Group items tagged

Across the United States, cities, towns, and counties are enacting policies and programs to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Many local governments are motivated by concerns about the impacts of climate change in their communities as well as an understanding that energy and climate solutions can benefit local economies and residents. Their actions reflect a strong history of local leadership in climate protection in the United States. While local governments face a number of limitations in addressing climate change, they can be a key part of the solution. Like states and regions, local governments can demonstrate leadership by implementing strategies to confront climate change and laying the groundwork for broader action at the national and international levels.

This brief is part of a series called Climate Change 101: Understanding and Responding to Global Climate Change, published by the Pew Center on Global Climate Change.

We spent two years working with lawyers to design a contract - learning from the best aspects of other pharmaceutical companies - to ensure that the Amazonian people benefit from a percentage of any profits with conservation and education initiatives. We are distributing the money through trusted, long-term local NGOs. So far we have created a beautiful medicine garden to conserve plants used for women's health. We also want to build a training centre to teach the community the medicine and remedy-making skills I learned, but which the new generation has lost.

The goals for the 5th Living Knowledge conference are: "What innovation is needed to guide research towards public concerns? How can civil society fully participate in the co-creation of knowledge? The 5th Living Knowledge Conference will focus on getting more insight into processes, and develop specific policy recommendations that resonate with public concerns and articulated research needs." On the site we see "PERARES (Public Engagement with Research And Research Engagement with Society) project aims to strengthen the interaction between researchers and Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) and citizens in Europe." We also see a description of science shops: "small entities that carry out scientific research in a wide range of disciplines - usually free of charge and - on behalf of citizens and local civil society." All these things would be worth looking further into to understand what guidelines people use or recommend for engaging others in scientific & technological change. In brief, they seem very sympatico to the idea of Case 4 of the course (http://ppol749.wikispaces.umb.edu/PBLEngagementCase).

So this seems to be the other theme emerging, how you work with individuals / the public / citizens in shaping scientific research and the dialogue around it.

resources re: best practices for emergency preparedness from the federal government

The Public Science Project situated at the CUNY Graduate Center works in a participatory action research agenda.  They work in collaboration with groups on the ground. The website states:  "PAR Collective, we began our work as a coalition of activists, researchers, youth, elders, lawyers, prisoners, and educators, launching projects on educational injustice, lives under surveillance,and the collateral damage of mass incarceration. Most of our projects have been situated in schools and/or community-based organizations struggling for quality education, economic opportunities, and human rights. Knowledge-sharing research camps set the stage for most of our research, designed to bring together differently positioned people around a common table to design and implement the research: youth and educators; young people who have been pushed out of schools and mothers organizing for quality education in communities under siege; prisoners, organizers, and academics. Most projects have vibrant advisory boards of youth, community elders, educators and/or activists to shape the work and hold us accountable to the needs and desires of local communities." They conduct research, trainings, and consulting services as well as resources for PAR.

In California, under state proposed regulations, water pumping from local rivers would be illegal in order to protect a threatened species of salmon. This might clash with grape growers who utilize this water to protect their crops from low temperatures. Legislators must find a solution for the issue at hand without damaging either party.

Similar conflicts over water take place all over the semiarid western US. In Idaho researchers found a way to use satellite imagery (Landsat) to monitor and measure water consumption by agriculture, and identify specific agribusinesses with destruction of streams, for enforcement and litigation support. Their work received a Harvard award for innovation in government. This is not a first for technical solutions for environmental enforcement, but it's an extremely important step in large-scale water management - which will become a bigger and bigger part of our daily life. It may also preserve the USGS Landsat program, which is in danger of abandonment. (This is near to my line of work, as it happens.) (http://ashinstitute.harvard.edu/corporate_site/innovations/innovations_news/mapping_evapotranspiration_wins_innovations_in_american_government_award; more links if you're interested.) Alex_Brown@uml.edu http://gis.uml.edu/abrown2

The documentation from this 2005 Congressional hearing may help insert some of the science Peter was prompting us to incorporate into our case investigations -- GIS, communications science, demographics, and others are brought to bear; the Q&A toward the end give some sense as to what the decisionmakers (Members of the House) took away from the expert scientists' presentations.

Scientific research plays a very important role in the development of the areas discussed; for example, information data collection and development and improvement of hazard and risk assessment models. These programs are critical since we live in a country with so many natural risks year round.

Indeed very comprehensive. I find interesting when they ask the effect of the local environment in shaping our perceptions of risk. It was interesting to see how people felt in Southesat Lousiana before and after hurrican Ivan.

Why are so many conservatives still skeptical that global warming is a real problem and threat? It may have to do with the willingness to read opposing view points. Talks about echo chamber effect of modern partisan politics. References alternative to cap-and-trade (carbon tax offset by a payroll tax cut).

Jeff -- by looking at the "other" side I've found that there is probably a discourse / ideological framing that would be more life affirming and oriented towards sustainable growth that would still address carbon reductions but orient it at a more local level. Interested in checking out the resource you mention.

It might also have to do with the fact that media tends to exaggerate and provide inaccurate information with the purpose of selling more (like advertising, twisting the facts a little bit just to sell more). In the 70's it wasn't about global warming, it was about global cooling. I wonder what happen to that.

sprout is a social design firm devoted to creating and supporting the community-driven learning, teaching, and investigation of science. We're united by a passion to explore and reveal how to reclaim science as a richly personal and creative craft. Through our programs, stories, and studio space, we're working to make our vision real in Somerville.

Felicia: this is a very interesting project. I really like the idea of "community-driven science". I really appreciate that the project is intended to "build a community of investigators in Somerville." These type of opportunities allow communities to build networks and reflect on their local issues possible posing some alternative options. Really interesting!