Ashely Kuo, Tonya Kennedy, Laura Lighty, Kate Cochrane, and me at the Awards Convocation Picnic Graduation is always a bittersweet moment, as students who I have really enjoyed working with leave the campus for good. On the one hand I am very proud of my students, and happy for them that they get to finish Read More
A Major Post, Envirolutions, Pratt InstituteOver the next nine days I have nineteen more term papers to grade, two final exams to write/administer/grade for thirty-six students, and twenty final projects to assess. The semester’s almost over, and that end is bringing with it all the usual immediate pain and anticipated joy. In the midst of this chaos it is a little Read More
A Major Post, Higher Education, Pratt InstituteThinking green is just not enough It was one of those classic moments where the irony just seemed too severe to be unplanned. I was riding my bike to work when I passed a parked vehicle and noticed a remarkable bumper sticker. I still regret not taking out my phone and snapping a picture; because Read More
A Major Post, Anthropogenic Change, Architecture, Art & Design, Cultural Evolution, Ecological Footprinting, Green Design, Greenwashing, Life Cycle Analysis, Quantitative Analysis, SustainabilityWNYC The Brian Lehrer Show “A New Citi Bike Savior: Donald Trump?” Although this story is disheartening, it truly is inspiring that so many enlightened and savvy New Yorkers called in to decry Donald Trump’s role in commercializing the previous-unsullied CitiBike Program.
A Minor Post, Altruism, Cooperation, Economics, Political Science, Public Policy, Radio & Podcasts, Sustainable TransportationPratt Institute’s Mount ARC, part of the central Brooklyn range, has been a hotbed of climatological research. A unique geological feature within the mostly-flat borough of Brooklyn, Mount ARC rises above Pratt Institute’s majestic campus, looming over this community of creative makers like a stern warning from good old Mother Nature herself. Mount ARC’s two Read More
A Major Post, Climate Change, Greenwashing, Pratt Institute, Sustainability, Sustainable Energy, Sustainable PrattEvery year, Pratt’s Sustainability Coalition hosts Green Week, a celebration of Pratt’s efforts to build a more sustainable society within and beyond our campus walls. This year’s Green Week will feature a variety of events, including two events that I will be involved with. The first event has become an annual tradition: New York City’s Department Read More
A Minor Post, Activism, Center for Sustainable Design Studies, Envirolutions, Resource Consumption, Sustainability, Sustainable Pratt, Sustainable TransportationThe Chronicle of Higher Education “Animal Magnetism” I still think that we would be appalled and offended if we could literally read the inner emotional dialogue of a cat, but I have to agree with the main contention of Barash and Lipton: that animals have feelings and connections with each other — and sometimes with Read More
A Minor Post, Articles, Behavior, Behavioral Ecology, Belief, Consciousness, Data Limitation, Divergence, Emotion, Fluidity of Knowledge, Hypothesis Testing, NeuroscienceIt seemed like a proposal with a dim chance of being funded, but on a bizarre whim of inspiration I decided to apply for a small bit of money so I could initiate a new creative venture that I am calling the WmD Project. It turns out that Pratt’s Faculty Development Fund has a bit Read More
A Major Post, Ecology, Ecology Education, Evolution, Evolution Education, Pratt Institute, Science in Art & Design, The WmD ProjectAir Transport Action Group “Facts & Figures” I recognize that these statistics are being presented by an industry advocacy group, so they should be taken with some skepticism (I don’t have the time to fact-check them). But they are interesting, and damning enough of air transport (while also accenting our very strong dependence on this Read More
A Minor Post, Climate Change, Economic sustainability, Information Design, Pollution, Quantitative Analysis, Resource Consumption, Sustainability, Sustainable Transportation, WebThe New York Times “The Sloth’s Busy Inner Life” This is a great story about how paradoxical behaviors can be understood through appreciating mutualisms. If you don’t understand the benefits of algae to sloths and sloths to algae, you can’t understand this behavior. But you also need to understand how sloths directly benefit moths and how Read More
A Minor Post, Adaptation, Articles, Behavior, Behavioral Ecology, Closed Loop Systems, Coevolution, Community Ecology, Composting, Mutualism, Predation, Quantifying Costs and Benefits, Tropical Forest