“Sustainable Cities” Workshop to be held at B2

Shipherd Reed, the UA Flandrau Science Center and Planetarium

March 28, 2013

The “Sustainable Cities” workshop at Biosphere 2 is bringing together UA researchers and science journalism students along with representatives from local government, non-profits and industry who work on sustainability issues in the Tucson region.

Workshop participants will discuss future practices and technologies for sustainable energy, building and land use, energy and environmental stewardship and other topics. (Photo credit: Beatriz Verdugo/UANews)

Envionrmental journalist and UA Laureate Professor Alan Weisman, author of the famed "The World Without Us," is the keynote speaker for the March 29 event, which will be held at UA Science: Biosphere 2. Weisman also authored other books and numerous anthologies and articles and is working on a new book about the carrying capacity of the planet. He will give an overview of regional, national and global environmental challenges.

The event is free thanks to a grant from the Water, Environmental, and Energy Solutions (WEES) initiative at the UA.

Also, attendees will discuss future practices and technologies for sustainable water, energy and environmental stewardship in the Southwest. Attendees include: researchers involved in Biosphere 2’s “Model City” program; UA Institute of the Environment research; UA and regional experts in sustainable energy, water, building and land use; and student journalists from the UA School of Journalism.

The keynote address will be followed a panel discussion featuring researchers working on sustainability research at Biosphere 2 under the umbrella of the “Model City” project coordinated by Nate Allen.

During the day, UA science journalism students from two different current courses – Alan Weisman’s class on “carrying capacity” and Carol Schwalbe’s class on multi-media science storytelling – will attend and cover the workshop. Students will do follow-up stories on research, people and organizations that they learn about at the workshop.

This workshop is funded by a grant WEES program. WEES is co-managed by the Water Sustainability Program, the Institute of the Environment and the Renewable Energy Program at the UA. The workshop is also supported in part by the B2 Institute, a scientific think tank and research incubator that addresses scientific grand challenges that require solutions combining expertise from a broad range of scientific fields. A grant from UA Student Affairs also helped make the field trip possible.

Contact: Shipherd Reed, digital media producer for the Flandrau Science Center and Planetarium, at 520-471-4484 or shipherd@email.arizona.edu.