Bellagio Residents/

Saleem Ali

Environmental PeacemakerAugust 2021 Cohort

Bellagio Residency: August 2021

Project: Earthly Order: How Natural Laws Define Human Life (book published by Oxford University Press in 2022)


Saleem Ali is an academic whose work bridges environmental sustainability and global peacebuilding. His research explores how ecological factors can be leveraged in conflict resolution, offering innovative solutions for the world’s most contentious borders. At Bellagio, he worked on completing his book Earthly Order: How Natural Laws Define Human Life (Oxford University Press) which aimed to question the orthodoxy on “world order” by linking natural science to social and political science and posit a more sustainable “Earthly Order.”  Ali is the Blue and Gold Distinguished Professor of Energy and the Environment at the University of Delaware, a Senior Fellow at Columbia University’s Earth Institute, and a member of the United Nations International Resource Panel. He is also a National Geographic Explorer with field experience in more than 170 countries.

Featured Talk: TED Salon

Saleem H. Ali is an environmental systems scientist who works on ways to resolve conflicts between industry and society. He’s a professor of geography at the University of Delaware and a member of the United Nations International Resource Panel. He’s conducted fieldwork on all continents and in more than 170 countries. He serves on the board of the nonprofit organization Adventure Scientists, which focuses on crowdsourcing data for scientific research from travelers worldwide. His book, Earthly Order: How Natural Laws Define Human Life, aims to promote science literacy for sustainability; all royalties are donated for this cause.