Sustainability News

Building on nearly two decades of unparalleled advancement, Arizona State University moved up to sixth out of 759 universities in the nation for total research expenditures among universities without a medical school, according to the latest National Science Foundation (NSF) Higher Education Research and Development (HERD) rankings.

Each year through the HERD survey, the NSF updates its list of where the money for research is going. It’s a way to look under the hood of the machinery of a university to see how well the engines that power research are running. ASU’s rise in the HERD survey underscores its strength in research funding — and the confidence that major agencies and others have in ASU research.

Continue Reading

The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation has issued a $4.2 million grant to Arizona State University to support the development of a collective model of mentorship centered on Indigenous knowledge and practices, establishing the Praxes of Indigenous Knowledge and Collective Mentorship project at the Center for Imagination in the Borderlands under the directorship of poet, 2020 National Book Award finalist and creative writing Associate Professor Natalie Diaz.

“Our goal is to build a foundation of knowledge for Indigenous artists and scholars that challenges institutional habits of disseminating that knowledge,” said Diaz, associate professor of English and the Maxine and Jonathan Marshall Chair in Modern and Contemporary Poetry. “The way mentorship occurs in our Indigenous communities is continual and across generations, in a relationship of reciprocity. This project will initiate a sustained conversation among Indigenous scholars from different regions, tribes, countries and generations. We want to move beyond the one-on-one mentorship model and return to a more collective imagining and creating.”

Continue Reading

Unaccounted emissions from permafrost, threats to the land sink, impacts on mental health and freshwater, COVID-19 outcomes and rights-based litigation to address climate change are some of the most recent findings in climate change science summarized in the 10 New Insights in Climate Science 2020.

This interdisciplinary report was launched by the Julie Ann Wrigley Global Futures Laboratory's partners at The Earth League in partnership with report co-sponsors United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change at a virtual event on Jan. 27 featuring Patricia Espinosa, the Executive Secretary of the UNFCCC. This report accompanies a paper simultaneously released in the journal Global Sustainability. The project was made possible through a partnership with Future Earth and the World Climate Research Programme. ASU contributors to this report included Peter Schlosser, co-chair of The Earth League, Clea Edwards and Clark Miller. The Julie Ann Wrigley Global Futures Laboratory is the North American secretariat for The Earth League, working in coordination with the Climate Service Center Germany (GERICS) at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Geesthacht and the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany (PIK).

Access the full report.

In a YouTube livestream event hosted by Rotary in Great Britain and Ireland, Amanda Ellis will discuss the critical role of gender equality in leadership. The 40-minute session will take place Tuesday, February 16, from 12:05–12:45 p.m. MST. Register online for tickets.

ASU students are invited to an informational call on Jan. 27 at noon MSG to learn more about the 2021 Congressional Innovation Scholars Program. Calls will last approximately 60 minutes with lots of opportunity for Q&A.

Nominations are also open for their Congressional Innovation Scholars Program, and they offer a $500 diversity referral award to anyone that refers them to a fellow from an underrepresented community. Most of their fellows to date found out about the program from a friend or colleague. Please nominate good candidates for this opportunity and encourage them to apply.

The program pays an $60,000 annual-equivalent stipend and other benefits and fellows have done incredible work like passing the OPEN Government Data Act into law, organizing the first hearing on facial recognition, and working on the House Judiciary Committee’s Antitrust Subcommittee report on Big Tech.

Achieving gender equality requires learning from best international practices and pinpointing areas for improvement. The Gender Equality and Governance Index (GEGI) taps into some of the world’s best datasets to analyze gender discrimination on a global scale, using five critical pillars: governance, education, work, entrepreneurship, and violence.

Join the East-West Center Leadership Program virtual workshop, featuring author and former World Bank Lead Gender Specialist Amanda Ellis, to learn more about the Index, and other tools for accelerating women’s empowerment and ensuring equal rights. The session will include an introduction to these tools and their use, examples of global best practice, and the opportunity to ask questions about pathways to gender equality.

Register online for the event, set for January 27 at 6:00 p.m. MST.

Author Tiffany King will present the 2021 Environmental Humanities Initiative Distinguished Lecture, a keynote address of the International Society for the Study of Religion, Nature, and Culture (ISSRNC) Conference.

Professor King’s research is situated at the intersections of slavery and indigenous genocide in the Americas. Author of The Black Shoals: Offshore Formations of Black and Native Studies, King will discuss her forthcoming book project, Red and Black Alchemies of Flesh: Conjuring Decolonial and Abolitionist Presents.

This lecture, set for February 18 at 4:00 p.m. MST, is co-sponsored by the Julie Ann Wrigley Global Futures Laboratory, Institute for Humanities Research, the Black Ecologies Initiative and the International Society for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture. Register online.

The National Academies is seeking approximately 10 new members for a 20-person standing committee, with expertise in the following areas: climate variability and change; human dimensions of global change; adaptation and mitigation approaches and technologies; observations, monitoring, and data management; ecosystem impacts and interactions; water cycle; carbon cycle; atmospheric composition; climate modeling; land use and land cover change; decision support tools; program management and evaluation; and risk characterization and communication. Submit nominations for committee members by February 12, 2021.

The Committee to Advise the U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP or Program) provides ongoing and focused advice to the USGCRP by convening key thought leaders and decision makers at semiannual meetings, providing strategic advice, reviewing draft plans for the Program, and serving as a portal to relevant activities from across the National Academies. The Committee is broadly constituted to bring expertise in all areas of global change research.

Continue Reading

Want to learn how to write for the general public or a policy-focused audience? Editors from two ASU-affiliated publications - Future Tense, a partnership of Slate, New America and ASU, and Issues in Science and Technology, published by ASU and the National Academies - will discuss what makes a good idea for their outlets and how to pitch them. Come prepared with ideas for articles and questions. Register to attend this event scheduled for 1pm MST on January 27 via Zoom.

Continue Reading

Join the National Academies February 2 at noon MST for a public briefing on a new report that outlines the key technological and socio-economic goals that must be achieved to put the United States on the path to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. During the webinar, members of the committee will discuss critical near-term policies needed for the decarbonization effort, including ways to support communities that will be most impacted by the transition.

The world is transforming its energy system from one dominated by fossil fuel combustion to one with net-zero emissions of carbon dioxide, the primary anthropogenic greenhouse gas. This energy transition is critical to mitigating climate change, protecting human health, and revitalizing the U.S. economy. To help policymakers, businesses, communities, and the public better understand what a net-zero transition would mean for the United States, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine convened a committee of experts to investigate the technology, policy, and societal dimensions of accelerating decarbonization in the U.S.

Register for the Feb. 2 event here .

In a new study, Carbon emissions from the global land rush and potential mitigation, published in the journal Nature Food, sustainability scientist Chuan Liao and co-authors looked at what drives large-scale land acquisitions and how the implementation of large-scale land acquisitions for agricultural development affects carbon emissions, and in turn, climate change.

According to Liao, "In this brief communication in Nature Food, we investigated what drives large-scale land acquisitions and how the implementation of large-scale land acquisitions for agricultural development affect carbon emissions, and in turn, climate change. Overall, the findings suggest there is a cost-effective way to produce more food while minimizing carbon emissions from this process. It is unrealistic to say that we cannot convert more land given that the world’s population is growing especially in developing countries, but we still must minimize carbon emissions while pursuing agricultural development."

Read more about the work in ASU Now. The abstract follows:

Continue Reading

Join the Center for Global Discovery and Conservation Science for a Coastal and Marine Science and Management Seminar Series event with coastal geomorphologist Murray Ford, who researches the impacts of sea-level rise on low-lying atoll islands in the Pacific. Ford's work combines remote sensing with geological and laboratory approaches to better understand the formation and evolution of atoll islands and the impacts of coastal hazards on local communities.

In this Jan. 28 talk, set for noon MST, Ford will present results of remote sensing, geochronological, and physical modeling studies that investigated island formation and dynamics. The future persistence of atoll islands is discussed in light of projected changes in sea level and adaptation within atoll settings.

Join via Zoom Thursday, January 28 at noon MST; password: 61504.

Researchers across the social, behavioral and economic sciences are encouraged to submit proposals to the Future of Work at the Human-Technology Frontier: Core Research solicitation by March 23, 2021.

The U.S. National Science Foundation’s “Future of Work at the Human-Technology Frontier” is one of ten transformative “big ideas” supporting bold, long-term research at the frontiers of science and engineering. The effort takes a multidisciplinary approach by supporting research at the intersection of people, society and technology, while aiming to increase opportunities for workers and spur innovations that benefit the U.S. economy. It is a collaborative effort with NSF’s directorates for Computer and Information Science and Engineering, Education and Human Resources, Engineering, and the Office of Integrative Activities.

Continue Reading

The 2021 AAAS Annual Meeting will convene entirely online, February 8-11, with related pre-released materials available online now. The AAAS Annual Meeting will be conducted in English. Use the AAAS Virtual Platform to browse the video library of pre-recorded Spotlight Videos, view AAAS E-poster and Sci-Mic Podcast galleries, visit and learn at the Exchange, and more. Live virtual meeting will convene on this platform February 8-11.

Among the 20+ sessions and 43 papers by ASU presenters are the following sessions and presentations featuring sustainability scientists and scholars. More sessions are being added all the time; check the AAAS website for most current listings.

Continue Reading

York, England, was founded by the Romans in A.D. 71. At about A.D. 200, the ancient Mesoamerican city of Teotihuacan was the biggest city in the world. And Phoenix was settled in 1867. What do they all have in common? A lot more than you would think, according to a recent paper authored by two Arizona State University scientists and their colleague.

Sustainability scientist Jose Lobo was a co-author of a recent paper, Cities: Complexity, theory and history, published in December in PLOS One.

Read more about the work in ASU Now. The abstract follows.

Continue Reading

ASU is co-hosting the XVIII Biennial International Association for the Study of the Commons (IASC) conference, including an eight month virtual conference rollout. The first virtual conference, Commons in Space, is set for Feb. 24-26 and is currently accepting submissions for individual presentations, special sessions and webinar panel discussions. Submit or register for Commons in Space.

Sustainability scientist Ryan Cornell has contributed to Future Agenda, a series from Future Tense in which experts suggest specific, forward-looking actions the new Biden administration should implement. The article is entitled It’s Time to Rethink the Tax Credit on Electric Vehicles.

According to Cornell, we must decouple our economy from fossil fuels and electrify all aspects of our daily lives. While there has been a recent focus on the final pieces of the electrification puzzle (shipping, airlines, steel production), Cornell says we shouldn’t ignore the comparatively low-hanging fruit that is the automotive transportation sector.

Continue Reading

Sustainability scientist Sara Meerow has co-authored a paper using survey experiments to show how people conceptualize different terms used to frame environmental policies and how this affects public opinion. The paper, Positively Resilient? How Framing Local Action Affects Public Opinion, appears in Urban Affairs Review.

The abstract follows.

Continue Reading

Sustainability scholar Evan Berry has shared the following invitation. This is a year of pandemic, a year of disruption, a year in which struggles for racial and economic justice can no longer be ignored. In that spirit, and in the interest of protecting the health of our members, the International Society for the Study of Religion, Nature, and Culture is postponing its in-person conference until 2022. In partnership with Arizona State University, ISSRNC will hold a nearly-carbon neutral virtual conference in February 18-28, 2021. Learn more and register.

Sustainability scientists Michael Schoon and Jennifer Hodbod are among the lecturers presenting the Resilience Alliance's 2021 short course, set for May 24-28, 2021. The purpose of this exciting one-week course is to draw on the expertise of scholars in the RA network to teach about resilience as conceptualized and studied by RA scholars and to facilitate collaboration among a broader network of students and researchers.

The theme for this first RA short course will be Resilience Foundations from Theory to Practice. Key concepts including panarchy and the adaptive cycle, scale and system dynamics, social-ecological systems, and resilience assessment will be explored from their roots through to current advances and applications. The evolution of these concepts and key papers will be presented by researchers who have played a role in their development. In collaborative groups, participants will apply resilience concepts to case studies with the goal of developing manuscript drafts and contributing to a library of cases.

Continue Reading