News from SUNY Cortland

For more information contact: Jean Palmer, 607-753-2232

Geologist To Discuss China's Impact On Global Environment

Feb. 27 Talk Continues ‘Environment and Culture’ Series

CORTLAND, NY (02/19/2008; 0925)(readMedia)-- Geologist Christopher Cirmo, who has studied the role that wetlands, streams and lakes play as filters purifying the earth’s limited fresh water supply, will address “China: The Key to Global Environmental Sustainability in the 21st Century?” on Wednesday, Feb. 27, at SUNY Cortland.

Cirmo, associate professor of geology at SUNY Cortland who visited China last summer, will begin his talk at 4:30 p.m. in Cornish Hall, Room D-304. A reception in the Brooks Museum, located in Cornish Hall, Room D-312, will precede the talk.

The lecture, which continues the yearlong Brooks Museum Lecture Series on “Culture and the Environment,” is free and open to the public. All lectures in the series take place on Wednesdays. The remaining talks are scheduled for March 19 and April 16.

Cirmo has conducted research on key watersheds including those serving Metropolitan New York City. His work has been supported by grants from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the federal Environmental Protection Agency. During 2006-07, Cirmo took a leave of absence from SUNY Cortland to serve as a grant award reviewer for NSF.

For two weeks this past summer, he had the opportunity to observe firsthand the environmental challenges faced by growing economic powerhouse China. He joined a dozen other faculty members in Beijing as participants in the China Capital Normal University/SUNY Cortland Initiative. During his trip, he met and worked on developing scholarly collaborations with his Chinese counterparts, visited wetlands, research and teaching facilities and discussed the research progress in China on the concept of a constructed and natural wetland.

“The combination of explosive economic growth, the staging of the summer Olympic Games and recent episodes of severe weather have combined to make 2008 a special and unique year in the history of the People’s Republic of China,” said Cirmo.

“The Chinese people, particularly youth, are showing a new sense of global perspective, national pride and the beginnings of environmental awareness. Pressure on the country’s natural resources, along with its rural to urban migration, may work to change the face of China as we know it. Environmental sustainability within China will be severely tested in the 21st century, and this will in turn put political pressure on China to look globally for the resources necessary to both serve its own population and maintain its standing as a world power. I will look at some of the issues facing Beijing, one of China’s fastest growing cities and the political and cultural center of China.”

Cirmo earned his bachelor’s degree in biology and chemistry from Utica College in Utica, N.Y. He received his master’s degree in environmental science from Indiana University School of Public and Environmental Affairs and Oak Ride National Laboratory and his doctoral degree in environmental geology from Syracuse University in Syracuse, N.Y. Cirmo, who chairs the Geology Department, joined the SUNY Cortland faculty in 1998.

The lecture series is sponsored by the College’s Auxiliary Services Corporation (ASC). For more information, contact Sharon Steadman, associate professor of anthropology, at (607) 753-2308.

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