THE JOURNAL OF THE SCHOOL OF FORESTRY & ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES SPRING 2007 Fire and the Nuclear Forest By Richard Conniff environment page 18 Insuring the Survival of the Snow Leopard YALE By Heather Millar page 34 TheThe ComingComingWATERWATER CrisisCrisis By John Mitchell Dignitaries gathered for a groundbreaking at the site of the future Kroon Hall in May to officially mark the beginning of construction for what Yale hopes will be the ”greenest” building in the world. Dean Gus Speth, who presided over the ceremony, told an audience of nearly 200 people including donors to the building, that Kroon Hall will be an “architectural gem and a true aesthetic landmark; a pacesetter in sustainable design, certified at the highest level, LEED platinum, and climate neutral; and an environmental center for Yale, a magnet for all those at Yale with environmental interest, including both undergraduate and graduate students and Photos by Harold Shapiro Harold Photos by faculty from all departments.” Left to right, Dean Speth, Rick and Mary Jane Kroon and Yale President Rick Rick Kroon said that he and his wife, Mary Jane, Levin stand beside renderings of Kroon Hall, which will rise alongside Osborn developed an appreciation for the environment through the Memorial Laboratories that appears in the background. influence of their children, four of whom graduated from Yale. “They gave us an awareness of the pressing need to change the pattern of human endeavor and human priorities in order to save this wonderful world of ours for future generations,” he said. Yale President Richard Levin predicted that Yale’s efforts to green the university will inspire other Ivy League schools to do the same. Yale has pledged to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions to 10 percent below 1990 levels by 2020, “at a cost that is one-half of 1 percent of our operating budget,” he said. “That’s a small tax. Who wouldn’t pay that price for the safety of the planet?” Ed Bass, a major donor to the construction of the building, said that Kroon Hall would serve as a gateway to Science Hill and that landscaping featuring footpaths through Sachem’s Wood, two courtyards and the Prospect Street plaza at the entrance of the new building will be more like the pedestrian-friendly quadrangles that define the rest of the campus. Ed Bass said it was more like a “bottom-up ceremony” than a groundbreaking. “We can only go Corrections up from here,” he said, as he stood The phrase “known as the Yellowstone-to-Yukon Initiative” near the pit (above) that will hold was erroneously inserted into the Dean’s Message (Fall 2006). The correct presentation of the sentence should the foundation for Kroon Hall. have been: “And in the United States today, an area the size of California has been set aside as forever wild in a magnificent system of national wilderness areas.” Heidi McAllister did not write a Peace Corps environmental- education manual; she was the editor. (“Renewable Natural Resources Foundation Honors Educator,” Fall 2006) 4 18 23 34 CONTENTS environment:YALE 2 18 28 The Journal of the School of Dean’s Message Fire and the Nuclear Forest Third World to Bear Forestry & Environmental Studies Dean Speth recently joined top The Chernobyl nuclear disaster has Brunt of Global Warming Spring 2007 • Vol. 6, No. 1 U.S. scientists and leading evan- left Ukraine’s forests and surrounding It’s time, says Robert Mendelsohn, Editor gelicals in trying to find common cities vulnerable to catastrophic fire. for countries that are causing global David DeFusco ground on saving the planet. warming to start compensating Director of Communications 23 those that will suffer the damage. Copy Editor Audit Reveals Logger’s Anne Sommer 4 The Coming Water Crisis Malfeasance and 31 Alumni/ae Liaison to Editor Certification’s Weaknesses Kathleen Schomaker Water could eclipse crude oil as Students Leaving Director of Alumni/ae Affairs the most precious natural resource Doctoral student Janette Bulkan Their Imprint Design leads the fight to suspend certifica- of the 21st century. Since the 1960s, master’s students Nancy J. Dobos tion for an Asian timber company DobosDesign have produced over 110 manage- operating in Guyana. Editorial Advisory Board 13 ment plans for properties through- Alan Brewster, Jane Coppock, Research Reflects out New England. Gordon Geballe, Eugenie Complexity of 25 Gentry, Stephen Kellert, Tackling Forestry’s Emly McDiarmid, Peter Otis Water Issues 34 Biggest Challenges Dean F&ES faculty take an interdisciplinary Insuring the Survival James Gustave Speth With Talk approach to the development of of the Snow Leopard The Forests Dialogue is making water management and restoration Doctoral student Shafqat Hussain’s environment:YALE is published friends of former adversaries to twice a year (Spring and Fall) by activities. inventive insurance program the benefit of forests worldwide. the Yale School of Forestry & designed to protect the endan- Environmental Studies. Editorial offices are located at 205 Prospect 15 gered snow leopard has earned Street, New Haven, CT 06511. Dams Bad for Habitats 27 him a Rolex Award for Enterprise. 203-436-4842 but Here to Stay Donor’s Faith in F&ES e-mail: [email protected] and Its Students Results http://environment.yale.edu In a three-day conference last fall, 38 dams large and small were examined in $4 Million Gift Class Notes printed on recycled paper from every conceivable angle. A study center and library in the with soy-based inks new Kroon Hall will bear the name 54 of Gil Ordway. Obituaries Spring 2007 environment:YALE 1 message Dean James Gustave Speth Protecting Creation a Moral Duty they were found to be broadly overlapping. We clearly share a moral passion and sense of vocation to save the In January of this year I participated in a fascinating imperiled living world, before our damages to it remake meeting of top U.S. scientists and leading evangelicals, it as another kind of planet. We agree not only that dean’s about 15 of each. Being neither, it was not clear what I reckless human activity has imperiled the Earth – was doing there! But I’m glad I was, because it was an especially the unsustainable and short-sighted lifestyles extraordinary and very hopeful experience. and public policies of our own nation – but also that we The two-day session, held in Thomasville, Ga., was share a profound moral obligation to work together to convened by the Center for Health and the Global call our nation, and other nations, to the kind of dramatic Environment of the Harvard Medical School and the change urgently required in our day. We pledge our joint National Association of Evangelicals. The meeting was commitment to this effort in the unique moment now inspired, in part, by E.O. Wilson’s good new book, The upon us. Creation: An Appeal to Save Life on Earth, which is his epistle to an imaginary Southern Baptist pastor. Wilson Background was raised a Baptist in Alabama; he was among the This meeting was convened by the Center for Health scientists with us in Thomasville. and the Global Environment at Harvard Medical School A number of potentially divisive issues, such as and the National Association of Evangelicals. It was evolution, were discussed mostly over meals and in the envisioned as a first exploratory conference, based on a halls. The real focus was the environment, and the goal shared concern for the creation, to be held among people was to see if the two groups, spanning devout Christians who were in some ways quite different in their worldviews. to confirmed atheists, could unite to protect the Creation, It now seems to us to be the beginning point of a major a word we all agreed to use. shared effort among scientists and evangelicals to protect Two very interesting things happened at the lovely life on Earth and the fragile life support systems that conference center outside Thomasville. First, this sustain it, drawing on the unique intellectual, spiritual, diverse group truly came together, and we were able to and moral contributions that each community can bring. capture that agreement in a powerful statement, which I reproduce below. And, second, the two groups did not Our Shared Concern merely agree, they found that they liked, enjoyed and We agree that our home, the Earth, which comes to respected each other. Some real bonds were formed us as that inexpressibly beautiful and mysterious gift during those two days, so much so that the post-meeting that sustains our very lives, is seriously imperiled by e-mail traffic and book sharing has been hard to keep up human behavior. The harm is seen throughout the natural with. Most important, we are all committed to working world, including a cascading set of problems such as together to carry our conclusions to political leaders climate change, habitat destruction, pollution and and the public. species extinctions, as well as the spread of human And now, enjoy the statement. It was released by infectious diseases and other accelerating threats to the the group – all of whom signed it – at the National health of people and the well-being of societies. Each Press Club in Washington, D.C., on January 17, and particular problem could be enumerated, but here it is received considerable attention. enough to say that we are gradually destroying the sustaining community of life on which all living things An Urgent Call to Action: on Earth depend. The costs of this destruction are Scientists and Evangelicals Unite to Protect Creation already manifesting themselves around the world in Scientific and evangelical leaders recently met to search profound and painful ways.