International Roundtable focuses on global environmental issues
By: Yenee Soh
Issue date: 10/9/09 Section: News
The 16th annual International Roundtable, "Global Environment: The Eleventh Hour?" began on Thursday and will run through Saturday. The roundtable features a series of discussions with academics Robert Costanza, Elizabeth Economy and Shawn Miller, and highlights issues of ecological and environmental concerns, especially in regards to the development, as well as discussing the main global environmental concerns and the forces responsible and what can be done to improve the situation.
The forum began with opening statements from Ahmed Samatar, dean of the Institute for Global Citizenship, and President Brian Rosenberg.
Costanza is the Director of the Gund Institute and professor for Ecological Economics at the University of Vermont. He is co-founder and past-president of the International Society for Ecological Economics, is on the editorial board of eight international academic journals and is the recipient of numerous awards.
"We can break our addiction to fossil fuels, overconsumption and the current development model and create a more sustainable and desirable future," he wrote in a speech. "It will not be easy, it will require a new vision, new measures, and new institutions. But it is not a sacrifice of quality of life to break this addiction. Quite the contrary, it is a sacrifice not to."
Costanza suggested several policies to "break our addiction," including, developing new measures of progress, shifting primary national policy goals and reforming tax systems.
Economy is the C.V. Starr Senior Fellow and Director for Asia Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations. She has written several books, including a few selected as Cambridge top 50 sustainability books and one of The Globalist's top ten sustainability books.
Miller is chair of the History department at Brigham Young University and has published articles and books on environmental history.
The roundtable will also feature some of Macalester's own faculty and students. DeWitt Wallace Professor and chair of Biology Mark Davis, Associate Professor of Economics Sarah West, Liz Larson '10 and Laura Bartolomei-Hill '10 are some of the discussants that will engage in the forum.
The forum began with opening statements from Ahmed Samatar, dean of the Institute for Global Citizenship, and President Brian Rosenberg.
Costanza is the Director of the Gund Institute and professor for Ecological Economics at the University of Vermont. He is co-founder and past-president of the International Society for Ecological Economics, is on the editorial board of eight international academic journals and is the recipient of numerous awards.
"We can break our addiction to fossil fuels, overconsumption and the current development model and create a more sustainable and desirable future," he wrote in a speech. "It will not be easy, it will require a new vision, new measures, and new institutions. But it is not a sacrifice of quality of life to break this addiction. Quite the contrary, it is a sacrifice not to."
Costanza suggested several policies to "break our addiction," including, developing new measures of progress, shifting primary national policy goals and reforming tax systems.
Economy is the C.V. Starr Senior Fellow and Director for Asia Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations. She has written several books, including a few selected as Cambridge top 50 sustainability books and one of The Globalist's top ten sustainability books.
Miller is chair of the History department at Brigham Young University and has published articles and books on environmental history.
The roundtable will also feature some of Macalester's own faculty and students. DeWitt Wallace Professor and chair of Biology Mark Davis, Associate Professor of Economics Sarah West, Liz Larson '10 and Laura Bartolomei-Hill '10 are some of the discussants that will engage in the forum.
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