A number of excellent talks, upcoming, and regular events in the Vancouver area (well, all at PSU in this case) to attend and report on for extra credit. (And for the edification and thrill of the events themselves, natch.)
- Richard Norgaard at Portland State Systems Science Seminar, this Friday, February 3rd, 2012, 12:00 – 12:50 PM
LOCATION: Harder House (located at corner of SW Market & SW 10th), Room 104: “Ecosystem Services: From eye-opening metaphor to complexity blinder”
SUMMARY: What started as a humble metaphor to help us think about our relation to nature has become integral to how we are addressing the future of humanity and the course of biological evolution. The metaphor of nature as a stock that provides a flow of services is insufficient for the difficulties we are in or the task ahead. Indeed, combined with the mistaken presumption that we can analyze a global problem within a partial equilibrium economic framework and reach a new economy project-by-project without major institutional change, the simplicity of the stock-flow framework blinds us to the complexity of the human predicament. The ecosystem services approach can be a part of a larger solution, but its dominance in our characterization of our situation and the solution is blinding us to the ecological, economic, and political complexities of the challenges we actually face.
2. Every Friday, 2-4pm, PSU Social Sustainability Colloquium
This Friday: Constructing Sustainability Science–Thad Miller, PhD, is an Assistant Professor of Urban Civic Ecology at Portland State University’s Nohad A. Toulan School of Urban Studies and Planning. His research explores themes related to sustainability science and social action, the role of values in science and policy, urban sustainability, and interdisciplinary research and education.
3. Saturday, February 18: Sustainability4All, 9am-5pm
Portland State University Native American Center
Free Admission* Childcare* Lunch: Free registration HERE.
Summary: How can we make sustainability relevant to everyone? — come to this workshop on sustainability through multiple lenses such as environmental justice and equity! Keynote Speakers Marcelo Bonta (Center for Diversity & Environment) and Ben Duncan (OPAL Environmental Justice for Oregon)
Beginning to End Hunger 