Join us for the next Baker Center Energy and Environment Forum, which will take place on Thursday, April 7^th at 1:00 pm in the Toyota Auditorium in the Baker Center.

Joe Fargione, from The Nature Conservancy, will give a 45 minute presentation and then lead a discussion with participants. His talk is titled:

 

Natural Pathways to Climate Mitigation

 

Abstract: All nations recently agreed to hold the world’s rise in average temperature below 2 degrees Celsius. To what extent can the management of natural systems help to deliver on this goal, alongside fossil fuel emissions reductions? I will present new research that quantifies potential contributions to climate change mitigation from 20 natural pathways, i.e. changes in land use and management that avoid emissions and enhance sequestration across global forests, wetlands, grasslands and agricultural lands. Natural pathways potentially offer ~35% of cost effective mitigation required by 2030 to hold warming below 2 degrees. Most pathways also deliver biodiversity, water, air, and soil benefits called for by international policy targets. Re-greening the planet through conservation, restoration, and better management across major biomes is now a social imperative to avoid catastrophic climate change.

 

Dr. Joe Fargione is Science Director for North America for The Nature Conservancy, a major international environmental NGO and land trust. Dr. Fargione’s research seeks ways to balance human energy and food demands with environmental conservation. Solutions include appropriate siting of new energy development and new sources for conservation funding, including natural infrastructure, compensatory mitigation payments, carbon offsets, and creating markets to value nature’s benefits.  Before joining The Nature Conservancy, Dr. Fargione received his PhD in Ecology from the University of Minnesota and held faculty positions at the University of New Mexico and Purdue University. Dr. Fargione has published over 50 peer reviewed articles that have been cited thousands of times and that have generated national media coverage.

 

The Baker Center Energy and Environment Forum is an opportunity for academics to share their research findings with a broad set of academics, researchers, and students from outside their own discipline but who have a common interest in environment and energy issues. For more information about the Baker Center Energy and Environment Forum visit the forum’s website:http://bakercenter.utk.edu/energy-environment/.  Upcoming Energy and Environment Forums for the Spring 2016 semester include:

 

“Sustainable Urban Water and the Rise of Green Infrastructure” - Thursday, April 14, 12:30 pm in the Toyota Auditorium in the Baker Center -  Dr. Jon Hathaway, UT Civil & Environmental Engineering

 

Please join us for what promises to be a very interesting discussion and presentation.

 

Paul Armsworth, College of Arts and Sciences
Charles Sims, College of Business Administration 
Becky Jacobs, College of Law
Don Hodges, College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources