Posted 01 Apr 2017 / 0
Like a lot of important policy these days, it all started with an early morning tweet from President Donald Trump: What did the tweet mean? Could it be possible that the Trump administration had a plan to deal with climate change? And what does climate change have to do with microbes and antibiotics? Environmentalists, political Read More
A Major Post, Anthropogenic Change, Climate Change, Decomposition, Ecology, Ethics, Public Policy, Sustainability, System Stability
Posted 01 Apr 2017 / 0
The discovery of a rare photographic artifact sent the Pratt Photography Department into hysterics of nostalgia “I was just smoking my usual mid-morning cigarette outside the door of the ARC Building — a full 25 feet away from the doors, mind you — when I looked down and saw it,” explained second year Pratt Photography Read More
A Minor Post, Archaeology, Cultural Anthropology, Photography, Pratt Institute
Posted 24 Mar 2017 / 0
Pratt Institute’s Green Week, a celebration of sustainability, starts tomorrow! I am excited to be working with my colleague Andy Todd to bring Dr. Roland Kays, a wildlife biologist who specializes in the use of camera traps, to Pratt’s campus for Green Week. You can read more about Dr. Kays’ visit here. To learn more Read More
A Minor Post, Activism, Anthropogenic Change, Art & Design, Center for Sustainable Design Studies, Conservation Biology, Ecology, Ecology Education, Envirolutions, Environmental Justice, Pratt Institute, Public Policy, Sustainability, Sustainable Pratt
Posted 10 Mar 2017 / 0
If you read my little podcast recommendations on this site, you know that I am a huge fan of the Urban Wildlife Podcast. I just checked out one of the most recent episodes, Cat Wars (also embedded as audio above), and it is my favorite far and away. Tony and Billy always bring a great Read More
A Minor Post, Behavior, Behavioral Ecology, Belief, Commensalism, Conservation Biology, Ethics, Felids, Invasive Species, Law, Mutualism, Population Growth, Predation, Public Policy, Radio & Podcasts, Temperate Forest, Urban Ecology
Posted 16 Jan 2017 / 0
This morning NPR dropped a truly eerie and not-so-subtly cautionary piece on how an understanding of chimpanzee behavior towards dominant individuals can shed light on how we regard both celebrities and our political leaders. Using some nice audio from anthropologist Christopher Boehm, the piece establishes that we humans are not alone in our love-hate relationship with Read More
A Minor Post, Behavior, Evolutionary Psychology, Human Evolution, Primatology, Psychology, Radio & Podcasts, Social Norms
Posted 09 Jan 2017 / 0
With a lot of mindless computer work to do, I just had time to check out another Skeptoid episode, this one on race (“There’s No Such Thing as Race… Or Is There?“). You can listen to it here: http://skeptoid.com/audio/skeptoid-4546.mp3 Wow, I am really impressed! So frequently when I hear people try to tackle the subject Read More
A Minor Post, Cultural Anthropology, Cultural Evolution, Genetics, Human Evolution, Population Genetics, Radio & Podcasts
Posted 05 Dec 2016 / 0
Image of a Ford F-150 “rolling coal” courtesy of Salvatore Arnone via Wikimedia Commons. In a recent meeting of my Ecology course dedicated to sustainable policies, we were discussing why people don’t choose to adopt sustainable technologies. I think that the question was asked under the assumption that people want to be more sustainable, but face financial Read More
A Minor Post, Activism, Anthropogenic Change, Articles, Behavior, Belief, Climate Change, Cooperation, Cultural Evolution, Economic sustainability, Economics, Environmental Justice, Memetic Fitness, Pollution, Public Policy, Punishment, Social Dilemmas, Social Diversity, Social Norms, Sustainability, Sustainable Energy, Sustainable Transportation, System Stability
Posted 01 Dec 2016 / 0
Here are a couple of videos from the Sustainability Summit Panel that I participated in last October. The first is Josh Fox’s talk following the screening of his movie How to Let Go of the World and Love All the Things Climate Can’t Change: The second is the panel discussion, which features Fox and my colleagues Read More
A Minor Post, Anthropogenic Change, Climate Change, Envirolutions, Environmental Justice, Green Design, Marine Ecosystems, My publications, Pratt Institute, Public Outreach, Public Policy, Resilience, Sustainability, Sustainable Energy, Sustainable Pratt
Posted 02 Nov 2016 / 0
I recently discovered this page on the NYC.gov Environmental Protection site. It’s pretty cool: if you are worried about NYC’s water supply, you can get up-to-date information on where our reservoirs stand. When I ask my students to cite sustainability issues, they often point to how water is wasted in NYC on things like spraying Read More
A Minor Post, Ecosystem Services, Green Design, Public Policy, Sustainable Urban Design, Urban Ecology, Water Supply, Web
Posted 31 Oct 2016 / 0
It’s that time of year again. Once again I send my students in my Ecology course out to estimate their ecological footprints, so to show that I am holding myself to a similar standard — and to make sure to keep myself ecologically self-aware — I always make sure to make my own footprint public. This should Read More
A Major Post, Anthropogenic Change, Biodiversity Loss, Climate Change, Ecological Footprinting, Ecology Education, Environmental Justice, Ethics, Habitat Destruction, MSCI-270, Ecology, Pollution, Sustainability, Teaching Tools
