Environmental Policy Roundtable
Spring 2003

May 9 "The Joys and Perils of Large-Scale Interdisciplinary Research" With Prof. Matthias Ruth, Director, Environmental Policy Program University of Maryland School of Public Affairs

Recent calls for integrative research, which is of immediate societal relevance, have led to a proliferation of studies on combined human-environment systems. This presentation briefly reflects on the motivations behind such studies and show-cases one recent effort to better understand feedbacks among changes in society, economy and environment. The paper closes with a personal account of the lessons learned from leading that and other large-scale interdisciplinary research projects.

Matthias Ruth is Professor and Director of the Environmental Policy Program at the University of Maryland School of Public Affairs. His research and teaching focus on understanding the complex interactions among society, economy, technology and environment at industrial, regional and national levels.

Apr 25 Between Science and Advocacy (African Tales by a Runaway Student) with Egor Kraev, Doctoral Candidate UMD School of Public Affairs.

The speaker will share his experiences of working as a consultant for ISODEC, a non-governmental organization in Ghana, building a model of macro and distributional impacts of government policies and external shocks, now likely to be actually used by ISODEC, University of Ghana, and quite possibly Bank of Ghana. The talk will explore the tensions arising from trying to find a PhD in a consulting project, the harsh moments of awakening facing a “white man” arriving to Ghana with the best of intentions, and the winding path from a crazy idea to a viable project.

Egor Kraev is a doctoral candidate in Environmental Policy at the University of Maryland School of Public Affairs, where his principal advisor is Dr. Herman Daly. For the past two years, he has been working as a consultant for ISODEC, a non-governmental organization in Ghana. Egor is a co-author of a paper “Scorecard on Globalization 1980-2000: 20 Years of Diminished Progress”. Egor received his MSc in Mathematics from the Swiss Federal School of Technology, Zurich.

Apr 11 Arjun Makhijani

Dr. Makhijani will present case studies of poor environmental science in the nuclear weapons complex, including discussion of waste data and measurements, radionuclide migration through the vadose zone, and science related to clean air act compliance. He will then discuss the causes of the poor science, and the similarities and differences with civilian industries.

Arjun Makhijani is president of the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research in Takoma Park, Maryland. He has authored and co-authored many articles, reports, and books on nuclear weapons related environmental and security. He has been a consultant to a variety of organizations, including several agencies of the United Nations, the Tennessee Valley Authority, the Lower Colorado Authority, and the Edison Electric Institute. He also written extensively on non-proliferation and nuclear safety issues. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of California Berkeley, where he specialized in controlled nuclear fusion in the Electrical Engineering department.

Mar 21 "Gandhian Strategies For Fighting Terrorism and Preventing Ecological Crises" with Bart Gruzalski, Director of the Pacific Center for Sustainable Living.

"We as a people and as a nation must respond rather than react. ... The entire world would support these people being brought to justice before an international court of law. ... That response would show respect for the law, respect for the autonomy of other nations. ... The future awaits us and our actions will shape it. There is a profound choice facing us. ... If we do retaliate rather than bring the guilty to justice, there will be new people dead and bereaved: mothers, fathers, children, grandchildren, nephews, nieces, friends, lovers, neighbors, and other relations. Retaliation will only increase hatred and the world will not be a safer place."
Excerpt from "Making The World A Safer Place" 17 September, 2001

Mar 7 Mobilizing Funding for Biodiversity Conservation" with Dirk Kloss Senior Advisor for Conservation Finance and Policy Capacity Building, The Nature Conservancy.

Stakeholders are often unaware of available and practicable mechanisms to conserve biodiversity. TNC and an alliance of multilateral organizations and NGOs have developed a guide to diffuse sustainable finance mechanisms for biodiversity conservation, which provides detailed financial planning tools, a vast array of expert contacts and detailed worldwide examples. The guide will help park managers, policymakers and researchers to select and implement appropriate finance mechanisms at national, regional or international levels.

Feb 21 "The Role of Regulation in Mitigating Adverse Impacts of International Capital Flows on the Environment", Tim Gulden, Doctoral Student, UMD School of Public Affairs.

The wave of financial liberalization which is closely linked with the
ongoing process of globalization has indirectly led to significant
environmental impacts. At the same time this increasingly free flow of capital has undermined the ability of national regulations to mitigate these problems. This talk will propose a framework for thinking about the environmental effects of international financial flows and for designing beneficial regulations.

Feb 7 (Snowed Out) Conservation at the Intersection of Science,Culture, and Policy: Jim Dietz/CONS faculty - to be rescheduled.

Jim Dietz has been studying endangered species in Brazil for 30 years. In this presentation he will describe two successful conservation projects: golden lion tamarins in Rio de Janeiro State and golden-headed lion tamarins in Bahia State. Drawing from these case studies, he will discuss the challenges and solutions to focusing the world's scientific and economic resources on conservation of biodiversity in other countries.

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