Distinguished speakers from across the United States and abroad were present at “Environment, Energy, and Ethics: Science and Responsibility for the 21st Century,” an interdisciplinary conference that took place on Friday-Sunday, Sept. 21-23, at the University of Delaware's Clayton Hall Conference Center in Newark, Del.
Global climate change and sustainable business, the ethical basis of carbon trading, responsible faith communities and environmental role modeling, community-supported agriculture, and a universal right to water were among the many topics that were highlighted during sessions on private-sector responsibility, markets, international law, environmental policy, religion and culture, and technology.
Keynote addresses were delivered by Holmes Rolston III, University Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at Colorado State University, who is internationally regarded as a leading environmental ethicist, and David McCurdy, Executive Vice President of Enviance Inc., an innovative corporate provider of information management services relating to greenhouse gas, environmental, health and safety compliance.
“Solutions to environmental problems require many forms of expertise, and the scholars at this conference will contribute to that crucial interdisciplinary dialogue,” said Tom Powers, who leads the University's Science, Ethics and Public Policy Program. Powers and colleague Mark Greene, both Assistant Professors of Philosophy at UD, were the conference organizers.
McCurdy's talk, “The World Needs a Ruler: Life with Carbon on the Balance Sheet,” was presented during the opening reception at 7 p.m., Friday, Sept. 21. He provided an overview of recent decisions in the scientific, financial and legal communities that have affected greenhouse gas management.
McCurdy oversees worldwide sales and account management at Enviance Inc. Founded in 1999 and based in Carlsbad, Calif., the company provides Internet-based services to businesses in 37 countries, assisting them in automating and improving the management of environmental, health and safety compliance activities. McCurdy joined Enviance from DuPont, where he directed North American marketing efforts for its Corian business unit. He earned a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from UD in 1984 and an MBA in 1991.
Rolston presentedUD's annual David Norton Lecture--“The Future of Environmental Ethics”--during the last day of the conference, at 1 p.m., Sunday, Sept. 23.
Rolston, who is both a Professor and a Presbyterian minister, has authored six critically acclaimed books, including Genes, Genesis and God, published by Cambridge University Press, as well as 80 book chapters and more than 100 articles. His works have been used widely in university classrooms, cited in print more than 2,000 times and published in 18 different languages.
Rolston's lecture was supported by the David Norton Memorial Fund. Prof. Norton joined the UD faculty in 1966 and helped establish the Master of Arts in Liberal Studies Program. Prior to his death in 1995, Norton wrote two major philosophy books, Personal Destinies and Democracy and Moral Development, in addition to nearly 100 articles and essays.
The conference was sponsored by the American Philosophical Association, UD's Science, Ethics and Public Policy Program/Delaware Interdisciplinary Ethics Committee, the Delaware Biotechnology Institute, and the Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR)--a partnership of the National Science Foundation, the state of Delaware and the University of Delaware.