MEDIA CONTACT: Polly Burks
561-297-2595, pburks@fau.edu
FAU Co-Sponsors Conference to Focus on
South Florida’s Environmental Future
BOCA RATON, FL (February 1, 2006) –– The fifth annual Florida Environmental Ethics Conference “Living on the Edge: South Florida’s Environmental Future” will take place Friday, February 17 from 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts in downtown Fort Lauderdale. The conference, co-sponsored by Florida Atlantic University’s Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, the University of Miami Ethics Programs, the Miami-Dade Commission on Ethics and Public Trust and the Florida Bioethics Network, will discuss the ethical and social challenges of maintaining a balance between South Florida’s man-made and natural environments. Dr. Kimberly Warner of Oceana, in Washington, D.C., will give the keynote address, “Ethics and Ocean Conservation.” Oceana is an international organization dedicated to the protection and restoration of the world’s oceans.
The conference fee is $45 in advance or $55 at the door and includes continental breakfast, registration, all handout materials and lunch. To register, contact the Broward Center’s AutoNation Box Office on-line at www.browardcenter.org, call 954-462-0222 or visit the box office at 201 SW Fifth Avenue, Fort Lauderdale. FAU and UM students with ID and Florida Bioethics Network paid members may obtain admission free with advance registration by visiting www.fau.edu/environment.
Southeast Florida’s urban area is home to more than six million people. Its “edges” are two unique and world-renowned ecosystems - in the west, the Everglades, and in the east, the coral reefs and mangroves. This annual conference explores the ethical challenges and opportunities of restoring the connections between the two ecosystems while serving the needs of a growing urban population. The theme of this year’s conference addresses hurricane-related issues. Topics include “The Impact of Hurricanes on the Natural System,” “Ethics and Economics of Everglades Restoration,” “Housing and Gentrification” and “Solar Energy in the Sunshine State.”
Founded in 2000, the South Florida Environmental Ethics Consortium (SFEEC) is a project of the Ethics Programs of the University of Miami (www.ethics.miami.edu) and Florida Atlantic University (www.fau.edu/ethics), in collaboration with the Miami-Dade Commission on Ethics and the Public Trust. This conference is being sponsored with support from FAU’s Adelaide R. Snyder Ethics Professorship and FAU’s College of Architecture Urban and Public Affairs (CAUPA).
For more information on the South Florida Environmental Ethics Consortium and other ethics events in south Florida, contact Robin N. Fiore, FAU’s Adelaide Snyder Professor of Ethics, at rfiore@fau.edu or Kenneth W. Goodman, UM ethics programs, at ethics@miami.edu. Program and other conference information are available at www.fau.edu/environment.
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