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News Release

March 16, 2006

Water and Health Focus of Hammond Lectures

“Water and Health” is the topic of the 2005/06 Kenneth Hammond Lectures on Environment, Energy and Resources, to be held March 24 and 25 at the University of Guelph.

Keynote speaker David Anderson, former federal minister of the environment, will deliver the opening address on "Water Policy: Adjusting to Predictions of Climate Change" in War Memorial Hall at 7 p.m. March 24.

Speakers during an all-day symposium to be held March 25 will include:

• Ransom Myers, Killam Chair of Ocean Studies, Dalhousie University, who will discuss “The Global Loss of Top Predators in the Ocean: Consequences of a World Without Sharks, Tuna and Great Fish.”

• Laurie Richardson, a biologist at Florida International University, “Corals and Coral Reef Health: The Canary in the Coal Mine?”

• Dana Kolpin, a research hydrologist with the U.S. Geological Survey, “Pharmaceuticals and Other Emerging Contaminants in Water Resources of the United States.”

• Maude Barlow, national chair of the Council of Canadians, “Is Water a Human Right?”

The symposium runs from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Cutten Club. Both the lecture and the symposium are free and open to the public. Seating for the symposium is limited; to reserve seats, send e-mail to hls@uoguelph.ca.

Sponsored by U of G and the Faculty of Environmental Sciences (FES), the annual Hammond lecture series began in 2000 and is named for Kenneth Hammond, a former member of Board of Governors and an advocate of environmental and resource issues and environmental education.

For more information, contact Prof. Joe Ackerman, associate dean of FES, at Ext. 54809 or ackerman@uoguelph.ca.