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Utah Program

Bioneers' Friday Evening at the Tabernacle – November 13th

The public is invited to this informative evening as a guest of the Utah Bioneers. There is no cost. All are welcome.
7:00 p.m. – 8:00 Dianne Nielsen, Ph.D., state energy advisor to Utah Governor Herbert
"Utah Energy: Power Our Future"

Dr. Nielson will give a brief overview of the current state of energy supply in Utah. Then the focus will shift to the future with the State's plan to manage energy supplies and production into the future. Energy policy, renewable energy, and traditional energy supplies will be addressed. A question and answer period will follow."
8:00 – 8:40 Michael Pollan (national plenary speaker by DVD from California)
"In Defense of Food - The Omnivore's Solution"

The leading American thinker about our relationship to food, Michael Pollan is the author of such seminal classics as In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto, The Omnivore's Dilemma and The Botany of Desire. He explores what the industrialization of food and agriculture has meant for our health and happiness as eaters. He surveys the landscape of the growing national movement to redesign the food system.

Friday, November 20th
8:30 a.m. – 9:00 Registration
9:00 – 9:10 Welcome to the 6th annual Utah Bioneers Conference
Jim Goodwin, 2009 Utah Bioneers Co-chair
9:10 – 9:25 Conference opening remarks
Nat Frazer, Dean of the College of Natural Resources
9:25 – 9:55 A welcome and opening remarks from Kenny Ausubel and Nina Simons, founders of the national Bioneers organization (by DVD from the National Bioneers conference just held in San Rafael, California in October 2009)
9:55 – 10:25 Brock Dolman (national plenary speaker by DVD from California)
"Basins of Relations - A Reverential Rehydration Revolution"

Permaculturist and watershed wizard Brock Dolman shows how the future lifeboat we'll need is shaped exactly like our local watershed. He wields his dazzling poetics to tell us how we can engage with the spirit of Planet Water, create waterliterate human settlement patterns, and regenerate ecological integrity and social resiliency to prepare for the climate changes ahead.
10:25 – 10:55 Mari Margil (national plenary speaker by DVD from California)
"Who Speaks for the Trees? - Driving Nature's Rights into Law"

The associate director of the Community Environmental Defense Fund (CELDF) describes the inspiring, groundbreaking work she and CELDF are doing to recognize Rights of Nature in law in both the U.S. and Ecuador, which recently became the world's first nation to enshrine such rights in its constitution.
10:55 – 11:05 Break
11:05 – 12:00 Dr. Joseph Tainter, USU Department of Environment and Society
"Sustainability: Asking the Right Questions"

The term "sustainability" is being used in scientific literature and popular culture, however very few people provide a clear definition of the term. This talk will provide a framework for assessing what sustainability means by asking four specific questions. Although the questions are very simple, answering them can be quite difficult. Unless these questions are asked however, we risk having the term "sustainability" become a watered-down, meaningless word.
12:00 – 1:00 Lunch (Lunch prepared by the award winning Culinary Concepts) – entertainment by Forest and Stanley Edwards
1:00 – 1:35 Jason McLennan (national plenary speaker by DVD from California)
"Living Buildings - The Future of Architecture"

This leading figure in the global green architecture movement challenges us to imagine and demand buildings that operate as elegantly and efficiently as the living structures nature creates. As CEO of Cascadia Green Building Council, author of the Living Building Challenge and co-creator of Pharos (the most advanced building material rating system in North America), he shows breathtaking examples from the worldwide Challenge underway to design buildings that meet or exceed nature's ecosystem services.
1:35 – 2:10 Joanna Macy (national plenary speaker by DVD from California)
"The Hidden Promise of Our Dark Age - Discovering Our Wisdom, Strength and Beauty in the Midst of Crisis"

If we can free ourselves from the delusions and dependencies bred by the "industrial growth society," something wonderful can happen. One of the great activists and spiritual teachers of our era brings a hopeful message: If we manage to steer clear of panic, we may well find at last the wild power of our creativity and solidarity.
2:15 – 3:15 Goddard School of Business and Economics at Weber State University (Dr. Shane J. Schvaneveldt, Dr. Therese Grijalva, Dr. David Malone, Jacob Cain and Christopher Bentley)
"Learning to Be Environmentally Sustainable: Curriculum and Campus Greening Initiatives at Weber State University"

How can business be more environmentally sustainable? That is the subject of a new series of MBA courses in the Goddard School of Business and Economics at Weber State University. Significant strides also are being made in greening the operations and infrastructure of the university campus, as well as in the involvement of WSU students. Our panel will discuss these and other recent initiatives.
3:15 – 3:25 Break
3:25 – 4:00 Jensine Larsen (national plenary speaker by DVD from California)
"The Electric Pulse of Women - Transforming Our World"

Across the Earth, courageous women leaders from rural villages to corporate suites are connecting to solve global problems. The visionary founder of World Pulse, a global media source covering world issues through women's eyes, shares her journey building an interactive global media enterprise to unleash the power of women's voices, and shows how we can participate in this ongoing revolution.
4:00 – 4:30 Lily Yeh (national plenary speaker by DVD from California)
"The Rwanda Healing Project - Bringing Hope through Art and Creative Action"

This internationally celebrated artist works to bring the transformative power of art to impoverished and war-torn communities around the world to foster community empowerment, improve the physical environment, promote economic development and preserve indigenous art and culture. She portrays a heartbreakingly beautiful project (described in Terry Tempest Williams' latest book Finding Beauty in a Broken World) exemplifying how art can begin to heal the environment as well as the hearts and minds of traumatized people.

Saturday, November 21st
8:30 a.m. – 9:00 Registration
8:45 – 9:15 Entertainment Cache Valley's African Drummers
9:15 – 9:25 Welcome by Jack Greene and Jim Goodwin, co-chairs of the 2009 Utah Bioneers Conference
9:25 – 9:40 Adam Christensen – Aggie Blue Bikes
Jairo Hernandez Velasquez – USU Sustainability Council Student Engagement Committee
Krista Bustamante and Moises Diaz – USU Multi-cultural program "Las Abejas"
Oscar Marquina – Engineers Without Borders
9:40 – 9:55 Jim Garrison (national plenary speaker by DVD from California)
An update on the "20/20 Climate Leadership Campaign"
9:55 – 10:50 Dr. Robert Davies, USU Physics
"Earth's Changing Climate: An Unfortunate Update"

Two years ago the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) issued its fourth major report in twenty years. It included projections of warming of between 3 and 8 degrees F by 2100 -- a rate of warming fifty times greater than the rate lifting us from the last ice age. If even the most optimistic warming is realized, humanity will envelope itself in a climate dramatically different than any we've ever known. Unfortunately, the intervening two years have seen substantial evidence suggesting Earth's warming is poised to accelerate beyond these projections. I'll summarize the current state of the science, the most recent projections, and the level of supporting scientific consensus.
10:50 – 11:00 Break
11:00 – 12:00 Mary Ann Wright, Governor Herbert's Energy Advisory Office
"The Economic Implications of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy for Utah"

Exciting advancements are occurring at a rapid pace in both renewable energy and energy efficiency in Utah. Distributed (local) and commercial installations of renewable energy, and funding of energy efficiency retrofits, are opening up new opportunities at learning institutions, at businesses and at personal levels. Utah has set goals of 20% energy efficiency to be reached by 2015 and 20% renewable energy by 2025. What will these changes mean to the economy of Utah in the next 15 years? A study was commissioned by the Governor's Energy Advisor and carried out by Utah Clean Energy, Wikstrom Economic and Planning Consultants and MRG and Associates. The study, released this year, shows Utah meeting those goals and benefitting greatly as a result.
12:00 – 1:00 Lunch (Lunch prepared by the award winning Culinary Concepts) – entertainment by Wade and Kara
1:00 – 1:30 Andrew Weil, M.D. (national plenary speaker by DVD from California)
"Environmental Health, Environmental Medicine"

Human health and environmental health are inextricably interconnected, yet the education and training of doctors and health professionals largely ignore the subject. America's most prominent "Integrative" MD and medical reformer, Dr. Andrew Weil says in his new book on reinventing the American health care system that it's imperative to mobilize the health-care community as an ally in the environmental movement. The alliance could overcome the influence of vested interests that still block the legislative and policy changes we need to protect the health of people and planet.
1:30 – 2:00 Michael Pollan (national plenary speaker by DVD from California)
"In Defense of Food - The Omnivore's Solution"

The leading American thinker about our relationship to food, Michael Pollan is the author of such seminal classics as In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto, The Omnivore's Dilemma and The Botany of Desire. He explores what the industrialization of food and agriculture has meant for our health and happiness as eaters. He surveys the landscape of the growing national movement to redesign the food system.
2:00 – 2:50 Austin Coover, USU graduate student in Economics
"The Economic Impacts of Wind Development in Cache Valley"

Last year 42% of all new electric generating capacity installed came from wind turbines. Investment in wind topped 8,000 MW. For many reasons, wind energy is the rising star of renewable energy sources. It emits no carbon, it does not use water, it has a small land footprint, it has stable prices, its inputs are renewable and infinite. While these issues often please environmentalists it is not always the case that politicians and their constituents are sold on wind as a result of these benefits. I will discuss in my presentation the economic benefits of wind power, and how investment in wind energy is beneficial to a state, its political body and its citizens independent of winds environmentally friendly attributes.
2:50 – 3:00 Break
3:00 – 3:30 Annie Leonard (national plenary speaker by DVD from California)
"The Story of Stuff "

A key part of the American dream is centered on accumulating ever more, and better, stuff. Yet all the stuff in our lives is taking an enormous toll on the environment, public health, equity, personal happiness and even our sense of citizenship and democracy. Acclaimed filmmaker and Internet phenomenon Annie Leonard exposes the often hidden costs and provides a hopeful vision for moving beyond the age of Stuff.
3:30 – 4:00 Chief Almir Narayamoga Surui, Amazon Rainforest, Brazil
"Biocultural Conservation in the Amazon - How an Amazon Tribe Has Combined Traditional Knowledge with Science and Technology to Save Its Rainforests and Its People"

Introduction by Rebecca Moore, founder of Google Earth Outreach. Chief Almir, 32, a tribal chief, environmentalist and political activist, portrays his and his people's struggles to survive by protecting their culture and rainforest since they made First Contact with the Western world in 1969. He surveys the history of the Amazon, its situation today and the unusual partnership he forged with Google to use Google Earth's high-tech tools to help his Surui people tell their story and protect their forests and culture.
4:00 – 4:15 Conference wrap up. We're all interconnected.

Thanks for attending. Spread the good word on the importance of the Three Es of Sustainability (Sustainable Environment, Sustainable Economy, and Sustainable Social Equity).

We'll see you in 2010.