By: Bianca Greeff, Graduate Assistant, Sustainability Office. Communication is a vital part of science. Articulating one’s research to broad audiences can have a significant impact on how that research is discovered and shared. While scientists and communicators have often relied on intuitive rules to guide communication, science communication (as a field in itself), is supported […]
Read MoreOriginally posted April 2, 2018 in @theU. By Bianca Greeff, graduate assistant, Sustainability Office. Sustainability is much more than just environment. In 2011, the University of Utah began incorporating sustainability more broadly into its curriculum. Today, faculty across campus are enhancing education by implementing the big ideas of sustainability—equity, economy, and environment into their courses […]
Read MoreBy Bianca Greeff, Graduate Assistant. Reaching temperatures as low as -89°C, Antarctica is the coldest, windiest and driest continent on the planet. The Southern Ocean that surrounds Antarctica doesn’t offer much relief for species. In the winter, the ocean surface freezes solid, doubling the continent’s size. In the summer, temperatures rise just above freezing and […]
Read MoreBianca Greeff, Graduate Assistant. Growing up in Los Angeles, Sarah Kanouse was aware of the ways Los Angeles transformed from a desert community to a bustling city by building water and power structure. Later, when Kanouse found herself in “small college communities surrounded by cornfields,” she began to realize that rural landscapes are not as […]
Read MoreBianca Greeff, Graduate Assistant. River basins are complex systems—especially when they cross state boundaries. There are some general institutional arrangements over the Western United States that allow for some commonalities in management. But the social, economic, and physical characteristics of these systems makes each basin unique. The complexity of these systems and diverse interests of […]
Read MoreBy Bianca Greeff, Graduate Assistant. Both urban and rural areas around the world rely heavily on groundwater to support agriculture, energy, residential, and industrial use. This demand for groundwater—from a global population of over seven and a half billion—combined with impacts of climate change places more stress on these systems. In order to sustainably manage […]
Read MoreBianca Greeff, Graduate Assistant. Climate change threatens everything about our social organization. But that shouldn’t immobilize us. Instead, Kari Norgaard, associate professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Oregon, encourages us to view climate change as an opportunity to re-envision our social, political, and economic systems. Norgaard will show how climate change […]
Read MoreBianca Greeff, Graduate Assistant. Ecologists seek to answer the big questions about how the world is changing, and how species and ecosystems are responding to those changes. To answer these questions, a new network of analysis is needed. Community-curated data sources can provide new insight on how systems are have changed in the past and […]
Read MoreBianca Greeff, Graduate Assistant. Designers are agents of change. They research how our everyday actions and behaviors are conceived, planned, and acted on. By making these intangible aspects of society tangible, designers have the ability to communicate about or change these societal features. In the past, design has been leveraged as a way to create […]
Read MoreBy: Bianca Greeff, Graduate Assistant As a socially engaged artistic process, dance can be a powerful medium for communicating the ideas, facts, and figures of sustainability and environmental justice. Engaging with these ideas on a physical level can lead to a new perspective of the interconnections between our bodies and the environment. Dr. Ananya Chatterjea, […]
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