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Science Communication

As a national research institute, RIHN is expected to conduct exemplary science; it also must communicate its research agenda and results to the public and contribute to public awareness and discussion of contemporary environmentalism. A number of public symposia, campaigns, seminar series, and publications are designed to reach specialist and general audiences. Some recent activities and publications include:

The Earth Forum Kyoto and the Earth Hall of Fame Kyoto Award

Award ceremony of the Earth Hall of Fame Kyoto

The Earth Forum Kyoto invites world-renowned experts and activists to discuss the environmental and cultural bases of more responsible human societies. The Earth Hall of Fame Kyoto Award is given to those who have made exemplary contributions to the protection of the global environment. Organizers of the event are the International Institute for Advanced Studies, the Kyoto International Conference Centre, and RIHN. The 2010 recipients of the Earth Hall of Fame Kyoto Award were His Majesty Jigme Singye Wangchuck (Bhutan), Masazumi Harada (Japan) and Elinor Ostrom (USA).

Kyoto Forum on Environmental Wisdom and Culture

RIHN, Kyoto Prefecture and Kyoto City co-host this forum as part of the DO YOU KYOTO? Campaign, a public information campaign designed to stimulate Kyoto residents’ environmental consciousness and responsible behavior in everyday life.

RIHN International Symposia

A symposium organized in October of each year to discuss the findings of concluding research projects.
The Past and Future of Diversity, 13-15 October, 2010

International Symposia

International symposia are organized to allow intensive discussion of key project or domain topics. They may be organized by individual projects, RIHN research domains and in collaboration with other institutions. Recent symposia include:
Rethinking the Impacts of Climate Change in the Past
Organized by the Indus Project (H-03), Ecohistory Domain. 20-21 August, 2010
Keystone Species of Human Subsistence Ecosystems in Arab Societies
Organized by the Arab Subsistence Project (R-05), 20-21 December, 2010
Ecohistory of the Yellow Belt and Green Belt in Afro-Eurasia
The 3rd Ecohistory Program Symposium, 21 February, 2010

RIHN Public Seminars

Public seminars are held almost monthly at RIHN or in the city center.
38^th Garden Cities or Metrocivilization: Kyoto, Shibuya and the Cities of the Future
    NAKAGAWA Osamu, Kyoto Institute of Technology
    MURAMATSU Shin, RIHN
    16 April, 2010, Heart Pier Kyoto
39^th Haiku and Global Environmental Problems
    TUBOUCHI Toshinori, Bukkyo University
    18 June, 2010, Heart Pier Kyoto
40^th How Will You Live after Oil Resources are Gone? Part2
    TAKAKI Keiko, J. F. Oberlin University; ISHIYAMA Shun, RIHN
    17 September, 2010, Heart Pier Kyoto
41^st Oral History and Harmonious Coexistence with Nature: Tlingit Story-Telling by Bob Sam
    Bob Sam, Alaskan Tlingit; HABU Junko, RIHN/U.C. Berkeley
    30 November, 2010, Heart Pier Kyoto
42^nd Learning from Minamata: from Pollution to Global Environmental Problems
    HARADA Masazumi, previously at Kumamoto Gakuen University
    15 February, 2011, Heart Pier Kyoto

RIHN Seminars

Invite a range of speakers from abroad to share their expertise with the RIHN community.
43^rd Problems with Integrating Social and Ecological Processes in a Unified Modeling
    Framework: A Case study on the Drivers of Landscape Pattern
    MCCAULEY, Stephen, Clark University/Worcester Polytechnic Institute,
    7 June, 2010
44^th Food Security, Climate Variability and Land Use in Zambia: Methods for Spatial
    Analysis and Modeling Vulnerability and Resilience of Smallholder Systems
    EVANS, Tom P., Indiana University/RIHN Visiting Research Fellow,
    17 June, 2010
45^th How Can Academism Contribute to Global Environmental Issues?
    Agenda Setting as Commitment
    YONEZAWA Shohei, Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology
    29 June, 2010
46^th Environmental Governance in China
    BAO, Maohong, Beijing University/ RIHN Visiting Research Fellow
    8 July, 2010
47^th Sustainable Development and Advancing Environmental Governance
    TOEPFER, Klaus, Executive Director, Institute for Advanced Sustainablility Studies,
    Potsdam, Germany
    5 October, 2010
48^th New Perspectives on Sustainability: Research, Practice, and Education
    REDMAN, Charles L., Founding Director, School of Sustainability, Arizona State University
    27 October, 2010

PUBLICATIONS

RIHN Encyclopedia of Global Environmental Studies

The RIHN Encyclopedia of Global Environmental Studies was published in 2010 to commemorate RIHN’s 10th anniversary. In the past decade RIHN research has been disseminated through a remarkable range of academic and popular media, and yet each publication, interview, or workshop can only communicate a part of the whole. The encyclopedia was designed and written in order to address the need for a single, systematic and comprehensive reference work describing RIHN’s research in the field of global environmental studies.

RIHN projects and researchers also publish a number of books each year in both Japanese and English.