Christopher X J. Jensen
Associate Professor, Pratt Institute

Preview of my ESA 2012 poster promoting the Evolution of Sustainable Use activity

Posted 31 Jul 2012 / 0

This year I am proud to be returning to the Ecological Society of America annual meeting in Portland, Oregon. I missed last year’s meeting and I am excited to be overwhelmed by all the amazing scholarship that is on display at these meetings. I generally present talks at meetings, but this year I decided to do Read More

A Major Post, Biodiversity Loss, Carrying Capacity, Conferences, Cooperation, Cultural Evolution, Ecological Modeling, Ecological Society of America, Ecology, Ecology Education, Economic sustainability, Economics, Ecosystem Services, Environmental Justice, Ethics, Food, Group Selection, Marine Ecosystems, Population Growth, Population Pressure, Predation, Public Policy, Resource Consumption, Sustainability, System Stability, Teaching Tools, The Sustainable Use of Fisheries

North American federal governments seek to defund environmental and ecological science

Posted 29 Jun 2012 / 0

Science “House Panel Set to Slash Climate, Environmental Research” Science “Environmental Science Feels Pinch in Canada’s Budget“

A Minor Post, Political Science, Public Policy

Leaving with empty hands, should Rio+20 participants nonetheless leave with a sense of optimism?

Posted 27 Jun 2012 / 0

Nature Editorial “A First Step“

A Minor Post, Conservation Biology, Public Policy, Sustainability

Evolution may be too slow: British Columbia begins assisted migration of forests

Posted 26 Jun 2012 / 0

Discover “The Transplanted Forest: A Bold Experiment in Preemptive Climate Adaptation” Given the chances that we will fail to prevent climate change, it seems like the Canadians have the right idea here. Ironic that industries that rely on stable climate are less apt to deny its reality.

A Minor Post, Adaptation, Anthropogenic Change, Articles, Climate Change, Extinction, Habitat Destruction, Public Policy, Resilience, Risk & Uncertainty, Taiga (Boreal Forest), Temperate Forest

Should conservation scientists also be advocates for particular policies?

Posted 24 Jun 2012 / 0

Science Insider “Society for Conservation Biology in Turmoil Over Editor’s Ouster“

A Minor Post, Conservation Biology, Ethics, Law, Political Science, Professional Societies, Public Outreach, Public Policy, Science as a career

Is this what free-market conservation looks like?

Posted 22 Jun 2012 / 0

Nature News “Lizard’s future hinges on voluntary measures” What is so annoying about this policy is that it ignores the fact that landowners could have been “volunteering” to not destroy habitat well before this species became endangered. Allowing “voluntary measures” to trump the mandates of the Endangered Species Act takes the teeth out of the Read More

A Minor Post, Conservation Biology, Law, Public Policy, Web

North Carolina legislators enact strict law limiting the rate of natural change

Posted 22 Jun 2012 / 0

Science “Legislating Sea Level Rise” Well, I guess if North Carolina says that nature only changes in a linear manner, it must be true! Thank goodness for brave legislators who are not going to let nature get non-linear on us! We evolutionary biologists have seen this play out before, but this must come as a Read More

A Minor Post, Articles, Climate Change, Political Science, Public Policy, Sustainability

Science Magazine outlines the big scientific issues at Rio+20

Posted 18 Jun 2012 / 0

Science “Science for Sustainable Development” The distinction between “Sustainable Development Goals” and the “Millenium Development Goals” is interesting: adding sustainability and thus environmental concerns to these goals necessitates more direct action on the part of developed nations. I am also intrigued by the idea that in order to truly make a go at technologically averting Read More

A Minor Post, Economic sustainability, Public Policy, Sustainability

Joseph E. Stiglitz discusses the economically destabilizing impact of rent-seeking

Posted 06 Jun 2012 / 0

WNYC The Leonard Lopate Show “Joseph Stiglitz Explains the Price of Inequality” As I have suggested before [1, 2], in order to stabilize our economy, we have to incentivize the generation of income from actual labor — not simply owning resources.

A Minor Post, Economic sustainability, Economics, Ethics, Public Policy, Radio & Podcasts

Economic Whales and their Parasites

Posted 27 May 2012 / 0

Today’s New York Times Business section features an interesting article on the recent JPMorgan multi-billion loss. Entitled “The Hunch, the Pounce and the Kill: How Boaz Weinstein and Hedge Funds Outsmarted JPMorgan“, the article explains how a risk-prone hedge fund manager named Boaz Weinstein was able to exploit errors by JPMorgan and end up on Read More

Articles, Economic sustainability, Economics, Ethics, Parasitism, Public Policy, Social Capital, System Stability