Since the first Earth Day in 1970, attitudes in the United States concerning environmentalism have gradually evolved from a focus on addressing pollution to a focus on protecting and nurturing our ecosystems. And as that transformation has taken place over the decades, two Arizona State University professors have been there to witness it all.

Joni Adamson, the President's Professor of Environmental Humanities in the Department of English and director of the Environmental Humanities Initiative at the Julie Ann Wrigley Global Institute of Sustainability, and Paul Hirt, a professor of history specializing in the American West, environmental history and policy and sustainability studies, shared their thoughts on how the country’s attitude toward saving the planet changed in an interview with ASU Now. Both Adamson and Hirt acknowledged that there’s been a shift in focus each decade, including in Arizona:

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As part of the Global Locust Initiative Lab’s FFAR project on coupled human-system approaches to solving locust plagues, also supported by ASU’s Swette Center for Sustainable Food Systems, workshops have been organized in South America, Sénégal and Australia to identify and address institutional barriers to sustainable locust management.

The first workshop took place in Tucumán, Argentina, on February 26 and 27, 2020. It brought together 38 participants from Argentina, Bolivia, Paraguay and Uruguay working in national and provincial locust control agencies, as well as  researchers, farmers and representatives of farming associations and ministries. Using a participative methodology with tools, such as collaborative social mapping, participants were invited to share their point of views regarding governance issues in the case of the South American locust (Schistocerca cancellata) over a day and a half. They explained the current situation characterized by regular outbreaks of S. cancellata, identified the main actors involved in the governance system, characterized the interactions among these agents, and discussed the main strengths, opportunities for improvement, and threats for the sustainable governance of the South American locust.

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Dedicated to fostering sustainable change through education, School of Sustainability master's student Julia Colbert helped implement nature journaling in local elementary school classrooms.

“Education has always been a significant part of my life. No matter where I go, what I do, and who I spend time with, I find myself gravitating towards education spaces,” Colbert said. Read more from Colbert in her Q&A.

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By Estève Giraud

I was talking to my friend John, who has been waiting tables for the past 4 years.

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The City of Glendale manages approximately 135 Aboveground Storage Tanks (ASTs). ASTs are necessary components for storing valuable chemical agents for a variety of uses, from water treatment to backup power generation. ASTs must be appropriately maintained to ensure citizen and employee safety, and while there are existing standards and regulations, Glendale experts describe a lack of cohesive standards in the industry. Students in Albert Brown’s ERM 401/501 and EGR 427: Hazardous Waste Management spent their Spring 2019 semester researching AST regulations and standards with the goals of identifying AST best management practices and developing an efficient and effective operations and maintenance program for Glendale to consider applying to their ASTs.

This summary report is unique, as it represents the combined effort of a hybrid, multi-campus course format that brought together ASU students from the Tempe campus, Polytechnic campus, as well as online students simultaneously in a quasi-virtual learning environment. To conduct their research, students attended workshops, conducted site visits, performed literature reviews, and held stakeholder interviews with Glendale representatives. Analysis of the gathered information led to a robust list of both specific and generalizable recommendations, aimed at ensuring maximum safety levels for Glendale’s ASTs and the city staff maintaining them.

All the students’ hard work is now available online. Read the full summary report here.

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Sustainability scientist Ariane Middel, an assistant professor in the School of Arts, Media and Engineering and in the School of Computing, Informatics and Decision Systems Engineering, has been awarded an NSF CAREER award to further pursue her research in the SHaDE lab, which looks at heat from a human perspective.

The panel that reviewed her work particularly valued Middel’s integration of research and education, with K–12 outreach and a special focus on attracting women to STEM fields, and the academia-practitioner partnerships she is building with cities in the Valley.

“The proposed research will help us understand how people experience heat by including other atmospheric variables, such as mean radiant temperature (MRT),” Middel said. “MRT represents the heat load on a human body and varies significantly if somebody is standing in the shade or sun. We will use an innovative mobile sensor platform called “MaRTy” to measures how people experience heat in Phoenix and Los Angeles.”

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced rapid, large changes in how we do practically everything. Virtually overnight, a large fraction of U.S. households has transitioned from a reality of long commutes, in-person classes and business meetings, and in-store shopping to one of telecommuting, online classes and business meetings, and online shopping – even for groceries. Many of these changes were happening already, but COVID-19 has pressed the fast-forward button.

Sustainability scientists Deborah Salon and Mike Kuby invite you to take part in a survey-based research study to better understand which of the COVID-19 changes might persist after the pandemic, and for whom. The results will help government agencies and communities recover faster and become more resilient to the next adverse event. They will be making the responses to this survey available to anyone who would like to use them, with the hope that this will increase their usefulness in preparing for the future.

The Public Interest Technology University Network is pleased to announce the launch of the Year 2 Challenge for its 36 members. ASU is a founding member of this network, and the School for the Future of Innovation in Society won a grant in year 1.

The Challenge aims to support the development of Public Interest Technology programs within academia by encouraging new ideas, fostering collaborations, and incentivizing resource- and information-sharing among network members.

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Sustainability scientist Amber Wutich will join the New York Academy of Sciences Anthropology Section as a panelist for a webinar focused on our current pandemic (COVID-19), contextualizing the global comparative, disease and treatment, issues of social and economic inequity, immigrant health, questions of stigma, and policy. The panel will be moderated by Tonya Taylor, assistant professor, College of Medicine, SUNY Downstate.

Wutich is President’s Professor of Anthropology and Director of the Center for Global Health in Arizona State University’s School of Human Evolution and Social Change. Other panelists include Shirley Lindenbaum (Professor Emerita, Department of Anthropology, The Graduate Center, CUNY), Merrill Singer (Professor Emeritus of Medical Anthropology, The University of Connecticut and in Community Medicine at The University of Connecticut Health Center), James H. Jones (Associate Professor of Earth System Science & Senior Fellow, Woods Institute for the Environment, Stanford University), and Thurka Sangaramoorthy (Associate Professor of Anthropology, University of Maryland).

The Global Drylands Center honors Professor Paul Hirt’s service as a member of the GDC Executive Board since its inception in 2017. Following 33 years of his academic career, with 16 of those years at Arizona State University, Professor Hirt will be retiring at the end of the Spring 2020 semester.

Paul Hirt is a historian specializing in the American West, environmental history, environmental policy and sustainability studies. Hirt's publications include a monograph on the history of electric power in the U.S. Northwest and British Columbia, titled "The Wired Northwest" (Univ Press of Kansas, 2012). He also published a history of national forest management since WWII ("A Conspiracy of Optimism," 1994), and edited two collections of essays on Northwest history ("Terra Pacifica," 1998 and "Northwest Lands, Northwest Peoples," 1999). Hirt has also authored more than two dozen articles and book chapters on environmental and western history and policy. His current research projects include collaborative interdisciplinary research on energy transitions, water use and conservation, urban growth and sustainability in southern Arizona, and adaptive management in the Colorado River Basin.

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A new webinar panel series entitled Don’t Waste the COVID-19 Crisis: Reflections on Resilience and the Commons Revealed by COVID-19, kicks off on April 20 with an event featuring sustainability scientists Brad Allenby and David Manuel-Navarrete.

Tune in to Zoom on Monday at noon for the event, What Does a Post-COVID-19 World Look Like?

Co-hosted by the Center for Behavior Institutions and the Environment (CBIE), the International Association for Study of the Commons (IASC), and the Resilience Alliance, the series was organized by Marco Janssen, Marty Anderies, and Mike Schoon.

The fall of cryptocurrencies in 2018 had far reaching effects for the digital currency market. Bitcoin remains more than 200% below its all-time-high even in 2020. Although shaking the public’s trust, the capital assets invested into blockchain have more than tripled. With companies such as IBM investing 1,500 employees into over 500 blockchain projects, JP Morgan implementing its digital currency to over 200 clients, and angel investments of $23 billion in 2019, blockchain has seen imperturbable growth in the corporate sector. But why? To understand these investments, let’s begin by understanding what exactly a blockchain provides and how it differentiates from alternative modern applications.

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We are living in an unprecedented time. While none of us have experienced the specific details of the challenges before us, we are not without resources to help see us through. The International Leadership Association has invited well-known and respected thought leaders from around the world to share their leadership knowledge, wisdom, and viewpoint to inform and inspire us as we continue our collective work.

Amanda Ellis, WE Empower Co-Chair and Executive Director of Global Partnerships for ASU's Global Futures Laboratory, reflected on the leadership of Jacinda Ardern, the Prime Minister of New Zealand, during the crisis and why we need more women leaders. Read Ellis's article for the ILA.

Garr Punnett had been working in television production when he realized he wanted something more. Inspired by the environmentally conscious fashion brands he had recently discovered, he decided to obtain a degree in sustainability.

"A sustainability degree has provided me a different lens through which to view the world," said Punnett, who graduated with a Master of Sustainability Solutions. "I believe there is a lack of social and environmental empathy when constructing business models and my degree allow me to act with a better degree of certainty what I believe our future economy should look like."

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We live in an era of rapid societal and environmental changes. Arizona State University's Narrative Storytelling Initiative wants to know: how do you envision the future?

The initiative, in collaboration with the Global Futures Laboratory, the Environmental Humanities Initiative and the Institute for Humanities Research, is holding a story and essay contest to capture your idea of what the future holds.

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Arizona State University Knowledge Enterprise offers free access to Dr. Meg Bouvier’s virtual, on-demand grantsmanship training courses. ASU researchers can take advantage of valuable training from medical writer Meg Bouvier.

To access the training:

1. Visit MegBouvier.com
2. Choose your training workshop
3. Use code "ASU NIH Training" on checkout

Margaret Bouvier works with institutions that conduct biomedical research—from academic medical centers to universities to non-profits. As a full-time NIH grantwriter, she sees dozens of reviewer comments each year. With that broad, current perspective, she knows what is fundable right now.

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The 2020 Fulbright Scholar competition is now open, with applications due in September. Applications submitted during this year’s competition will be for research and/or teaching abroad to take place during 2021-2022 academic year.

If you are considering applying this year or in the future, you can learn more about the Fulbright Scholars program and strategies for applying. In a special workshop session hosted on April 15th and April 23rd, Karen Engler-Weber, ASU's Fulbright Liaison, will discuss different award options available for faculty, academics and administrators. Additionally, you'll learn about the application process, important strategies for applying and ASU resources available to support your Fulbright goals.

April 15, 10:00 - 11:30 a.m.: Register

April 23, 2:00 - 3:30 p.m.: Register

Recipients of the 2020 NAS Awards will be honored at a ceremony on Sunday, April 26th during the National Academy of Sciences’ 157th Annual Meeting. The Awards Ceremony will be webcast live, beginning at 1:30 p.m. Arizona time.

Among the winners is sustainability scientist Lindy Elkins-Tanton, who has been awarded the 2020 Arthur L. Day Prize and Lectureship. The Arthur L. Day Prize and Lectureship is awarded to a scientist making lasting contributions to the study of the physics of the Earth and whose lectures will provide solid, timely, and useful additions to the knowledge and literature in the field.

Many scientific sessions during the NAS Annual Meeting will be webcast live, from a book and author talk with Carl Zimmer on She Has Her Mother’s Laugh: The Powers, Perversions, and Potential of Heredity to a COVID-19 Update with the National Academy of Medicine.

Visit the NAS website for more information and to register.

The coronavirus pandemic may have upended life as we know it, but there are a few things that haven’t changed, like the fact that it’s currently Earth Month at Arizona State University. To mark the occasion, Siobhan Lyon and Emmery Ledin, two members on the sustainability committee of the ASU staff council created the Earth Month Learning Series, a sequence of online discussions that are a part of ASU’s recognition of the 50th anniversary of Earth Day.

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