Dear Colleagues, Bowdoin College is hosting a symposium on Saturday, October 24, 2009, “Changing Environments, Changing Societies: Community Responses to Environmental Uncertainty,” sponsored by the Environmental Studies Program and the McKeen Center for the Common Good at Bowdoin College and The Nature Conservancy.
This symposium will feature a number of speakers discussing international perspectives, including Dr. Evans Mwangi, who is the 2009 Mellon Global Scholar at Bowdoin and a faculty member at the University of Nairobi. A brief description of the symposium is provided below along with the official symposium website, which has information about registration and the schedule of events. “Changing Environments, Changing Societies: Community Responses to Environmental Uncertainty” The symposium will provide an opportunity to explore how communities respond to and interact with climate change. Several topics will be examined: the changing role and nature of water and its implications for societies, impacts on food production systems, and the impact of climate change on biodiversity. The symposium will highlight case studies of international regions where these issues are unfolding, including the Polar North, sub-Saharan Africa, and Asia, providing a comparative analysis with similar challenges faced by areas of the northeastern United States. These case studies will incorporate the natural and social sciences as well as approaches that practitioners, government officials, local communities, and NGOs are taking in response to changing systems. Within each theme, presenters will address how communities are responding to a changing environment, constraints faced by these societies/communities, and the role of resiliency within both natural and social systems in adapting to climate change. The symposium is intended for a general audience: natural and social scientists as well as practitioners, including international and local non-profit organizations, agencies, and faculty, staff, and students from colleges and universities who are involved and interested in the linkages between the natural world and human societies in responding to a changing climate. There is no charge for the symposium; however, registration is required. http://www.bowdoin.edu/environmental-studies/symposia/climate-adaptation-2009/index.shtml For more information, please contact Eileen Johnson at [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> or 207-798-7157. All the best, Phil Camill Rusack Associate Professor of Biology and Environmental Studies Program Director, Environmental Studies Bowdoin College 6700 College Station Brunswick, ME 04011
