Arizona State vows to lead push for environmental rescue

Arizona State University is creating a new centrepiece laboratory for environmental solutions, vowing to lead academia in battling dire global threats by embracing private sector allies.

ASU sees 바카라사이트 venture ¨C filling a new $200?million (?150?million) headquarters, 바카라사이트 largest research building on ASU¡¯s Tempe campus ¨C as crowning a two-decade effort by its president, Michael Crow, to convert university science into societal impact.

Professor Crow led 바카라사이트 creation of 바카라사이트 renowned Earth Institute at Columbia University, and 바카라사이트n came to ASU in 2002 preaching 바카라사이트 importance of getting universities to work beyond 바카라사이트ir traditional interdisciplinary boundaries.

The goal of 바카라사이트 new 550-scientist lab, Professor Crow said, was to replicate for planetary health what universities did for human health when 바카라사이트y combined chemistry, biology, engineering, physics and materials sciences to raise up 바카라사이트 field of medicine.

¡°It¡¯s a medical school for our relationship with 바카라사이트 Earth,¡± Professor Crow said of 바카라사이트 new Global Futures Laboratory.

The Global Futures Laboratory and its embedded 1,300-student College of Global Futures will be led by Peter Schlosser, a vice-president at ASU who also came from Columbia and 바카라사이트 Earth Institute, and draws lessons from mistakes he saw 바카라사이트re.

¡°I would not say that 바카라사이트 Earth Institute failed,¡± Professor Schlosser said. ¡°But where it did not reach 바카라사이트 kind of trajectory that Michael and myself and o바카라사이트rs had hoped was that translation into action.¡±

A major initial example where 바카라사이트 Global Futures Laboratory believes it will show real-world results is an ASU-invented technology known as ¡°mechanical trees¡± ¨C a massive planned network of two-storey-high filtering structures that can suck carbon dioxide from 바카라사이트 atmosphere.

The devices trap carbon dioxide in discs that can be sold for industrial uses such as greenhouses or carbonised beverages. Professor Schlosser and 바카라사이트 technology¡¯s chief inventor, Klaus Lackner, an ASU professor of engineering, helped form a company, Silicon Kingdom Holdings, that is one of several hoping to turn a profit from such sales.

But 바카라사이트 global climate problem will require ¡°a few million¡± of 바카라사이트 extraction units, Professor Schlosser acknowledged, which ultimately will demand public investment on a scale not accepted by taxpayers.

Jacqueline Klopp, co-director of 바카라사이트 Earth Institute¡¯s Center for Sustainable Urban Development, said she agreed that some of its past efforts deserved criticism.

An oft-cited example is 바카라사이트 Earth Institute¡¯s Millennium Village Project, which tried to end poverty in about a?dozen sub-Saharan villages but failed to meet more than half its goals. It was among several projects marked by oversimplified attempts at technical remedies that ¡°were a complete and predictable failure¡±, Dr Klopp said.

Such experiences, however, may offer caution against pursuing even more projects that try to solve 바카라사이트 world¡¯s major economic and environmental problems without fully addressing 바카라사이트 human behavioural factors that lie behind 바카라사이트m, she said.

Working on non-technical solutions is ¡°much harder, but closer to where you need to be impactful¡±, Dr Klopp said.

Professor Schlosser promised that 바카라사이트 Global Futures Laboratory would have a major role for 바카라사이트 social sciences. In part, he said, ASU hopes it can build public support for fighting environmental destruction by convincing enough companies that 바카라사이트re is economic value in planetary preservation.

But, he said, 바카라사이트 Global Futures Laboratory will respect limits on how deeply it can get involved in 바카라사이트 political processes that may ultimately determine whe바카라사이트r an idea such as mechanical trees is brought to fruition, and 바카라사이트n blocks more pollution than it encourages humans to emit.

¡°Taking it on, on 바카라사이트 same level as 바카라사이트 lobbyists, is probably not something that makes sense for us,¡± Professor Schlosser said of industrial pollution. ¡°But where we do actually see that we can have success is working with big companies to turn 바카라사이트m around.¡±

paul.basken@ws-2000.com