Alternative Solution: Looking to a Sustainable Future
The focus of this year’s ATLIS conference is to identify tangible solutions being applied to global problems of sustainability. Participants will look critically at a particular idea or innovation, evaluate its potential and critique its effectiveness. This will allow attendees to gain pertinent insights into a variety of ongoing issues, pertaining but not limited to health, justice, bio- conservation, security, and technology.
Full registration details can be found on the conference registration form here, which you can download from this website. Registration is available up until arrival for the conference in January 2011.
On Friday evening, a special roundtable will focus on sustainability and community development. Participating organizations will include Community Forests International, Sustainable Sackville, Aliper’s Hearth, and the New Brunswick Youth Orchestra’s Sistema Program. Saturday features presentations by students from Mt. Allison and other universities, and a keynote address by Ian Smillie.
Presented Topics:
Thirsting for Equity: Gender and Water in Latin America
Sustainability in light of the 2007 International Economic Crisis: The Global Financial – Production Interplay
Developing a Global Energy System: Constructing and Designing US and China’s Green Technology
Eco-tourism : Exploitation or Innovation? Exploring the Dimensions of Sustainable Development in Community-Based Ecotourism Businesses in Ecuador
Housing Solutions: Sustainable Living from a Global Perspective
The United States – Pakistan Relationship and its role in Sustainable Global Security
Our keynote speaker, Ian Simllie, a development consultant and independent writer, will speak on the implementation of sustainable practices in the diamond industry. He will focus on how to ensure the production of diamonds benefits everyone in the chain. According to Smillie, the effort to regulate the diamond industry is faltering due to the eagerness of extractive industries for profits. Regulators must continue to regulate, but measures to curb the trade of “blood diamonds” must go beyond regulation. The way society conceives of valuable commodities must also be addressed.
Ian Simillie’s played an integral role in bringing the world’s attention to the link between the diamond trade and violent conflicts in Africa. He worked on a UN expert panel on Sierra Leone and continues to be part of an international effort to stop the cycle of violence associated with “conflict diamonds.” He is also the author of, “Blood on the Stone: Greed, Corruption, and War in the Global Diamond Trade”, which details his experiences and the challenges of the global certification system.
At the end of the conference, Smillie will conduct a special seminar for students interested in how to become a global career activist.
A full schedule is available here.
Mount Allison Atlantic International Studies Organization (ATLIS) 2011 Conference Schedule
This year's posters:
