Carrying Capacity Dialogue at Steinbrenner Institute

In Nov 2009, I was honored to be an invited speaker as researchers at the Steinbrenner Institute for Environmental Education and Research, at Carnegie Mellon University, continue their consideration of research on population-environment topics. The two-day dialogue explored three main topics:

1) Measures of U.S. resource consumption, including rates, amounts and origins of the resources.

2) Measures of U.S. food production and implications of population growth.

3) Measures of impacts of population growth on resources and quality of life.

My own presentation encouraged CMU scholars to move past simplistic representations of population-environment associations and to include more nuanced consideration of demographic and social processes. As examples, more careful consideration of the environmental aspects of immigration could yield more fruitful policy response as compared to building yet-higher border walls. Also, culture and environmental values as forces shaping consumption deserve central attention in consideration of society's ecological footprint.

 

IUSSP: Journey to Marrakech

The International Union for the Scientific Study of Population (IUSSP) held its meeting in Marrakech, Morocco this year. The union meets every four years and this was my second time in attendance. It’s a fascinating group of papers and people – one that’s far more international than the conferences of the U.S.-based Population Association of America. Because of that, population-environment scholarship tends to be far more represented at the IUSSP given its greater prominence within development inquiry.

IUSSP: http://www.iussp.org/

Population & Environment Session

Within a session on “Population Pressure, Resource Use and Environmental Degradation”, I presented recent results from my collaborative work with Wayne Twine (Wits, South Africa) and Laura Patterson (graduate student, CU-Boulder). The work is based at the Agincourt Health and Demographic Surveillance Site

http://web.wits.ac.za/Academic/Health/PublicHealth/Agincourt/agincourthome.htm

and examines natural resource use as related to food security among AIDS-impacted households. The session’s papers were:

Population dynamics, future food requirements and environmental impacts in sub-Saharan Africa • Barbara Boyle Torrey, Population Reference Bureau (PRB)

HIV/AIDS, food security and the role of the natural environment: evidence from the Agincourt health and demographic surveillance site in rural South Africa • Lori M. Hunter, University of Colorado at Boulder; Laura Patterson, University of Colorado at Boulder; Wayne Twine, University of the Witwatersrand

Environmental degradation, population pressure and health in South India: elite capture or poor information? • Monica Das Gupta, World Bank Group; Vijayendra Rao, World Bank Group; Radu Ban, World Bank Group

Estimating carbon and methane footprints from demographic and health survey data • Shea Rutstein, Macro International Inc.

Environment and Health Session

I also had the opportunity to act as “discussant” for a session on Environment and Health. Here, I aimed to provide productive feedback for the authors and to bring the lessons learned within each paper together into a comprehensive contribution. The session’s papers were:

Environment & Health

Chair: Daniel Joseph Hogan, Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP)
Discussant: Lori M. Hunter, University of Colorado at Boulder

Influence of community environment and sanitary conditions of households on diarrhoea morbidity in an urban setting in Cameroon: the case of Yaounde and Douala • Félicien Fomekong, Institut National de la Statistique du Cameroun

Do integrated population, health and environment programs work? Gathering evidence using a quasi-experimental design. • Eckhard Kleinau, Analysis, Information Management & Communications Activity (AIM); Odile Randriamananjara, U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID); Fred Rosensweig, Training Resources Group, Inc

Diarrhoea, acute respiratory infection, and fever among children in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) • Ngianga-Bakwin Kandala, University of Warwick

Urbanization, water and health in Brazil: aspects of dengue fever epidemics • Roberto Luiz do Carmo, Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP)

Beyond the conference venue

Of course, when in Marrakech, one must explore!


I took two guided tours -- one to the "souks" (the central markets) and one to several local gardens -- and then explored on my own!

The Souks:

The gardens included a visit to Jardin Marjorelle:

http://www.jardinmajorelle.com/en/

Migration and Climate Change

Working on, what I believe is, an important proposal outlining a research project on migration as a livelihood strategy in rural South Africa --

Does variation in precipitation and temperature shape patterns of outmigration?

We can learn about the social implications of climate change by examining patterns of the recent past.

Sociology & the Golden Gate

Just returned from the American Sociological Association meetings in San Francisco -- what a great city and what a great group of engaging scholars!

I would encourage anyone interested in Environmental Sociology to join the section's listserv:

To subscribe go to
http://listserv.brown.edu/archives/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=envirosoc&A=1

At the meeting:

Laura Patterson, Sociology graduate student at CU-Boulder, presented our collaborative research in South Africa on AIDS mortality and household food security.

I also acted as roundtable moderator for a great discussion with:

Research on community acceptance of wind energy
(Teelyn Mauney and Lenin Zhang, San Francis University)

Expanding Offshore Energy Production: Policy considerations
(Robert Gramling, Univ of Louisiana and William Freudenburg, UC-Santa Barbara)

A Tale of Two Sitings: Contentious Politics and Liquefied Natural gas Facilities in California
(Hilary Schaffer Boudet, Stanford University)