Gund Institute Podcasts
104 episodes - English - Latest episode: over 1 year ago - ★★★★★ - 3 ratingsThe Gund Institute is a leading center for sustainability research and education at the University of Vermont.
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Episodes
Jane Adams: Visual Storytelling
December 06, 2018 18:37 - 29 minutes - 40.5 MBExploring a complex network across macro and micro scales means qualifying systemic trends with unique anecdotes. Data visualization can help us reduce dimensionality in large data sets to better understand groupings and movements, but also affords us the opportunity to support quantitative values with humanistic, qualitative communication.
Mohamed Esham: Climate Change Impact and Adaptation in the Agricultural Sector in Sri Lanka
October 30, 2018 16:53 - 35 minutes - 49 MBThe talk will cover the climate change impacts on agriculture sector especially on food crops and tea. I will be talking about the shifting role of tea smallholders and the challenges they face as the major contributors to national tea production as against the larger plantation companies. I will also talk about the current adaptation practices and the way forward.
Rebecca Diehl: Investigating Interactions in Plants, Water, & Sediment Models of Riparian Ecosystems
October 18, 2018 16:46 - 28 minutes - 51.6 MBShifts to the climate and the way in which water resources are managed in the Southwestern US will alter flow and sediment regimes, influencing the character of riparian ecosystems in an unknown way. In this talk, I present findings from my research investigating interactions among riparian plants, hydrology, and sediment important for controlling the co-adjustment of plant communities and the geomorphic template on which these communities grow. Inclusion of this deeper understanding of ecoge...
Bob Bartlett: Democratic Environmental Governance: Rights Thinking
October 04, 2018 15:46 - 52 minutes - 72.1 MBSuccessful democratic environmental governance requires the development of robust systems of environmental rights--but not the intrinsic rights usually advocated by environmentalists, nor declarations per se of rights in constitutions, treaties, and judicial rulings (a limited conception that dominates the thinking of many legal scholars and rights activists). For truly democratic governance, rights must be a shorthand label for fundamental policies about what humans may, must, and may never ...
Chuck Ross: Getting to Clean Water While Growing Agriculture - How and Why
September 26, 2018 17:26 - 29 minutes - 40.9 MBVermont is struggling with two iconic and important resources which contribute to our economy, sense of place and quality of life. Talk is cheap, meaningful action that moves the needle is hard. How can we do both at the same time? I will share lessons I learned from the field dealing with this Vermont challenge with real stakes and which is illustrative of others we all face as we move deeper into the 21st century.
Eric von Wettberg: Creating Crops That Are Climate Resilient
September 11, 2018 17:02 - 38 minutes - 88 MBI will talk about our work to improve the climatic resilience of chickpea, the second most widely consumed grain legume crop in the world and a key source of dietary protein to many in South Asia and East Africa. By building a systematic collection of wild chickpea and using genomics to guide our introgressions, we are developing new chickpea varieties with improved disease resistance and drought tolerance. This work lays a foundation for preserving and utilizing the wild diversity of a range...
Luis Vivanco: Nature Films and Anthropocene Imaginaries
May 02, 2018 16:06 - 32 minutes - 29.3 MBWe like to accept nature films as realistic representations of the natural world. On some level, they are. But revelations of animal staging and fakery, the widespread use of computer generated imagery, and the emergence of nature films emphasizing themes of Intelligent Design, have reinforced an interesting, perhaps unexpected and even profane, fact: nature films exist as a powerful context for examining questions of creation, creators, and the hand of humans in shaping, both conceptually an...
Tom Dietz: What Does Research on Environmental Decision Making tell us About Sustainability?
May 02, 2018 16:05 - 1 hour - 79.6 MBResearch on environmental decision making draws on theory in economics, and social and cognitive psychology. Theory and evidence about values, norms and cognitive biases define a number of challenges for sustainability but also suggest ways of encouraging sustainable behaviors. At the same time the challenges of sustainability suggest new challenges for environmental decision making research
Marilyn Lucas: Environmental Management Practices and Financial Performance
May 02, 2018 16:01 - 37 minutes - 33.9 MBIs the relationship between a firm's environmental management practices (EMPs) and its financial performance (FP) dependent on the characteristics of the industry in which the firm operates? If so, how? Building on our previous work (Lucas & Noordewier, 2016) and drawing upon the industrial organization literature, we identify industry concentration and industry growth as critical dimensions of industry context. We propose and test a model that examines the effect of EMPs on firm financial pe...
Dr. Andrew Hoffman: How Culture Shapes the Climate Change Debate
May 02, 2018 16:00 - 47 minutes - 64.7 MBDr. Andrew Hoffman: How Culture Shapes the Climate Change Debate by University of Vermont
Johanna Polsenberg: Protecting the Health of our Oceans, with a Focus on Sub-Saharan Africa
April 09, 2018 15:20 - 28 minutes - 66.1 MBIf managed and used sustainably, the oceans could provide people with very high-quality sources of protein and other important natural resources. Coupled with the population growth and the region's heavy reliance on their natural resources, Sub-Saharan Africa represents both an urgent challenge and a huge opportunity for using this wealth from the oceans as to reduce hunger, alleviate poverty and secure good livelihoods. I will discuss my work in an NGO on ocean health in general and my curre...
Bryan Foster: Assessing Audit Impact and Thoroughness of VCS Forest Carbon Offset Projects
April 09, 2018 15:18 - 35 minutes - 82.1 MBVoluntary markets transacted over $66 million USD of forest carbon offsets internationally in 2016 and over 99% of those offset projects were audited to a standard, primarily the Verified Carbon Standard (VCS). This talk will present key characteristics of the 70 validated and verified forest carbon projects employing the VCS version 3.0 in use from late 2011 through present. This talk will also discuss two separate aspects of the audit process-impact and thoroughness-to assess the effectiven...
Yolanda Chen: Origin and Management of Insect Pests in Agroecosystems
February 28, 2018 21:08 - 34 minutes - 62.9 MBYolanda Chen: Origin and Management of Insect Pests in Agroecosystems by University of Vermont
Stephanie Hurley: Green Stormwater Infrastructure: From Water Quality to Ecological Aesthetics
February 21, 2018 15:44 - 30 minutes - 70.2 MBDr. Hurley will be presenting key results from several research projects exploring urban and agricultural runoff and ecological landscape design for stormwater treatment. Water quality improvements and volume attenuation for a dozen built bioretention systems will be described. Her presentation will also include landscape visualizations for green stormwater infrastructure design alternatives that can be adopted by private landowners and/or within the public right of way.
Sheila Reddy: It Isn't Easy Being Green: Using Insights on Human Behavior for Conservation
January 26, 2018 22:19 - 26 minutes - 24.4 MBIdentifying the appropriate approaches to influence human behavior and decisions is a major challenge for conservation. Shelia will share how Conservation International is using economics and behavioral sciences to systematically identify barriers to conservation and the appropriate approaches to overcome them. She will draw on examples related to corporate sustainability, coastal resilience, urban conservation, and sustainable agriculture.
Insu Koh, Leif Richardson, and Laura Sonter: All Creatures Great and Small?
January 26, 2018 22:19 - 40 minutes - 37.5 MBLeif will discuss the effects of below ground mycorrhizal mutualisms on crop pollination by wild bees. - Crop production depends on the ecosystem service of pollination. Bee pollinators are attracted to flowers by presence of nectar and pollen, but availability of such floral rewards could be affected by plant associations with other organisms. Using highbush blueberry, he will show that mutualistic mycorrhizal fungi inhabiting plant roots alter floral traits in ways that increase pollinator ...
Samuel Scarpino: Sick and Tired of Being Sick and Tired: How Poverty Impacts Public Health
January 26, 2018 22:19 - 30 minutes - 27.5 MBPoverty is one of the most important casual factors of lower population health. In this talk, Sam will discuss our understanding of how inequality structures disease risk and how biases in surveillance impair our ability to intervene in the most at risk communities.
Rachelle Gould: Cultural Ecosystem Services
January 26, 2018 22:18 - 30 minutes - 27.5 MBCultural ecosystem services (and more generally, socio-cultural values related to ecosystems) are increasingly recognized as a critical component of conservation assessment and practice. This class of services is, however, notoriously thorny and difficult to characterize. Researchers continue to innovate ways to characterize these difficult-to-measure phenomena; the first half of this talk will summarize those current efforts and potential next steps. The second half of the talk will focus on...
Lizzy Pope: Encouraging Healthier Decisions Using Behavioral Economics
January 26, 2018 22:18 - 36 minutes - 33.7 MBThis talk will discuss the role of behavioral economics in food and exercise choices. We'll discuss different incentive schemes, the power of default options, and brainstorm on why certain techniques we think will have positive effects like calorie labeling aren't as straightforward.
Nate Sanders: Studying Ants to Understand Human Societies in a Warmed World
January 26, 2018 22:18 - 32 minutes - 29.5 MBIt's not uncommon to look to ant societies for solutions to problems that human societies face. After all, the ants figured out agricultural, tool use, medicine, and countless other innovations long before human societies did (or even existed).But can studying how ant societies respond to climate change tell us anything about how human societies might respond to climate change? My students, collaborators, and I work at the intersection of community ecology, ecosystem ecology, and macroecolo...
Aimee Taylor Classen: Clarifying the Carbon Feedback Using Experiments Around the Globe
January 26, 2018 22:18 - 29 minutes - 27.2 MBHow much carbon will terrestrial ecosystems hold or flux back to the atmosphere in the future? This important question question remains uncertain,in part because we don't know how soil communities will respond to climatic change. Soil organisms mineralize terrestrial carbon and also associate/infect plants to alter plant production and nutrient acquisition. These interactions may vary with geography, season, and global change driver. Classen's talk will explore how soil communities shape terr...
Eric Roy: Phosphorus Frontiers on a Finite Planet
January 26, 2018 22:17 - 30 minutes - 27.7 MBPhosphorus is essential to life on Earth and frequently limits the productivity of ecosystems. This seminar will be focused on two frontiers in global phosphorus cycling. The first is the agricultural frontier that has emerged in the Cerrado and Amazon regions of Brazil, where soils impose a hefty phosphorus "tax".The second is a frontier in science, engineering, and policy : the creation of a more circular phosphorus economy.
Chantal Line Carpentier: The New Sustainable Development Era and the Role of Academia
January 23, 2018 17:57 - 45 minutes - 104 MBDr. Chantal Line Carpentier is the Chief of UNCTAD New York. Prior to 2014, she was actively involved in the successful negotiations of the Sustainable Development Goals for the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs. During her tenure with DESA, she served as the Major Groups coordinator to enhance non-state actors' engagement with the UN. She facilitated the participation of more than 10,000 non-state actors - a record - in the UN Rio+20 Conference on Sustainable development. She was ...
Chris Danforth: Predictive Instruments for the Environment and Public Health
November 08, 2017 17:27 - 27 minutes - 25.4 MBThis talk will touch upon our group's growing efforts to construct socio-technical instruments. On deck will be projects using Instagram photos to identify predictive markers of depression, and using global temperature data to identify geographical and temporal changes in the hottest and coldest days of the year.
Bindu Panikkar: Land as Material, Habitat and Knowledge: A Case Study in Bristol Bay, Alaska
October 30, 2017 17:39 - 31 minutes - 29.1 MBThis research examines the social, historical and political constitution of resource materialities and the contested process through which Bristol Bay has been claimed a resource environment. I examine the early permitting debates of Pebble Mine, a proposed industrial-scale mine in Bristol Bay, Alaska to understand the contemporary politics of defining and constructing dominant and alternative regimes of value by the state, private, social, and environmental groups.
Christine Carmichael: Selective Community Histories Response to Current Environmental Challenges
October 23, 2017 17:14 - 31 minutes - 28.5 MBThis presentation will describe how diverse individuals in local contexts often use heritage narratives, or selective representations of their communities' histories and character, to develop responses to current environmental challenges in their communities, often subconsciously. Examples this talk will cover include how heritage narratives led to resistance of residents in Detroit, Michigan to a street tree-planting program conducted by a non-profit organization that aimed to mitigate urban...
Katharine Sim: Evaluating Direct and Incentive-Based Land Conservation in Mexico
October 23, 2017 17:07 - 35 minutes - 32.6 MBProtected areas (PAs) and payments for ecosystem services (PES) are the top two mechanisms available for countries to achieve international REDD agreements, yet there are few empirical comparisons of their effects. We estimate the impacts of PAs and PES on forest conservation, poverty reduction, and population change at the locality level in Mexico in the 2000s. Both policies conserved forest, generating an approximately 20-25% reduction in expected forest cover loss. PES created statisticall...
Paul Hines: Solving the Challenges of Variable Renewable Energy by Demand-Side Flexibility
October 23, 2017 17:06 - 22 minutes - 30.6 MBVermont is global leader in energy (particularly electricity) efficiency. However, efficiency programs that are merely designed to reduce total electricity usage need to be updated to adjust for the exponential growth of variable wind and solar power, which are creating many hours in which electricity is better than free. This talk will discuss the need and technology for enabling flexibility from demand-side resources in order to make energy services as a whole more efficient.
Maria Woolson: Arts & Humanities in Engaging Actionable Paths for the Sustainable Development Goals
September 19, 2017 15:02 - 37 minutes - 33.9 MBGlobal change is increasingly understood as systemic, eco-social and complex. This challenge require that institutions deepen the capacity to foster leadership and catalyze systemic responses to both local and regional problems. For such visions to be realized, students will need competencies for working across boundaries and differences ranging from diverse disciplines and methods, to identities and cultures; and many of those skills will come from humanistic perspectives that are often over...
Deb Markowitz: On Leading Vermont's Agency of Natural Resources
February 27, 2017 20:56 - 18 minutes - 17.3 MBDeb Markowitz, former Secretary of Vermont's Agency of Natural Resources, outlines how the agency responded to, and leveraged, one of the state's greatest natural disasters (Tropical Storm Irene) to advance public policy to protect nature, reduce GHG emissions and prepare for climate impacts. Markowitz is a Visiting Professor at UVM's Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources. Learn more: http://go.uvm.edu/viajr
Heather Furman: Nature's Role in Lake Champlain Clean-up Efforts
February 27, 2017 18:49 - 29 minutes - 27.1 MBHeather Furman, State Director of The Nature Conservancy (TNC) in Vermont, speaks on nature's role in the effort to clean up Lake Champlain. "Natural infrastructure" will be key to addressing Lake Champlain's water quality issues, says Furman. The UVM alum outlines a TNC-Gund research project exploring how much restoration is required, where that restoration should occur and how much it will cost. Learn more: http://go.uvm.edu/av2f3
Joe Roman at AAAS: Protecting Cuba’s Marine Ecosystems
February 19, 2017 17:47 - 4 minutes - 4.4 MBCuba is at the crossroads, said conservation biologist Joe Roman (UVM/Gund), at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) annual meeting in Boston on Feb. 18, 2017. Opening the panel, ‘Protecting the Crown Jewel of the Caribbean: Cuba’s Marine Ecosystems,’ Roman outlined Gitmo's future, the U.S. embargo's chilling effect on Cuban scientists, and development pressure from rising tourism and investment. Learn more: http://go.uvm.edu/akj0s Read Roman's 'Green Gitmo' propo...
Stephanie Seguino: Racial Disparities in Vermont Traffic Policing
January 09, 2017 18:16 - 27 minutes - 25 MBEconomist Stephanie Seguino (University of Vermont) presents the findings of first statewide study of Vermont traffic policing and race at a news conference on January 9, 2017. The research reveals notable racial disparities in how police treat drivers by race -- and these disparities vary by police agency. Read the full study: http://go.uvm.edu/z4rd6
Teresa Mares: Food Security and Farmworkers
October 03, 2016 20:22 - 50 minutes - 45.9 MBAnthropologist Teresa Mares (University of Vermont) explores household food access among Latino dairy workers in Vermont, the majority of which have recently migrated from Mexico. As a border state with active Immigration and Customs Enforcement, many of the same fears, anxieties, and dangers connected to the southern U.S. border are reproduced in Vermont, with consequences for food security, diet-related health, and the overall wellbeing of migrant workers. Learn more: http://go.uvm.edu/5h4b2
Pablo Bose: Refugee Experiences in Small-Town America
October 03, 2016 19:30 - 56 minutes - 51.8 MBPablo Bose (University of Vermont) studies U.S. refugee policy, which increasingly sends refugees to smaller U.S. cities instead of traditional "gateway" cities such as New York, Chicago and San Francisco. Bose explores the impacts of this policy change -- socially, economically and politically -- on refugees and new settlement communities in Vermont and beyond. Learn more: http://go.uvm.edu/yb7k6
Ruth DeFries: How Cities Are Transforming The Planet
October 03, 2016 18:49 - 58 minutes - 53.7 MBMacArthur “genius” Ruth DeFries (Columbia University)uses satellite images and remote sensing to investigate how global cities' environmental impacts are transforming the planet. DeFries' talk, “Food, Forests and The Urbanizing World,” occurred at the University of Vermont on April 14, 2016, as a Burack Lecture. Learn more: http://go.uvm.edu/cj1k2
Jon Erickson: Vermont's Carbon Tax Debate
June 10, 2016 17:04 - 31 minutes - 29.1 MBEconomist Jon Erickson (UVM)discusses Vermont's carbon tax proposal with the hosts of the Royalton Radio WFVR-LP 96.5 FM show Greenzine. Learn more at: http://go.uvm.edu/hijug
Taylor Ricketts, Joe Roman, Margarita Fernandez: Inside UVM's Cuba Effort
March 17, 2016 15:39 - 35 minutes - 32.2 MBUVM's Gund Institute has worked to establish research collaborations and scholar exchanges with Cuban colleagues since 2012. In January, eight researchers traveled there to further ties with Cuban partners and explore potential future collaborations. Taylor Ricketts, Joe Roman (UVM)and alumna Margarita Fernandez (Vermont Caribbean Institute) share some key trip outcomes and thoughts on next steps. Roman returned to Cuba over Spring Break with students. Learn more: http://go.uvm.edu/xsbqz
Lynn Stout: Will Corporations Destroy the Planet? A Legal Perspective
February 25, 2016 17:22 - 1 hour - 58.7 MBBusiness law expert Lynn Stout (Cornell)argues that legal justification exists for corporations to include environmental and social sustainability in business decisions. Her legal analysis challenges the myth that creating profits for shareholders is the most important responsibility of a corporation. Stout details how focussing on shareholder profits can lead to environmental damage, social injustice and inequitable governance. Learn more: http://go.uvm.edu/etusf
Bill Keeton & Garrett Meigs: Global Analysis of Old-Growth Forests
February 24, 2016 22:24 - 56 minutes - 51.7 MBForest ecologists Bill Keeton and Garret Meigs (University of Vermont) are leading the first ever global analysis of temperate old-growth forests with a team of over 20 scientists. They explore key forest differences and similarities, and argue that conservation of the world's old-growth forests is critical for biological diversity, climate mitigation, rivers and streams, and other key ecosystem services. Keeton and Meigs are Gund Fellows. More info: http://go.uvm.edu/uzb7m
Donna Rizzo & John Hanley: Fighting Chagas Disease with Big Data
February 24, 2016 20:54 - 1 hour - 56.6 MBChagus Disease is a tropical parasitic disease that affects more than 10 million people in Latin America. Donna Rizzo and John Hanley (University of Vermont) have developed a promising new computational tool to interpret complex data sets, advance our understanding of risk factors, and prevent future infestations and deaths. Their work in Guatemala and El Salvador is supported by a $2.5M grant from the National Science Foundation. Learn more at: http://go.uvm.edu/nvo6c
Lini Wollenberg & Asim Zia: COP21: The Good, The Bad, The Ugly
February 24, 2016 18:42 - 57 minutes - 53 MBGund Institute climate experts break down COP21, the historic 2015 U.N. Climate Change Conference in Paris. Lini Wollenberg and Asim Zia explain what happened, what it means, and what comes next. Lini Wollenberg is from UVM's Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources and CGAIR's Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) program. Asim Zia is from the Dept. of Community Development & Applied Economics. Learn more about UVM's COP21 Team: http://go.uvm.edu/ykgc1
Carol Adair: How Agriculture Can Mitigate Climate Change
December 04, 2015 20:33 - 30 minutes - 28.3 MBCarol Adair (University of Vermont) explores how Vermont farmers are responding to climate change by adopting new management practices. Adair, an expert on climate change and adaptation, explains how emerging agricultural practices can mitigate climate change by increasing carbon storage and reducing GHG emissions, including those from methane. More info: http://go.uvm.edu/5flnj
Whitney Lash-Marshall: Collaboration Key For Conservation Solutions
November 20, 2015 22:08 - 33 minutes - 30.6 MBWhitney Lash-Marshall (SUNY) explores how to overcome the challenges of working across scholarly disciplines and research-practitioner partnerships. Building on a case study of the SUNY university system, she outlines best practices for developing a culture of collaboration in conservation and other fields working to solve complex environmental problems. Learn more: http://go.uvm.edu/y05co
Jody Prescott: Impacts of War and Climate on Gender
November 20, 2015 21:13 - 38 minutes - 35.3 MBJody Prescott (University of Vermont)explores the unequal impacts of both war and climate change on women, particularly in developing countries. Prescott is retired U.S. Army Judge Advocate General's Corps officer who currently works as an attorney for U.S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement. He is an international security expert who studies gender, the environment, ethics and cyber warfare. This presentation represents the official view of no U.S. government agency. Learn more: http://go...
Fangyuan Hua: China's 'Grain for Green' Program
November 19, 2015 21:59 - 36 minutes - 33.6 MBFangyuan Hua (Princeton University) explores challenges to forest and species biodiversity in China, and the historical and socio-economic factors driving these changes. Hua, a behavioral ecologist, identifies land use planning policies and forest management practices to support biodiversity conservation. Learn more at: http://go.uvm.edu/hy912
Marcia Macedo: Amazon in Transition: An Integrated Understanding
November 19, 2015 21:32 - 30 minutes - 27.6 MBAs global demand for commodity crops grows, so does pressure on tropical regions, which contain the world's largest remaining pools of arable land. Marcia Macedo (Woods Hole Research Center) examines the tradeoffs between forest conservation and food production in the Amazon. Balancing these competing demands is critical for land, water, and food security in the region, and has important implications for climate change. Learn more: http://go.uvm.edu/fbys4
Tom Macias: Race, Ethnicity and Environmental Concern
November 19, 2015 20:11 - 27 minutes - 24.9 MBTom Macias (University of Vermont) examines differing levels of environmental concern and sustainable practices among racial and ethnic groups in the U.S. Macias' sociology research explores the effect of consumer behavior on environmental outcomes, environmental justice, and social capital's impact on local agriculture and transportation. Learn more: http://go.uvm.edu/j79kq
Molly Brown: Spatial Data and Environmental-Human Health Studies
November 19, 2015 17:02 - 29 minutes - 26.9 MBMolly Brown (University of Maryland) uses big data and satellite remote sensing to track how changing climates impact nutrition outcomes for the most vulnerable rural populations in the developing world. Brown, previously a member of NASA's Biospheric Sciences Branch, works with USAID's Famine Early Warning System and is the lead author on a forthcoming USDA report entitled `Climate Change, Global Food Security and the US Food System.' Learn more: http://go.uvm.edu/3kuge
Dan Whittle: Cuba at the Crossroads
November 11, 2015 16:43 - 58 minutes - 53.4 MBCuba expert Dan Whittle (Environmental Defense Fund) examines how open U.S.-Cuba relations creates unprecedented opportunity for development and research, but also extraordinary challenges and threats to Cuba's natural treasures. Whittle leads EDF's work to conserve marine and coastal ecosystems in Cuba. He works with Cuban scientists, lawyers and resource managers to identify and implement collaborative strategies for fisheries management, coral reef conservation and sustainable development...