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Recent Major Posts
- Pratt Institute holds 124th Commencement, special gallery show
- Rhett Bradbury’s Master’s Thesis explores how gaming can foster political leadership
- Envirolutions asks the Pratt community to identify where there is “room for improvement”
- My review of Railsback and Grimm’s “Agent-based and individual-based modeling” textbook published in Ecology
- Envirolutions club launches its “Room for Improvement” campaign
- Dumb radio ads provide smart insight into the diverse nature of human societies
- Is selective rejection of science really a problem?
- Pratt Envirolutions Students Bring Recycling Bins to Campus
- Concept mapping as a creative tool
- Governor Cuomo makes the connection between natural disasters and climate change, calls for building in resilience
Recent Minor Posts
- Pratt Professor Ágnes Mócsy releases “Smashing Matters” short film
- NPR piece suggests that economics are pushing us towards nutrient recycling
- Just in case you missed it the first ten times: E.O. Wilson likes group selection, Jerry Coyne does not
- Allen MacNeill predicts resolution of Ev-Coop debates
- Martin Nowak to lecture on the compatibility of god and the evolutionary process
- Understanding kin selection and reciprocity when strategies are culturally propagated
- “Earth Hour” seeks to re-focus our attention on all the earth provides
- Seth Horowitz on our perception of sound
- Forward on Climate Rally seeks to shift the national dialogue on anthropogenic climate change
- Quantifying the climate value of that 40-acre woodlot
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What I am reading now
Category Archives: Anthropogenic Change
NPR piece suggests that economics are pushing us towards nutrient recycling
NPR All Things Considered “Cities Turn Sewage Into ‘Black Gold’ For Local Farms” This is a really interesting piece because it suggests that the costs associated with properly disposing of human waste are beginning to incentivize municipalities to repurpose this … Continue reading
“Earth Hour” seeks to re-focus our attention on all the earth provides
World Wildlife Fund Earth Hour Will an hour of darkness give us the time to contemplate both the importance of ecosystem services and how our voracious energy consumption threatens those services? It is certainly worth a try.
Forward on Climate Rally seeks to shift the national dialogue on anthropogenic climate change
The Sierra Club / 350.org / Hip Hop Caucus — Forward on Climate Rally
Quantifying the climate value of that 40-acre woodlot
The New York Times “Tree Power“
Production on marginal lands can meet only 25% of our biofuel mandates
Nature “Bioenergy: Biofuel production on the margins” & “Sustainable bioenergy production from marginal lands in the US Midwest” This is fascinating, and provides further evidence that even the smartest biofuel production methods are not going to be enough to mitigate our … Continue reading
Fracking study retracted after the discovery of a massive conflict of interest
All Things Considered “Positive Fracking Study Was Funded By Gas Company” 1.5 million dollars is a lot to receive from a corporation with interest in your research! Scientists can be bought, and transparency is the only thing that prevents profit-driven … Continue reading
Governor Cuomo makes the connection between natural disasters and climate change, calls for building in resilience
In an election season when global climate change has been a subject that neither Obama nor Romney seem interested in discussing (see reports by The New Yorker and The Huffington Post), along comes Hurricane Sandy. With the arrival of the … Continue reading
Want to know where the Presidential candidates stand on science? There’s a site for that!
Science Debate dot org “The Top American Science Questions: 2012“
Posted in A Minor Post, Astronomy, Biodiversity Loss, Climate Change, Economic sustainability, Economics, Ecosystem Services, Food, Grants & Funding, Health & Medicine, Marine Ecosystems, Political Science, Public Policy, Resource Consumption, Science (General), Space Travel, Sustainable Agriculture, Sustainable Energy, Web
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Michael Ruse on James Lovelock’s Gaia of 2012
The Chronicle of Higher Education “Saving Gaia From the Greens“
Rogue iron fertilization? Things have gotten weird!
The New York Times “A Rogue Climate Experiment Outrages Scientists“
Rob Nixon on Rachel Carson’s prescience
The Chronicle of Higher Education “Rachel Carson’s Prescience“
Posted in A Minor Post, Anthropogenic Change, Articles, Biodiversity Loss, Biography, Climate Change, Conservation Biology, Ecology, Economics, Environmental Justice, Habitat Destruction, Marine Ecosystems, Political Science, Pollution, Public Policy
Tagged Rachel Carson, Rob Nixon, Silent Spring, The Chronicle of Higher Education
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Barry Commoner, pioneering scientist and environmentalist, is dead at 95
Barry Commoner was an exceptional scientist and human being. Below are some nice tributes to him: The New York Times “Scientist, Candidate and Planet Earth’s Lifeguard” The New York Times “Barry Commoner’s Uncommon Life” The Los Angeles Times “Barry Commoner … Continue reading
Some conservatives actually see the public health and economic dilemmas posed by greenhouse gas emissions
All Things Considered “New Groups Make A Conservative Argument On Climate Change“
Can proper education allow reputation to foster action on climate change?
Daily Kos “Evolution, Cooperation, and Climate” I like some of the ideas that are expressed here. In a culture where the threat of climate change was well-understood, those who seek to deny its existence would be marginalized. It is true … Continue reading
Posted in A Minor Post, Climate Change, Cooperation, Group Selection, Reputation, Web
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Want a good gauge of how much humans pollute waterways? Just measure for caffeine!
Marine Pollution Bulletin “Occurrence and concentration of caffeine in Oregon coastal waters” Coffee addicts worldwide can be proud of this result: you are leaving a “pissprint” on local waters.
Climate and Clean Air Coalition unites air pollution concerns
Climate and Clean Air Coalition to Reduce Short-Lived Climate Pollutants This is another example of how considering air pollution from the perspective of both climate change and human health might begin to inspire global action.
Reductions in fertilizer use are now worth carbon credits
American Carbon Registry “ACR Approves MSU-EPRI Carbon Offset Methodology for Emission Reductions from Agricultural Nitrous Oxide“
Posted in A Minor Post, Pollution, Sustainable Agriculture, Web
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Does anthropogenic change make natives into invaders?
Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment “Native invaders – challenges for science, management, policy, and society” This article makes an important point: the “alien” criteria for invasives is a bit arbitrary when the problem with invasives is their ability to … Continue reading
Are the Sentinelese the last untouched hunter-gatherer culture?
Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment “A world of their own” This is an absolutely fascinating article. I was not aware that there were any cultures outside of Amazonia that have maintained such isolation. As Burton points out, we need … Continue reading
