Enterprise” that allowed undergrads to be teaching assistants to a class of 30, give a presentation to over 1,000 people, connect with CEOs — mine was Patagonia CEO Michael Crooke — and become a published author.

Could you tell us a little about what Wynd does?

What we really focus on is speciation and contextualization — basically telling you exactly what’s in the air. Our monitors and purifiers communicate with one another through connected sensors. These sensors can pull in particulate matter and tell if it’s pollen, mold or smoke from a cigarette, and instruct the purifier to respond accordingly. We then aggregate all this data in a mapping system to give consumers a report of their space’s air quality.

Why does indoor air quality matter?

People spend more time inside now, and indoor air quality can be nine to 10 times worse than outdoor air quality. Things like office buildings and apartment complexes used to be just for the owners to monitor and manage. But now, individuals have more access to data and have the power to ask questions and push for change in the places that they live, work and play.

What creates poor indoor air quality?

Poor indoor air quality often comes from simple things people don’t pay attention to: cooking, vacuuming, cleaning — even carbon dioxide from breathing. Improving indoor air quality often comes down to educating individuals on simple items to improve their space, such as opening windows. The COVID-19 pandemic also changed the way people talk about air quality. With the pandemic, we became more aware of how viruses travel through the air — and poor air quality makes that spreading even easier and compounds the ramifications.

What gives you hope for the future of air quality?

I’m hopeful that with more data out there we can continue to uncover solutions to maintaining better air quality. I’m also optimistic about the direction sustainability is heading. It’s evolving to incorporate health and wellness and environmental justice, ensuring these technologies will bring all individuals — particularly those who have been marginalized in the past — forward to the future of healthy buildings.

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Photo courtesy Max Kiefer

Max Kiefer serves as the sustainability director at Wynd, an air monitoring and purification technology company dedicated to giving consumers access to better indoor air quality.

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How Natural Disasters Impact Vulnerable Populations

Anonymous — Mon, 11 Jul 2022 06:00:00 +0000

How Natural Disasters Impact Vulnerable Populations Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 07/11/2022 - 00:00

Lisa Marshall

When Lori Peek (PhDSoc’05) started graduate school in the Department of Sociology in 1999, natural disasters were still largely framed as “acts of God” — isolated events only occasionally impacting an unlucky few, with everyone equally vulnerable to their wrath.

Today, with climate change fueling bigger and more frequent wildfires, hurricanes and floods, and many people experiencing multiple disasters in their lifetime, a different picture is emerging.

“There is growing recognition that these are not ‘great equalizers,’” said Peek, director of the ��ֱ�� Natural Hazards Center. “People at the margins suffer first and worst.”

For two decades, Peek has applied a social science lens to the study of natural disasters, touching down on site within days of hurricanes in the Gulf Coast, tornados in the Midwest, earthquakes in Alaska and wildfires in the West to explore not why buildings collapse and how to make them stronger, but rather who lived in those buildings and what happened to them.

Peek’s research has elucidated how social fault lines around race, gender, age, disability and income often determine who is hit hardest or recovers fastest.

“Hurricane Katrina was a huge marker moment,” said Peek, who traveled to New Orleans immediately after the 2005 hurricane, as terrified residents waited on rooftops for help to arrive. “You had people dying in the streets of a major American city. There was no denying how much your station in life can literally determine if you live or not.”

Peek notes that vulnerable populations are often at a disadvantage before the disaster hits: They might not have the resources, like cellphones and Wi-Fi, to stay informed — or the time, social networks or transportation to leave when necessary.

Individuals over 65, particularly those with a disability, are often most likely to die. And in the aftermath of disasters, people living on the margins often end up homeless.

“In the immediate aftermath of a disaster, we see communities come together in the most extraordinary ways.”

“Disasters often become a mechanism for pushing the poor out of a community,” she said, referencing mobile home parks in Boulder County that were destroyed and never replaced after the 2013 flood.Children are also prone to mental health problems long after the event, she said, particularly if their schools are closed and communities dispersed for a long time.

In contrast, those able to get back to school, connect with friends and find support from their community can not only survive but thrive, she has found.

“In the immediate aftermath of a disaster, we see communities come together in the most extraordinary ways.”

She hopes that just as the findings of her engineering colleagues may someday inform new, stronger structures, her work can inspire social policies to make vulnerable populations more resilient both before and after disaster strikes.

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Climate Change Fueling Violence, Hunger for East African Pastoralists

Anonymous — Mon, 11 Jul 2022 06:00:00 +0000

Climate Change Fueling Violence, Hunger for East African Pastoralists Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 07/11/2022 - 00:00

Dan Strain

Kenya and Tanzania are home to diverse groups of nomadic herders, or pastoralists — peoples like the Maasai, Turkana and Samburu who depend on cattle for their survival and cross wide expanses of grasslands to keep their cows fed.

They also engage in occasional cattle raiding. Men arm themselves with AK-47s, which you can buy for around $8 in parts of East Africa, and sneak into their rivals’ territory in the dead of night to steal cows. Sometimes, the consequences are deadly.

��ֱ�� Boulder researchers John O’Loughlin and Terrence McCabe had long wondered: In arid regions of the world like these wide pasturelands, could climate change make violence worse?

"The future of peoples like the Maasai or Turkana may depend on tackling all of these challenges and more together."

“When people live on the margins already, it doesn’t take much to push them over the edge to take desperate measures,” said O’Loughlin, professor of geography.

To get to the bottom of that question, O’Loughlin and McCabe, professor of anthropology, teamed up over the last decade to conduct several surveys of communities across Kenya. They discovered that people who fled their homes to escape drought, including some pastoralists, were over three times more likely to be victims of violence than Kenyans who remained in place.

But the situation is complicated: In many pastoralist communities, traditional elders often meet with leaders from nearby communities, even sworn enemies, to hash out their differences. Those kinds of leaders seem to significantly reduce the risk of disagreements devolving into bloodshed, even in the midst of severe droughts.

O’Loughlin and McCabe worry, however, that East Africa’s pastoralist peoples may be losing their ability to adapt to a changing environment. The team surveyed more than 500 people from Isiolo County near the center of Kenya four times from early 2020 to early 2022. Their preliminary results suggest that life in this region is getting worse as people contend with the COVID-19 pandemic, a historic locust invasion and repeated droughts.

"The future of peoples like the Maasai or Turkana may depend on tackling all of these challenges and more together," McCabe said.

“What I’m worried about is that people who have been resilient to these kinds of environmental changes for centuries will lose their resilience,” he said.

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Human activity is gradually increasing Earth’s temperature and causing more frequent natural disasters.

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Class Action: Fighting Climate Change Through Girls’ Education

Anonymous — Mon, 11 Jul 2022 06:00:00 +0000

Class Action: Fighting Climate Change Through Girls’ Education Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 07/11/2022 - 00:00

Helen Olsson

When Anna Iwanciw (IntlAf’22) was in high school, her class watched the documentary Cowspiracy: The Sustainability Secret, prompting her to become a vegetarian and reduce her personal carbon footprint.

Iwanciw feels her education directly impacted her views on climate change. And now she wants all women to have access to the same things she’s learned.

“I’m a firm believer that everything is interconnected,” Iwanciw said.

She points to a 2021 report by the Malala Fund, a nonprofit that advocates for girls’ education, which points out the double-edged sword of gender inequity in education. By 2025, climate change is on track to be a contributing factor in preventing some 12.5 million girls yearly from completing their education, according to the report.

“Whether it’s flooding or escaping wildfires, these girls suddenly become refugees of the climate crisis,” Iwanciw said.

On the flip side, education has the potential to mitigate the climate crisis by giving young people the tools to challenge its root causes, the resilience to handle disasters and the knowledge to find solutions.

“There’s a stigma in some countries that women shouldn’t be educated,” said Iwanciw. “And that’s really to the detriment of our society.”

While at ��ֱ��, Iwanciw has become an ardent advocate for girls’ education through a social media internship and volunteer work with Girls Education International, a nonprofit dedicated to providing girls in remote locations with education. She also produces Girls Ed podcasts, interviewing people like women’s rights activist Anbreen Ajaib, executive director of Project Bedari, a Girls Ed partner in Pakistan. The agency also works with Project Wezesha in Tanzania, which focuses on issues like providing safe transportation to school.

Iwanciw has already seen the impact of the nonprofit’s work — and the overlap between education and climate change. Saraphina Matombi Matias, a student from Kagongo, Tanzania, who was supported by Girls Ed and Project Wezesha, is now teaching people in her village about the environment and encouraging them to plant trees and manage waste properly — all while working toward a bachelor’s degree in education at the University of Dodoma.

“Basically, if we educate women, we could potentially save the world,” Iwanciw said.

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After a Wildfire, What Happens to Water?

Anonymous — Mon, 11 Jul 2022 06:00:00 +0000

After a Wildfire, What Happens to Water? Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 07/11/2022 - 00:00

Kelsey Simpkins

When Western wildfires break out, water may first come to mind as a critical resource for helping extinguish it. But what about after the flames finish?

A 2022 ��ֱ�� study on the growing impact of wildfire on the Western U.S. water supply found that large forest fires can significantly increase the amount of water in surrounding streams and rivers up to six years after a fire, impacting regional water supplies and increasing risks for floods and landslides. The results suggest that water and natural hazard management will need to be more prepared for wildfire impacts. U.S. wildfires — which have quadrupled in size and tripled in frequency since 2000 — are only projected to escalate.

“It is something organizations need to educate fire-prone communities about, so we can be prepared for short- and long-term impacts.”

“We’re likely going to see a lot more fires,” said Ben Livneh, co-author of the study and assistant professor of civil, environmental and architectural engineering. “Like we saw with [Boulder County’s] NCAR and Marshall fires, this is going to be a clear and present danger.”

Historically, forest-based streams and rivers increased in predictable amounts in response to rain or snowfall. However, from 1970 to 2021, those amounts declined due to warming and evaporation.

Wildfire adds another layer to the equation.

“When you bring so much fire into the mix, it fundamentally alters that relationship,” said Livneh, who also serves as director of the Western Water Assessment and is a fellow in the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (��ֱ��).

The study examined 35 years of data from 179 forest basins in the Western U.S. between 1984 and 2019, including 72 sites where at least one large wildfire occurred. In areas where 20% or more of the forest burned, area streamflow was 30% greater than expected, for an average of six years post-fire.

It’s the first paper to show this increase persists in all four seasons after a fire, in all manner of vegetation, topography and elevation.

This water surplus could in part be a good thing, given the overall decline in the past 40 years. But it also comes with elevated landslide risks and a need for Western communities to invest in a greater diversity of water sources, as ash-laden water is low quality and expensive to treat, according to Livneh.

Due to the uncertainty of where or when future forests will burn, wildfire is not currently factored into assessments of the effects of climate change on Western U.S. streamflow.

“It is something organizations need to educate fire-prone communities about, so we can be prepared for short- and long-term impacts,” said Livneh.

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Human activity is gradually increasing Earth’s temperature and causing more frequent natural disasters.

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Alum Aims to Improve Nepal’s Air Quality

Anonymous — Mon, 11 Jul 2022 06:00:00 +0000

Alum Aims to Improve Nepal’s Air Quality Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 07/11/2022 - 00:00

Kiara Gelbman

Nepal has some of the worst air quality in the world. The Health Effects Institute estimates more than 42,000 deaths were attributed to air pollution in the country in 2019 alone.

Prateek Shrestha (MMechEngr’15; PhD’18), who is from Kathmandu, Nepal, wants to motivate the youth in his home country to address the problem through a small quadcopter drone he and his team created that will take aerial measurements of air pollution in Nepal. He hopes the measurements can spread awareness to residents about the poor air quality and inspire similar projects throughout the country.

“The mountains that I used to see from the north side of my house while growing up were invisible for most of my college days,” he said.

“Air pollution is a global problem that sees no international boundaries.”

Over the years, they disappeared behind fugitive dust and diesel emissions.

Shrestha, who now lives in Henderson, ��ֱ��, started his drone project in 2019 to exemplify what “people can do at a personal level if they are truly motivated,” he said.

After building a team of researchers — including a pico-satellite startup in Nepal called Orion Space — and academics to further expand the initiative, Prateek now works on the project at the advisory level. Currently, they are working on a system that can deliver data from low-cost air sensors mounted on the drone in real time to a ground station based in Kathmandu.

“Countries like Nepal, which are very low income, feel the brunt of climate change disproportionately,” said Shrestha. “What we need is a collective level of preparedness for the harsh conditions that climate change can bring, and increasing our awareness to these issues is the first and most important step.”

Outside of his drone project, Shrestha remains committed to the environment in his work. As a research engineer at the National Renewable Energy Lab, he examines energy performance of residential buildings, such as how residential buildings built with 3D-printed concrete could impact energy performance, and how to ventilate buildings with fresh air at minimal energy and cost.

He credits much of his current work to ��ֱ�� Boulder, especially his time working with air-quality expert and engineering professor Shelly Miller on indoor-air-quality research, and researchers from engineering professor Mike Hannigan’s lab.

“Air pollution is a global problem that sees no international boundaries,” Shrestha said.

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Human activity is gradually increasing Earth’s temperature and causing more frequent natural disasters.

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The ��ֱ��-Brazil Program on Sustainable Development Education

Anonymous — Mon, 11 Jul 2022 06:00:00 +0000

The ��ֱ��-Brazil Program on Sustainable Development Education Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 07/11/2022 - 00:00

Grace Dearnley

The tropical forests of Brazil are legendary for their breadth and beauty. But beneath the canopy, concerns about the forests’ role in carbon sequestration and biodiversity conservation overlap with the rights of those who live in and off of the forests — rights to develop the area, lift oneself out of poverty, make a living or preserve one’s culture.

In May 2022, 10 graduate students in ��ֱ��’s Masters in the Environment (MENV) program journeyed into the Amazon and Atlantic forests with the ��ֱ��-Brazil Program for Sustainable Development Education to consider those intersections.

They studied how stakeholders in these areas work for sustainable development while navigating the tensions between land-use and conservation; preservation of traditional, remote communities and access to more urban resources; and forest-dependent livelihoods and sustainable supply chains.

The three-week program trained the cohort of professional master’s students to work at the science-policy interface, teaching them skills to help communities worldwide mitigate climate change, conserve biodiversity and promote sustainable livelihood objectives while keeping human interest at the heart of problem-solving.

“It’s a wake-up call to think about bottom-up solutions that really work for the people in the regions we talk about; places with millions of people who are dealing with poverty versus conservation. It helps students factor that into the work they go on to do,” said Colleen Scanlon Lyons, program leader and ��ֱ�� associate research professor.

While the MENV program provides real-world experience, perhaps most heartening — and unique to the program — are the relationships it fosters. Designed to initiate lasting international collaboration, the program joins ��ֱ�� students with master’s students from both Brazil’s University of Amazonas and its Universidade Estadual de Santa Cruz, forging bonds and insights students will carry far into their professional careers.

Said David Meens, director of ��ֱ��’s Office of Outreach and Engagement: “There is no substitute for being in that boundary-spanning context where you are developing partners, developing programming together and considering the interests of folks involved who have very different positions and very different economic and cultural situations.”

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Environment

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