New lecture series focuses on sustainable development

After attending the United Nations World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) this summer, members of the Tufts Delegation to the summit are working to share their experience with the student body through the new Tufts Sustainability Lecture Series.

The first two lectures of the series were held in the past two weeks, and several more are planned. "We are just getting this lecture series off the ground, and are currently working to set up more lectures for next semester," delegation member Joan Hamory said.

The motivation for the lecture series is that learning about issues of sustainability is especially important for today's students, according to sophomore Chelsea Feerer, a member of the delegation who helped organize the series. "Youth above all should be ready to instill innovative change that will benefit generations to come, starting with students today," she said.

A lecture titled "Sustainable Development from a Southern Perspective," by Professor Adil Najam of Boston University and MIT, kicked off the series on Nov. 7. The Tufts Delegation to the WSSD and the Institute for Global Leadership cosponsored the event.

MIT Professor Nicholas Ashford spoke in the second lecture last Thursday on "Pathways to Sustainable Industrial Transformation: Co-Optimizing Competitiveness, Employment and Environment." Ashford, who directs the Technology and Law Program at MIT's Sloan School of Management, discussed sustainability in the context of a globalized economy.

The students in the Tufts delegation to the WSSD planned the series because they feel that many college students do not realize the importance of sustainable development. The issue "could have an important impact on our own futures, as well as those of our offspring," said Hamory, who graduated last May with degrees in International Relations and Quantitative Economics.

The lecture series will show that issues surrounding water and energy, production and consumption of goods, technological progress, and culture and heritage are all related to sustainable development. "The study of sustainable development focuses on the development of the world in such a way that does not jeopardize the health, safety, and welfare of future generations," she said.

The idea for the series grew out of the students' disappointment over the World Summit they attended in Johannesburg, South Africa this summer from Aug. 26 to Sept. 4. Although the Tufts Delegation was privy to high-level discussions of issues such as poverty eradication, carbon dioxide emissions, and technology transfer between developed and developing nations, the main goals of the summit remained unaccomplished.

After the summit concluded, the delegation met with EPIIC Director Sherman Teichman and Assistant Director Heather Barry to discuss ways to share their experience with the student body.

The WSSD delegation developed the series to educate both the Tufts community and the greater Boston community. "The members of our delegation learned many valuable lessons in Johannesburg, and wanted to share some of these with our peers," she said.

Despite low attendance at the first two lectures, the series' organizers are optimistic that the Tufts community will embrace the issue of sustainability. "Students at Tufts, as well as anyone who breathes, drinks, and eats, should be well versed in the problems and, more importantly, the solutions involving sustainable development," Feerer said.

The students, from Tufts' undergraduate and Fletcher Schools, applied to the UN before the summit to become an accredited non-governmental organization (NGO) in conjunction with the Education for Public Inquiry and International Citizenship (EPIIC) program so that they could attend.