Environmental Sciences calls for papers / meetings & conferences

Call for Papers: Historical and Contemporary Studies of Disasters

Placing Chernobyl, 9/11, Katrina, Deepwater Horizon, Fukushima and Other Events in Historical and Comparative Perspective

Co-Sponsored by the SHOT Prometheans (Engineering) SIG / SHOT Asia Network / Teach 3.11

and held during the Society for the History of Technology (SHOT) Annual Meeting Sunday, 7 October 2012 Copenhagen, Denmark

For this year’s Prometheans / SHOT Asia Network SIG workshop (with co-sponsorship from Teach 3.11, a project of the Forum for the History of Science in Asia), we would like to focus on historical and contemporary studies of both natural and anthropogenic disasters. Inspired by discussions about Fukushima and the greater East Japan Earthquake (Tohoku-chiho Taiheiyo Oki Shishin) and tsunami during the SHOT/4S/HSS co-located meeting in Cleveland last year, an interdisciplinary and international group of scholars from these three societies decided to create an open forum for academic discussions about disasters and the opportunity to place them in historical and comparative perspective. This year’s SIG session will be one gathering of this forum, with a focus on analyzing the sociotechnical dimensions of disasters from historical and other disciplinary perspectives.

This workshop will take place during the Sunday morning* special-interest-group (SIG) time slot at the SHOT annual meeting in Copenhagen. (*This event may be 1/2 day or full day depending on the level of interest.) Offered in an interactive workshop format, the event will be directed primarily towards historical and contemporary studies of disasters of different scales. A portion of the program may also be dedicated to interpreting the events surrounding the Fukushima nuclear disaster and the East Japan Earthquake through comparison with other disasters. While we anticipate that historians may comprise a significant portion of the membership because the event will take place at SHOT, scholars of all academic disciplines are invited to contribute and to attend.

Among the kinds of papers that we are interested in seeing are the following:

Historical or contemporary studies of any disaster of natural or anthropogenic origin. Especially papers that focus on the organizational, technological, and/or sociotechnical dimensions of the disaster, and how this contributed to or exacerbated a particular disaster or the responses that followed the disaster.

An examination of the cultural, political, or economic dimensions of a particular industry, such as nuclear energy, oil extraction, or civil engineering and construction, and their contributions to the disaster.

Historical and contemporary studies of environmental movements and environmental organizations and their relationship to disasters and disaster response.

Any comparative study of disasters, and specific dimensions of disasters.

The workshop format will consist of pre-circulated papers (1000-1800 words in length) and prepared responses; open discussions around predetermined themes during the workshop; and written responses and reflections submitted following the workshop. Members of the Prometheans, SHOT Asia Network, and Teach 3.11 will serve as the program committee for this event, and will work organize the papers received into coherent sessions. Works-in-progress, and submissions by graduate students as well as senior scholars, from any nation, are actively encouraged.

We ask those who are interested to signal your interest by sending us an email, with proposed title, at your earliest convenience so we are able to make an early decision about the scope of the workshop. The applications process will be open until June 1st, by which point we will need a firm commitment to attend and a 300-word abstract from all participants. Pre-circulated papers will be due on September 1st. Those presenting material during the main SHOT conference are still welcome to participate in the workshop with the same (or different) material, and are encouraged to do so (please indicate, for planning purposes, that this will be the case).

Please send emails signaling your interest with a proposed title for your paper to the SIG Workshop Program Committee chair, Atsushi Akera at akeraa@rpi.edu.

Call for Papers for a Panel on Climate Change (2011-2014) at the International Seminar on Population Dynamics and the Human Dimensions of Climate Change

Canberra, Australia, 27-29 November 2012

Organized by the IUSSP Scientific Panel on Climate Change, in collaboration with the Australian National University

Deadline for submission of abstracts: 25 May 2012

A strong consensus has emerged among natural scientists during the last 20 years that contemporary climate change is in large part anthropogenic. There is a need now for social scientists to contribute more to our understanding of the human causes and consequences of climate change if more effective policy responses are to eventuate. Demographers have an important contribution to make; in fact their contribution is arguably pivotal to a broad interdisciplinary understanding of the issues since the concept of “population” is basic both to social scientists working on mitigation and adaptation and to ecologists and other Earth scientists.

The primary aim of this seminar is to bring together researchers who are working in the new field of population dynamics and climate change so we can take stock of what scientific progress has been made to date, share and consolidate our understanding of on-going research, strengthen and expand professional networks, and discuss priorities for future research and collaboration. A secondary and derived aim is to examine the extent to which a population perspective can help integrate insights into the human dimensions of climate change from across a number of social sciences.

The Panel seeks papers which add to our understanding of the links between population dynamics and the causes and consequences of climate change, which operate at various scales: global, regional, national, and local. We are looking for a mix of theoretical, methodological and policy-relevant papers. Issues of interest include, but are not limited to, the following:

The way demographic factors and processes such as population growth, urbanization, ageing, changing household size, increasing human capital, and social mobility contribute to the drivers of greenhouse gas emissions;

The way demographic factors and processes influence the vulnerability and adaptive capacity of social groups;

The way demographic factors and processes need to be incorporated in effective mitigation and adaptation strategies;

Population-related obstacles (or advantages) to the development of effective policy; and

Conceptual analysis leading to improved integration of demographic insights regarding climate change with insights from other social sciences and the Earth sciences.

Submissions
The IUSSP Scientific Panel on Climate Change invites researchers in the field to submit online by 25 May 2012 a 200-word abstract and an extended abstract (2-4 pages including tables). Applications will be notified whether their paper has been accepted by 25 June. If the paper is accepted the completed paper must be uploaded on the IUSSP website by 10 October 2012.

If the paper is co-authored, please indicate on the abstract the names and affiliations of co-authors; submission should be made by the author who will attend the seminar.

The working language of the seminar will be English. Abstracts, extended abstracts and final papers should therefore be submitted and presented in English. Papers submitted should be unpublished and based on original research. Seminar organizers will explore possibilities to publish a selection of accepted papers.

Seminar organizers are still negotiating additional funding to that already committed. We hope to have sufficient funds to cover travel expenses for all invited participants who require support. If funding is available it will be contingent upon submission of a complete paper of acceptable quality by the deadline for papers.

For further information please contact Adrian C Hayes (adrian_hayes84@yahoo.com).

IUSSP Scientific Panel on Climate Change:
Chair: Adrian C Hayes
Members: Susana Adamo, Leiwen Jiang, Wolfgang Lutz.

Call for Papers: Workshop on Natural Disaster and the City--Historical Perspectives from Southeast Asia and Japan, 1945-2010

16-17 January 2013

Centre for Southeast Asian Studies, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan

The Center for Southeast Asian Studies, Kyoto University will be holding a workshop on Natural Disasters and the City: Historical Perspectives from Southeast Asia and Japan.

This workshop invites papers that undertake inter-disciplinary and transnational approaches to the study of natural disasters. It aims to historically contextualise the causes and consequences of disasters and to compare them across societies. The focus is on cities in Southeast Asia and Japan after World War Two, as expressed along three general lines of inquiry.

First, the workshop will explore how the vulnerability of urban populations was influenced by new or accelerated human processes that were most manifest in cities in the postwar period, such as population growth, urbanisation, migration, national integration, economic development, and environmental degradation. Below the macro, the workshop considers how urban communities have coped with hazardous living, how far responses have been fractured by various forms of social stratification and whether local perspectives and agency have diverged from state and international approaches to disaster prevention and rehabilitation. Finally, the workshop examines why some disasters have not merely been events occurring at the tail end of long-term processes, but have themselves become catalysts for historic change in the postwar period.

Relevant themes include:

• Historical factors affecting the risk faced by urban populations.
• Cities as sites of risk, response and rehabilitation.
• Cultures of disaster and coping mechanisms of urban communities.
• Micro-histories, ethnographies and memories of urban disasters.
• Disasters as catalysts for historical change.

The session welcomes contributions from historians, geographers, sociologists, and anthropologists, among others, and from both established scholars and PhD students at an advanced stage of their research. Papers can examine individual cities or compare different cities.

Pls submit a 500-word abstract and a copy of your CV to Loh Kah Seng lkshis@cseas.kyoto-u.ac.jp by 30 June 2012.

Convenors:
Professor Yoko Hayami
Dr Loh Kah Seng

Mario Lopez Assistant Professor
Center for Southeast Asian Studies,
Kyoto University
46 Shimoadachi-cho Yoshida, Sakyoku
Kyoto 606-8501, Japan

Call for Papers: Fourth Conference on Environment and Health

2013 American Meteorological Society Annual Meeting

January 6-10, 2013 Austin, Texas

The abstract submission deadline is: 1 August 2012

The overarching theme for the 2013 AMS Annual Meeting is “Taking Predictions to the Next Level: Expanding Beyond Today’s Weather and Climate Forecasts and Projections.” Over the past 60 years the meteorological community has made tremendous strides in making prediction a fundamental part of its scientific and operational/service heritage through the development and application of complex numerical models involving the atmosphere, ocean, land, and cryosphere components of the Earth System. Applying our predictive capabilities into a broader domain including public health, food security, air and water quality, alternative energy and responses to climate trends, is a central objective of this meeting.

In the context of this overarching theme, the goal of 4Health is to go in-depth into Earth’s influence on human health and well-being. In doing so, we seek to better understand how the atmospheric and oceanic systems exert measurable (positive or negative) impacts; moreover, we are interested in how planetary information feeds into surveillance and preparedness (including adaptation) models and decisions.

We are especially interested in public health and medical factors such as:

Asthma
Cardio and Respiratory Diseases
Foodborne Diseases and Nutrition
Vectorborne and Zoonotic Diseases
Waterborne Illnesses
Infectious Diseases
Mental Health
Food Securtiy
Heat and Extreme Weather-related Mortality and Morbity
Physical Safety

The sessions are arranged to help us explore these topics (and possibly others) in the context of hydro-meteorological and oceanographic factors so that our community understands how our science and technologies are utilized (or could be applied) for health. Thus, papers from the environment, health, and medical disciplines that explore this approach through the following subjects: integrated modeling; climate, ocean, weather and water forecasts; in-situ and satellite monitoring and observations; communication tools and technologies; and, inter-disciplinary coordination are encouraged.

Of specific interest are papers that address end-to-end science and management approaches of the aforementioned health concerns in the context of these environmental factors:

1) Ocean and coastal–related human health risks

2) Dust transport, transformation, and consequence

3) Extreme temperatures, including attendant influences on drought and wildfires

4) Examples of adaptation risks and solutions at local, regional, and international levels

5) Disaster risk reduction for healthcare delivery services (e.g., EMT) and infrastructure (e.g., hospitals), including its systems of dependency (e.g., utility grids, water, sanitation)

Achieving the 4Health goal requires participation and engagement from colleagues in the public health, medical, hydro-meteorological, and oceanic disciplines.

Papers and posters from graduate and undergraduate students are welcome.

For overall questions:

Sue Estes, NASA (email: sue.m.estes@nasa.gov; tel : 256-961-7961)

Wendy Marie Thomas (e-mail: wthomas@ametsoc.org, tel: 202-355-9820);

For Extreme Temperatures/Drought/Wildfires Topics

Glenn McGregor (e-mail: g.mcgregor@auckland.ac.nz, tel: 64 9 3737599 ext 85280)

Paul English, CA Dept of Health (email: Paul.English@cdph.ca.gov; tel: 510-620-3684)

For Health-Specific Topics

Kris Ebi, IPCC/Stanford (email: krisebi@ipcc-wg2.gov)

Paul English, CA Dept of Health (email: Paul.English@cdph.ca.gov; tel: 510-620-3684)

For Climate-Related Topics

Eileen Shea, NOAA (email: eileen.shea@noaa.gov; tel: 828-271-4384)

For Dust-Related Topics

Bill Sprigg, Univ of AZ/NASA (email: wsprigg@u.arizona.edu; tel: 520-621-6834)

For Oceans and Human Health Topics

Juli Trtanj, NOAA (email: juli.trtanj@noaa.gov)

Call for Papers: Disrupting Pathways: Endocrine Disruptors and the Public Expertise of Health and Environmental Problems

We are pleased to invite you to submit a paper for the international research workshop "Disrupting pathways: Endocrine disruptors and the public expertise of health and environmental problems".

The workshop will be held in Paris the 14th and 15th of December 2012 and will gather both US and European participants. It will be organized around three main themes: a) the 70s and 80s early qualification of pesticides, PCB's, Dioxins or drugs as endocrine disruptors; b) the convergence between medical and environmental problems taking place in the 1990s; c) the regulatory initiatives from the late 1990s onward.

Travel and accommodation costs will be covered.

Please send proposals to the organizers Nathalie Jas (jas@ivry.inra.fr<mailto:jas@ivry.inra.fr>) and Jean-Paul Gaudilliere
(gaudilli@vjf.cnrs.fr<mailto:gaudilli@vjf.cnrs.fr>) by the 30th of June 2012.

In the past twenty years endocrine disurptors, the category as well as specific substances, have acquired a peculiar visibility both as targets for research and as objects of political debates. Issues like the impact of pesticides on the health of farmers, consumers and wild animals, the long term effect of persistant pollutants like PCBs which seems impossible to eliminate, the relations of xenostrogens to declining fertility and reproductive cancer incidence in humans, or the peculiar sensitivity of fetuses and developing organisms to chemicals mimicking the structures and roles of hormones are now discussed through an increasing number of publications and affairs perfectly illlustrated with the current debates on the need for a complete ban of Bisphenol A.

The processes, which have led to this situation and the recognition of what may be called an endocrine disruptors paradigm linking in unprecedented ways research, expertise, regulation, and social mobilizations - producing knowledge at the crossroad of reproductive medicine, toxicology, ecology, epidemiology and the social sciences - are complex and far from self-evident.

In the mid 1990s, the importance of man-made and man-realesed chemicals and pollutants modifying endocrine/reproductive functions in animals and humans was a motive of serious concern in small circles of experts, often associated with environmental, feminist or public health activism. It was a US phenomenon in the first place. A quarter of century later it is no longer possible to locate in such a precise manner the actors of endocrine disruptors networks. They are in laboratories, conservatories, and hospital services but also in the medias, health or environmental regulatory agencies, as well as in political institutions. They are present in the United States, Europe and the so-called emerging countries. In parallel with its diffusion, its contested but significant acceptance, the endocrine disruptor paradigm has crystalized a body of knowledge challenging traditional toxicology and views of adverse effects; a body focusing on low doses, multiple exposure, cumulative effects and sensibility of development periods.

The role of the proposed seminar is to explore the advent of this endocrine disruptors paradigm from the 70s onward, i.e. to understand how specific problems and substances have been redefined to become manifestation of endocrine disruption, to understand the dynamics of social movements and their role in the public expertise of these processes, to understand the transformation of regulation, to explore the impact the debates on endocrine disruptions have had on specific fields and disciplines in scientific research.

This seminar is an element in a more general research project of the trajectory of endocrine disruptors as scientific and political entities, which seeks to address both their generalization and the deep differences in their modes of existence in Europe, especially in France, and in the United States.

The workshop will take place in Paris. It will gather both US and European participants. It will be organized around three main themes: a) the 70s and 80s early qualification of pesticides, PCB's, Dioxins or drugs as endocrine disruptors; b) the convergence between medical and environmental problems taking place in the 1990s; c) the regulatory initiatives from the late 1990s onward.

Nathalie Jas
Research Fellow
RiTME Research Unit - INRA
65 Bd de Brandebourg
94205 Ivry-sur-Seine
France

Tel: + 33 (0)1 49 59 69 81

Call for Papers: International Conference on Hazards & Disasters 2012

20-21 September 2012 Negombo, Sri Lanka

Paper abstracts, single spaced and no longer than 200 words, must be submitted electronically as Microsoft Word email attachments, before 31 May 2012.

Institute for Global Change Adaptation Science (ICAS), Ibaraki University
ICRD International Center for Research and Development (ICRD)

The ICRD/ ICAS joint Conference on Hazards & Disasters 2012 offers a valuable opportunity to network with colleagues from many countries who share the same goals. Scientists and experts in hazards and disaster risk management are invited to participate in this International Conference on Hazards & Disasters 2012

Session themes for the conference cover a rich and diverse range of research topics. We hope these sessions will bring researchers from across the globe together to discuss broad questions of common interest and provide a platform to establish relationships with new colleagues. You will be enlightened with innovative ideas and solutions at Hazards & Disasters 2012 and take initiatives to forge better solutions to reduce future risks and threats of hazards.

A natural disaster is the effect of a natural hazard (e.g., flood, tornado, hurricane, volcanic eruption, earthquake, heat wave, or landslide). It leads to financial, environmental or human losses. The resulting loss depends on the vulnerability of the affected population to resist the hazard, also called their resilience.

Risks in a changing and global world are complex and interconnected, even more so in a globalized world consisting of many societies at very different levels of development. The frequency and severity of natural disasters have increased markedly worldwide. Economic losses associated with natural hazards are increasing exponentially in developing countries.

Social science research conducted since the late 1970s has contributed greatly to the society's ability to mitigate and adapt to natural, technological, and willful (man-made) disasters. However, as evidenced by Hurricane Katrina, the Indian Ocean tsunami, the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States and other recent events, hazards and disaster research and its application could be improved greatly.

In particular, more studies should be pursued that compare how the characteristics of different types of events—including predictability, forewarning, magnitude, and duration of impact—affect societal vulnerability and response.

In that context we are seeking papers on topics of original research that address these issues and other issues at local, national and international levels.

Therefore, Hazards & Disasters 2012 offers a valuable opportunity to network with colleagues from many countries who share the same goals. You will be enlightened with innovative ideas and solutions at Hazards & Disasters 2012 and take initiatives to forge better solutions to reduce future risks and threats of hazards.

Main Sessions

The proposed major session themes of the 2012 Conference are:

1. Disaster Preparedness & Response
2. Urban Risks / Megacities
3. Climate Change & DRR
4. Risk Management
5. Social issues & impact
6. Disasters & adaptation
7. Environmental & Ecological Risks
8. Traditional knowledge & Risk reduction
9. Resilience & Vulnerability
10. Health Impacts & emergency medicine
11. Economics of Disasters
12. Communication & Outreach in DRR
13. Education, Research & Capacity Building

Sub topics

1. Tsunami (Indian ocean/Japanese)
2. Landslides
3. Floods
4. Cyclone
5. Earthquakes
6. Volcanic eruption
7. Lightning
8. Forest Fires
9. Tornados
10. Heat Waves/ Cold Waves
11. Nuclear Crisis

The target audience for the conference

• Researchers
• Scientists
• Educators
• Policy makers
• Planners
• DRR experts
• Risk experts
• Emergency managers
• PhD students

Why Attend to Hazards & Disasters 2012

The International Conference on Hazards and Disasters 2012 is providing you with the

• Opportunity to present your research to a global audience
• Establish peer to peer collaboration around the world
• Exchange ideas on important issues
• Gain a global perspective on disaster issues.

Contact Us

Send your registration form to – registration@globaldisasters.org

Send your abstract to – abstract@globaldisasters.org

Contact conference convener – prabhath@theicrd.org

Event Manager
Mr.Isanka Gamage - isanka@leapbis.info
+94 715 589 870
Skype: ip.gamage

Conference Secretariat
Hazards & Disasters 2012, #858/6, Kaduwela Road, Thalangama North, Sri Lanka.
Tel/Fax: +94 112 744306
Hotline : +94 777 799915
Email: info@theicrd.org
URL: www.theicrd.org

Call for Abstracts:12th International Symposium on Biosafety of Genetically Modified Organisms (ISBGMO12)

Abstract submission deadline: 25th May 2012

17-20 September 2012 St Louis, Missouri

The ISBGMO is a unique opportunity for scientists from across the globe to share experiences and engage in open and meaningful dialogue about biosafety.

Participants include scientists involved in biosafety research and policy, including regulatory authorities, technology developers, academics, non-government organizations, and other credible stakeholders.

The discussion at this ISBGMO12 will be focused on a theme: CONSIDERING BIOSAFETY IN THE APPLICATION OF BIOTECHNOLOGY TO MEET THE CHANGING NEEDS OF AGRICULTURE, HEALTH, AND THE ENVIRONMENT.

Under this theme, presentations and posters in the sessions, mini-symposia, and workshops will potentially address such timely topics, as they relate to biosafety:

New approaches in genetic engineering
Genetically engineered animals/insects
Biotechnology and climate change
Biotechnology and biofuels/energy
Biotechnology for developing countries
Transferring data for risk assessment across environments
Genetically engineered crops and agricultural sustainability
Post-market monitoring
Defining protection goals for risk assessment
Defining the receiving environment
Understanding environmental fate
Key discussions under the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety
Effective capacity building for biotechnology regulation
And others...

The ISBGMO is a bienniel international meeting organized by the International Society for Biosafety Research (ISBR), a society whose membership is composed of individuals with an interest in risk assessment and research related to the environmental risks associated with genetically modified organisms (http://www.isbr.info/).

The ISBGMOs have been offered on a biennial basis since 1990, at various locations throughout the world, including most recently in Argentina (2010), New Zealand (2008), South Korea (2006), France (2004), China(2002), Canada (2000). The 2012 symposium in St. Louis will be the first time it has been offered in the US since it was held in Monterey, CA in 1994.

The Donald Danforth Plant Science Center in St. Louis, whose mission and goals are closely tied to the theme of ISBGMO12, is the local host for this symposium.

For all queries regarding your submitted abstract and program queries please contact:

Jun You
Publishing Content Coordinator
Email: j.you@elsevier.com

Call for Abstracts: International Congress of Toxicology 2013 (ICT 2013)

Translational Toxicology: From Basic Science to Clinical and Environmental Outcomes

Seoul, Korea, June 30 ~ July 4, 2013

Deadline for Abstract Submission: February 28, 2013

This congress will offer you many opportunities to exchange advanced knowledge on Toxicology. This year’s congress will be comprised of keynote lectures given by world-renowned scholars, in addition to symposiums, workshops, debates, as well as oral and poster sessions.