The Legal and Social Environmental Issues Seminar meets on the SECOND Wednesday of every month in the Faculty House from 7 to 9 PM. 

April 11, 2012
"Climate Change and the Media" will be discussed by Laurel Whitney, Adjunct Professor at Pace University.  Climate change has become a pariah of the media- the networks and print media have exhibited a downward trend of coverage over the past few years, despite the fact that the carbon concentrations continue to rise and weather patterns become more mind-boggling and alarming with each passing year. Scientists struggle to break out of the lab to become media spokespeople, oftentimes having to combat "opposing theories" and climate deniers that continue to reemerge like a bad rash. Conquering the media means that advocates will need to use a full arsenal of communication techniques, including humor and creativity, to effectively translate the science and spur legitimate concern towards the fact that human society is looming over the metaphorical precipice of collapse.

March 7, 2012
"Transboundary Water Law and Transboundary Water Management in Africa" was presented by Johathan Lautze, Water Advisor at USAID/International Water Management Institute.  He spoke about transboundary waters generally and past work on transboundary water law, emphasizing discoveries about the types of pre-dominant transboundary water agreements.  He then focused in on case studies from the Lake Chad and the Lake Turkana basins.

February 8, 2012
"Apollo Programs in Transformational & Sustainable Energy Technology as a Job-Creating Policy Initiative" presented by Dr. Marty Hoffert, Professor Emeritus of Physics and former Chair of the Department of Applied Science at NYU. The idea of targeted alternate energy programs to address global warming as an alternative to the pretty much dead "cap-and-trade" approach is of great interest to engineers and scientists. Despite the current obsession with debt/deficit at the expense of energy/environment, Dr. Hoffert argues that targeted R & D investments in a sustainable high tech future in harmony with natural ecosystems and climate stability is politically feasible and our most hopeful step forward.


December 14, 2011
"Is the European economic crisis overshadowing all the efforts to combat climate change?" with Professor Sophia Kalantzakos, Global Distinguished Professor in Environmental Studies and Public Policy at New York University. From the beginning, the European Union has consistently shown leadership in pushing for an international commitment to address the climate crisis and set limits to CO2 emissions. For 18 months, the world has focused on the debt crisis plaguing the eurozone. The sense is that because of the economic crisis everything else in Europe has stopped. Is that merely the appearance or reality and what is Europe doing now to further the climate agenda?

November 9, 2011
"Hydraulic fracturing in New York" with Eric Whalen, Field Director of Environment New York. This presentation addresses the environmental problems posed by high-volume hydraulic fracturing in New York, the current political situation regarding 'fracking,' and efforts in opposition.

October 12, 2011
"Climate Treaties and Approaching Catastrophes" led by Professor Scott Barrett, Lenfest-Earth Institute Professor of Natural Resource Economics at SIPA and the Earth Institute. The goal of limiting global temperature change to, say, 2°C implies that damages will spike once this threshold is passed. Do approaching catastrophes change the prospects for international cooperation? Barrett finds that, if the climate threshold is known with certainty, then the prospect of catastrophe fundamentally alters the cooperation challenge.

2010 - 2011 Past Meetings 

November 3, 2010
"Winning the Energy Trifecta: Blow Away Myths with Common-Sense Economics" with D. Roger B. Liddell, Vice-Chairman and Investment Manager at Clear Harbor Asset Management

This presentation explores two fundamental issues: first, how energy price signals we see today convey an illusion contrary to reality.  By exposing myths, you can become an informed consumer and illuminate the path for others.  Second, we will examine the major but overlooked opportunity for utility companies to produce "win-win-win" solutions for customers, the environment, and themselves.

December 1, 2010
"Water: Our Most Precious Resource" with Victoria Boyt-Kaufman, environmental consultant.
The presentation focuses on the nature of water both as the mystery upon which our lives depend and as the precious natural resource of which we use too much and, increasingly, have too little. We will explore the fundamentals of water - its unique qualities, economic and environmental roles - and many of the issues concerning global stewardship - mega-dams, arctic sea ice, bottled water consumption, polluters, the NYC watershed and the global water business. The nucleus of intent is to avoid fulfilling Benjamin Franklin's prophesy in Poor Richard's Almanac of 1746: "When the well's dry, we know the worth of water."

March 16, 2011
"Spaceship Earth: A History of Ecological Designs" with Peder Anker, Associate Professor at the Gallatin School of Individualized Study and the Environmental Studies Program at NYU.
Why did scientists and lay people alike in the 1970s talk about the Earth in terms of a Spaceship? And in what way did this frame the environmental design debate? With a point of departure in the famous earthrise image, this lecture reviews the history of "spaceship earth". The photo came to represent a dream of a globe in ecological harmony, yet it was taken by a crew of astronauts sent out in space to demonstrate the superiority of the United States in a world divided by Cold War tensions. Spaceship earth was not a vague analogy or metaphor, but that it reflected instead efforts to build a closed ecosystem within the spaceship in order to secure the health of astronauts. In other words, the Earth was literally understood as being construed as the spaceship and the environmental havoc was caused by humans not behaving like astronauts. Environmental design and ethics became an issue of trying to live like astronauts by adapting space technologies such as bio-toilets, solar cells, recycling, and energy-saving devices. Technology, terminology, and methodology developed for spaceships became tools for solving environmental design problems onboard Spaceship Earth. Spaceships came to represent the rational, orderly, and wisely managed contrast to the irrational, disorderly, and ill managed environments on Earth.