Stanford University

Environment

FSI scholars approach their research on the environment from regulatory, economic and societal angles. The Center on Food Security and the Environment weighs the connection between climate change and agriculture; the impact of biofuel expansion on land and food supply; how to increase crop yields without expanding agricultural lands; and the trends in aquaculture. FSE’s research spans the globe – from the potential of smallholder irrigation to reduce hunger and improve development in sub-Saharan Africa to the devastation of drought on Iowa farms. David Lobell, a senior fellow at FSI and a recipient of a MacArthur “genius” grant, has looked at the impacts of increasing wheat and corn crops in Africa, South Asia, Mexico and the United States; and has studied the effects of extreme heat on the world’s staple crops.

Perry outlines the good and bad news about energy and national security

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William J. Perry, in a talk at the "Innovations for Smart Green Cities: What's Working, What's Not, What's Next" conference, explained how a lack of investment in energy research and development continues America's addiction to foreign oil. He illustrated how game-changing research and events could shake up the industry.
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Water and agriculture in a changing Africa: What might be done?

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Effective water management is one key element of agricultural innovation and growth. This talk: outlines evolving and changing good global practices with respect to water management and agriculture; examines developments in both water and agriculture in Africa; and suggests avenues which might be explored in improving water management and increasing agricultural productivity in Africa.

 

 is the Gordon McKay Professor of the Practice of Environmental Engineering and Environmental Health at Harvard University where he directs the Harvard Water Security Initiative. He teaches undergraduate and graduate courses on water management and development. In 2010 he was nominated for the Joseph R. Levenson Prize for exceptional teaching of Harvard undergraduates.

Briscoe's career has focused on the issues of water, other natural resources and economic development. He has worked as an engineer in the government water agencies of South Africa and Mozambique; as an epidemiologist at the Cholera Research Center in Bangladesh; and as a professor of water resources at the University of North Carolina. In his 20-year career at the World Bank, he held high-level technical positions, including Country Director for Brazil (the World Bank’s biggest borrower). Mr. Briscoe's role in shaping the governance and strategy of the World Bank is the subject of a chapter in the definitive recent history of the Bank, Sebastian Mallaby's The World's Banker (Penguin, 2006).

 is an Assistant Professor of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Policy in the School of International Relations and Pacific Studies at the University of California, San Diego. She is also an affiliate of Stanford University's Center on Food Security and the Environment (FSE), where she was previously a postdoctoral researcher. Jennifer is a physicist by training whose research focuses on simultaneously achieving global food security and mitigating climate change. She designs, implements, and evaluates technologies for poverty alleviation and agricultural adaptation, and she studies the links between energy poverty and food and nutrition security, the mechanisms by which energy services can help alleviate poverty, and the environmental impacts of food production and consumption. Much of Jennifer's current research focuses on the developing world.

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Bechtel Conference Center

John Briscoe Gordon McKay Professor of the Practice of Environmental Engineering Speaker Harvard University
Jennifer Burney Assistant Professor of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Policy in the School of International Relations and Pacific Studies Commentator University of California, San Diego
Symposiums
Global Food Policy and Food Security Symposium Series

Sujith Ravi

Y2E2 (Energy & Environment Building)
473 Via Ortega, room 349
Stanford, CA 94305-4205

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Postdoctoral scholar
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Sujith has an undergraduate degree in Agricultural Sciences from Kerala Agricultural University (India) and an MS and PhD in Environmental Sciences (Hydrology) from University of Virginia. His research interests are in the areas of ecohydrology, soil science and land degradation (biophysical and human dimensions). Prior to joining FSE he worked as an assistant research professor at the Biosphere 2 facility of the University of Arizona. As a postdoctoral scholar at FSE, Sujith is investigating the environmental impacts (on land and water resources) of large scale solar infrastructures in deserts and exploring opportunities for integrating solar projects with agriculture/biofuels.

Lobell laboratory

Adapt, Fragment, Transform

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South Korea remains a puzzle for political economists. The country has experienced phenomenal economic growth since the 1960s, but its upward trajectory has been repeatedly diverted by serious systemic crises, followed by spectacular recoveries. The recoveries are often the result of vigorous structural reforms that nonetheless retain many of South Korea's traditional economic institutions. How, then, can South Korea suffer from persistent systemic instability and yet prove so resilient? What remains the same and what changes?

The contributors to this volume consider the South Korean economy in its larger political context. Moving beyond the easy dichotomies—equilibrium vs. disequilibrium and stability vs. instability—they describe a complex and surprisingly robust economic and political system. Further, they argue that neither systemic challenges nor political pressures alone determine South Korea's stability and capacity for change. Instead, it is distinct patterns of interaction that shape this system's characteristics, development, and evolution.

Desk, examination, or review copies can be requested through Stanford University Press.

 

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Corporate Restructuring and System Reform in South Korea

Authors
Jean C. Oi
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Shorenstein APARC
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Commentary on "India 1960-2010: Structural change, the rural non-farm sector, and the prospects for agriculture"

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Commentary on Hans Binswanger-Mkhize's symposium on "India 1960-2010: Structural change, the rural non-farm sector and the prospects for agriculture". The symposium is part of a 2-year, 12-lecture series on Global Food Policy and Food Security.

Commentary on Hans Binswanger-Mkhize's symposium on "India 1960-2010: Structural change, the rural non-farm sector and the prospects for agriculture". The symposium is part of a 2-year, 12-lecture series on Global Food Policy and Food Security.

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Indigenous Peoples Rights

This project seeks to promote the collaboration between the Center for Latin American Studies and the Program on Human Rights in conducting an interdisciplinary faculty/graduate student research that seeks to better understand the human rights situation of indigenous peoples in Latin America.

The New U.S. Role in Global Fossil Fuel Markets

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As recently as 2007, the United States seemed headed towards ever greater fossil fuel import dependence, as domestic oil and natural gas production dwindled and consumption continued to grow. Five years later, the landscape looks dramatically different. An explosion in natural gas production from shales has overturned paradigms and sparked bold talk of LNG exports. While less remarked-upon, unconventional oil production has followed suit, helping to boost liquids output 20% from 50-year lows and vaulting North Dakota ahead of Alaska to become the nation’s second-largest oil producer. A new order is emerging in the coal market as well, with efforts underway to ship cheap, low-sulfur coal from the western U.S. to China.

The new role for the U.S. as a hotbed of production and technology development for unconventional resources, a reduced import market, and a possible key exporter of natural gas and coal raises a host of political, economic, and environmental questions. The goal of this conference is to contribute to insightful and data-driven dialogue on these pressing (and often politically-charged) issues by bringing together academics, policymakers, industry experts, and other stakeholder groups.

Session topics will include: (1) the environmental and economic impacts of proposed exports of Powder River Basin coal to China; (2) which will happen first: major LNG exports from the U.S. or shale gas development at scale outside of the U.S. (and especially in China); (3) the changing role of the U.S. in the global oil market, and its geopolitical and economic implications; (4) the cases for and against pipelines connecting Canada’s oil sands with U.S. refineries; and (5) the trajectory of future natural gas demand from the U.S. transportation and power sectors.  

Each session will feature a presentation by an academic or industry expert summarizing the state of knowledge on the topic and pointing out major unresolved issues. Discussants from the policymaking and stakeholder communities will then provide their perspectives on the presentation. This will be followed by an opportunity for audience comment and discussion.

 

Bechtel Conference Center

Conferences

Honors students win accolades for undergraduate research

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Stanford seniors Stephen Craig and Clay Ramel have been awarded The Firestone Medal for Excellence in Undergraduate Research and The William J. Perry Prize, respectively, for their theses on German's foreign policy and the global politics of oil.

Both recipients are students of the CISAC's Undergraduate Honors Program in International Security Studies and will graduate next week.

Craig, a political science major, wrote "Tamed Tiger or Restless Beast? German Foreign Policy in the Post-Unification Period."

Ramel, a science, technology, and society major, wrote “Reconsidering the Roots of Crude Coercion: a Policymaking Analysis of `the Oil Weapon.'”

The Firestone Medal recognizes the top 10 percent of all honors theses in social science, science, and engineering. The Perry Prize is awarded to a student for excellence in policy-relevant research in international security studies. 

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Whitney L. Smith

Center on Food Security and the Environment
Encina Hall East, E400
Stanford, CA 94305-6055

(650) 993-0331 (650) 725-2592
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Whitney Smith recently joined FSE on a project investigating the legal institutions implicated in the recent trend toward large-scale agricultural land transactions in sub-Saharan Africa.  Whitney graduated from Stanford University's Earth Systems Program (BS/MS '01). Before going to law school in 2004, she worked with Roz Naylor and Wally Falcon at the Center for Environmental Science and Policy on issues related to salmon aquaculture. After graduating from the University of California-Hastings Law School, Whitney practiced environmental and antitrust law for five years at large law firms in San Francisco, CA and Denver, CO.  

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