Gund Institute Podcasts

The climate crisis is a crisis of leadership. For too long, too many leaders have prioritized corporate profits over the public good, exacerbating climate vulnerabilities while reinforcing economic and racial injustice.

But leaders who are connecting climate and energy with job creation and economic justice, health and nutrition, housing and transportation, are advancing exciting transformative change. These bold, diverse leaders are resisting the "polluter elite" to restructure society by catalyzing a shift to a just, sustainable, regenerative, and healthy future.

Jennie C. Stephens, a Gund Affiliate, is Director of Northeastern University's School of Public Policy & Urban Affairs, Dean's Professor of Sustainability Science & Policy, and Director for Strategic Research Collaborations at the Global Resilience Institute. She is an internationally-recognized expert on renewable transformation, energy justice, climate resilience, and gender in energy innovation with two decades of experience linking environmental science and technology with policy and social change.

Learn more about the Gund Institute: https://www.uvm.edu/gund

Explore Gund events: https://www.uvm.edu/gund/events

Crop diversity is essential to enhance global food security and adapt to climate change, but market requirements, climate change, and agricultural industrialization contribute to high rates of erosion. Still, many small farmers around the world continue to conserve diverse varieties of crops.

In this talk, Daniel Tobin (University of Vermont) provides an overview of various projects across Vermont, Peru, Mexico, and sub-Saharan Africa, investigating who conserves crop diversity, their reasons for doing so, and the outcomes they experience.

Nitrogen (N) is a critical, often limiting element for plant and microbial productivity in terrestrial ecosystems, especially in agroecosystems. In this talk, Stuart Grandy (University of New Hampshire) integrates emerging understanding of soil bioavailable nitrogen transformations with progress in understanding plant-microbe-mineral networks and their regulation of the nitrogen cycle.

How can we improve human welfare without destroying the planet? In this talk, Gund Fellow Brendan Fisher discusses projects across Asia, East Africa and South America looking at when, where, and how well-functioning ecosystems improve human health, increase household income, and protect biodiversity. While trade-offs between conservation and human development always exist, these projects show that many can be mitigated at low cost to society.

In this presentation, Gund Institute Director of Policy Outreach Stephen Posner describes various pathways available for researchers to engage with and impact policy. He also shares insights from the practice of linking environmental research with policy decisions at multiple scales, from state legislatures, to the Executive Office of the President, to the United Nations.

Examples cover a range of topics, including ecosystem services, water security, governmental economic accounts, and what climate change means for the management of ocean resources.

In his role at the Gund, Stephen leads programs and develops strategic partnerships to connect Gund research with leaders in government, business, and NGOs - internationally, nationally, and in Vermont.

Learn more about the Gund Institute: https://www.uvm.edu/gund

Locals in Burlington, Vermont see firsthand some of the downstream problems associated with phosphorus utilization and management. However, phosphate-containing ore reserves are limited by many estimates, indicating new upstream problems as well.

In this talk, Gund Affiliate Rory Waterman looks at some of these broader issues in efficient phosphorus use as well as phosphorus utilization and remediation. Atoms, like phosphorus, are small but this is a big picture; there will be just enough chemistry to set the stage but a lot of bigger issues to consider.

Rory Waterman is a long-time molecule maker, and as an inorganic chemist, he is fortunate to have the entirety of the periodic table is his workspace. He is a Professor in UVM's Chemistry department and Associate Dean for the College of Arts and Sciences and has spent the entirety of his 13-year independent career at UVM and has earned some recognition, most recently being named a Fellow of the American Chemical Society.

In this talk, Gund Global Fellow Ian Deshmukh defines critical enabling conditions for community-based forestry enterprises in developing countries. The goal of this analysis is to develop guidance for project implementers to improve community success in sustainable timber extraction.

Ian Deshmukh spent 15 years in academia where he taught ecology, conservation biology and evolutionary biology, and conducted research focused primarily on ecosystem processes in African savannas. Prior to his retirement he worked for ARD (now Tetra Tech) in the international development field.

In this talk, Mark Bradford (Yale University) presents evidence from his group's field research to show that considering local interactions in the context of regional climate gradients suggests the need to update dominant conceptualizations about controls on broad scale carbon cycling.

Mark A. Bradford is Professor of Soils and Ecosystem Ecology at the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies. His group's research reveals how soil microbial processes govern carbon cycle responses to global change and environmental management. Their current work spans questions that address uncertainties in Earth system feedbacks to quantifying soil health outcomes and forest processes.

This Earth Week panel discussion on the COVID-19 crisis covers preliminary research, early lessons, and the new Gund Institute COVID-19 Rapid Research Fund: https://www.uvm.edu/gund/research/covid-19-rapid-research-fund

Speakers include:

- Director Taylor Ricketts (welcome)

- Postdoctoral Fellow Luz de Wit (disease ecology)

- Fellow Chris Danforth (mental health)

- Fellow Meredith Niles (food insecurity)

- Fellow Stephanie Seguino (equity)

- Fellow Brendan Fisher (UN SDG impacts)

- Fellow Jon Erickson (economy)

In this illustrated talk, prize-winning journalist Andy Revkin outlines his environmental journey and his call to action for anyone interested in being the signal amid the noise.

Revkin describes how storytelling still matters, but shaping constructive conversations may matter more, and how top-down governance still matters, but community-up solutions hold the key.