ASU consortium hosts US launch of biodiversity project

The Consortium for Science, Policy and Outcomes (CSPO) at Arizona State University, in partnership with the Expert and Citizens Assessment of Science and Technology (ECAST) network, will host the United States launch of the World Wide Views on Biodiversity project on June 5, at the Koshland Science Museum in Washington, D.C.

World Wide Views on Biodiversity is a distributed, collaborative and non-partisan 21st century approach that integrates citizen participation, deliberation, expertise and assessment into government policy making, management, research, development, informal education and dissemination at the national and international levels.

World Wide Views project will invite groups of 100 ordinary citizens in the cities of Washington, Boston, Denver and Phoenix to join similar groups across the globe on Sept. 15. Using the same agenda and approach at each site, the groups will learn about biodiversity issues and will discuss important policy choices. Policymakers will use this information when they gather the following month in India to discuss future measures for preserving biological diversity. World Wide Views Alliance is coordinated by the Danish Board of Technology, a non-profit and impartial parliamentary advisory board.

In addition to the ECAST organizers, the launch event will feature presentations from Barbara DeRosa-Joynt of the US State Department, John Fitzgerald of Society for Conservation Biology, Carolyn Lukensmeyer of Americaspeaks and Naba Barkakati of the US Government Accountability Office. It will include an introduction to the deliberation and dissemination aspects of the project and a live deliberation on national priority issues related to biodiversity.

The event begins at 11 a.m. and will continue until 2 p.m. Lunch will be provided. Please RSVP to http://tinyurl.com/wwvlaunch.

The Consortium for Science, Policy and Outcomes at Arizona State University is an interdisciplinary intellectual network aimed at enhancing the contribution of science and technology to society's pursuit of equality, justice, freedom and overall quality of life.  CSPO creates knowledge and methods, educates students, cultivates public discourse and fosters policies to help decision makers and institutions grapple with the immense power and importance of science and technology as society charts a course for the future. For more information about CSPO, visit online at CSPO.org.