Alon Tal to speak on water scarcity at 2 lectures Feb. 22

A Ben Gurion University environmental scientist and activist will give two free public lectures on Feb. 22, at UNL. One lecture will focus on managing Middle East water resources and the other on transboundary challenges and opportunities of environmental survival as part of the Middle East peace process.

Alon Tal will discuss "Technical Optimism as an Antidote to Water Scarcity (and) Desalination – Lessons Learned Thus Far" as part of the Nebraska Water Center's weekly Spring Water Seminar Series at 3:30 p.m. in the first-floor auditorium of Hardin Hall.

The lecture will focus on desalination as a cost-effective solution for dryland nations that suffer from a shortage of natural water resources.

At 7 p.m. that same day, Tal will discuss the different environmental accords between Israel and its neighbors and why the Oslo Accords did not produce environmental dividends, among other related issues as part of "Will the Environment Survive a Middle East Peace Process? Transboundary Challenges and Opportunities."

This lecture will be at UNL's Nebraska Union auditorium.

Tal's career has been a balance between academia and public interest advocacy. He is a visiting professor in the Center for Conservation Biology at Stanford University and is on the faculty of at Ben Gurion University's Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research. He is on temporary leave as co-chairman of Israel's green party – "the Green Movement."

Both UNL lectures are sponsored by the Norman and Bernice Harris Center for Judaic Studies. The afternoon lecture is also sponsored by UNL's Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources and the Nebraska Water Center, which is part of the Robert B. Daugherty Water for Food Institute.

- Steve Ress, UNL Water Center

More details at: http://go.unl.edu/83k