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BIDDEFORD, Maine

Barry Costa-Pierce speaks at 63rd Conference of the Institute on Religion in an Age of Science

Barry Costa-Pierce

Professor Barry A. Costa-Pierce, Ph.D., chair of the University of New England Department of Marine Sciences and director of the UNE Center For Excellence in Marine Sciences, was an invited speaker at the 63rd Conference of the Institute on Religion in an Age of Science, titled “The ‘Wicked Problem’ of Climate Change: What is it doing to us and for us?”

The conference was held in partnership with the Parliament of the World's Religions on June 24 - July 1, 2017 on Star Island off Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Costa-Pierce presented a paper on “The Ethical-Ecological-Economic Dilemmas of Seafoods.”

The paper stated in part: “Since the U.S. and E.U. are not investing in the sustainable development of their national seafood production systems, their massive imports endanger not only their own people’s health but also extract vitally important health foods from some of the world’s poorest nations. The U.S. and E.U. also export the large environmental and social costs of unsustainable fisheries and aquaculture being done under the inadequate regulatory, labor, and social conditions of many exporting nations. Thus, by relying on imported, ‘cheap’ seafoods, E.U. and U.S. consumers not only get questionable products health-wise, they also subsidize and externalize the full social and environmental costs of seafoods on their plates, leading to a perverse state of ‘ecosystem amnesia.’

Read more about Costa-Pierce and the other conference speakers.

 To learn more about the University of New England’s Department of Marine Sciences visit www.une.edu/cas/marine

To learn more about the University of New England’s Center for Excellence in Marine Sciences, visit www.une.edu/research/msc

To apply, visit www.une.edu/admissions

About the University of New England

The University of New England is Maine’s largest independent university, with two beautiful coastal campuses in Maine, a one-of-a-kind study abroad campus in Tangier, Morocco, and an array of flexible, accredited online degrees. In an uncommonly welcoming and supportive community, we offer hands-on learning, empowering students to make a positive impact in a world full of challenges. The state’s top provider of health professionals, we are home to Maine’s only medical college, Maine’s only dental college, a variety of other interprofessionally aligned health care degree programs, as well as nationally recognized programs for marine science degrees, natural and social sciences degrees, arts and humanities degrees, and business degrees.