Climate change is complicating land conservation practices because of how it alters land over time. Among other things, climate change is raising new questions about perpetual conservation easements — a critical land preservation tool relied upon by government agencies and nonprofit land trusts. A six-author team that conducted an unprecedented analysis of the structuring of conservation easements in the face of rapid climate change has been awarded the 2019 Morrison Prize, an honor established in 2015 and administered through the program on Law and Sustainability at the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at Arizona State University.

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Honeybees frequently make international news, as their global decline threatens the world’s food supply. Since honeybees pollinate the majority of crops that humans use for food, scientists have been searching for a way to maintain healthy bee populations.

Now, researchers with Arizona State University’s School of Life Sciences and the University of Helsinki are one step closer to understanding the complex immune mechanism that protects honeybees from diseases in their environments.

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ASU Center for Biodiversity Outcomes Postdoctoral Research Associate Lars Iversen recently co-authored a paper called “Promises and perils of sand exploitation in Greenland,” published in Nature Sustainability.

This article discusses future sand mining in Greenland and the potential impacts on the environment and local way of life. It is an attempt to discuss some of the challenges and conflicts between the protection of the local environment, climate change and the future economy of the Arctic.

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ASU Center for Biodiversity Outcomes Founding Director Leah Gerber’s work was highlighted in a recent The Economist article titled, “How to preserve nature on a tight budget: Saving species cheaply and effectively.”

Gerber's proposal on streamlining budgets for protection of  endangered species would allow an increase in the number and variety of species that are actually preserved if funds are allocated differently.

As stated in the article, “[Gerber] found that 139 of the 1,124 plants and animals with federal recovery plans in place got more than their fair share of public resources, as defined by USFWS recommendations. The surplus totalled $150m a year, more than a quarter of spending in the area. Re-allocated, this could bring nearly 900 currently underfunded plans up to budget.”

Click here to read the full article.

Ray Quay, a senior sustainability scientist in the Julie Ann Wrigley Global Institute of Sustainability at Arizona State University, was awarded the 2019 William R. and June Dale Prize for Excellence in Urban and Regional Planning. This year's award theme was "From Blueprint to Resilience: Planning when Change is the Norm," and Quay was the practitioner prize winner in honor of his decades of work in the arena of urban and regional planning for a rapidly-changing world.

Quay is also the director of stakeholder relations and a research professional for ASU's Decision Center for a Desert City. Read more about his work on the prize website.

Please welcome our new Global Locust Initiative interns, Braedon Kantola (left) and Teddy Gonzalez (right), who began interning for GLI in January 2019. They cannot begin to describe how enthusiastic they are to be given the opportunity of joining the GLI team to help further the development of research, partnerships and solutions for transboundary pest management.

At Arizona State University, Braedon is currently in the 4+1 Accelerated Master’s Program pursuing his Master of Sustainability Solutions along with a bachelor’s degree in sustainability with a focus on ecosystems, and a certificate in energy and sustainability. Teddy is pursuing concurrent degrees in sustainability and philosophy. In the fall, she will start a Juris Doctor degree from the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law's Law and Sustainability program.

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Originally studying to become a civil engineer, Matthew Waldman was so inspired by a sustainable neighborhoods urban development class that he changed his major to sustainability at Arizona State University.

As a School of Sustainability student, Waldman was able to participate in first-hand experiential learning opportunities that allowed him to serve the community while gaining real-world experience. He said his most meaningful opportunity was his internship at The Farm at South Mountain.

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It took 10 years for Nathan Gassmann to get his bachelor’s degree — the “scenic route,” as he called it. But finally getting that diploma in 2014 from the School of Sustainability at Arizona State University was the result of a lot of hard work, persistence, and balancing responsibilities as a parent, student and employee.

Gassmann recently landed a job as Subway’s manager of global sustainability, and he said he’s excited to enact change at a large scale. His advice for all Sun Devils is to challenge themselves.

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Osvaldo Sala, an ecologist and distinguished sustainability scientist in the Julie Ann Wrigley Global Institute of Sustainability, was named a Regents' Professor at Arizona State University. To be awarded the distinction, scholars must be full professors, with outstanding achievements in their fields, who are nationally and internationally recognized by their peers.

Sala has spent more than 35 years studying the driest places on Earth: the Patagonian steppe, the annual grasslands of California, the Kalahari in southern Africa, the Loess Plateau in China and the Chihuahuan Desert in New Mexico. His publications are among the most cited in the fields of ecology, sustainability and biology. He has more than 200 publications and 40,000 citations. Sala is also the founding director of the Global Drylands Center.

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Arizona State University Professor Donald L. Fixico, a distinguished sustainability scientist in the Julie Ann Wrigley Global Institute of Sustainability, was named a Regent's Professor for his work as a historian, particularly of American Indian cultures.

Bryan McKinley Jones Brayboy, a President’s Professor, director of the Center for Indian Education and ASU’s special adviser to the president on American Indian affairs, was quick to sing Fixico's praises.

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You could say Stewart Fotheringham, a distinguished sustainability scientist in the Julie Ann Wrigley Global Institute of Sustainability, is where he is now because of a dogged preoccupation with that perennial question of the human condition: Why?

“When I look at a map of disease rates across the country, for example, and I see there are clusters of high rates over here and low rates over here, what I want to know is why? What's causing that?” he said.

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The public lecture Oxford Professor Jonathan Bate delivered Tuesday night at Changing Hands Bookstore in Phoenix, cheekily titled "The End of the World As We Know It," made a connection between sustainability and the humanities.

“Past, present, future — a narrative structure,” Bate said. “One of my key arguments … about sustainability is that it needs the humanities because humanities give us narratives.”

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ASU Project Cities is proud to announce our 2019-2020 Community Partner: The City of Peoria!

Peoria is home to more than 171,000 residents and was ranked the number one place to live in Arizona by Money Magazine. With numerous recreational attractions, the city is well known as a family-oriented, active community with an exceptional quality of life. The city has demonstrated a strong commitment to sustainability, as evidenced by its directive to incorporate LEED building design standards, a council-adopted Sustainability Action Plan, and a dedicated full-time staff person to manage and coordinate organization-wide sustainability initiatives.

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A new Global Drylands Center report published in Global Change Biology addresses the influence of drylands on the global carbon cycle under climate change conditions. Using a data synthesis approach, senior manager of GDC Laureano Gherardi and founding director of GDC Osvaldo Sala reached robust conclusions.

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In latest episode of FutureCities podcast, "Heat and Thermal Comfort," host Stephen Elser interviewed Yuliya Dzyuban, Arizona State University School of Sustainability PhD student and Urban Resilience to Extremes Sustainability Research Network fellow, about her research involving extreme heat and the ways that people perceive and cope with that heat.

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In preparation for its annual meeting, the American Association of Geographers has named its 2019 Fellows. Included in this year’s honors are two from Arizona State University’s School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning: sustainability scientists Anthony Brazel and Martin Pasqualetti.

In 2018, the American Association of Geographers created the Fellows to recognize geographers who have made significant contributions to advancing the field of geography. Beyond the recognition, those selected as Fellows serve the AAG in creating and contributing to key initiatives, advising on strategic directions and mentoring early and mid-career faculty.

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Over the past two-years, Center for Biodiversity Outcomes Associate Director of Biodiversity Valuation and Assessments Beth Polidoro spearheaded a citizen science project titled “Community Monitoring of Pollutants in Urban Waterways and Recreational Fisheries in Metro-Phoenix.”

During this time, at least 14 undergraduate students were trained in field sampling, water quality monitoring and fish identification. In addition, more than 45 K-12 students from the Girl Scouts and Phoenix ZooTeens participated in sampling and training events.

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This month, Stephen Elser interviews UREx SRN fellow and ASU School of Sustainability PhD student, Yuliya Dzyuban, about her research involving extreme heat and the ways that people perceive and cope with that heat. They discuss the different aspects that affect one's thermal comfort, Ukrainian bus stops, and how there's a lot we can do to improve  urban design in Phoenix. Yuliya shares her research illustrating that integrating artistic elements into bus stops can actually make people feel cooler than they would in a bus stop with no such elements. Finally, Yuliya becomes a poet and shares with us a beautiful haiku describing her research.

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.

Listen on iTunes, Stitcher or Buzzsprout.

By leaving Minnesota to attend Arizona State University, junior Ally DiSera gave herself the opportunity to achieve a well-rounded sustainability education from the School of Sustainability — something she couldn’t find closer to home. “Sustainability is a human issue,” she said, so finding a program that touched on the social pillar of sustainability as well as environmental and economic pillars was important to her.

DiSera is currently pursuing dual degrees: a BA in sustainability and a BS in global supply chain management. Read the Q&A below to see how DiSera is making the most out of her time at ASU and how she plans to apply sustainability to her future career.

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During February, the Sustainability Solutions Festival convenes the planet’s top sustainability events and organizations to discover and explore how we can individually and collectively reimagine our lives and our planet. The festival will close with the annual GreenBiz event, February 26-28.