Posted 03 Jul 2015 / 0
WNYC The Leonard Lopate Show “Is Human Overpopulation The Reason for Environmental Destruction?” In my Ecology for Architects class we do an activity (“Perspectives on Becoming Ecologically Sustainable“) that challenges my students to comprehensively consider our large-scale options for becoming sustainable. When we do the activity we have already done some ecological footprinting and discussed Read More
A Minor Post, Anthropogenic Change, Biodiversity Loss, Carrying Capacity, Climate Change, Habitat Destruction, Population Growth, Population Pressure, Sustainability
Posted 24 Jun 2015 / 0
BBC News “Climate change: Is the Dutch court ruling ‘a game changer’?” Nature Breaking News “Landmark court ruling tells Dutch government to do more on climate change” The New York Times “Landmark Dutch Ruling: Cut Emissions to Protect Citizens” The Guardian “Dutch government ordered to cut carbon emissions in landmark ruling” There is so much Read More
A Minor Post, Activism, Anthropogenic Change, Articles, Climate Change, Environmental Justice, Law, Public Policy, Radio & Podcasts, Sustainability
Posted 24 Jun 2015 / 0
There’s a really interesting article in the upcoming (July 2015) issue of National Geographic entitled “Stalking a Killer“. Using the most recent outbreak of Ebola in West Africa as a case study, the article looks at the nature of a variety of unusual and rare diseases caused by filoviruses. Ebola is not a virus that Read More
A Minor Post, Articles, Belief, Cultural Evolution, Host-Pathogen Evolution, Parasitism, Predation
Posted 01 Jun 2015 / 0
National Public Radio All Things Considered “It’s Raining Nitrogen In A Colorado Park. Farmers Can Help Make It Stop” What I find interesting about this example is how the local nature of this problem creates greater incentives for “voluntary” measures taken by polluters to reduce the impacts of their polluting activities. Because the effects of Read More
A Minor Post, Cooperation, Environmental Justice, Eutrophication, Political Science, Pollution, Public Policy, Punishment, Reputation, Social Norms
Posted 01 Jun 2015 / 0
National Public Radio Morning Edition “Editing The Climate Talkers: Punctuation’s Effect On Earth’s Fate” I would suggest that the future of human civilization depends on reaching an international agreement to put a halt to — and partially reverse — anthropogenic climate change. Although the history of climate change agreements is pretty fraught, it does appear Read More
A Minor Post, Climate Change, Cooperation, Law, Political Science, Public Policy, Radio & Podcasts, Social Norms, Survival, Sustainability, Sustainable Energy
Posted 08 May 2015 / 0
Around this time of year at Pratt a great variety of student sculpture work sprouts up on the grounds. I thought that this one was particularly interesting. I could not find out what its title was or who made it, but I thought that it nicely captured our relationship to grass, especially on the Pratt Read More
A Minor Post, Anthropogenic Change, Art & Design, Eutrophication, Pollution, Science in Art & Design
Posted 05 May 2015 / 2
It is once again that time of year, the time when trees that rely on wind pollination dump a really absurd amount of pollen into the air. The surfaces of outdoor objects become covered in a layer of yellow dust that is shockingly visible to the naked eye. When it rains, run-off nearly glows yellow Read More
A Minor Post, Adaptation, Behavior, Divergence, Pollination
Posted 24 Apr 2015 / 0
Since I began teaching Ecology at Pratt, I have used the re-introduction of wolves to Yellowstone as the cornerstone case study of my community ecology lessons. Using material originally developed by my colleague Damon Chaky for the Ecology for Architects course, I ask my students to use ecological theory to explain some of the changes that Read More
A Minor Post, Anthropogenic Change, Articles, Biodiversity Loss, Community Ecology, Conservation Biology, Ecology, Interactions, Keystone Species, MSCI-270, Ecology, MSCI-271, Ecology for Architects, Predation, Public Policy
Posted 06 Apr 2015 / 0
Every year in my ecology courses I have my students complete an ecological footprint analysis of their own lifestyle and the lifestyle of an older relative. I have been asking my students to do these for each of the eight years that I have taught at Pratt Institute, so I have accumulated a lot of Read More
A Major Post, Anthropogenic Change, Biomes, Ecological Footprinting, Ecosystem Services, Environmental Justice, Food, MSCI-270, Ecology, MSCI-271, Ecology for Architects, Quantitative Analysis, Resource Consumption, Sustainability
Posted 23 Feb 2015 / 0
According to the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, it appears that February 2015 will be the month in which the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere exceeds 400 part per million: Various sources have been predicting that we would soon reach this symbolic milestone, and it appears that this will be the month when it Read More
A Minor Post, Climate Change, Human limits, Sustainability, Web
