HSU’s ‘Sustainable Futures’ Series Starts Thursday – Times-Standard

Humboldt State University’s Sustainable Futures Speaker Series opens Thursday at 5:30 p.m. with Jill Lindsey Harrison, author of “From the Inside Out: The Fight for Environmental Justice within Government Agencies.”

Harrison will present key findings from his book, which lifts the lid on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and other environmental regulatory agencies to offer new insights into why they are failing to reduce toxins harmful and other dangers in the country’s most overburdened and vulnerable communities. Harrison is a professor at the University of Colorado at Boulder, whose research focuses on environmental justice, environmental policy, and immigration policy.

On March 3 at 5:30 p.m., Alison Bates will share research she has conducted over the past decade on the social acceptance of offshore wind energy, and how conceptualizations of “community” and an energy transition” fair” have evolved over this period.

Bates is a professor of environmental studies at Colby College in Maine, where she studies the social acceptance of renewable energy systems, including offshore wind, using an equity and justice framework. This year, the federal government plans to award the first offshore wind leases on the Pacific Coast, which will be located in the Humboldt Bay area. Bates’ expertise in offshore wind energy decision-making processes and their impacts on marginalized communities is very timely for the North Coast.

The Sustainable Futures Speaker Series will conclude on April 28 at 5:30 p.m. with a presentation by Andrea Rodgers on children’s fundamental rights, the climate crisis and the call for engagement of the judiciary.

Rodgers is Senior Litigation Counsel at Our Children’s Trust, where she advises on several climate-related lawsuits brought by young plaintiffs, including Juliana v. United States, Aji P. v. State of Washington and Reynolds v. State of Florida. Rodgers will explore how children and young people have turned to the courts to seek protection for their fundamental rights, and where that is now.

The Spring 2022 Sustainable Futures Speaker Series is held online. All events are free and open to the public, and live captioning is provided for all lectures. To request additional assistance, contact [email protected] or call 707-826-4345. Find more information and register for all events at schatzcenter.org/speakers.

The lecture series was created to stimulate interdisciplinary collaboration around issues related to energy, environment and society. The lectures are sponsored by the Schatz Energy Research Center and HSU’s Environment & Community Program and the College of Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences.