NRE Seminar Series

• 1/27 - Gary Tabor (NRE) | Nature Undivided - Ecological Connectivity Conservation
• 2/3 - Eliezer Gurarie (SUNY ESF) | Fate of the Caribou: Movements, Memory and Coproduction of Knowledge - Hybrid seminar: Zoom registration
• 2/10 - Heidi Kretser (Wildlife Conservation Society) | Conservation social sciences in a human rights-based approach to global conservation - Hybrid seminar: Zoom registration
• 2/17 - FEBRUARY BREAK
• 2/24 - Juno Salazar (Department of Science and Technology Studies) |Tropical Polar Bears: A Story of the Great Acceleration
• 3/3 - Melissa Guzman (Department of Entomology) | Leveraging biodiversity big data to understand pollinator trends and inform conservation solutions
• 3/10 - DNRE/GDEV Postdoctoral Scholars
  • Gisselle Vila Benites | Post-mining intimate sensing: Indigenous visions for landscape recovery in the Amazon
  • Connor Reeve | Brook trout habitat use is limited by oxythermal suitability
  • Montana Airey | Piscivore invasions and the reshaping of lake food webs
  • Natacha Rivi Bruna | How is decarbonization reconfiguring access to ecologies and the politics of emissions?
• 3/17 - Mildred Warner (Global Development, City and Regional Planning, AAP) | Courts, Rights of Rivers, and Social Movements: Lessons from Ecuador
• 3/24 - Jaime Ortiz Pachar (PhD candidate, Natural Resources and the Environment) | TBA
• 3/31 - SPRING BREAK
• 4/7 - Nicole Tu-Maung Venker (PhD candidate, Natural Resources and the Environment) | Forced Migration, Rural Livelihoods, and Transnational Land Relations
• 4/14 - Robert Howarth (The Atkinson Professor of Ecology & Environmental Biology) | Methane and the Shale Gas Revolution; Science, Policy, and Politics
• 4/21 - Felipe Gutierrez Antinopai (PhD candidate, Natural Resources and the Environment) | An Amphitheater for Well-Being and Sustainability: Multidimensionality, Place, and Cultural Heritage as Constitutive Elements
• 4/28 - Manasi Anand (PhD candidate, Natural Resources and the Environment) | Climate Co-Solutions? Addressing Polycrisis in the Western Ghats, India

Nature Undivided - Ecological Connectivity Conservation

Speaker: Gary Tabor, Natural Resources and the Environment

Abstract: There is no Bending the Curve for Biodiversity without tackling habitat fragmentation head-on. Ecological connectivity—a key countermeasure to fragmentation—is among the most recommended strategies for conserving biodiversity amid climate change. Over recent decades, connectivity conservation has moved from outlier to mainstream. This includes a growing movement of large-scale landscape efforts like the Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative. Through IUCN's Connectivity Conservation Specialist Group (CCSG), hundreds of peer-reviewed papers and guidance documents have refined connectivity design and implementation. The IUCN Guidelines for conserving connectivity through ecological networks and corridors have been downloaded over 100,000 times. The latest Global Land Outlook from the UN Convention on Combating Desertification demonstrates connectivity's critical value for large-scale restoration. Connectivity is now embedded in Goal A and five targets of the CBD's Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KMGBF); it's a defined goal in the Convention on Migratory Species' strategic plan for 2024-2032; it's the foundation of the UN General Assembly's Resolution "Nature Knows No Borders"; and it remains an IUCN focus following adoption of Motion 127 "Recognising and Reporting Ecological Corridors". This seminar will explore emerging areas: Well-Connected Protected Areas and new indicators for National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans, the growing field of Linear Infrastructure Ecology, and research in Animal Movement Ecology through Biodiversity Observation Networks. The talk will highlight the multiple frontiers and opportunities for connectivity conservation, ranging from student-led local efforts in ENVS Capstone 4800 to global reaches.

Bio: Gary Tabor is the Founder and CEO Emeritus of the Center for Large Landscape Conservation - an NGO based in Montana that advances the science, policy, and practice of large-scale landscape and seascape conservation through ecological connectivity. Gary is a Professor of Conservation Practice at Cornell. Trained as an ecologist and wildlife veterinarian, Gary’s efforts focus on habitat defragmentation through ecological corridors, protected area networks and wildlife crossing design. Gary is the recipient of the Distinguished Landscape Practitioner Award from the International Society of Landscape Ecologists. He received the Superintendent’s Award from Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks. He was awarded a Distinguished Professional Fulbright Award in Climate Change, working in Hugh Possingham’s Lab at the University of Queensland. Some of Gary’s notable achievements include negotiating the establishment of Kibale National Park, Uganda, co-founding the Yellowstone to Yukon Initiative, pioneering the field of Conservation Medicine, and co-founding IUCN's Connectivity Conservation Specialist Group.

Host: Steven Wolf

Fate of the Caribou: Movements, Memory and Coproduction of Knowledge - Hybrid seminar: Zoom registration

Speaker: Eliezer Gurarie, State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry

Hybrid seminar: Zoom registration 

Abstract: Caribou (Rangifer tarandus) are perhaps the single most important terrestrial animal in the Arctic: an ecological keystone that is also of incalculable material and cultural importance to circumpolar Indigenous communities. Their migrations, spanning the northern edges of the boreal forests to the coastal tundra, are the largest movements of a terrestrial mammal in the world. Even as the Arctic warms and anthropogenic impacts accelerate, the global population of migratory caribou has declined - in some places precipitously - and their ranges and movement behaviors have undergone dramatic shifts and contractions. We are engaged in a multidisciplinary, large-scale effort to study the causes and consequences of these range shifts and population declines. I will present some of our findings and approaches, with an emphasis on the ways our work is guided by the knowledge and interests of our Indigenous partners. I will also discuss novel approaches to studying the role social cognition and spatial memory in understanding how wide-ranging animals can adaptively navigate a dynamic and rapidly changing environment.

Bio: Dr. Elie Gurarie is a professor of wildlife ecology at the State University of New York - College of Environmental Science and Forestry in Syracuse, New York. He obtained his Ph.D. at the University of Washington in Seattle and has worked at the Universities of Finland, Maryland and Wisconsin, with a breadth of field experience in various marine and terrestrial systems. He studies, broadly, the mechanisms by which animals navigate and thrive (or fail to thrive) in dynamic and complex environments. He combines spatial and movement ecology with population and community ecology, developing novel statistical and methodological tools - and occasional theory - with an eye both on fundamental questions in ecology and highly applied problems in conservation.

Host: Kade Keranen

Conservation social sciences in a human rights-based approach to global conservation

Speaker: Heidi Kretser, Wildlife Conservation Society

Hybrid seminar: Zoom registration

Abstract: Sustaining biodiversity through conservation practice requires working with Indigenous People and local communities (IP & LCs) living inside or around protected areas. Whilst conservation programming has, in some places, collaborated with IP & LCs for decades, it has been insufficient. Funding is now contingent on the conservation community showing how collective and individual rights are being protected in conservation programming. To achieve conservation and human rights outcomes, engagement with IP & LCs requires a human rights-based approach (HRBA). Although creating high-level policies about including human rights and safeguards as key components of project design is relatively straightforward, effective implementation on the ground is not. 
The conservation field requires new skillsets combined with a mindset shift for field practitioners and governments to implement an HRBA. Conservation social scientists can shape many aspects of this transition to more just and equitable conservation practice through the application of theory and methods to many aspects of a human rights-based approach to conservation: from the basics of data collection on community well-being, to establishing safeguards such as Free Prior and Informed Consent and Grievance Redress Mechanisms, to influencing project design. Effective tools and approaches from the social sciences will facilitate implementation and achieve long-term mutual goals of conservation and human well-being.

Bio: Heidi Kretser ’95 and ‘08 is the Director of Rights + Communities, Global Conservation, Wildlife Conservation Society, the lead of the Social Safeguards Management Team, and Chair of the WCS Institutional Review Board. She serves as Adjunct Associate Professor at Cornell University’s Department of Natural Resources & the Environment. Heidi improves the conservation of wildlife and wildlands by incorporating tools and perspectives from the social sciences into applied conservation research, planning, practice, and decision-making. Heidi has worked in conservation for 30 years and has been with WCS for 25 years in numerous capacities. She completed her Ph.D. at Cornell University in Natural Resources Policy and Management and holds a master’s degree from the Yale School of Forestry in Social Ecology and Conservation Biology. Heidi also serves on the board of the Adirondack Land Trust.

Host: Rich Stedman

Tropical Polar Bears: A Story of the Great Acceleration

Speaker: Juno Salazar, Science and Technology Studies and Feminist, Gender and Sexuality Studies

Abstract: In 1978, the tropical city-state of Singapore received three polar bears, starting a dynasty of polar bears that ended in 2018. Within the lifespan of these tropical polar bears, the entire planet has undergone rapid and exponential growth in economies, human populations, agricultural intensification, deforestation, and the burning and consuming of carbon and chemicals--all indelibly changing the entire planet. How might the life histories of polar bears narrate the Great Acceleration as a time of illiberal inhumanity? This paper is based on ongoing archival and ethnographic research in Singapore, Canada, and the US.

Bio: Juno Salazar Parreñas is an Associate Professor of Science and Technology Studies and Feminist, Gender and Sexuality Studies at Cornell University. She is the author of Decolonizing Extinction: The Work of Care in Orangutan Rehabilitation (Duke UP, 2018), which received the Michelle Rosaldo Prize from the Association for Feminist Anthropology and honorable mentions for the Harry Benda Prize from the Association for Asian Studies, New Millenia Award from the Society for Medical Anthropology, and the Diana Forsythe Prize from the Society for the Anthropology of Work and the Committee for the Anthropology of Science, Technology and Computing. She is also the editor of Gender: Animals (Macmillan Interdisciplinary Handbooks, 2017). Her current book project, Three Ways to World Destruction; Or, Animals of the Misanthropocene, is supported by the George A. and Eliza Gardner Howard Foundation, the Deutscher Akademischer Austausch Dienst, the Konrad Lorenz Institute, and the School for Advanced Research.

Host: Reem Hajjar

Leveraging biodiversity big data to understand pollinator trends and inform conservation solutions

Speaker: Melissa Guzman , Department of Entomology

Abstract: There are huge efforts -- by large institutions, community science groups, and individual research labs -- to collect and curate biodiversity data at unprecedented scales. There has also been tremendous growth in computational power and in the sophistication of statistical tools. Together these two currents offer exciting opportunities to gain critical insights into the processes that shape patterns of insect biodiversity and how global change is affecting these. However, doing so will require creative ways of approaching problems as the available data is often not at the ideal scale or resolution for answering the questions that are most interesting for science and pertinent for policy intervention. In my talk, I will highlight my recent developments in the occupancy-detection modeling framework that allow us to use data from historical collections to infer changes in species ranges. I will then present new evidence that both climate change and pesticide use have substantially altered the distribution of North American bees in the last century. Finally, I will present a new tool to select native plants for pollinator conservation

Bio: The goal of my research is to help improve insect conservation by developing statistical methods that better use all available data. While the distribution of some species is changing, it is actually very difficult to make reliable inferences as to which species are declining and by how much from the often messy and complex historical and spatial datasets that is available — for example, historical museum records, where species occurrences are aggregated from studies with different sampling procedures. For many insects, this is the only type of data we have. In order to address this gap, my research focuses on determining if and how statistical models can be applied to historical records without yielding biased trends. In my research I also apply these statistical models to determine how the distribution of pollinators has changed through time, where museum records provide lots of information. I am also interested in determining which drivers (e.g. pesticide use, climate change, land use change, etc.) are causing the most decline of the most pollinator species in different regions of North America. I also translate these insights to potential insect conservation solutions, such as expediting assessments of endangered insects, or using information on plant-pollinator interactions to prioritize native plants that better support pollinator communities.

Host: Nina Therkildsen

Post-mining intimate sensing: Indigenous visions for landscape recovery in the Amazon

Speaker: Gisselle Vila Benites, Postdoctoral Fellow, Cornell Atkinson, Global Development 

Abstract: This presentation examines how Indigenous communities in the Southern Peruvian Amazon envision new possibilities for abandoned mining ponds, revealing insights often overlooked by remediation science and conservation efforts. Central to this discussion is the concept of "intimate sensing," developed at the intersection of feminist political ecology and critical approaches to ecological restoration. Intimate sensing emphasizes the significance of Indigenous territorial projects focused on ecological repair in extractive zones, rooted in the lived experiences of renewal in the aftermath of mining activities. This approach stands in contrast to a reliance on remote sensing technologies, which primarily assess forest cover loss and are shaped by carbon-centric environmental paradigms. Abandoned mining ponds possess multifarious afterlives characterized by the resurgence of amphibian and fish populations, as well as complex dynamics of aquatic fluctuations that mark processes of pond clearing and renewal. These dynamics underpin Indigenous initiatives aimed at diversifying aquatic livelihoods and fostering their roles as environmental stewards within remediation efforts. Ultimately, this research challenges the efficacy and long-term viability of remediation strategies that emerge from, yet remain disconnected from, Indigenous territories. Instead, remediation science can foster a more productive dialogue with Indigenous perspectives, acknowledging the embeddedness of socio-ecological change in Indigenous territories.

Bio: Dr. Gisselle Vila Benites is a Cornell Atkinson Postdoctoral Fellow at the Department of Global Development, and Global Research Fellow at the Mario Einaudi Center for International Studies. Her interdisciplinary background as an environmental social scientist draws from a Ph.D. and M.A. in Geography from Clark University and a foundation in Sociology and Environmental Development from Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú (PUCP). Drawing from political ecology, development studies, and participatory methods, her work explores how grassroots communities leverage their knowledge and governance to forge sustainable futures in environments profoundly affected by extractive economies in Latin America. She currently leads an action-research collaboration with the Shipibo-Conibo Indigenous Nation in Peruvian Amazonia, focusing on the anthropogenic network of abandoned mining ponds—a challenging new aquatic environment that accounts for at least 30% of the deforested land in this region.

Brook trout habitat use is limited by oxythermal suitability

Speaker: Connor Reeve, Postdoctoral Associate, Natural Resources and the Environment 

Abstract: Adirondack lakes are being reshaped by warming and brownification, which deepen warm surface layers and intensify bottom-water hypoxia. This oxythermal compression threatens lake-dwelling brook trout, which depend on cool, oxygen-rich habitat. To contextualize the degree of oxythermal stress being experienced by these lake-dwelling fish, we first established their thermal and oxygen limits using controlled stress tests. Brook trout showed upper sublethal and lethal temperatures of ~21 and 24C, and tolerated oxygen levels down to ~3.5 mg/L. We then tracked free-swimming individuals using depth-sensor acoustic tags across lakes spanning a gradient of oxythermal stress. Field behavior closely matched lab-based limits as trout rarely entered waters >21C or <3.5 mg/L. As oxythermal habitat shrank, vertical habitat use contracted accordingly. In three lakes, severe compression (<2 m of suitable habitat) persisted for extended periods, greatly restricting movement. When compression eased, fish rapidly moved into shallower water and experienced rapid warming in body temperatures. As this pattern was only observed in those lakes that experienced significant compression, these behavioral shifts are indicative of compensatory foraging behavior. Overall, brook trout habitat use is increasingly constrained by warming and deoxygenation, likely impairing foraging opportunities and growth. As climate-driven warming and browning continue, these populations may face escalating challenges to summer survival and long-term persistence.

Bio: I am interested in cold-water fish ecophysiology and bioenergetics. My research integrates lab, field, and modeling approaches to investigate fish physiology, behavior, movement, and associated energetic costs. My current work with the Adirondack Fisheries Research Program focuses on evaluating brook trout strain resilience to environmental stressors for climate adaptive stocking efforts.

Piscivore invasions and the reshaping of lake food webs

Speaker: Montana Airey, Postdoctoral Associate, Natural Resources and the Environment 

Abstract: Ecological communities are increasingly shaped by the dual pressures of non-native species and climate change, especially when the non-native taxa are better suited to persisting in warmer temperatures. When these non-native predators are introduced, the novel predation pressures can profoundly restructure both the community composition and the trophic dynamics of the native ecosystem. In this seminar, Montana will discuss the factors that structure native fish assemblages across a landscape with frequent sport-fish introductions, utilizing both a historical dataset of over 1,000 lakes and contemporary food web sampling using carbon isotopes (δ13C) to depict energy flow patterns and nitrogen isotopes (δ15N) to capture trophic position. She will then provide a quick introduction to how this work is shaping her postdoctoral research.

Bio: Montana Airey is an aquatic ecologist whose research focuses on how species invasions and environmental change alter community structure, habitat use, and energy flow within aquatic ecosystems. She received her undergraduate education at Boston University, with a major in both Marine Science and Environmental Science. She completed a master’s degree at Columbia University in Ecology, Evolution, and Conservation Biology within the E3B department under the mentorship of Dr. Joshua Drew, before starting her PhD at Cornell in the Ecology and Evolutionary Biology department under the supervision of Dr. Peter McIntrye. At Cornell, she has developed her interests in the ecology of aquatic food webs, leading her to investigate how threats to small-bodied fish diversity are influencing their trophic ecologies and distributions. Montana spends any extra moment she can outside backpacking, paddling, hanging with her family’s flock of sheep, and enjoying nature with her friends and family. 

How is decarbonization reconfiguring access to ecologies and the politics of emissions?

Speaker: Natacha Rivi Bruna, Postdoctoral Associate, Global Development 

Abstract: Limiting greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions requires a broad transformation of nature-society relations of production and consumption; such restructuring entails a reconfiguration of access to ecologies. As CO2 emissions emerge both as a new resource and a commodity, decarbonization strategies are reshaping land use, agriculture, energy and biodiversity, increasingly tied to profit making. Drawing on empirical data from a carbon offset project in rural Mozambique, I critically examine how decarbonization strategies, specifically those connected to carbon markets, reshape global-local ecological relations. The project’s “production” of carbon credits rests on restricting access to ecological resources and transforming the labor relations of rural working people. Meanwhile, carbon credit buyers expand their carbon budgets and/or meet climate targets. By defining under which conditions emissions are permitted, these strategies risk intensifying existing inequalities. This underscores the need to reflect on the politics of emissions: who accesses and controls emissions, what do they do with them, and who ultimately wins or loses. Paying close attention to socioecological relations unfolding under such solutions is crucial if they are to effectively address both social and climate goals, while ensuring fair and equitable access to ecologies across regions and communities.

Bio: Natacha Bruna, from Mozambique, is a Postdoctoral Associate at the Department of Global Development at Cornell University. Her research resonates with critical development and agrarian studies and has focused on the agrarian change brought about by the intersection of extractivism, land and resource grabbing, and environmental policies, particularly looking at the implications on global patterns of accumulation and rural livelihoods. Green Extractivism and the resulting new dynamics regarding land, labor and nature are explored in order to analyze social reproduction and implications on rural subsistence. Most recently, her research aims at further exploring land/resource rush and rural life under the context of market-based climate solutions and the growing imposition of greener land uses, production of carbon credits and the exploitation of natural resources towards a “just” energy transition.

She holds a Ph.D. in Development Studies within the Political Ecology research group at the International Institute of Social Studies (ISS, The Hague) in the Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands. She worked as a researcher and is still a member of a Mozambican independent research institution – Observatório do Meio Rural. She is also an associate editor of the Feminist Africa journal.
 

Courts, Rights of Rivers, and Social Movements: Lessons from Ecuador

Speaker: Mildred Warner, Global Development, City and Regional Planning, AAP

Abstract: Rights of Nature was articulated in the 2008 Ecuadorian constitution, based on the indigenous concept of sumak kawsay, which puts humans in harmony with ecological systems. We review two recent Rights of Nature cases, the Monjas and Machángara Rivers, to explore how social movement groups are finding complementary strengths by linking the legal/rationalist paradigm with the cultural (constructivist) approaches in a hybrid Rights of Nature of approach. We illustrate how women-led civil society groups use strategies that integrate culture, science, political advocacy, and law to restore rivers. RoN approaches make rivers the subject of rights, thereby shifting law from an anthropocentric to an ecocentric view. Courts in recent cases in Ecuador have linked rights of nature with right to city, including rights to a health environment, water, heritage and sustainability. While courts have focused responsibility on the city (to clean up pollution), and appointed civil society groups as river guardians, they have avoided sanctioning more powerful economic actors.

Bio: Mildred Warner is a Professor in the Department of City and Regional Planning and the Department of Global Development at Cornell University. Her work focuses primarily on local government service delivery, economic development, environmental sustainability and planning across generations. Dr. Warner's research explores the impact of devolution on local government, the challenges of privatization, and the potential of alternative reforms such as inter-municipal cooperation. Her work on planning across generations explores new community development models for addressing human services and linking the needs of children and seniors. Her work on environment looks specifically at water governance in a multi-level framework that includes civil society, state policy, industry actors and the courts. Her research is focused in the US with collaborative projects in Latin America, Europe and Asia.

Host: Steven Wolf

TBA

Speaker: Jaime Oritz, PhD Candidate, Natural Resources and the Environment 

Abstract: TBA

Bio: Jaime is interested in conservation genomics. Currently, he is working on developing tools to improve the accuracy of meta barcoding for species identification on eDNA and aquaculture feeds. He is very passionate about conservation of the natural environment and strongly believe that genetic tools can play a more prominent role to drive more sustainable policies around the world. ​

Host: Nina Therkildsen

Forced Migration, Rural Livelihoods, and Transnational Land Relations

Speaker: Nicole Tu-Maung Venker, Ph.D. candidate in Natural Resources and the Environmental 

Abstract: How does forced displacement reshape migrants’ relationships to land? How do refugees encounter and experience nature in landscapes after resettlement? This talk examines these questions through the case of transnational refugee migration from Myanmar. Enduring the world’s longest civil war, Myanmar has seen millions displaced by armed conflict from its countryside, both within and beyond Southeast Asia. Drawing on interviews, oral histories, and visual narratives with two generations of Myanmar migrants – those resettled in Upstate New York after the 1988 democratic uprising and those displaced to Thailand following the 2021 military coup – this research traces environmental, labor, and resource transformations through everyday migrant experiences. Extending literatures in political ecology and critical refugee studies, the talk makes a dual argument: Intersecting conditions forced migration and statelessness decenter land from refugees’ everyday means of economic survival; Yet, nature remains vital for transnational sense of place, social reproduction, and food sovereignty.

Bio: Nicole is a Ph.D. candidate in Natural Resources and the Environmental at Cornell University. As a human-environment geographer, her research examines the intersections of migration, rural livelihoods, and environmental access. She uses qualitative, spatial, and participatory methods to study human–nature relationships across rural landscapes in Southeast Asia and the United States. Nicole is a graduate affiliate of Cornell’s Southeast Asia Program and the Center for Conservation Social Sciences. She earned her M.S. in Environment and Resources from the University of Wisconsin–Madison and completed her B.S. in Environmental Science and Sustainability at Cornell (’17).

Host: Bruce Larson

An Amphitheater for Well-Being and Sustainability: Multidimensionality, Place, and Cultural Heritage as Constitutive Elements

Speaker: Robert Howarth, The Atkinson Professor of Ecology & Environmental Biology 

Abstract: Over the past 20 years, the shale gas revolution in the United States has greatly increased natural gas production and exports of liquefied natural gas (LNG), making the US the largest producer and largest exporter of gas in the world. This has led to increased emissions of methane, a greenhouse gas that is more than 80 times more powerful than CO2 when considered on a 20-year time period after emission. In this talk, I will briefly review and summarize how our understanding of methane emissions has changed over time, starting with the first peer-reviewed paper on the climate impacts of methane from shale gas that I published with my colleagues Tony Ingraffea and Renee Santor just 15 years ago, in April of 2011.  I will discuss how methane emissions are considered in the landmark New York climate law, the CLCPA of 2019.  And I will present my work on the greenhouse gas footprint of LNG exports from the US, and how this influenced the Biden administration to pause further LNG exports.  Throughout, I will give examples of how scientific research has influenced the policies and politics around shale gas and climate. 

Bio: Robert Howarth is the Atkinson Professor of Ecology & Environmental Biology in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and is an Earth systems scientist, ecosystem biologist, and biogeochemist. He has worked extensively on environmental issues related to human-induced changes in the sulfur, nitrogen, phosphorus, and carbon cycles, the impacts of global climate change, the interaction of energy systems and the environment, and implementation of 100% renewable energy policies. He is the Founding Editor of the journal “Biogeochemistry.” Currently, Howarth serves as one of 22 members of the Climate Action Council, the group charged by law with implementing the aggressive climate goals of New York’s Climate Leadership & Community Protection Act of 2019. Previously, he co-chaired the International SCOPE Nitrogen Project (1992-2002), chaired the National Academy of Sciences Committee on Causes and Management of Coastal Eutrophication (1998-2000), coordinated the nutrient responses chapter for the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (2002-2005), and chaired the International SCOPE Biofuels Project (2007-2010). Howarth has published more than 200 research papers, and these have been cited in other peer-reviewed articles more than 70,000 times, making Howarth one of the ten most cited aquatic scientists in the world. In 2011, Time Magazine named Howarth as one of 50 “People Who Matter” for his research on the greenhouse gas footprint of shale gas produced from hydraulic fracturing.

Areas of Expertise: Climate Change, Methane Emissions, Energy Policy, Renewable Energy, Nitrogen Pollution, Coastal Oceanography, Harmful Algal Blooms, Environmental Consequences of Agriculture

An Amphitheater for Well-Being and Sustainability: Multidimensionality, Place, and Cultural Heritage as Constitutive Elements

Speaker: Felipe Gutierrez Antinopai, PhD Candidate, Natural Resources and the Environment

Abstract: Measuring complex social phenomena such as well-being and sustainability remains one of the most contested challenges in the social sciences. Despite decades of conceptual development and an expanding array of indicators, there is little agreement on how these meta-constructs should be operationalized, compared, or interpreted. Multidimensionality has become the default response to this challenge. Yet, it is often treated as a taken-for-granted solution rather than as a concept requiring careful epistemological scrutiny. What does it actually mean to measure something as “multidimensional”? At which levels of analysis do dimensions operate, and how are they selected, justified, and related to one another? 

This seminar argues that multidimensionality is not merely a technical property of measurement frameworks but a constitutive feature of how well-being and sustainability are understood, negotiated, and enacted in place. Drawing on empirical work conducted in Valparaíso, Chile—a UNESCO World Heritage city marked by cultural richness, social conflict, and long-term decline—the seminar introduces the metaphor of an “amphitheater” to conceptualize how diverse dimensions, actors, and worldviews converge without necessarily producing consensus. Cultural heritage, sense of place, and memory are examined not as supplementary or “soft” dimensions, but as foundational elements shaping how people relate to development, sustainability, and collective futures. 

By bridging scoping review methods, qualitative interviews, and quantitative modeling, the seminar highlights the epistemological tensions embedded in current measurement practices and questions the assumption that more dimensions automatically lead to better understanding. Ultimately, it proposes a place-sensitive and reflexive approach to measurement—one that acknowledges plurality without abandoning analytical rigor, and that treats indicators not only as tools for comparison, but as lenses through which societies articulate what they value and seek to sustain.

Bio: Felipe is a former civil construction engineer from Valparaíso, Chile, whose academic trajectory bridges technical training and social inquiry. He holds a Master’s degree in Human Settlements and the Environment, where his interests shifted from infrastructure and efficiency toward the social, cultural, and epistemological foundations of development. He is currently a PhD candidate in Natural Resources and the Environment, focusing on how complex social phenomena such as well-being, sustainability, and quality of life are conceptualized and measured across disciplines. Felipe’s research combines scoping reviews, qualitative interviews, and quantitative modeling to examine the assumptions embedded in multidimensional indicators, with particular attention to place-based constructs such as cultural heritage, memory, and sense of place. Grounded in empirical work in Valparaíso, his work questions universal measurement frameworks and argues for reflexive, context-sensitive approaches that recognize plurality without relinquishing scientific coherence. His broader interests include the epistemology of indicators, interdisciplinarity, and the role of culture in sustainability transitions. 

Host: Marriane Krasney

Climate Co-Solutions? Addressing Polycrisis in the Western Ghats, India

Speaker: Manasi Anand, PhD Candidate, Natural Resources and the Environment

Abstract: The climate crisis can be understood as a polycrisis—simultaneously accelerating global warming, biodiversity loss, and socio-economic pressures. Dominant Natural Climate Solutions (NCS) frameworks, rooted in traditional climate governance such as REDD+ and carbon markets, remain centered on carbon capture. These approaches often lack institutional permanence and overlook local socio-economic imperatives, exacerbating biodiversity and livelihood challenges. 

My dissertation develops alternative pathways for NCS by focusing on place-based institutions. The first chapter maps the institutional landscape of NCS through a scoping review, arguing that current definitions must account for approaches outside carbon-centric governance. I advance the concept of Natural Climate Co-solutions: management pathways that treat locally specific biodiversity and livelihood priorities as foundational governance entry points, from which IPCC-aligned mitigation benefits emerge as spillovers rather than primary objectives. 

Building on this conceptual shift, the empirical chapters examine opportunities for co-solutions in the Western Ghats. Through comparative case study analysis of eight community and civil society institutions, and fieldwork in MM Hills, Karnataka, I analyze the policy entry points and institutional mechanisms that sustain long-term co-solutions. My research shows that institutions targeting integrated socio-ecological problems—such as invasive species driving biodiversity decline, livelihood insecurity, and wildfire emissions—create durable pathways for climate spillovers without branding interventions as “carbon projects.” In contrast, carbon-centric branding often yields short-term gains without permanence or durability. Together, these findings demonstrate alternative possibilities for climate co-solutions in the Global South.

Bio: Manasi Anand is a Ph.D. candidate in Natural Resources and the Environment at Cornell University. Her research explores how community and civil society institutions in the Western Ghats of India generate pathways toward just climate transitions. Drawing on environmental governance, her work examines how locally embedded arrangements link climate mitigation, biodiversity conservation, and livelihoods, foregrounding local knowledge, institutional dynamics, and questions of justice in forest governance. At Cornell, Manasi is equally engaged in teaching and mentorship. She has served as Instructor for NTRES 1200: Seeing the Forest for the Trees, accumulated four years of teaching assistant experience, and worked as a Teaching Fellow with the Center for Teaching Innovation, supporting inclusive pedagogy and course design across the university. Prior to her Ph.D., Manasi received an M.Sc. in Biodiversity, Conservation and Management from the University of Oxford and a B.Sc. in Chemistry, Botany, and Environmental Science from Mount Carmel College, Bangalore. 

Host: Steven Wolf