We had a terrific environmental film festival today at Santa Clara Law.  The environmental documentary short films were created by students in my international environmental law course as an exercise in the use of multi-media story-telling and narratives as a tool of persuasion and advocacy.  I think the films thoroughly succeeded.  The line-up of films:

1.  “Climate Refugees: A Global Issue,” Cynthia Anaya, Gina Santoni, Mahi Mangrio
2. “How Cars Shape Our Lives,” Pepita Fallmann & Michael Lins
3. “The Green New Deal,” Jordan Nunes
4. “Lebanon is Drowning in its Own Waste,” Elsa Hajjar
5. “Hong Kong, World of Contrasts,” Linnea Doan
6. “Global Food Waste,” Cynthia Yuan & Kaushik Nagaraj
7. “Swimming in a Sea of Plastic,” Daniel Tayakin & Jacqueline Ackerman

[I will add links to the student films as they are uploaded and become available.]

The Best Picture and Runner-up Awards were determined by a blue-ribbon jury, made up of Professors Ellen Kreitzberg, Ken Manaster, Cookie Ridolfi, and David Sloss.  The audience voted on the Audience Choice Award.

And the winners were (drum roll . . . ):

Best Picture: “Climate Refugees: A Global Issue,” Cynthia Anaya, Gina Santoni, Mahi Mangrio

Runner-up: “Global Food Waste,” Cynthia Yuan & Kaushik Nagaraj

Audience Choice: “Lebanon is Drowning in its Own Waste,” Elsa Hajjar

(From left:  Gina Santoni, Professor Kreitzberg, Mahi Mangrio, Cynthia Anaya, Professor Ridolfi)

(From left:  Prof. Kreitzberg, Cynthia Yuan, Prof. Ridolfi, Kaushik Nagaraj)

We had a terrific ELS symposium at Santa Clara with faculty and outside experts on “Technology and the Environment.”  Expertly organized by ELS Co-President Cynthia Yuan, the panel of faculty and experts included SCU Law Professors Dorothy Glancy and Catherine Sandoval, Professor and children’s rights advocate Tom Nazario of USF Law School, Patent Attorney and Monterey Bay Air Resources District Hearing Board Chair Michael Guth, and SCU Alum and Cal Public Utilities Commission staffer Jamie Ormond.  [Unfortunately, we did not get a group picture, and I only caught Professor Sandoval and part of the audience in these images.  Apologies to all others present.]

Presentations focused on the value of enhanced wireless communications infrastructure for under-served populations, especially as a means for enhancing environmental disaster response (Sandoval), the serious environmental harms to local populations (especially children) and the environment caused by electronic waste exports to the developing world, especially Africa and Asia (Nazario), questions as to the potential environmental benefits and costs of new technologies such as autonomous vehicles (Glancy), ongoing challenges and needs to address the environmental risks of “old” technologies (such traditional power plants), and opportunities for use of technology in reducing the carbon footprint of energy use (Ormond).  Overall, a really interesting set of discussions and questions and hopefully also inspirational for the students who attended.

If you are in the Santa Clara area, please join us at a April 24 Film Festival of environmental short films made by Santa Clara Law Students.  (Location is Charney Hall 104, 12-1 pm, April 24, 2019.)  Topics include “Lebanon’s Waste Problem,” “Sustainable Transportation Policy in the US and Europe,” and other films.  A blue-ribbon jury of SCU Law faculty (including Professor Ellen Kreitzberg, Cookie Ridolfi, and others) will judge the film entries, and the audience will be able to vote for an audience film award.

Come to this fun event!

On May 2-3, 2019, Santa Clara University is holding an environmental justice conference entitled on “Community-University Partnerships for Research, Learning and Social Change.” The substantive focus of the focus will be on how universities can partner with communities on research, learning and other activities advancing social change related to environmental justice.  There will be opportunities to engage in dialogue among conference participants and presenters.  (Unfortunately, the deadline for poster presentation slots has already passed.)  Conference speakers include environmental justice activists, academics and officials.  If you have an interest in this topic,  please join us.  Conference agenda, speaker information, and a registration link can be found here:  Conference Link.

Here is an excerpt from the conference website:

Mounting scientific evidence shows that low-income communities and communities of color face severe and unequal threats to their environments and health. Pope Francis issued a call to action for people and the environment in his groundbreaking encyclical ‘Laudato Si’. In response, this conference will focus on strengthening university-community partnerships for environmental justice and the common good.

Learning from successful collaborations and networks, we aim to develop diverse and mutually respectful partnerships between communities and universities to produce research, inform policy, and foster social change for environmental justice. The conference organizers — a faculty collaborative formed by the Ignatian Center for Jesuit Education at Santa Clara University — are especially inspired by the collective potential within the network of over 190 Jesuit institutions of higher learning worldwide.

Conference panels will include community-based organizers from secular and faith-based institutions reflecting on opportunities to work together for environmental justice. Breakout sessions will focus on envisioning potential research partnerships among conference participants, providing opportunities to make new connections and explore collaborations. Participants are also invited to present relevant research at a concluding poster session.

The day after the conference, there will be a workshop focused on building networks for environmental justice and integral ecology, with two tracks. Track 1 will focus on building a regional environmental justice network of leaders from community-based organizations, and faculty and staff from Santa Clara University and other California universities. We will consolidate takeaways from the conference, identify needs for sustained engagement in partnerships, and plan a process to develop collaborative research and action agendas. In track 2, faculty, staff, and administrators in Jesuit higher education will make plans to coordinate our scholarship, service, and education to foster environmental justice and the common good. This will focus on expanding the work of the AJCU Integral Ecology Affinity Group nationally and internationally.