Global Study
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Understanding global issues is more important than ever , articleGlobal sustainability challenges affect all people on the planet and it is up to people to address pervasive issues like climate change, poverty, hunger, equitable economic development, and more. Sustainability professionals are on the forefront of that effort. To succeed, they need to understand the complexity, interconnectedness, and depth of the issues in front of them. To zero in on what different regions throughout the world are experiencing, instructors like Dr. Omchand Mahdu help students acquire the cultural and technical skill sets they need to successfully immerse themselves in these regions.
Date: Apr 23, 2020 -
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Sovereignty vs. Sanctuary: Perils of Climate Migration , articleThe story of seeking a better life in another place is not new. Today we see it all across the world, as people are leaving the countryside for the cities in search of jobs, opportunity, sanctuary, and security. But it seems that the journey to a better life is most often littered with national borders, fences, and other obstacles. In this post, Center Director Dr. Michael Mortimer discusses the impact of climate change on global migration.
Date: Mar 05, 2020 -
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Global Study, Part 3: How Egypt Changed My Sustainability Perspective , articleIn November 2019, Executive Master of Natural Resources Jerry Headley traveled to Egypt with his XMNR cohort to take an in-depth look at environmental sustainability issues in the Cairo and greater Nile River Valley regions. Egypt is an especially relevant country to study as it faces many sustainability challenges, including: overpopulation of urban areas, water scarcity, pollution, and an underdeveloped infrastructure, just to name a few. Students have been studying sustainability issues for months in their classrooms in Arlington, VA. Like the rest of his classmates, Jerry was excited to be in the country and attempt to couple a sense of experience with his newfound knowledge. Little did he know just how important this would prove to be.
Date: Feb 19, 2020 -
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Global Study Series, Part 3: The Old System Must Die! (Or Not): Drawing on the Past to Ensure a Future , articleThe idea that a new political philosophy, a new governing regime, or even just a new leader need undermine and delegitimize its predecessor is not a particularly new one. Walking through ancient Egyptian ruins, we can witness everywhere vandalism from thousands of years ago intended to erase the past.
Date: Dec 17, 2019 -
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Global Study Series, Part 2: Climate Makes and Breaks Civilizations: Lessons Learned on the Nile , articleXMNR faculty Dr. Bruce Hull reflects on the civilization-defining impacts of climate change, as he travels through Egypt on a Global Study trip with a group of Virginia Tech’s graduate students.
Date: Dec 10, 2019 -
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Global Study Series, Part 1: Egyptian Environmental Security: Old Wine in a New Bottle , articleCLiGS faculty Bruce Hull and Michael Mortimer have recently spent three weeks in Egypt exploring Cairo and traveling upstream along the Nile River to the Aswan High Dam. Sharing experiences and reflections on the past and future of a country astride some of the most pressing environmental challenges of the 21st Century. This series of posts distills some of their thoughts on those challenges.
Date: Dec 10, 2019 -
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‘Cause I’m Leavin’ on a Jet Plane: Offsetting the Environmental Cost of Air Travel , articleFall semester 2019, the Virginia Tech Center for Leadership in Global Sustainability (CLiGS) will begin mitigating the carbon emissions from the air travel of both its students and faculty. Working with the company Terrapass, CLiGS will contribute to a portfolio that invests in renewable energy and methane recapture. CLiGS is the first group within Virginia Tech to launch this kind of climate action initiative.
Date: Oct 23, 2019 -
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Environmental Security is a Matter of Equity , articleSouth African director Neill Blomkamp’s science fiction social commentary film Elysium sees wealthy elites in the near future removing themselves from planetary resource scarcity... literally. By abandoning a wrecked Earth for a utopian existence in an orbital space habitat, these elites effectively shield themselves from the shortages of water, energy, healthcare, housing, and other human necessities on the Earth below.
Date: Sep 19, 2019 -
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Global Study Series, India, Part 2: Sustaining, developing, or just surviving? , articleDuring my final semester in Virginia Tech’s Online MNR program, I joined a group of students and faculty from the Center for Leadership in Global Sustainability on the Spring 2019 Global Study. Our transformative, eye-opening journey to the eastern Indian state of West Bengal began in Kolkata.The effects of planetary environmental crises are already being felt in India. Heat waves, such as the one currently impacting India, have only been increasing in frequency and intensity, leading to summer high temperatures that are growing unbearable.
Date: Sep 11, 2019 -
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Global Study Series, India, Part 1: Preserving East Kolkata Wetlands , articleAs a student in the Online Master of Natural Resources program at the Virginia Tech Center for Leadership in Global Sustainability, Kasey Fioramonti has had a chance to witness the enormous environmental challenges affecting one of the most populous countries in the world—India. Kasey’s International Field Experience (IFE) to India in February 2019 offered her a rare opportunity to see how to recognize a community’s sustainability issues early on and address them at the grassroots level; how individuals and families are affected by pollution; and how difficult combating these issues through policy can be.
Date: Aug 13, 2019