Pavel Kabat, Director General and CEO, International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA); Michael Obersteiner, IIASA; Gerhard Glatzel,  Chairman of the Commission for Interdisciplinary Ecological Studies (KIÖS), ÖAW and Bernd Uwe Schneider, German Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ) have the pleasure to invite you to attend the Public Lecture “The Solutions Underfoot – The Power of Soil” by Professor Rattan Lal.

Date: Monday 2 November 2015
Venue: Conference Center Laxenburg, Schlossplatz 1, 2361 Laxenburg

Agenda
    16:45-17:10 Transfer from Vienna - Laxenburg
    17:30-18:30 Drinks Reception with Light Canapés / Finger Food
    18:30-20:30 Lecture “The Solutions Underfoot – The Power of Soil”
    by Professor Rattan Lal
    20:10 Return transfer to Vienna

There will be a bus leaving Vienna at 16:40 from Museum für angewandte Kunst (Stadtpark entrance), Weiskirchnerstrasse 3, 1010 Vienna, and returning to Vienna at 20:10.  

RSVP by October 28, 2015 (indicating also whether you need a bus transfer): Email: Marie-Therese Pitner, Katica De Pascale

More Information
Solutions Underfoot: The Power of Soil
Soil matters, and must never be taken for granted. Soil functionality and the ecosystem services provisioned by it also impact water security, energy security, climate security, food/nutritional security, health security, environmental security, political security, and national/international security. The health of soil, plants, animals and humans is interconnected and indivisible. Being the largest repository of C among the terrestrial pools, prudently managed and judiciously restored soils are sink of atmospheric CO2 and critical to any strategy of adaptation and mitigation of climate change.

Rattan Lal is a Distinguished Professor of Soil Science at the Ohio State University. His research focus is on climate-resilient agriculture, soil carbon sequestration, sustainable intensification, enhancing use efficiency of agroeco­systems, and sustainable management of soils of the tropics. He was included in the Thomas Reuters 2014 list of World’s Most Influential Scientific Minds (2002-2013). Details

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About the Symposium
Among the global issues of the 21st Century, and those driven by the growing and increasingly affluent population (7.3 billion in 2015 and projected to be 9.7 billion by 2050) are: increasing atmospheric concentration of greenhouse gases and the attendant change in global climate, growing energy demand, excessive water withdrawal and pollution of water resources, tropical deforestation and conversion of natural to agro and urban ecosystems, soil degradation and deserti­fication, food and nutritional insecurity, and growing civil strife and political instability.

20.10.2015