The UW-Madison Environmental Breakfast Seminar
(Sponsored by the Gaylord Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies)

Complete List of Past Topics:

1992-1993

4/23/93: Bill Cronon, "What Is Environmental Studies, Anyway?"

5/7/93, Tim Allen, "A Design Strategy for Action in Complex Environmental Systems"

1993-1994

9/22/93: Harvey Jacobs, "Postmodern Planning"

10/5/93: Tom Vale, "Nature Protection Sentiment: Still Romantic"

10/19/93, Tom Yuill, "Biological Booby Traps in International Development"

11/2/93: Tom Heberlein, "Environmental Attitudes: How Does Something That Doesn't Exist Have Such Important Consequences?"

11/16/93: Don Waller, "Why Environmentalism Needs Ecology"

11/30/93: Richard Bilder, "Who Needs Environmental Lawyers, Anyway?"

2/5/94: Walt Kuhlmann, "How Scientists Can Learn to Love the Law, and Why They Must"

3/1/94: Denis Collins, "An Ethical Foundation for Citizens' Panels: Adam Smith's 'Theory of Moral Sentiments'"

3/15/94: Claudia Card, "Environmental Ethics"

4/5/94: Jan Bol, "The Sustainability Project"

4/19/94: Colin Jeffcoate, "Issues in Toxicity Regulation: The Special Case of Lead"

5/3/94: Doug Rouse, "Alternative Farming Systems"

1994-95

10/4/94: Bill Cronon, "The Trouble with Wilderness"

10/18/94: John Hearn, "Everyday Ethical Issues in Reproduction"

11/8/94: Jim Bennett, "Should the National Park Service Benefit Financially from Scientific Discoveries on Park Lands?"

11/22/94: Art McEvoy, "The Fisherman's Problem"

12/6/94: Bill Jordan, "Ecological Restoration, the Arboretum, and the Earthkeeping Academy "

1/31/95: Bill Cronon, "The Future of Environmental Studies at Wisconsin "

2/14/95: Sharon Dunwoody, "Risky Business: How Media Handle Stories about Environmental Hazards"

2/28/95: Jean Bahr, "Models for Radioactive Waste Repository Licensing: Predictions, Forecasts, or Fantasies?"

3/21/95: Vicki Bier, "Can We Site a Nuclear Power Plant in Manhattan ? A History of Quantitative Safety Goals"

4/4/95: Lou Maher, "Through a Glass Darkly: Holocene Environment from Devils Lake Mud (Or Who says the Present is the Key to the Past?)"

4/18/95: Art McEvoy, "Takings Law, Environmental Regulation, and Public Virtue"

5/2/95: Bill Cronon and Group as Whole, "What Is to Be Done: Environmental Crisis?"

1995-1996

9/26/95: Tom Yuill, "The 'Hot Zone' In Our Own Back Yard"

10/10/95: Nancy Langston, "What's the use of history in forest restoration?"

10/24/95: Karl Zimmerer, "Changing Fortunes: Biodiversity and Peasant Livelihood in the Peruvian Andes "

11/7/95: Chris Upper, "Have we gained (or learned) anything from the deliberate introduction of genetically engineered bacteria into the environment?" or "Did Jeremy Rifkin cure Steve Lindow, Julie Lindemann and Trevor Suslow of doing field experiments with engineered bacteria?"

12/12/95: Walter Kuhlmann, "The misappropriation of current theory on human-ecosystem interrelationships to subvert scientific and legal standards for protecting species and habitats"

1/23/96: Bill Cronon, "On the Utility and Danger of Recognizing the Unnaturalness of Nature: Reflections on UNCOMMON GROUND"

2/6/96: Don Waller, "The Origins and Prospects of Conservation Biology as a Basis for Conservation Policy"

2/20/96: Tom Vale, "Pristine Wilderness and Conservation Biology: Both Reasonable Fragments, Both Flawed Ideals"

3/5/96: Kirk McVoy, Chris Upper, Art McEvoy, and group: "The Big Unconsidered Causes of Environmental Degradation" (an experiment in discussion)

3/19/96: Jim Kurtz, "Bringing the People Along: The Challenge of Environmental Science, Law, and Regulation"

4/2/96: John Magnuson, "Upstream, Salmon, and Society in the Pacific Northwest"

4/16/96: Gerry Campbell: "What Can't Be Learned at a Distance? Meditations on Distance Learning and Sense of Place"

4/30/96: Art McEvoy, "The 1995 Cod Conference"

1996-1997

9/17/96: Nancy Langston, "Elusive Boundaries: Managing Riparian Areas in the Blitzen River watershed of eastern Oregon "

9/26/96: Harvey Jacobs, "Whose Rights, Whose Regulations? The Coming Conservative-Based Crash of the Anti-Environmental Movement in the U.S. "

10/1/96: Tom Frost, "Evaluating System Responses to Stress at Different Scales of Resolution: Is there Evidence for Functional Redundancy?"

10/15/96: Jess Gilbert, "How Can Experts and Citizens Democratize Public Policy? The Case of New Deal Agricultural Policies"

10/29/96: David Mladenoff, "Restoration of the endangered gray wolf in the northern Lake States: Indicator of overall ecosystem recovery?"

11/12/96: Chris Upper, "Living Off the Grid"

11/21/96: Tom Heberlein, "On Nursing and Wildlife Management in Sweden : "Beratta av en dum amerikanska turist"

11/26/96: Bill Cronon, Sharon Dunwoody, Jim Pawley, "Talking About Teaching"

12/10/96: Tom Vale, "Repeat Photography: As Art, As Illustration, As Evidence"

1/28/97: Tom Yuill, "The Sciences, Communities, and Conservation: The Manantlan Experiment"

2/11/97: Tom Heberlein, "Why Interdisciplinary Work Is Hard To Do"

3/4/97: Steve Born, "Can Academics, Ecosystem Research, and Theory Really Help Efforts to Practice Ecosystem Management? The Kickapoo Watershed Case."

3/18/97: Jeff Smoller, "Emerging Alternatives to Achieving Environmental Performance: Wisconsin Implications"

4/1/97: Tim Allen, "Supply-Side Sustainability: Learning to Ride the Vortex"

4/15/97: Karl Zimmerer, "Environmental Research, Policy, and Ethics in Developing Countries"

1997-1998

9/30/97: Kirk McVoy, "Wilderness and Urbanites: Do They Need It, Can They Keep It, and Can They Live With the Bears?"

10/7/97: Michael Pollan, "Disney and the Next American Utopia"

10/28/97: Art McEvoy, "Warfare over Water Rights in New Jersey, 1795"

11/11/97: Lou Maher, "The Container's Influence on Good Whiskey and Good Pollen Assemblages - A Cautionary Tale. (Or Some Paleoenvironmental Facts and Fables)"

11/25/97: Chris Upper, "EXCITING vs. BORING as Engines of Scholarship: Glamor and the Unevenness of Intellectual Endeavor"

12/9/97: Dan Anderson: "A Case Study in the Importance of Boring Subjects: Catastrophic Environmental Problems and Their Effects on Reinsurance"

1/27/98: Jeff Smoller and Don Kettl, "Environmental Management Systems Research: Helping Set a National Course"

2/10/98: Bill Freudenberg, "Jobs vs. the Environment: Sorting Fact from Fiction"

2/24/98: Pat Eagan, "Can We Design Our Way Out of Our Environmental Problems?"

3/17/98: Tom Eggert, "Developing a Compass Toward Sustainability: The Natural Step"

3/31/98: Bill Cronon, "Humanist Environmentalism: A Manifesto"

4/14/98: Lisa Naughton, "Who owns Uganda 's wildlife? Indigenous and colonial models for conserving big animals in a crowded landscape"

4/28/98: Bill Cronon and the Group as a Whole: "Reculer Pour Mieux Sauter: The Past and Future of the Environmental Breakfast Seminar"

1998-1999

9/22/98: Tim Allen, "Speculations As to Whether History Matters"

10/6/98: Tom Eggert, "Up the Green Stairway and Into the Black: A Story of Businesses Becoming Environmentally Responsible"

10/20/98: Lou Maher, "Pheasant Branch: Eastward Movement on the American Frontier"

11/10/98: Elizabeth Ann R. Bird, "Do university reward systems promote public interest science?"

11/24/98: Don Waller, "Should vegetarians shoot deer?"

12/1/98: Tom Brooking, University of Otago, "Elusive Arcadia: Some reflections on writing an illustrated essay on the transformation of the New Zealand landscape"

12/8/98: Jorge Ossa, "Sabbaticals in a Fast-Changing Landscape: Reflections on What I've Learned about the UW System"

1/26/99: Chris Upper, "Oranges, bacteria, insects, beagles, travelers, politics, guns, attack dogs, exports, accidents of geography, budgets, property rights, and a few other miscellaneous reasons why public interest research can be . . . challenging"

2/9/99: Jim Kurtz, "Do You Have a Property Right to Stink OR Do I Have to Paint My House?"

2/23/99: Joan Schmit, "Potential Contributions of Risk Management to Environmental Research"

3/30/99: Gerry Campbell, "Serving the environment: What could you learn by cleaning bathrooms and picking up trash at Yosemite ?"

4/13/99: Karl Zimmerer, "Colonialism-to-Globalization: Some thoughts on geographical ides of landscape and conservation with special reference to South America "

4/27/99: Sonya Newenhouse, "Words, Pictures and Numbers: A Tourist Trash Tour of Madeline Island "

1999-2000

9/21/99: Lou Maher, "The Palynology of Bat Guano, Or, Paleolimnology by Other Means"

10/5/99: Jerry Greenberg, "Toward a Network of Wildlands"

10/19/99: Tom Yuill, "Interdisciplinary Environmental Research and Teaching in the Academy: Illusion or Reality?"

11/2/99: Tom Frost, "Who gets basic environmental research money and why? Reflections on two years as program director for Ecology at the National Science Foundation"

11/16/99: Nancy Langston, "Challenges in teaching environmental studies classes that are truly interdisciplinary"

11/30/99: Sharon Dunwoody, "Communicating Uncertainty to the Public"

2/1/00: Erhard Joeres, "Rethinking Energy as a Focus for Research and Teaching at UW-Madison: Opportunity and Risk in the New Cluster Hires"

2/15/00: Jim Kurtz, "Can I Swim Where Manure Flows, and Can Research Help Me Keep My Head Above the Stuff I'm Swimming In?"

2/29/00: Maria Lepowsky, "Swiddens and Spirits: Cultural Ecology in the Coral Sea " (she needs slide projector)

3/21/00: Bill Cronon, "Just How Long Should a Book on Portage BE, Anyway??"

4/4/00: Karen Upper, "Uneven Ground: Environmental Implications of Decision-Making in One Dane County Township, or, Does the Town Really Need the Added Expense of a Plastic Culvert Next to Rupert's Barn?"

4/18/00: Jim Bennett, "The File Drawer Problem in Science: Are We Going In Circles?"

2000-2001

9/19/00: Jim Pawley, "Human Population Growth's Causes and Effects: Can Anyone REALLY Create a Course Such As This?"

10/10/00: Jon Foley, "Changes in Global Environmental Security"

10/24/00: Tim Allen, "The Thermodynamics of Human Use of Renewable Resources and Management: Romans, Byzantium, and the Industrial Revolution"

11/7/00: Martin Davis, Dennis Koepke, "Shifting Winds: Wisconsin 's Response to Ozone Non-Attainment"

11/21/00: Mike Corradini, "Nuclear Power: Villain or Victim?"

12/5/00: Joy Zedler, "Adaptive Restoration"

1/30/01: Nancy Langston, "Conflict and Cooperation in Riparian Management"

2/13/01: Colin Rees, Global Environmental Facility in Washington, D.C., "The Global Environmental Facility and Its Efforts to Conserve Biological Diversity in Developing Countries"

3/6/01: Cathie Bruner, "Campus Natural Areas: The Laboratory Next Door"

3/20/01: Tom Heberlein, "Social Construction and Beyond: What did Apostle Island Visitors Think About Wilderness in 1975, 1985 and 1997?

4/10/01: Jim Kurtz, "How Do I Have to Pay to Use Public Land ? What Do I Buy When I Pay?"

4/24/01: Steve Ventura, "Influences of New Tools for Spatial Analysis in Environmental Disciplines and Regulatory Agencies"

2001-2002

9/18/01: Roundtable Discussion of September 11 Bombings

10/2/01:: Jean Bahr, "Is the Planned Everglades Restoration Sustainable?"

10/16/01: Nancy Langston, "Water Conflicts in the Klamath Basin "

10/30/01: Jim Kurtz, "Why Do People Want to Split Up the DNR?"

11/13/01: Charlie Higley, "How Energy Politics Have Changed Since September 11"

11/27/01: Tom Yuill, "Rethinking Bioterrorism Since September 11"

11/11/01: Bill Cronon, "The Harriman Expedition Retraced: Touring the Coast of Alaska in 1899 and 2001"

1/29/02: Dan Anderson, "Insurance, Reinsurance, and the Management of Risk: September 11 as a Case Study of Unnatural Disaster"

2/12/02: Chris Upper, "When information is in rare events, not in the central tendancy, how can we find it?"

2/26/02: Sonya Newenhouse, "Car talk -- a sharing solution that's about oil, insurance, and civility"

3/12/02: Al Gunther, "Biased Perceptions of Media Bias about Genetically Modified Food"

4/2/02: Sharon Dunwoody, "The Audience for Science on the WWW"

4/16/02: Karl Zimmerer, "Globalization and Conservation: Mapping Current Policies and Ideas (With Special Reference to Agriculture and Conservation)"

4/30/02: John Sharpless, "It's Not Easy Being Green"

2002-2003

9/24/02: Don Waller on "50 years of ecological change in N Wisconsin "

10/8/02: Jim Kurtz, "It's 4th and Goal for CWD Containment: Property Rights and NIMBY Players Have Entered the Game"

10/22/02: Bill Cronon, "Can Scholars Really Be Useful Beyond the Ivory Tower? The Pleasures and Perils of Environmental Service Beyond the Academy"

11/5/02: Tom Heberlein, "Human Dimensions of the CWD Crisis in Wisconsin "

11/19/02: Curt Meine, "'So What's Going On With Badger, Anyway?': A Status Report from Sauk Prairie"

11/3/02: CANCELLED

1/28/03: Tom Yuill, "Ten Years at the Helm of IES: Reflections on Past and Future Challenges"

2/11/03: Ken Raffa, "Gypsy Moth in Wisconsin - What does it tell us about ourselves and how we should address biological invasions?"

2/25/03: Lou Maher on "Geology by Light Plane"

3/11/03: Michael Bell, Bill Bland, "The Agroecology Initiative at Madison : A Status Report, with Prospects for the Future"

4/1/03: Lisa Naughton, "Wolves in Dairyland"

4/22/03: Dan Anderson, "Expanding Environmental Liabilities"

2003-2004

9/23: Jim Kurtz, "The Road to Reality: From Regulator to Nimby"

10/7: Jim Knox, "Living with Uncertainty: Climate Change and Floods on the Mississippi River "

10/21: Sonya Newenhouse, "Dumpster Diva turns into Transportation Queen and Jolly Green Builder"

11/4: Bill Cronon, "Saving a Storied Wilderness: The Riddle of the Apostle Islands "

11/18: Larry Hott and Diane Garey, "Environmental History on Film"

1/27: Samer Alatout, "From Water Abundance to Scarcity: the Making of a New Jewish Subjectivity, 1936-1959"

2/10: Nancy Langston, "Water, Science, and Power: the Klamath Basin Revisited"

2/24: Ken Raffa, "Natural resource challenges arising from the boring life style of bark beetles: How specific features of plant-insect associations confront humans with value-laden decisions"

3/9: Bill Cronon, "Whither (or Wither?) the Environmental Breakfast Seminar?"

3/24: Jared Diamond, "Reflections on History, Environment, and Humanity"

3/30: Chris Upper, "The lake and the woods were such a wonderful wild place when we were kids. Can we keep it that way?"

4/13: Patrick Eagan, "Ten years of Design-for-the-Environment. Where has it taken us?"

4/27: Bill Cronon facilitating: "Brainstorming the Environmental Breakfast Seminar for Academic Year 2004-05"

2004-2005

9/28: Bill Cronon, "Relaunching the Environmental Breakfast Seminar: Introductions"

10/12: Ken Raffa, "Insects as Tiny Teachers"

10/26: Dave Foreman, "The Rewilding Institute's EcoWild Program"

11/9: Bill Cronon facilitating: Round Table Discussion: "Reflecting on the 2004 Election: Its Implications and Consequences for the Environment"

11/23: Paul Knopp, "Stream Pollution in Wisconsin- 80 years ago"

2/1: Bill Cronon, "Nature and History Where Land and Water Meet: UW-Madison's Lakeshore Preserve"

2/15: Art McEvoy, "What Do We Know About Environmental Injustice?"

3/8: Jim Kurtz, " What Conservation Organization is the Right Fit for an Ex-Conservation Attorney?"

3/29: Lou Maher, "Revisiting Eden : 1958 and 2004"

4/12: Frances Westley, "The Delusion of Separateness: Whole System Approaches to Integrating Knowledge and Action"

4/26: Maria Lepowsky, "Border crossings and Sacred Places in Southern California"

2005-2006

9/27: Sara Hotchkiss, “Using the General Land Survey for Reconstructing ‘Presettlement’ Vegetation: Can We Test Its Insights?”

10/11: Bill Cronon convening, "Reflections on Katrina"

10/25: Pete Nowak, "The Wisconsin Buffer Initiative: Mixing Science and Policy"

11/8: Jim Kurtz, "Takings, Property Rights, and the Public Safety"

11/22: Chris and Karen Upper, “Sustaining Working Land: Evolution of The Tree Farm”

1/31: Jerry Greenberg, "The Intelligently Designed Evolution of Society’s Relationship to Wildfire: How science and information have been used to change the way we look at and manage wildfires"

2/14: Cancelled

2/28: Bill Cronon, Cathie Bruner, Daniel Einstein, "The Lakeshore Nature Preserve Master Plan"

3/21: Lewis Gilbert, "Sustainability in the Present Tense"

4/4: Frances Westley, "Pathways to Transformation: how corporations move from environmental compliance to sustainable practice"

4/25: Cancelled

2006-2007

9/19: Dan Anderson "On Corporate Survival: The Critical Importance of Sustainability Risk Management"

10/3: Mike Corradini, "Nuclear Power: A Viable Option for Baseload Energy"

10/17: Group Discussion, "Is Any Form of Human Energy Use Environmentally Acceptable?"

10/31: Lewis Gilbert, Title, "Geeky Thoughts Regarding the Future of the Quality of Life on Earth"

11/14: Bill Cronon, "Can Virtual Reality Help Protect Real Nature? A Map, A Website, and the Challenge of Helping People Learn to Love Special Places”

1/30: Art McEvoy, "Scholarship May Teach Us How the World Came to Be, But Guiding Human Life and Policy Is Another Matter: Reflections on The Fisherman's Problem"

2/20: Jim Kitchell, "The Fisheries Crisis: An Alternative View"

3/6: Jerry Greenberg, "What Happens in Nevada, Stays in Nevada: How Public Lands Bills There Have Set Off a Firestorm Within the Wilderness Community"

4/10: John Nelson, "Best Practices for Sustainability: A Case Study from the Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery"

4/24: Robert Bruegmann, U Illinois Chicago, "Sprawl and the Environment: The Evidence"

2007-2008

9/18: Bill Cronon, Facilitator: Introductory Session: Getting to Know Each Other Again, and Goals for the Seminar in 2007-08

10/2: Ken Raffa: "Since Silent Spring: Dissecting Elements of Past Successes to Energize Responses to Today's Challenges"

10/16: Pete Nowak: "Bioenergy: Exploring the Unanswered Questions"

10/30: John Nelson: "Biofuels, Ethics and the American Socio-Economic System"

11/13: Bill Cronon, Facilitator, "The Year Ahead for Environmental Politics"

11/27: Chris Upper, "Good Neighbors . . . As Long as Nothing Happens"

2/5: Lewis Gilbert, "Robert Moses and the Unintended Consequence"

2/19: (Cancelled due to illness)

3/4: Gregory H. Aplet, Senior Forest Scientist, The Wilderness Society, "Preserving Nature in the Face of Global Change: Thinking Outside the Protected Areas Box"

4/1: Cathie Bruner, "Stewardship Challenges at the Lakeshore Nature Preserve: What Have We Learned? Where Can They Take Us?"

4/15: Mayor Dave Cieslewicz, “Why Environmentalists Should Also Be Urbanists”

4/29: (Cancelled due to scheduling conflict)

2008-2009

9/23: Bill Cronon, Facilitator: Introductory Session: Reintroducing Ourselves, and Brainstorming Topics for the Seminar in 2008-09

10/7: Roundtable Conversation: "Contemplating the Environmental Implications of the Fall Election (and Perhaps the Credit Meltdown Too)"

10/21: Ron Seely, Wisconsin State Journal, "The Practice of Environmental Journalism"

11/4: Don Waller, "Vanishing Presents: How Can We Alert the Public to Creeping Cumulative Ecological Change?"

11/18: Adrian Treves, "Wolf Recovery in Wisconsin: What Kind of a Success Story?"

12/2: Roundtable Conversation on Campus Sustainability

1/27: Colleen Moore, "Psychological Impacts of Pollutants: Case Examples of How Scientific Disputes Impact Environmental Policy"

2/10: Sharon Dunwoody, "The Fate of (Environmental) Journalism in a Post-Hard Copy World"

2/24: Lou Maher, "Lake Delton--After the Deluge"

3/10: Faramarz Vakili, "Pursuing Environmental Stewardship at UW-Madison: The WE CONSERVE Program"

3/31: Nancy Langston, "Modern Meat: Synthetic Hormones, Livestock, and Gender Anxieties in Post-War America"

4/14: John Nelson, "Thinking Concretely about Sustainability at UW-Madison: An Update on the Construction of the Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery"

4/28: Lynn Nyhart, "How Did Nature Become Modern? What a Story from Late-Nineteenth-Century Germany Can Tell Us"

2009-2010

09/29:  Bill Cronon, Facilitator: Introductory Session: Reintroducing Ourselves, and Brainstorming Topics for the Seminar in 2009-2010

10/13: Bill Cronon, Steve Ventura, Don Waller, and others, "What Should Undergraduate Majors in Environmental Studies and Environmental Science(s) Look Like at UW-Madison?"

10/27:  (Cancelled Due to Illness)

11/10: Jerry Greenberg, The Wilderness Society, "Big Wilderness in the Big Sky State:  Brave New World or Dangerous Precedent?"

12/01: Ken Raffa, "Anatomy of a Tipping Point"

01/26: Dick Cates, "The Cates Family Farm: Grasslands and the Promise and Opportunities of Pasture/Grazing-Based Farming Systems"

02/16: Sonya Newenhouse, "Small, Super-Insulated, Sustainable Homes"

03/02: Jim Addis, "Exotic Species in the Great Lakes: Management Challenges of the Alewife"

03/23: John Nelson, "Sustainable investment versus the debt and discount rate: how do we sustainably "pay for," and economically justify, the policies and technologies our science recommends?"

04/13: Kristen Joiner, "Promoting Sustainability in Madison and Dane County: A Discussion of Sustain Dane's Approach to Turning Knowledge into Action"

2010-2011

9/28: Bill Cronon, Facilitator: Introductory Session: Reintroducing Ourselves, and Brainstorming Topics for the Seminar in 2010-2011

10/12: Bill Cronon: "Building a Website on the Environmental History of Food and Agriculture as a Pedagogical Tool and Resource"

10/26: Gregg Mitman, "Becoming a Living Model: Findings and Recommendations from the UW-Madison Sustainability Task Force"

11/9: Germán Palacio, "The Third Conquest of the Colombian Amazon by Global Forces: Neo-Conservationism Vs Neo Developmentalism"

11/23: CANCELED

1/25: Mayor Dave Cieslewicz, "What Is Urban Agriculture?"

2/8: Bill Cronon, Facilitator: Group Conversation: "The Changing Political Environment and What It Means for the Future"

2/22: Nan Fey and Brad Murphy, "Imagining the Future City: Rewriting Madison's Zoning Code"

3/8: CANCELED

3/22: Jerry Greenberg and Paul DeLong, "America's Other National Forests: The importance of Family Forests to the Nation's Well-Being…and the Challenge for Their Survival"

4/5: Salvör Jónsdóttir, "Iceland - Environment and Energy: Clean and Green?"

4/19: Steve Brick, "Energy and Climate Policy: Three Themes for 2011 and Beyond"