CFAES sustainability news, Feb. 28, 2022

White House science office to hold first-ever event on countering ‘climate delayism’

Washington Post, Feb. 24, 2022; featuring Kerry Ard, CFAES School of Environment and Natural Resources (SENR)

Farmers in Senegal learn to respect a scruffy shrub that gets no respect

 NPR, Feb. 20, 2022; spin-off from research by Richard Dick, SENR

‘Sound science-based advice’

Elena Irwin, pictured, CFAES Distinguished Professor in the Department of Agricultural, Environmental, and Development Economics and faculty director of Ohio State’s Sustainability Institute, has been named one of the 47 members of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Science Advisory Board.

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Two events to honor Rattan Lal

Rattan Lal, Distinguished University Professor of soil science in CFAES’ School of Environment and Natural Resources, will receive the 2020 World Food Prize in a ceremony set for 10–11 a.m. EDT Thursday, Oct. 15.

Later the same day, he will be honored during a CFAES-hosted virtual event called “The Legacy of Dr. Rattan Lal” from 2–2:45 p.m. EDT.

Watch the morning ceremony here. Register to attend the afternoon event here.

Learn more.

Lal speaks on turning science into action in the 2018 video above.

CFAES reads for Aug. 26, 2020

EPA gives up on barring grantees from science advisory panels

Science, June 25. Featuring Robyn Wilson, School of Environment and Natural Resources (SENR).

Nicole Jackson: Environmental educator | Black Birders Week

PBS “Nature” blog, June 23. Featuring Nicole Jackson, SENR.

Soil prof hits pay dirt: $250K prize for helping farmers, fighting climate change

NPR, June 22. Featuring Rattan Lal, SENR.

Lal named to UN scientific group

Rattan Lal, Distinguished University Professor of Soil Science in CFAES’ School of Environment and Natural Resources, has been named to the 29-member Scientific Group for the United Nations’ 2021 Food Systems Summit. 

The summit, a statement by UN Secretary-General António Guterres said, “will raise global awareness to understand the food systems challenges we must solve, build a global conversation on the way in which we produce, process, and consume food, and galvanize global actions and commitments to change our food systems to provide safe, nutritious food for all within our planetary boundaries.”

The independent Scientific Group “will bring to bear the foremost scientific evidence, and help expand the base of shared knowledge about experiences, approaches, and tools for driving sustainable food systems.”

Read more.

Algal boom conference going online this year

Registration is open for this year’s Understanding Algal Blooms: State of the Science Conference, set for Wednesday, Sept. 2, 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., and slated to be held online because of the coronavirus pandemic. Viewing the conference is free and open to the public, but you have to register in advance. Find details and a link to register.

The speakers will include scientists from USDA; the University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada; and CFAES.

Algal blooms are the typically pea-green, sometimes massive slime outbreaks that in recent years have plagued Lake Erie and other water bodies.

The conference’s organizer is Ohio State’s Ohio Sea Grant program, which works to protect the environment of Lake Erie and the Great Lakes.

(Photo: Tom Archer, Michigan Sea Grant.)