This interdisciplinary speaker series is intended to stimulate cross disciplinary discussion, debate, and collaboration around issues related to energy, the environment, and society. The series is sponsored by SERC and the Environment & Community Graduate Program.
You can watch most SERC-sponsored talks on SERC’s YouTube Channel, or via the direct links below. Videos of most presentations are also available to check-out from the HSU Library (index of available DVDs) or download via Humboldt Digital Scholar.
Spring 2013
* Unless otherwise noted, events are 5:30pm-7:00pm Thursdays in BSS 166
February 21
John Laird
“California’s Sustainable Resources Future”
Watch full presentation
John Laird was appointed California Secretary for Natural Resources by Governor Jerry Brown on January 5, 2011. He has spent 35 years in public service, including 23 years as an elected official. In 2002, Laird was elected to represent the 27th Assembly District in the California Assembly, which includes portions of Santa Cruz, Monterey and Santa Clara Counties. While serving the maximum three terms in the Assembly, Laird authored 82 bills that were signed into law. Laird was a member of the State Integrated Waste Management Board from 2008-2009. Laird has been a long-time resident of Santa Cruz with his spouse John Flores. He has traveled extensively, is fluent in Spanish, enjoys conducting family history research, and is a life-long Chicago Cubs fan.
March 7
Nicholas L. Lam
“Let There Be (Clean) Light: How Kerosene Lighting in Developing Countries Is Contributing to Climate Warming and the Global Disease Burden”
Watch full presentation
Nick’s primary research interests address the relationships among household fuel use, air quality and human health. His current research focuses on measuring and modeling the contribution of household cooking and lighting in developing countries on human exposure, disease risk, and emissions of climate-altering air pollutants. He has conducted and managed numerous evaluations of cookstove performance and program impacts throughout Africa, South Asia and Latin America. This experience has allowed him the opportunity to develop curricula and training programs for local organizations and researchers on techniques for monitoring and evaluating household energy projects. He most recently served as director of the first US CDC Summer Cookstove Research Institute in Antigua, Guatemala. Prior to his efforts in household energy, he investigated the effects of air pollution on lead paint deterioration and its potential contribution to historic lead exposure in children. He is currently a doctoral student in Environmental Health Sciences at the University of California, Berkeley.
March 14
Julie Guthman
“Fat Places? Exploring Environmental Causes of Obesity”
Julie Guthman is a professor of social sciences at the University of California at Santa Cruz where she teaches courses primarily in global political economy and the politics of food and agriculture. Since receiving her PhD in 2000 in Geography from the University of California at Berkeley, she has published extensively on contemporary efforts to transform the way food is produced, distributed, and consumed, with a particular focus on voluntary food labels, community food security, farm-to-school programs, and the race and class politics of “alternative food.” Her first book, Agrarian Dreams: the Paradox of Organic Farming in California, (University of California, 2004), won the Frederick H. Buttel Award for Outstanding Scholarly Achievement from the Rural Sociological Society and the Donald Q. Innis Award from the Rural Geography Specialty Group of the Association of American Geographers. Her recent book, Weighing In: Obesity, Food Justice, and the Limits of Capitalism (University of California, 2011) was awarded the 2012 James M. Blaut Innovative Publication Award from the Cultural and Political Ecology Specialty Group of the Association of American Geographers and the 2012 Book Award from the Association for the Study of Food and Society.
March 28
Jonathan Woolley
“Radically Efficient Design for Zero Net Energy Buildings”
Watch full presentation
Jonathan Woolley is an Associate Engineer with the Western Cooling Efficiency Center at the University of California Davis. Woolley’s building science research focuses on design, development and control of low energy mechanical systems. His efforts target full-scale demonstration and evaluation of emerging technologies for commercial and residential buildings, with a focus on strategies to enable Zero Net Energy construction. While these demonstrations employ cutting edge mechanical technologies, his building design philosophy is founded on passive techniques that reduce the need for active mechanical systems.
Mr. Woolley will share about the integrative design of a Zero Net Energy home in Davis, CA that will generate enough electricity on site to cover household needs, plus the annual drive cycle for an electric vehicle. The home employs many innovative design techniques to address inefficiencies in every aspect of standard residential construction. Some of these elements include a highly-insulated building envelope, radiant heating and cooling, grey water heat recovery, passive ventilation, very high efficiency nighttime cooling strategies, and multi-function mechanical systems to provide heating, cooling, and domestic hot water. The home is slated for construciton in 2013 and should serve as an example and research case to support California’s goals for Zero Net Energy residential construction by 2020.
April 4
Bill Stewart
“Timber Harvests and Managed Forests: Good or Bad for Climate Change?”
Bill Stewart is a Cooperative Extension Forestry Specialist based at the University of California Berkeley since 2007. He is also the Director of the Center for Forestry that oversees Berkeley’s research forests and the Co-Director for the Center for Fire Research and Outreach. His research and extension efforts focus on defining and promoting sustainable forest management activities that will have both local and global benefits. Before completing his PhD on California forestry, he spent a decade working in Asia on forestry and rural development projects.
April 11
Sheri Woo and Carol Rische
“Evaluating Mad River Water Use Options: A Local Issue with Regional Impacts”
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Sheri Woo is a licensed civil engineer who writes environmental science content. She prepares permitting documents with HT Harvey & Associates, is a Board Director of the Humboldt Bay Municipal Water District, holds shares in a local environmental firm, and is chair of the ArMack Orchestra parent committee, because in Humboldt County, one can’t have too many jobs.
Carol Rische is a registered professional engineer who joined the Humboldt Bay Municipal Water District (HBMWD) in 1996. She was appointed General Manager in March 2000. Prior to working at HBMWD, she was employed at PG&E for 12 years, initially in engineering and then in management.
April 18
Laurie Richmond
“Incorporating Human Dimensions into Environmental Management: A Story in Three Acts”
Laurie Richmond is an assistant professor in the Department of Environmental Science and Management at Humboldt State University. Her research focuses on developing collaborative relationships with natural resource-dependent communities to examine how they navigate both political and ecological changes in their resource systems. She has worked with the Alaska Native village of Old Harbor Alaska, and with indigenous communities in New Mexico, Hawai`i, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) on natural resource issues.
May 2
Jen Marlow
“Climate Change and Human Rights: Justice Beyond Law”
Jen Marlow co-founded Three Degrees, a multidisciplinary climate justice project, and is an Affiliate Professor at the University of Washington School of Law in Seattle. Jen graduated from Middlebury College in 2002 with a degree in environmental studies and literature, and earned her J.D. from the University of Washington School of Law in 2010. Prior to law school, Jen worked as an editor at Orion magazine and as a writer and editor at Ecotrust. Jen is a member of the Washington State Bar.
Fall 2012
- Greg Davis, “Curiosity and Beyond: Exciting Developments in NASA’s Unmanned Space Program” Watch full presentation
- Matthew Marshall and Jim Zoellick, “RePowering Humboldt: A Strategic Plan to Scale Up Renewable Energy Use in Humboldt County” Watch full presentation
- Andrea Tuttle, “What Next for AB32? California’s Efforts to Implement the Global Warming Solutions Act” Watch full presentation
- Corey Johnson, “Geopolitics of Overconsumption”
- Miguel Altieri, “Who Will Feed Us in a Planet in Crisis”
- Anthony Eggert, “California’s Clean Energy Future: Policies and Politics” Watch full presentation
- Mark Baker, “Neoliberalism and the Environment: The Case of Small Hydropower Development in the Western Himalaya”
Spring 2012
- Antwi Akom, “Race, Power, and the Environment: Using Participatory Mapping and New Media to Build a Community-Based Climate Justice Movement”
- Zack Zoller, “Solar Makes It Big: Scaling Up Solar Photovoltaics for Large Systems” Watch full presentation
- Lindsay Magnuson, “Land Conservation on the North Coast Using the Land Trust Model”
- Simone Pulver, “Addressing Climate Change through Carbon Markets: Lessons Learned in Brazil and India” Watch full presentation
- Robin Kimmerer, “Restoration and Reciprocity: Finding Common Ground Between Traditional and Scientific Ecological Knowledge”
- Garvin Heath, “Environmental Impacts of Energy Technologies: A Life Cycle Perspective” Watch full presentation
- Kathleen McAfee, “Cooling the Planet or Feeding the World: Do We Have To Choose?”
- Seth Wilson, “Conservation on the Edge: Large Carnivores and Building Communities of Coexistence”
Fall 2011
- September 22-23, Traditional Ecological Knowledge Symposium
- Jeff Mapes, “How the Bicycle is Changing American Cities”
- Evan Mills, “The Carbon Footprint of Indoor Cannabis Production” Watch full presentation
- Arne Jacobson, “Super Efficient Appliances, International Cooperation, and the Climate Challenge” Watch full presentation
- Amol Phadke, “Low Carbon Strategies for the Indian Electricity Sector: Opportunities for Leapfrogging” Watch full presentation
- Geeta Chowdhry, “To Bt or not to Bt? Transnational Capital, the State, Civil Society and the Struggle over Food Sovereignty in India”
- Noah Zerbe, “Reshaping Globalization from the Ground Up: Community Resilience and Transformation in Durban, South Africa”
- John Elliot, “UC Merced: Achieving Zero Net Energy and Zero Landfill Waste by 2020” Watch full presentation
Spring 2011
- Jim Hight, “Climate Change Policy in North America: Reasons for Optimism” Watch full presentation
- Steven Hackett and Luke Scheidler, “The Economics of Clean Energy in Humboldt County” Watch full presentation
- Tom Fee, “Leadership Patterns in Environmental & Public Policy Dispute Resolution 1970- 2010 - 2050: Reflections & Explorations
- Mary Crowley, “Solutions to Plastic Proliferation In Our Oceans”
- David Rubin, “The Challenges and Opportunities of Renewables from a Utility Perspective” Watch full presentation
- Judith Mayer, “Borneo to California and Back”
- Eric Holt-Giménez, “Food Rebellions: Crisis and the Hunger for Justice”
- Tim Palmer, “Rivers of America”
Fall 2010
- Nick Goulette and Lynn Jungwirth, “Community-based Forestry: Past, Present, and Future”
- Dr. Alexandra “Sascha” von Meier, “Integrating Renewable Resources: Making the ‘Smart Grid’ Work” Watch full presentation
- Aldaron Laird,“Is Humboldt Bay Municipal Water District’s Water System Sustainable? Is California’s Water Use Sustainable?”
- Peter Dauvergne, “Big Box Stores and Global Environmental Governance”
- Elizabeth “Betsy” Watson, “Working in the Political Dead Zone”
- Peter Alstone and Colin Sheppard, “Humboldt County’s Renewable Energy Futures: Preliminary Results from a Renewable Energy Secure Communities (RESCO) Study” Watch full presentation
Spring 2010
- Kim Berry, “Disowning Dependence: Single Women’s Collective Struggle for Land Rights in Northwestern India”
- Garvin Heath, “Environmental Impacts of Energy Technologies: A Life Cycle Perspective”
- Cynthia Chandler, “Democracy Across Prison Walls”
- Timothy Lipman, “Low Carbon Vehicle Research at UC Berkeley’s Transportation Sustainability Research Center” Watch full presentation
- Omar Masera, “Efficient Cookstoves - Mitigating Climate Change While Advancing Sustainable Development Priorities: The Case of Efficient Cookstoves” Watch full presentation
- Jane Nielsen and Howard Wilshire, “The American West at Risk: Science, Myths, and Politics of Land Abuse and Recovery”
- Andrea Tuttle, “After Copenhagen, What Next for Forests? An Update of COP 15, the Copenhagen Accord, and Tropical Deforestation” Watch full presentation
Fall 2009
- Sandra Steingraber, “Environmental Health: A New Civil Rights Movement”
- Jerry Moles and Karen Brisbane, “LandCare In Australia and the USA”
- Arne Jacobson, “Energy and the Environment at HSU” Watch full presentation
- Riki Ott, “The Impacts of the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill on Ecology and Community”
- Llyn Smith, “A Just Peace? The Sri Lankan Civil War and Minority Politics in the Sinhalese Buddhist State”
Spring 2009
- Stephen Most, “Fixing the World: Conflict and Consensus in the Klamath Basin”
- Jamie Levin, “The Future of Public Transport - In Pursuit of Zero Emissions” Watch full presentation
- Richard L. Corsi, “Smog and Lemons: American Homes as Chemical Reactors and the Role of Energy Conservation in Reactor ‘Design’” Watch full presentation
- Heidi Ballard, “Environmental Learning and Participatory Research in Community-Based Forestry”
- Dustin Poppendieck and Arne Jacobson, “Kerosene Lamps, Solid-State Lighting, and Possibilities to Improve Public Health in Kenya” Watch full presentation
- Adam R. Brandt, “Avoiding High Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Future Transportation Fuels: The Case of Oil Shale” Watch full presentation
- Jessica Urban, “Demystifying and Deconstructing Disinformation: Population Issues and Environmental (In)Security”
Fall 2008
- Chris Greacen, “Renewable Energy Policy and Planning in Thailand” Watch full presentation
- Richard Varenchik, “California’s Efforts to Control Climate Change” Watch full presentation
- Steven Hackett, “Economic and Social Considerations for Wave Energy Development in California” Watch full presentation
- Jeff Romm, “Moments of Reservation: Racial Foundations of Environmental Policy”
- Tom Stokely, “The Trinity River, the Peripheral Canal, and the Future of Water in California”
Spring 2008
- Zoe Hammer, “Inventing Just Futures: Organizing for Human Rights in the Sonoran Desert”
- Matthew St. Clair, “Campus Sustainability at California Universities” Watch full presentation
- Betsy Hartmann, “Rethinking the Population Problem: The Terror of False Assumptions”
- Rick Duke, “The Five Trillion Dollar Challenge: A Roadmap for Containing Climate Change” Watch full presentation
- John Meyer, “The Environmental Politics of Sacrifice”
- H.I. Bud Beebe, “SMUD’s Utility Planning for Climate Change: Mitigation, Adaptation, Regulation” Watch full presentation
Fall 2007
- Allison Rogers, “Go Green! Global Warming Awareness”
- Andrea Tuttle, “California Climate Protocols and Politics - Through the Lens of Forest Carbon”
- Peter Lehman, “Hydrogen in a Renewable Energy Future” Watch full presentation
Spring 2007
- Michael Shellenberger, “Beyond Environmentalism: Creating a Politics Capable of Dealing with Global Warming and Other Ecological Crises” Watch full presentation
- Alex Farrell, “The Race for 21st Century Fuels” Watch full presentation
- Morgan Varner, “Changing Climate, Changing Fires: Predicting Future Fires in a Carbon-rich Atmosphere”
- Jeffrey Jacobs, “Future Fuel Sources: Options and Opportunities”
- Holmes Hummel, “Interpreting Technology and Policy Implications of Global Energy Scenarios for the 21st Century” Watch full presentation
Fall 2006
- Anna Zalik, “Clean Energy and Armed Insurgency: Representing Security and Threat from the Nigerian Delta to the Mexican Gulf”
- Evon Peters, “Indigenous Peoples Rights and Environmental Justice”
- Evan Mills, “The Specter of Fuel Based Lighting”
- Patrice O’Neill, “The Fire Next Time: Using Film to Address Community Conflict”
- Sarah Goldthwait, “Plankton and CO2: The Role of Marine Organisms in Global Climate” Watch full presentation
Spring 2006
- Ashanti Alston, “All Power to the People: The Black Panther Party and Beyond”
- Tyrone Hayes, “From Silent Spring to Silent Night: What do hermaphroditic frogs tell us about environmental and human health?”
- Roundtable - Sustainable Community Design: “Why Does it Matter? How do we do it?”
- Victoria Sturtevant, “Collaborative Planning for Wildfire: Community Matters”
- Arne Jacobson, “Connective Power: Solar Electrification and Social Change in Kenya”
- Mark Lakeman, “The Village Lives”
- Carolina Simunovic, “Environmental Health in the San Joaquin Valley”
- Alan Lloyd, “The Fight for Air Quality in California: A 30 Year Retrospective and Visions for the Future” Watch full presentation
Fall 2005
- Jim Zoellick, “Humboldt County’s Energy Picture” Watch full presentation
- Joan Ogden, “The Outlook for Hydrogen as an Energy Carrier” Watch full presentation
- Michel Gelobter, “The Soul of Environmentalism”
- Mark Hankins, “Approaches to Rural Electrification in East Africa: Donors, Projects, Rural Electrification”
