Letter from the Conference Chair
William J. Mitsch
Chair, EcoSummit 2012
Dear Colleagues,
There is a buzz about EcoSummit 2012 wherever I go around the world.
I have heard about it in Denmark, China, Mexico, Estonia, Sweden, The Netherlands, Czech Republic, Brazil and many states in the USA during my travels for the last 20 months.
I have heard it discussed as one of the best assemblages of ecologists that will ever meet in the world. It has been described as an ecological scientific meeting that will make a difference and as an epic meeting among ESA, INTECOL, and Society of Ecological Restoration International (SER). It has been called a vanguard moment for our preeminent plenary speakers like E.O. Wilson and Jared Diamond, as a memorial to the work of the recently deceased Nobel Prize winner Elinor Ostrom, as a summary of the global contributions of H.T. Odum in ecological economics, engineering, and modeling, and energy futures, and as a 50th anniversary event of Rachel Carson’s landmark book Silent Spring.
It will be all of these things and more.
We expect 1500 to 1600 delegates from 75 countries to come to Columbus, Ohio, USA, for EcoSummit 2012 on September 30 – October 5 to hear 10 plenary presentations from the world’s premier ecologists and environmental scientists and practitioners, and 600 invited presentations in 65 symposia from around the world, and to participate in 21 forums and workshops on practical issues related to improving our environment. In addition, there are another 850 general sessions and poster presentations during EcoSummit 2012.
There are 6 pre-conference field trips based in Atlanta, New York, Washington DC, Miami, Chicago, and Columbus that will educate an estimated 100 international delegates about some to the large ecosystem restorations in the USA. Most delegates will take part in one of the 33 all-day mid-conference field trips that radiate throughout Ohio.
But the conference is about its content. It will focus on prescriptions for solving the world’s environmental problems far more than on descriptions. Symposia and lectures will involve ecological engineering, ecological restoration, green infrastructure, the prosperous way down, adapting to climate change, earth stewardship, ecohydrology, eco-informatics, ecological modeling, sustainable agriculture, protecting biodiversity, carbon sequestration, human ecology, and enhancing ecosystem services.
And the grand ecosystems of the world that will be discussed! The Mesopotamian Marshlands of southern Iraq, The Florida Everglades, the Louisiana Delta, the Yangtze River in China, the Amazon and Pantanal of Brazil, the Laurentian Great Lakes of North America, the Baltic Sea in Europe, and the Hackensack Meadows and Delaware Bay of northeastern USA. And lest we forget it, E.O. Wilson’s lecture and two of our pre-conference field trips will feature the Appalachian Mountain ecosystems that are at Columbus’ doorstep—a 1.9 million square kilometer of recovering and virtually intact deciduous forests and streams that have been described by E.O. Wilson as “America’s treasure house of biodiversity.”
So come to Columbus in late September!
We are looking forward to meeting those of you who have already registered as delegates to our edge of Appalachia in central Ohio USA and we encourage anyone reading this who is interested in saving the planet to plan to come too. It is easy to register on the web page ecosummit2012.org It is not too late!
Best regards,
William J. Mitsch, Ph.D.
Chair, EcoSummit 2012
Distinguished Professor of Environment and Natural Resources
Professor of Environmental Science and Ecologial Engineering
Director, Olentangy River Wetland Research Park
Editor-in-Chief, Ecological Engineering
Stockholm Water Prize Laureate
The Ohio State University, Columbus, USA
EcoSummit 2012 is co-hosted by The Ohio State University, the Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission, the Ecological Society of America (ESA), The International Association for Ecology (INTECOL) and the Society for Ecological Restoration International (SER).
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