Dr. Amy Lynd Luers, PhD

Affiliate Professor, Geography, Planning and Environment

Contact information

Email:

amy.luers@concordia.ca

Websites:

Sustainability in the Digital Age
Future Earth
Google Scholar citations

Biography

Amy Luers is Director of the Sustainability in the Digital Age Initiative, Executive Director of Future Earth, and an Affiliate Professor in the Department of Geography, Planning, and Environment. Dr. Luers has over 25 years of experience working at the intersection of science, technology and policy. A former assistant director in the Obama White House and senior manager at Google, she is a member of the U.S. Council on Foreign Relations and has served on committees of the U.S. Global Change Research Program and the National Academies of Sciences. Dr. Luers started her career working in Latin America, where she co-founded Agua Para La Vida, a small NGO working with rural communities to access potable drinking water. She also spent a number of years directing the water and climate security work at the Skoll Global Threats Fund. Dr. Luers sits on several advisory boards including the Carnegie Climate Governance Initiative, the International Observatory of AI and Digital Technologies, the US National Council for Science and the Environment, and Stanford University’s School of Earth. Luers has a PhD in environmental science, and a MA in international policy studies, both from Stanford University. She has published in both peer-reviewed and popular media on big data and the digital age, science communication, climate policy, and vulnerability and resilience of human-environmental systems.

Research activities

• Sustainability

• Climate Science and Policy

• Societal Transformations

• Digital Governance and Sustainability

Publications

Luers, A., L. Langlois, M. Mougeot, S. Kharaghani, A. Luccioni. 2020. Sustainability in the digital age. IEEE Technology and Society Magazine 39(2), 11-13.

Luers, A., G. Garard, A.L. St Claire, O. Gaffney, T. Hassenboehler, L. Langlois, M. Mougeot, S. Luccioni. 2020. Leveraging digital disruptions for a climate-safe and equitable world: The D^2S agenda. IEEE Technology and Society Magazine 39(2), 18-31.

Luers, A. 2020. Holistic thinking for global threats. Project Syndicate

Garschagen,M., S. Wood., J. Garard, M. Ivanova, A. Luers. 2020. Too big to ignore: Global risk perception gaps between scientists and business‐leaders. Earth’s Future 8(3).

Buizer, J., K. Dow, M. Black, K. Jacobs, A. Waple, R. Moss, S. Moser, D. Gustafson, A. Luers, S. Hays, and C. Field. 2016. Building a sustained assessment process. Climatic Change 135: 23, (Special Issue on The National Climate Assessment: Innovations in Science and Engagement).

Luers, A., D. Kroodsma. 2014. Science communication in the post-expert digital age. Eos, Transactions American Geophysical Union 95(24), 203-204.

Sanford, T., P. Frumhoff, A. Luers, and J. Gulledge. 2014. The climate policy narrative for a dangerously warming world, Nature Climate Change 4(3), 164-166.

Luers, A. and L. Sklar. 2013. The difficult, the dangerous and the catastrophic: Managing the spectrum of climate risks, Earth’s Future 2(2), 114-118.

Luers, A. 2013. Rethinking U.S. climate advocacy. Climatic Change. 120(1-2), 13-19.

Mastrandrea, M. and A. Luers. 2012. Climate change in California: scenarios for and approaches for adaptation. Climatic Change 111(1), 5-16.

Matson, P., A. Luers, E. McCullough. 2012. Exploring vulnerability in the Yaqui Valley human-environment system. In: Matson, P.A. (eds) Seeds of Sustainability. Island Press/Center for Resource Economics, pp. 83-92.

Beman, M., A. Luers. 2012. From wheat to waves and back again: Connections between the Yaqui Valley and the Gulf of California. In: Matson, P.A. (eds) Seeds of Sustainability. Island Press/Center for Resource Economics, pp. 93-104.

Lebel L., P. Garden, A. Luers, D. Manuel-Navarette, and D. Giap. 2009. Knowledge and innovation relationships in the shrimp industry in Thailand and Mexico. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 113(17), 4585-4590.

Cayan, D.R., A. Luers, G. Franco, M. Hanemann, B. Croes, E. Vine. 2008. Overview of the California climate change scenarios project. Climatic Change 87(1), 1-6.

Franco, G., D. Cayan, A. Luers, M. Hanemann, B. Croes. 2008. Linking climate change science with policy in California. Climatic Change 87(1), 7-20.

Moser, S. and A. Luers. Managing climate risks in California: The need to engage resource managers for successful adaptation to change. 2008. Climatic Change 87(1), 309-322.

Luers, A., M. Mastrandrea. 2008. Climate change in California: Scenarios for adaptation. In: Bedsworth, L., Hanak, E. (eds) Preparing California for Climte Change, Public Policy Institute of California.

Luers, A., M. Mastrandrea, K. Hayhoe, P. Frumhoff. 2007. How to avoid dangerous climate change: A target for US emissions reductions, Union of Concerned Scientists.

Hayhoe, K., P. Frumhoff, S. Schneider, A. Luers, C. Field. 2006. Regional assessment of climate impacts on California under alternative emission scenarios: Key findings and implications for stabilization. In: Schellnhuber, H.J. (eds) Avoiding Dangerous Climate Change. Cambridge University Press, pp. 227-234.

Eakin, H. and A. Luers. 2006. Assessing the vulnerability of social-environmental systems. Annual Review of Environment and Resources, 31, 365-394.

Luers, A., S. Moser. 2006. Preparing for the impacts of climate change in California: Opportunities and constraints for adaptation, California Climate Change Center, 47p.

Luers, A., R. Naylor, and P. Matson. 2006. A case study of land reform and coastal land transformation in southern Sonora, Mexico. Land Use Policy 23(4), 436-447.

Matson, P. A. Luers, K. Seto, R. Naylor, I. Ortiz-Monasterio. 2005. People, land use, and environment in the Yaqui Valley, Sonora, Mexico. In: Entwisle, B., P. Stern (eds) Population, Land Use and Environment, National Academies Press, Washington DC, pp. 238-264..

Luers, A. 2005. The surface of vulnerability: an analytical framework for assessing global environmental change. Global Environmental Change 15(3), 214-223.

Luers, A., D. Lobell, L. Sklar, C. Addams, and P. Matson. 2003. A method for quantifying vulnerability, applied to the agricultural system of the Yaqui Valley, Mexico. Global Environmental Change 13(4), 255-267.

Turner, B., R. Kasperson , P. Matson, J. McCarthy, R. Corell, L. Christensen, N. Eckley, J. Kasperson, A. Luers, C. Polsky, A. Pulsipher, and A. Schiller. 2003. A framework for vulnerability analysis in sustainability science. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 100(14), 8074-8079.

Turner, B., P. Matson, J. McCarthy, R. Corell, L. Christensen, N. Eckley, J. Kasperson, R. Kasperson, A. Luers, M. Martello, C. Polsky, A. Pulsipher, and A. Schiller. 2003.^.Illustrating the coupled human-environment system for vulnerability analysis: three case studies. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 100(14), 8080-8085.

Vitousek, P., O. Chadwick, P. Matson, S. Allison, L. Derry, L. Kettley, A. Luers, E. Mecking, V. Monastra, S. Porder. 2003. Erosion and the rejuvenation of weathering-derived nutrient supply in an old tropical landscape. Ecosystems 6(8), 762-772