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By Marcus Miller, Food Policy and Sustainability Leadership Certificate student 

This blog is part of a series from the December Arizona Immersive program of the Food Policy and Sustainability Leadership Graduate Certificate Program. Students virtually toured the state, meeting with farmers, ranchers, entrepreneurs, government staff and non-profit leaders. 

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As part of the ASU Center for Biodiversity Outcomes’ educational agenda, School of Life Sciences Assistant Research Professor Gwen Iacona and graduate student Olivia Davis developed a mathematical problem on funding for biodiversity conservation as part of the 2020 High School Mathematical Contest in Modeling (HiMCM), sponsored by the Consortium for Mathematics and Its Applications (COMAD).

“The problem was a big success, and I believe the students appreciated that this was a real and current issue,” celebrated COMAD HiMCM Director Kathleen G. Snook. “We received some interesting and thoughtful papers.”

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On January 29, 2021, ASU Project Cities hosted the Clarkdale Kickoff. This virtual event featured a panel discussion with Town leadership about Clarkdale’s values and character, followed by breakout meetings between students and their project leads.  Students were joined by a team of town stakeholders, including: Mayor Robyn Prud’homme-Bauer, Vice Mayor Debbie Hunseder, and Town Manager Tracie Hlavinka.

Students engaged the Clarkdale team in a wide-ranging conversation, starting with collecting insights and contacts for their projects, but also reaching into the panelists’ career trajectory and community values.

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Dr. J. Marshall Shepherd (Instagram @marsh4fsu, Twitter @DrShepherd2013) is a distinguished meteorologist, professor, writer, podcaster… and that only begins to share all his accomplishments! Here he chats with Robert Lloyd about science communication, the intersections of climate and social equity, the COVID-19 pandemic, and more. To learn more about Dr. Shepherd, you can visit his personal website or the University of Georgia's Department of Geography website.

Listen on iTunes, StitcherGoogle Podcasts, Spotify, or Buzzsprout.

If you have questions, comments, or suggestions for future episodes, e-mail us at futurecitiespodcast@gmail.com or find us on Twitter @FutureCitiesPod. Learn more about the Urban Resilience to Extremes Sustainability Research Network (UREx SRN) at www.sustainability.asu.edu/urbanresilience.

On January 26th, 2021, ECOnsult signed an MOU with the Ministry of Planning and Economic Development to create climate resilience awareness and green building guidelines for Egypt’s low-income villages. This is an ambitious national plan to upgrade and work on empowering men and women in 3000 villages with a budget of 500bln EGP and full engagement with NGOs and the private sector. The signing of the MOU was witnessed by HE Dr. Hala El Said, Minister of Planning and Economic Development. ECOnsult is finally reaching a dream goal of making green buildings a right and not a niche for a green recovery! Read Arab Finance's article to learn more about the exciting day.

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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.”

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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.

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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.

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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 .

Written by Jane Coghlan; Edited by Gabriel Sheppard

“When you have food sovereignty, you’re free to be self-reliant, to grow your own food, to choose the foods you want to eat, choose the foods you want to put in school systems, and really be self-sustaining or sustainable.”

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On January 19, 2021, ASU alumni Laura Calandrella published a book titled “Our Next Evolution: Transforming Collaborative Leadership to Shape Our Planet’s Future.”

Calandrella obtained a BA in Spanish and a BS in Biology and Society from Arizona State University in 2002, before completing a master’s degree in Development Studies from Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand, in 2005.

In addition to being a facilitator with the National Center for Environmental Conflict and Resolution, Calandrella has over a decade of experience as a Professional Certified Coach with the International Coaching Federation. She coaches leaders across the globe to build solid partnerships and strategies to address today’s toughest environmental challenges.

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Arizona State University will be co-hosting this year’s 2021 AAAS Annual Meeting, February 8-11. During the live virtual meetings, the ASU community will be presenting over 20 sessions and 43 papers, many of them featuring our sustainability scientists and scholars.

Center for Biodiversity Outcomes Founding Director Leah Gerber and School of Public Affairs Assistant Professor Derrick Anderson will facilitate a session titled “The Art of Bringing Evidence to Decision-Making in Conservation Science”. This session will take place on Thursday, February 11, 3:00-3:45 p.m. MST.

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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:

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By: Elizabeth Bruns, Nicole Darnall, Kylie Flynn, Angela Fox

Italian local government purchases account for 10-11% of the gross domestic product. Examples of purchases include vehicle fleets, construction materials, chemicals, electronics, and office materials. These items are a significant contributor to global climate change and other environmental concerns during manufacturing and use. Implementing green purchasing policies can significantly curb governmental contributions to negative environmental impacts while stimulating the global production of green products and services.

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