The Wallace Stegner Center’s 26th annual symposium on “The Plastics Paradox: Societal Boon or Environmental Bane?” will be held on Thursday to Friday, March 25-26, 2020. It will explore the role of plastics in the modern world; the environmental impacts of plastic production, use, and disposal; and the ongoing debate about the need, viability, and desirability of alternatives to plastics. The symposium includes presentations and panel discussions about the history of plastic, its benefits and costs, legal issues surrounding plastics regulation, and the impacts of plastic on the environment, from production to disposal. The annual Stegner Lecture will place plastics in the larger context of our consumptive lifestyles, while day two includes an opening keynote and two facilitated panel discussions—with extensive audience dialogue—about global, national, and local solutions to the plastics paradox.
Professor Karen Bradshaw, William H. Pedrick Scholar at the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at Arizona State University, is the 16th annual Stegner Center Young Scholar. Professor Bradshaw delivers her Young Scholar Lecture on November 11, 2020 on “Wildlife as Property Owners.” Professor Bradshaw will explore how existing legal solutions to stem catastrophic biodiversity loss are failing and ask if the answer to saving plants and animals rests in property law.
The Stegner Center will host a variety of speakers for its noon-hour green bag speaker series. Speakers include the following:
- “COVID-19 and its Impact in Indian Country” with Heather J. Tanana, Assistant Professor of Law (Research) & Wallace Stegner Center Fellow, S.J. Quinney College of Law, University of Utah; Associate Faculty, Center for American Indian Health – Johns Hopkins University
- “Bridging the Rural/Urban Divide on the Environment” with Robert Bonnie, leader of the Farm and Forest Carbon Solutions Initiative at the Bipartisan Policy Center and Executive-in-Residence at the Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions at Duke University
- “Lake Powell Pipeline and Northern Corridor Highway: Do we need them?” with Paul Van Dam, former Utah Attorney General
- “Re-Bisoning the West: Restoring an American Icon to the Landscape” with Kurt Repanshek, award-winning journalist
- “Using Executive Fiat for Conservation or Destruction: From Roosevelt to Trump” with Sandra B. Zellmer , Professor and Director, Natural Resources Clinics, University of Montana School of Law
- “Vision and Place: John Wesley Powell and Reimagining the Colorado River Basin” with Jason Robison, Professor, University of Wyoming College of Law and Visiting Professor, University of Utah S.J. Quinney College of Law (spring 2021); Robert Adler, Distinguished Professor of Law, University of Utah S.J. Quinney College of Law; Robert Keiter, Distinguished Professor of Law and Wallace Stegner Professor of Law, University of Utah S.J. Quinney College of Law; and Daniel McCool, Professor Emeritus of Political Science, University of Utah
For program details, including dates, times and Webinair links for remote viewing, see the Stegner Center online calendar at https://www.law.utah.edu/events/category/wallace-stegner-center/.