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Free public event: The Path to a Sustainable Future

30 January 2023

Can the path to a sustainable future be found in the past? Global experts on water policy and management in the Pacific gathered on 7 February at The Piano in Christchurch for Tauhere UC Connect public talk, The Path to a Sustainable Future.

HOW TO APPLY

Te R奴nanga o Ng膩i Tahu and Te Whare W膩nanga o Waitaha | the University of mini传媒 (UC) Office of Treaty Partnership, K膩 Waimaero | the Ng膩i Tahu Centre are co-hosting a free听Tauhere UC Connect听panel discussion by international thought-leaders in the fields of ecosystems, water science and the sustainability of the Pacific Islands: Professors Peter Vitousek and Barton 鈥淏u鈥 Thompson from Stanford University, United States, and Dr Mike Joy of Victoria University Wellington, chaired by University of mini传媒听Professor Bronwyn Hayward, and introduced by听Professor Te Maire Tau, K膩 Waimaero | Ng膩i Tahu Centre, University of mini传媒.

SDG 13 Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 13 - Climate Action

The year 2023 marks the University of mini传媒鈥檚 sesquicentenary and the 150th anniversary theme is:听Ka titiro whakamuri, ki te anga whakamua | Guided by the Past, Shaping the Future.

Topics for discussion in听The Path to a Sustainable Future听event include:

  • How and why Polynesia Island societies approached sustainability
  • How we got our deadly addiction to nitrogen
  • How our food went from energy positive to energy negative
  • How producing food became industrialised and fossil fuel dependent
  • How we lost our connection to water
  • Do courts have a role to play in promoting sustainability?
  • Does the world need a trustee? and
  • What does history teach us about how best to achieve sustainability?

mini传媒 the experts:
听is a global expert on water policy and management. He is the Robert E Paradise Professor of Natural Resources Law at Stanford University and a professor of environmental behavioural sciences at Stanford鈥檚 new Doerr School of Sustainability. He also is a senior fellow in the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment, which he co-founded in 2004 and directed for over a dozen years. He serves of counsel to the international law firm of O鈥橫elveny & Myers and is a member of the Technical Advisory Committee of the Sustainable Water Impact Fund (a joint business venture between the Renewable Resources Group and The Nature Conservancy).听 From 2008 to 2018, he served as Special Master for the United States Supreme Court in听Montana v. Wyoming, an interstate water dispute involving the Yellowstone River System. He also is a former member of the Science Advisory Board of the US Environmental Protection Agency. Bu is the author of multiple articles and books on water and the environment. His recent research focuses on the growing importance of private businesses in the pursuit of sustainability. His new book on听The Business听of Water听will be published in 2023.

听is the Clifford G. Morrison Professor of Population and Resource Studies in the Department of Earth System Science at Stanford University. Peter was born and grew up in Hawai鈥檌 and has been on the faculty at Stanford University since 1984. His research interests include: evaluating the global cycles of nitrogen and phosphorus, and how they are altered by human activity; determining the effects of invasive species on the workings of whole ecosystems; and understanding how the interaction of land and culture contributed to the sustainability of Pacific Island societies before European contact. He is a Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and was awarded the 2010 Japan Prize. He is co-director of the First Nations Futures Institute and of the Hawai鈥檌 Ecosystems Project.

听is a senior researcher at the Institute for Governance and Policy Studies at Victoria University of Wellington. Seeing the decline in freshwater health, he became an outspoken advocate for environmental protection. Mike has won numerous awards, including an Ecology in Action award from the NZ Ecological Society (2009), the Royal Society鈥檚 Charles Fleming Award for protection of the New Zealand environment (2013), the Morgan Foundation inaugural River Voice Award (2015), the inaugural Universities NZ Critic and Conscience award (2016) and was a semi-finalist for the 2018 Kiwibank New Zealander of the Year. Mike has developed bio-assessment tools used by many regional councils and consultants, and published scientific papers in many fields from artificial intelligence and data mining to the freshwater ecology of sub-Antarctic islands. He has worked for decades at the interface of science and policy in New Zealand with a goal of strengthening connections between science, policy and real outcomes to address the multiple environmental issues facing New Zealand.

  • Tauhere UC Connect public lecture:听The Path to a Sustainable Future,听7pm 鈥 8.30pm, Tuesday 7 February 2023, at The Piano, Christchurch. Panellists: Professor Barton 鈥楤u鈥 Thompson, Professor Peter Vitousek, Dr Mike Joy, chaired by听Professor Bronwyn Hayward, introduced by听Professor Te Maire Tau听(Ng膩i Tahu). Register to attend free at:听canterbury.ac.nz/public-lectures. Tauhere UC Connect public lectures are also live-streamed on the University of mini传媒 Facebook page, and made available to watch later on YouTube.

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