APPLETON, WIS. — A scholar of environmental policies in China and the United States examines China’s growing water problems in the third installment of Lawrence University’s four-part Spoerl environmental studies lecture series on water and its management.
Jennifer Turner, director of the Woodrow Wilson Center’s China Environment Forum in Washington, D.C., presents “Water is for Fighting: Water Conflicts and Crises in China and the United States” Tuesday, Feb. 3 at 7:30 p.m. in Lawrence’s Science Hall, 102. The presentation is free and open to the public.
Turner will discuss the growing number and severity of water conflicts throughout China in the wake of burgeoning water demand, inefficient use of existing resources and increasing levels of water pollution. While conflicts over large-scale water projects such as the Three Gorges Dam have received attention in Western media, Turner contends other water conflicts over pollution and smaller dams that are far less publicized are equally, if not more, threatening to human and ecological health.
Although China’s water problems are larger than those in this country, Turner will draw parallels with the U.S. experience in dealing with water quality and quantity challenges. She also will discuss how some U.S. non-government organizations are working to help China alleviate pressures on watersheds.
Prior to joining the Wilson Center, Turner was a faculty member of the political science department at Winthrop University. She also has taught English in Taiwan and the People’s Republic of China.
The environmental lecture series is sponsored by the Spoerl Lectureship in Science in Society. Established in 1999 by Milwaukee-Downer College graduate Barbara Gray Spoerl and her husband, Edward, the lectureship promotes interest and discussion on the role of science and technology in societies worldwide.
