Living in the second-driest state in the U.S. most of us are closely attuned to water issues, especially as we face changes to our climate. Three experts at USU recently chose water as the topic of their TEDxUSU talks.
We’ll bring them together for a stimulating discussion on Thursday’s AU. Bruce Bugbee, a USU Professor who teaches Crop Physiology and Plant Nutrition, analyzes the enormous world-wide requirement for food production, reviews the crisis in world water supply, and shows how small changes in diet can have a major impact on our global food-print; Joanna Endter-Wada, USU Associate Professor of Natural Resource and Environmental Policy, looks at the fundamental ethical considerations, policy debates, and planning concerns that must be addressed to answer the question: how much water do communities in the west need to survive, and asks: as a society, how do we ensure that our wants for water do not imperil the human and ecosystem need for water? And David Rosenberg, USU Assistant Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, says we shouldn’t insist on optimal solutions, but instead explore near-optimal alternatives, allowing us to discover strategies to thrive in the face of society’s most pressing resource problems. Click here to view the 2013 TEDxUSU speakers give their talks.
