Category: Events

Fall 2013 Symposium

Rising Temps and Emerging Threats: The Intersection of Climate Change and National Security in the 21st Century

Friday, October 25, 2013

Chase Community Center, Vermont Law School, South Royalton, VT

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As the premier environmental law journal for the nation’s leading environmental law school, the Vermont Journal of Environmental Law is pleased to announce that our 2013-2014 Symposium will address the rapidly emerging issue of climate change and national security.

Since 2010, the U.S. Department of Defense has identified climate change as one of the top threats to U.S. national security. More recently, President Barack Obama announced that the United States needs to prepare for a future of weather aggravated by rising temperatures. “The 12 warmest years in recorded history have all come in the last 15 years,” Obama stated in his June 2013 address, describing the impact on our livelihoods, homes, businesses, emergency services, disaster relief, and food prices.

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Across the globe, warming temperatures and changing weather conditions have worsened water scarcity, desertification, and agricultural output forcing global migration.  What is more, sea-level rise, and increasing resource conflicts and humanitarian disasters, threaten the military’s ability to respond.

This day-long Symposium will bring together a variety of experts to address a number of these pressing security issues facing the U.S. and international community today.  Panelists will discuss, debate, and address the real and immediate threats that climate change presents to:

    • National security;
    • The military’s adaptations and response to climate change;
    • The growing threat of climate based forced migration; and
    • Food security as national security.

We hope you will join the Vermont Journal of Environmental Law for this timely 2013-2014 Symposium.

For more information, please contact Symposium Editor, Molly Gray at vjel@vermontlaw.edu.

Videos from this Symposium can be found on our YouTube Page

Schedule:

8:45am – Welcome and Opening Remarks

9:00am – Keynote Address

    • Keynote Speaker: John Steinbruner, Director of the Center for International Security Studies, University of Maryland; Author, Climate and Social Stress: Implications for Security Analysis

9:45am – Climate Change and National Security: Characterizing the Nature of the Security Threat

11:15am – Adapting to Climate Change: The U.S. Military’s Response

12:30 – Lunch Break in Yates Common Room

2:00pm – Climate Based Forced Migration: Adapting to the Displacement and Resettlement of Persons Due to Climate Change

3:15pm – Coffee Break

3:30pm – Food Security as National Security: The Future of Food in the Face of Climate Change

4:45pm – Closing Remarks

5:00pm – Reception

    • Post-symposium reception in Yates Common Room

Spring 2013 Symposium

The Forgotten 20 Percent: Land Use Development and Conservation Challenges in Rural America

Friday, April 19, 2013

Chase Community Center, Vermont Law School, South Royalton, VT

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Co-hosted by the Environmental Law Center, Office of the Associate Dean for Student Affairs and Diversity, and the American Planning Association, Northern New England Chapter

About the Symposium:

This symposium addressed a wide range of cutting-edge topics facing rural America, including:

    • Demographic trends in Vermont and in other rural areas across the country and the world
    • Alternative strategies for effective conservation of rural back country areas
    • Approaches for providing affordable, high quality internet, transportation and other public services
    • Exploring the state of the rural housing stock and rural economy
    • Examining the benefits and burdens of use-value taxation, such as the widely used “current use” tax programs

Watch the Symposium Here:

Schedule:

8:00 – 8:45 Registration 8:45 – 9:00 Welcome and Introductions

    • Marc Mihaly. President, Dean, and Professor of Law, Vermont Law School.

9:00 – 10:15 Keynote Panel

    • Ken Johnson, Senior Demographer, the Carsey Insitute, University of New Hampshire
    • Gershon Feder, Chair, Publications Review Committee, International Food Policy Research Institute
    • Mark Lapping, Distinguished Professor, Muskie School of Public Service, University of Southern Maine

10:15 – 11:30 Rural Infrastructure: Challenges and Strategies

    • Karen Horn, Director of Public Policy and Advocacy, Vermont League of Cities and Towns
    • Robert Bruce, Former General Counsel, Federal Communications Commission (FCC)
    • Joe Segale. Policy and Planning Manager, Vermont Agency of Transportation.

12:15 – 1:30 Alternative Approaches to Land Conservation

    • Robert Liberty, Director, Urban Sustainability Accelerator, Toulan School of Urban Studies and Planning, Portland State University
    • Jane Difley, President/Forester, Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests,
    • Robert Anderberg. Vice President and General Counsel, Open Space Institute

1:30 – 2:45 Rural Taxation: Benefits and Burdens

    • Deb Brighton, Independent Consultant in VT, specializing in tax policy issues
    • Lori Lynch, Professor of Agricultural Economics, University of Maryland,
    • Darby Bradley. Former President, Vermont Land Trust

3:15 – 4:30 Building Sustainable Communities: Employment and Housing in Rural America

    • Gus Seelig, Executive Director, Vermont Housing & Conservation Board
    • Laurie Ristino. Director, Center for Agriculture and Food Systems, Vermont Law School
    • Shaun Gilpin, Program Director, Mobile Home Program, Champlain Valley Office of Economic Opportunity
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