Christopher X J. Jensen
Professor, Pratt Institute

EnviroAtlas is now live, publicly available

Posted 30 May 2014 / 0

For the past couple of years I have been playing around with a really cool tool called EnviroAtlas, a project of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. This past semester I created two classroom activities that use EnviroAtlas, implementing them for the first time in my Ecology for Architects course. The EnviroAtlas tool was in beta-testing Read More

A Minor Post, Biodiversity Loss, Biomes, Bogs & Wetlands, Citizen Science, Computer Science, Conservation Biology, Data Limitation, Deserts, Ecosystem Services, Education, Educational Software and Apps, Environmental Justice, Eutrophication, Grasslands, Habitat Destruction, Invasive Species, Long Term Ecological Research, Macroecology, Pollution, Ponds & Lakes, Population Pressure, Public Policy, Quantitative Analysis, Rivers & Streams, Sustainability, Teaching, Teaching Tools, Temperate Forest, Temperate Rainforest, Urban Ecology, Water Supply, Web

John Oliver holds first “balanced” climate debate on television

Posted 30 May 2014 / 0

Very nicely done! The monologue is great, but then the “performance” of the balanced climate change debate is really what drives home the point here. Don’t watch networks that present false “debates”.

A Minor Post, Belief, Climate Change, Film, Television, & Video, Political Science, Public Outreach, Public Policy, Risk & Uncertainty, Science (General), Sustainability

There’s No Such Thing as Qualitative Sustainability

Posted 16 Apr 2014 / 1

Thinking 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, Sustainability

Donald Trump saves CitiBike, proving that selfishness and cooperation are no longer opposed

Posted 01 Apr 2014 / 0

WNYC 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 Transportation

New glacial maximum on Mount ARC provides definitive evidence that Pratt’s sustainability efforts are working

Posted 01 Apr 2014 / 1

Pratt 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 Pratt

Pledge, Petition, Protect! All at Green Week 2014!

Posted 24 Mar 2014 / 0

Every 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 Transportation

Interesting numbers on the sustainability (or lack thereof) of the aviation industry

Posted 20 Feb 2014 / 0

Air 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, Web

If sloths endure costs to maintain closed-loop agricultural systems, why can’t we?

Posted 05 Feb 2014 / 0

The 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

Do we need to delete to keep the web sustainable?

Posted 05 Feb 2014 / 2

WNYC New Tech City “The World Would be a Better Place if We [DELETED] More” The title of this piece is a bit misleading, because on the cognitive side it is really unclear to me that forcing ourselves to memorize things would make our lives better (those who know me know that I am “anti-memorization”, Read More

A Minor Post, Cognitive Ability, Ecological Footprinting, Neuroscience, Quantitative Analysis, Radio & Podcasts, Sustainable Energy, Sustainable Web Design, Web Design

TurnUp seeks to turn excess art materials into treasure, not trash

Posted 04 Feb 2014 / 0

TurnUp is an entrepreneurial material repurposing project supported by Pratt’s Design Incubator. If it works, it should save a lot of students some money, decrease the impact of consumption, and save a lot of materials from going to the landfill.

A Minor Post, Center for Sustainable Design Studies, Closed Loop Systems, Economic sustainability, Economics, Pratt Institute, Resource Consumption, Sustainability