Stony Brook University Provost and Executive Vice President Carl Lejuez announced a new faculty-driven initiative, “Collaborative for the Earth,” on August 22.
The multidisciplinary “action-tank,” supported by the Office of the Provost, seeks to develop solutions in response to the harmful effects of climate change and in the abatement of existential risks to the living world’s interconnected life-supporting systems, with attention to human dignity and justice and the preservation of civilizations.
“Myriad human-generated global environmental stresses have precipitated what is being called ‘the multi-crisis,’ as the climate crisis, toxins crisis, extinction crisis, plastics crisis, water crisis, and more converge and worsen,” Lejuez said. “The planet’s critical state demands action to blunt and reverse these crises and help ensure a habitable planet for human societies and life on Earth as we’ve known it.”
Collaborative for the Earth will significantly amplify the work of SBU faculty, staff, and students, and will engage external partners, policymakers, and the public who are passionate about these challenges.
“The Collaborative for the Earth builds upon Stony Brook’s robust academic tradition and strengths, including the university’s historic role in banning DDT, its MacArthur-winning biological conservationists, its Pew-winning ecologists, its leaders in developing clean energy technologies, and its Nobel-winning climate scientists,” Lejuez said. “Now spurred by our selection as the anchor institution for the New York Climate Exchange, we are in a position to lead in developing solutions to existential global threats and leverage Stony Brook’s unique opportunity to effect change.”
Initial aims of the Collaborative for the Earth include hosting an international forum series on Earth system challenges designed to place Stony Brook at the forefront of thought and action; developing interdisciplinary graduate, professional, and continuing education programs; and guiding campus-wide conversations on how to maximize our potential in defining and implementing solutions to global environmental challenges.
The university has launched an internal search for the inaugural faculty director of this Collaborative, who will play a key role in developing the Collaborative and its initial activities, including broad collaboration across the university. Tenured faculty at SBU interested in applying for the position of director of the Collaborative can apply online.
To more about the Collaborative, including how to get involved as a member, please email provost@stonybrook.edu.
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