Elisabeth Mann Borgese Ocean Lecture

The Elisabeth Mann Borgese Ocean Lecture Series commemorates and celebrates the life and work of Elisabeth Mann Borgese, founder of the International Ocean Institute and its interdisciplinary training programmes. This public lecture series was launched in 2005 to mark the 25th anniversary of the IOI Training Programme in Halifax. The objective is to further encourage the debate on oceans issues which was so dear to Elisabeth, by inviting internationally renowned speakers to discuss important and timely ocean-related topics. Through this lecture series, we hope to generate awareness among stakeholders, academics, students and the general public about important ocean issues.

The 2009 EMB lecture took place on World Oceans Day, Monday 8th June, with guest speaker DR ROB HUEBERT, Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Calgary and Associate Director of its Centre for Military and Strategic Studies.  He spoke on CANADA AND THE CIRCUMPOLAR WORLD: THE COMING BLIZZARD, addressing three main questions:
1) What are the challenges for Canada that are now developing in the Arctic?
2) What is Canada doing to meet these challenges and how successful have they been?
3) What will be Canada's role in the circumpolar world as these new realities develop?
A full abstract is available here.

Acknowledgement is gratefully given to the Ocean Management Research Network for its financial support of this event as a World Oceans Day activity.  This year, the EMB Lecture was also part of the Coastal Nova's public lecture series, "Coastal Nova: Where Nova Scotia Meets the Sea", and we would like to thank the members of that partnership - the Coastal Coalition of Nova Scotia, the Ecology Action Centre, Dalhousie University's Marine Affairs Program, and the Environmental Studies Program at Saint Mary's University - for their collaboration and support.  We also gratefully acknowledge the support of Dalhousie's Marine and Environmental Law Institute.

Previous distinguished lecturers in this series:

• 2008: Dr Elliott Norse, President, Marine Conservation Biology Institute, Bellevue, Washington, USA speaking on Oceans of Hope: Encouraging Signs in Marine Conservation. A pdf version of the presentation can be downloaded here (13.1 MB), and the text of Dr Tony Charles's introductory comments are also available.
• 2007: Dr Kathleen Conlan, Research Scientist, Canadian Museum of Nature, Ottawa, Canada lecturing on Under the Polar Ice: Diversity, Disturbance and Climate Change
• 2006: Professor Ted McDorman, Faculty of Law, University of Victoria, Canada lecturing on Salt Water Neighbours: Canada-U.S. Ocean Relations (and Denmark Too!)
• 2005: Dr Andrew A. Rosenberg, Commissioner, U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy, and Professor, Natural Resources Policy and Management, University of New Hampshire, USA lecturing on Ecosystem-based Management of Ocean and Coastal Resources: Can We Get There from Here?