The Woods Hole Research Center Seminar Series

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Previous Seminars

Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) Focus of March 31 Erpf Lecture

Tuesday, March 31, at 7:00 PM

Thomas Stone

Woods Hole Research Associate Thomas Stone will give a talk on the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI).

The Great Issues of Environment: Ecology and the Public Good
A Symposium Honoring George Masters Woodwell in Celebration of his Eightieth Birthday

October 24, 2008

Dean Abrahamson, John H. Adams, F. Herbert Bormann, Paul R. Ehrlich, John P. Holdren, Daniel Nepstad, J. G. Speth, Sandra Steingraber

Science, Education, and Policy in Action: Adventures and Climate Change in the Arctic

June 26, 2008

R. Max Holmes, Associate Scientist, Woods Hole Research Center
Anya Suslova, Undergraduate Intern, Siberia

Tropical Forests and Global Climate Change: Connections and Remedies

April 16, 2008

John P. Holdren, Director
Daniel Nepstad, Senior Scientist
Woods Hole Research Center

Sippewissett, or Life on a Salt Marsh

July 9, 2007

Tim Traver, Author

The Amazon River: How Choices Now Shape Its Future

March 14, 2007

Michael T. Coe, Associate Scientist
Woods Hole Research Center

Dr. Coe will explore what has been learned about the variability of Amazonian surface waters, what the different drivers of change may mean for the future, and how this knowledge provides an opportunity to explore alternatives through policy. He will discuss how different paths in future deforestation and creation and enforcement of forest policies make a big difference to the resulting water resources as well as how controls on carbon emissions (whether through industrial changes or avoided deforestation) have the potential to make a measurable difference. He will explain how the tools Center researchers are developing and applying are a way to articulate future possibilities.

The Science and Rescue of the Amazon

June 28, 2006

Daniel Nepstad, Senior Scientist
Woods Hole Research Center

A tropical forest ecologist, Dr. Nepstad has studied Amazon forests and strategies for their conservation for the last 21 years. His research includes forest fires and “savannization”, the analysis of public policies to conserve the Amazon’s natural resources, the prediction of future trends of Amazon forests and people, and the environmental certification of the region’s cattle ranchers and soy farmers. Based in Belém, Brazil, Dr. Nepstad leads the Center’s Amazon program. In 1995, he co-founded the Amazon Institute of Environmental Studies (Instituto de Pesquisa Ambiental da Amazônia), now the largest independent research institution in the Amazon region. He has published more than 75 scientific articles and books on the Amazon. In 1994, he was awarded a Pew Scholars Fellowship in Conservation. His work was recently featured in a BBC documentary on global warming and has been covered by the Discovery Channel, The New York Times, and Nature.

Twentieth Anniversary Symposium
Environmentalism: Retrospect and Prospect

June 3, 2005

Paul R. Ehrlich, Sandra Steingraber, J. G. Speth, John P. Holdren, and George M. Woodwell

Russia’s Environmental Health: Role of Civil Society

March 10, 2005

Two Russian scientists, Alexei Yablokov, of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and Vladimir Zakharov, of the Center for Russian Environmental Policy, spoke on “Russia’s Environmental Health: Role of Civil Society.”

The public lecture was part of a two-day meeting at which a delegation of experts from Russia and the Woods Hole Research Center explored issues of significance in Russia, including problems of economic growth, environmental security and civil society, as well as broader issues concerning the health of the environment. Also included in the Russian delegation was Professor Sergey Bobylev, of the Moscow State University Department of Economics, and Professor Semen Avaliani, of the Russian Postgraduate Medical Academy.

Great Transition: The Promise and Lure of the Times Ahead

February 16, 2005

Paul Raskin is president of the Tellus Institute and director of the Stockholm Environment Institute-Boston (SEI-Boston), where he conducts a broad international research program on environment, resources, and development policy. Trained as a theoretical physicist, Dr. Raskin has for many years combined global economic, environmental, and social assessments and designed widely used integrated planning models. He has been a member of the board on sustainable development of the National Academy of Sciences and a lead author for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. He is also an expert advisor to the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment and the Convention on Biological Diversity. The title of Dr. Raskin's lecture is also that of his most recent book, which "describes the historic roots, current dynamics, future perils, and alternative pathways for world development and advances one of these paths, Great Transition, as the preferred route."

Agriculture's Ten Thousand Year Old Challenge

September 20, 2004

Wes Jackson is an agriculturalist and geneticist and is co-founder and president of The Land Institute of Salina, Kansas. He is known for his development of Natural Systems Agriculture, an ecologically responsible paradigm for food production using an ecological approach as to how the world has worked and evolved over millions of years. In the view of Dr. George M. Woodwell, director of the Woods Hole Research Center, "the continuity of the human habitat is being severely challenged by industrial agriculture and other broad and destructive influences." He believes that agriculture will be saved by "diversity, by innovations in crop development and management" and cites Dr. Jackson's vigorous career and leadership in the international movement for a more nearly sustainable agriculture. Dr. Jackson is the author of several books, including New Roots for Agriculture. He was a 1990 Pew Conservation Scholar and was named a MacArthur Fellow in 1992.

The Earth's Cryosphere and Global Environmental Change

July 15, 2004

Richard S. Williams, Jr., is a senior research geologist at the Woods Hole Science Center of the U.S. Geological Survey, a Vice Chairman Emeritus, Committee for Research and Exploration, National Geographic Society, and an adjunct senior scientist at the Woods Hole Research Center. Dr. Williams has done extensive research on the earth's cryosphere-glaciers, snow cover, floating ice, and permafrost. His seminar will focus on glaciers and their potential to significantly raise sea water as the earth warms. He is the senior editor of Icelandic Ice Mountains (2004) and co-author of the undergraduate textbook, Physical Geography: The Global Environment, published this year by Oxford University Press.

Climate Change: Learning from the Past, Planning for the Future

June 3, 2004
Daniel P. Schrag is a professor in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences and the director of Harvard's Center for the Environment. He is active in public and policy-maker education concerning problems of the environment. A MacArthur Prize Fellow of 2000, Dr. Schrag was cited for having "blazed diverse trails through paleoclimatology and oceanography in his work on oxygen isotope geochemistry of marine fossils, early global glaciation of the Earth, and physical oceanography."

Panel Discussion: Scientific Integrity in Policymaking

April 12, 2004
Dr. Kilaparti Ramakrishna, deputy director of the Woods Hole Research Center, convened a forum that included John Farrington, vice president of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution; Peter Frumhoff, director of the Global Environment Program at the Union of Concerned Scientists; John Holdren, Teresa and John Heinz Professor of Environmental Policy at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government; Jerry Melillo, co-director of the Ecosystems Center of the Marine Biological Laboratory; and George M. Woodwell, director of the Woods Hole Research Center. The discussion centered on the role of science and scientists in defining and defending the public interest, recently brought into sharp focus with the release of the report prepared by the Union of Concerned Scientists entitled, "Scientific Integrity in Policymaking: An Investigation into the Bush Administration's Misuse of Science." Dr. Ramakrishna moderated the discussion.

Business on a Small Planet

October 2, 2003
Paul Hawken is the author of dozens of articles, scientific papers, and several books, including Natural Capitalism: Creating the Next Industrial Revolution, with Amory and Hunter Lovins. He is the founder of several companies, including Smith & Hawken, Datafusion, a knowledge synthesis software company, and several of the first natural food companies in the U.S that relied solely on sustainable agricultural methods. Hawken's 1988 book, Growing a Business, was the basis for his successful PBS series of the same name, which explored the challenges and pitfalls of starting and operating socially responsible companies, and was broadcast on television in more than one hundred countries.

Reflections on Iraq's Weapons of Mass Destruction: A UN Inspector's Experiences

July 29, 2003
Jørn Siljeholm, part of the UNMOVIC (United Nations Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission) team in Iraq just prior to U.S. military action, holds a doctorate in chemical risk analysis and is currently at the Security Studies Program of the Center for International Studies at MIT. He has served as environmental chemist and environmental advisor for Esso Norway refineries, advisor to CONCAWE, the European oil companies' joint research organization, and Executive Vice President for Communications at Norway's largest finance company, Storebrand. He was executive director of Naturevernforbundet, the Norwegian Society for the Conservation of Nature, and chaired the Norwegian Research Organization for Pharmacology and Toxicology.

Assessing human vulnerability to global environmental change.

July 23, 2003
Roger Kasperson received his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in 1966. He has written widely on issues connected with risk analysis, risk communication, global environmental change, risk and ethics, and environmental policy. He has been honored for his hazards research by the Association of American Geographers. From 1992-1996 he chaired the International Geographical Union Commission on Critical Situations/Regions in Global Environmental Change. He serves on the advisory board of the Society for Risk Analysis, the National Research Council's Board on Radioactive Waste Management, and the Science Advisory Board of the Environmental Protection Agency.

Report on the World Summit on Sustainable Development, Johannesburg 2002

October 2nd, 2002.
Woods Hole Research Center Deputy Director DR. KILAPARTI RAMAKRISHNA, Senior Scientist DR. ERIC A. DAVIDSON, and Director DR. GEORGE M. WOODWELL reported on their activities and impressions of the "Earth Summit." The intention of the World Summit on Sustainable Development was to bring heads of state and leaders from non-governmental organizations, business, and other groups together to focus the world's attention on improving people's lives and conserving natural resources in a world with ever-increasing demands on the basics necessary to sustain life. While the meeting's achievements were not as broad as had been hoped, governments reached various agreements including those on providing clean drinking water and affordable energy to the world's poor. During the course of the summit, Russia announced it would ratify the Kyoto Protocol, which will cause the global warming treaty to take effect despite the United States' dismissal.

Beyond Johannesburg: Bridging the Gulf between Ecology and Environmental Law

August 6th, 2002.
NICHOLAS A. ROBINSON, founder of Pace University's environmental law programs, edited the proceedings of the 1992 United Nations Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. He has been a pioneer of environmental law since 1969 when he was named to the Legal Advisory Committee of the President's Council on Environmental Quality. He has practiced environmental law in law firms, for municipalities, and as former general counsel of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation. The author of numerous books and articles, Professor Robinson drafted New York's wetlands and wild bird laws. He is currently legal advisor and chairman of the Commission on Environmental Law of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources, engaged in drafting treaties and counseling different countries on the preparation of their environmental laws.

Tropical Economy and Economic Development

May 24, 2002.
JEFFREY SACHS is director of Harvard's Center for International Development, which is a part of both the John F. Kennedy School of Government and the Harvard Institute for International Development. In January of 2002 Professor Sachs was appointed as special advisor to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan on the Millennium Development Goals. He is a research associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research, and recently he has served as chairman of the Commission on Macroeconomics and Health of the World Health Organization and as an economic advisor to governments in Latin America, Eastern Europe, Asia, and Africa. Professor Sachs is the recipient of many awards and honors, and The New York Times Magazine has called him "probably the most important economist in the world."

The Humanity Crisis: Focusing on the True Nature of Our Dilemma

April 23, 2002.
DIANNE DUMANOSKI began her journalism career as a producer at WGBH-TV in Boston, then as a television reporter, and eventually turned to print. She spent a decade as The Boston Globe's environmental reporter and covered such issues as ozone depletion, global warming, and the accelerating loss of species. She has combined her interest in public policy with coverage of scientific expeditions and climate treaty negotiations. Ms. Dumanoski is a co-author of the 1996 book Our Stolen Future, which discusses the impact of man-made chemicals in the environment. Excerpts from her 1999 essay "Rethinking Environmentalism" appear in an anthology of environmental thought entitled Our Land, Ourselves: Readings on People and Place.

Finding the Right Balance: The Disposal of Nuclear Waste

March 29, 2002.
GARRY BREWER is Frederick K. Weyerhaeuser Professor of Resource Policy and Management, jointly at the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies and the Yale School of Management. Professor Brewer is a policy scientist who, in addition to numerous academic appointments, has served on national and international panels and commissions, including those of the National Academy of Sciences, the Department of Energy, and the Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board. In 1997 he was appointed by His Majesty the King of Sweden as King Carl XVI Gustaf Professor of Environmental Sciences and was elected to the Royal Swedish Academy.

Sustainable development and conflict management in Latin America

Feb. 1st, 2002
YOLANDA KAKABADSE, president of the World Conservation Union (IUCN), is a senior advisor on sustainable development to the United Nations Secretary General. In the early 90s, she coordinated the participation of civil society organizations in the United Nations Conference for Environment and Development (Earth Summit) in Geneva. In 1993 she founded Fundación Futuro Latinoamericano, where she continues to serve as Executive President. Until recently she was the Ecuadorian Minister of Environment.

Toward a Real Kyoto Protocol

Jan. 8th, 2002
ROSS GELBSPAN, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author of "The Heat Is On: the Climate Crisis, the Cover-Up, the Prescription." Joining Mr. Gelbspan was Dr. Paul Epstein, associate director for the Center for Health and the Global Environment at Harvard Medical School.

Nitrogen pollution of coastal waters: Sources, rates of change, and possible solutions to the problem

Dec. 11th, 2001
ROBERT HOWARTH is currently on leave from Cornell University, where he is David R. Atkinson Professor of Ecology and Environmental Biology at Cornell University. He studies the environmental effects of pollution in coastal oceans, particularly from nutrients and oil pollution. He is also editor-in-chief of the journal Biogeochemistry.

Previous speakers from the Erpf Lecture Series

Design, Ecology, Ethics, and the Making of Things

WILLIAM MCDONOUGH, principal architect for William McDonough + Partners, is world-renowned for environmentally responsible design and architecture. He was named Architect of the Year for 1999 by Interiors magazine, and is the only individual to receive the Presidential Award for Sustainable Development. William McDonough + partners has designed headquarters for The Gap, Nike, and Herman Miller and the Oberlin College Environmental Studies Center. McDonough + Partners is designing the Woods Hole Research Center's new headquarters.

Our Health in a Warming Climate

DEVRA LEE DAVIS, Ph.D., MPH, Director of the Health, Environment and Development Program at the World Resources Institute.

Living Downstream: An Ecologist Looks at Cancer and the Environment

SANDRA STEINGRABER, Ph.D., author of Living Downstream: An Ecologist Looks at Cancer and the Environment, Post-Diagnosis, and co-author of The Spoils of Famine, is an internationally recognized expert on the environmental links to cancers. She was recently appointed to serve on President Clinton's National Action Plan on Breast Cancer, administered by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

People and Forests: The Human Signature on an Ancient Landscape

DAVID G. CAMPBELL, Henry R. Luce Professor in Nations and Global Environment, Grinnell College; author of, The Crystal Desert: Summers in Antarctica.

Wild Lands, Endangered People

ART WOLFE, Outdoor photographer and author of, Migrations: Wildlife in Motion and, Light on the Land.

Bombs, BTUs, and the Biota: Priorities for the Next Four Years

JOHN P. HOLDREN, visiting distinguished scientist, The Woods Hole Research Center; Teresa and John Heinz Professor of Environmental Policy, Harvard University; chair, Committee on International Security and Arms Control, National Academy of Sciences.

The Coming Energy-Environment Train Wreck: Why Energy Supply Remains the World's Biggest Environmental Problem; What Could and Should Be Done About It; Why We're Not Doing It

JOHN P. HOLDREN Visiting Distinguished Scientist, Woods Hole Research Center; Class of 1935 Professor of Energy, University of California, Berkeley; Member, President's Committee of Advisors on Science and Technology.

The New Political Landscape

DAVID M. SHRIBMAN 1995 Pulitzer Prize winner for national political reporting; columnist and Washington Bureau Chief of The Boston Globe

What If the Sky Fell and Nobody Noticed? Convincing the Public About Global Change

BILL MCKIBBEN author of, The End of Nature and Hope,Human and Wild: True Stories of Living Lightly on Earth; former New Yorker staff writer.

Newly Emerging Diseases in a World

LAURIE GARRETT author of, The Coming Plague; medical writer for Newsday; former science correspondent for National Public Radio.

A Vision of U.S. Security in the 21st Century

ROBERT S. MCNAMARA U.S. Secretary of Defense 1961-1968; former president, World Bank; associated with a variety of organizations focusing on population and development, world hunger, the environment, East-West relations and nuclear arms.