Posted 20 Sep 2012 / 0
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences “No third-party punishment in chimpanzees” This is pretty astonishing, but perhaps not entirely surprising. As numerous other studies have shown, there are many qualitative differences in the cognition and resulting behaviors of humans and chimpanzees. Whether the fact that chimps do not maintain a sense of ‘social justice’ Read More
A Minor Post, Articles, Behavior, Behavioral Ecology, Cooperation, Human Evolution, Human Uniqueness, Primates, Psychology, Punishment
Posted 20 Sep 2012 / 0
CreationRevolution “If Morality Evolved, Is It Righteous?” It is striking how this reaction lacks any self-consciousness. Research like that referred to in this post is a potential means of understanding how religions and their particular constructed righteousness (in other words their morals, what they believe ought to be) can succeed.
A Minor Post, Altruism, Cooperation, Creationism, Cultural Evolution, Game Theory, Punishment, Web
Posted 20 Sep 2012 / 0
Public Library of Science ONE “Evolving Righteousness in a Corrupt World” In the race to build the next over-simplified model of cooperative dynamics, it will be interesting to see how the media runs with this one. Is this a “scientists discover the evolutionary rationale for honorable police” moment? I think it is important to take Read More
A Minor Post, Altruism, Articles, Cooperation, Ethics, Evolution, Evolutionary Modeling, Game Theory, Punishment, Social Networks, System Stability
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
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
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
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
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
Posted 10 Sep 2012 / 0
On Being “Alain de Botton on a School of Life for Atheists” Religion for Atheists What I find very interesting about this philosopher’s approach are his implicit memetic assumptions: that religions have nested within their complex cultural structure extractable “ways of living” that are valuable to believers and non-believers alike.
A Minor Post, Altruism, Behavior, Belief, Cultural Evolution, Ethics, Evolutionary Psychology, Memetic Fitness, Philosophy, Radio & Podcasts, Religion
Posted 23 Aug 2012 / 0
National Geographic “Tibetan Gold” This story encapsulates a whole host of unsustainable human behaviors: First, we have people over-harvesting an ecological product in a manner that risks its collapse; Second, the over-harvesting is driven by a cultural superstition that has spread without any real basis in fact; and Third, the entire over-valuation of these parasite-infested-worms is Read More
A Minor Post, Anthropogenic Change, Articles, Belief, Biodiversity Loss, Coevolution, Cultural Anthropology, Cultural Evolution, Ecology, Economic sustainability, Ecosystem Services, Memetic Fitness, Parasitism, Population Growth, Resource Consumption, Sustainable Harvesting, System Stability, Tundra
