Christopher X J. Jensen
Professor, Pratt Institute

Want a good gauge of how much humans pollute waterways? Just measure for caffeine!

Posted 19 Sep 2012 / 0

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.

A Minor Post, Articles, Freshwater Ecosystems, Marine Ecosystems, Pollution, Ponds & Lakes

The humble Mistletoe turns out to be a probable keystone species

Posted 19 Sep 2012 / 0

Proceedings of the Royal Society Biological Sciences “Mistletoe as a keystone resource: an experimental test“

A Minor Post, Articles, Community Ecology, Interactions, Keystone Species, Parasitism

Climate and Clean Air Coalition unites air pollution concerns

Posted 19 Sep 2012 / 0

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.

A Minor Post, Climate Change, Environmental Justice, Health & Medicine, Pollution, Public Policy, Sustainability, Sustainable Energy, Web

Reductions in fertilizer use are now worth carbon credits

Posted 19 Sep 2012 / 0

American Carbon Registry “ACR Approves MSU-EPRI Carbon Offset Methodology for Emission Reductions from Agricultural Nitrous Oxide“

A Minor Post, Pollution, Sustainable Agriculture, Web

Does anthropogenic change make natives into invaders?

Posted 19 Sep 2012 / 0

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 explode in population and inordinately impact other populations. Perhaps we need to re-think the way Read More

A Minor Post, Anthropogenic Change, Articles, Biodiversity Loss, Coevolution, Competition, Ecology, Habitat Destruction, Invasive Species, Pollution, Predation

Are the Sentinelese the last untouched hunter-gatherer culture?

Posted 19 Sep 2012 / 0

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 to decide how to balance our curiosity and potential charity with respect for the wishes Read More

A Minor Post, Articles, Climate Change, Conservation Biology, Cultural Anthropology, Cultural Evolution, Environmental Justice, Ethics, Extinction, Human Evolution, Marine Ecosystems, Memetic Fitness, Traditional Ecological Knowledge

My ESA 2012 Poster is on Faculty of 1000 posters

Posted 19 Sep 2012 / 0

F1000 Posters “The Evolution of Sustainable Use: a flash-based classroom tool for teaching population biology and sustainable resource management“

A Minor Post, Anthropogenic Change, Biodiversity Loss, Carrying Capacity, Cooperation, Ecological Modeling, Marine Ecosystems, Multilevel Selection, My publications, Population Growth, Public Policy, Sustainability, Sustainable Harvesting, System Stability, Teaching, Teaching Tools, The Sustainable Use of Fisheries

Despite great press for Dyson, the Iterated Prisoner’s Dilemma is still not the solution to human cooperation

Posted 19 Sep 2012 / 0

The Chronicle of Higher Education “To the Trickster Go the Spoils” I really appreciate that Freeman Dyson acknowledges so clearly in this article that the fact that he has found a deceitful solution to the Iterated Prisoner’s Dilemma does not warrant radically shifting our understanding of human cooperation. The IPD and other game theory constructs Read More

A Minor Post, Altruism, Cooperation, Evolutionary Modeling, Fluidity of Knowledge, Game Theory, Reciprocity, Web

Rachel Carson still under attack for bringing her values to bear on her science

Posted 17 Sep 2012 / 0

Slate “Rachel Carson Didn’t Kill Millions of Africans: How the 50-year-old campaign against Silent Spring still distorts environmental debates” There is a lot of interesting stuff here, including a fascinating view into how scientific findings get processed by the public (both left and right leaning). The ad hominem attacks on Carson are interesting because they seem Read More

A Minor Post, Adaptation, Articles, Biodiversity Loss, Biography, Chemistry, Coevolution, Ecology, Environmental Justice, Evolution, Health & Medicine, Pollution, Public Outreach, Public Policy, Resistance Evolution in Parasites, Web

Rebranding global warming as a health threat

Posted 10 Sep 2012 / 1

All Things Considered “When Heat Kills: Global Warming As Public Health Threat“

A Minor Post, Anthropogenic Change, Climate Change, Environmental Justice, Health & Medicine, Human limits, Radio & Podcasts, Survival