Scientific & Political Change

This article shows insurance company data that indicates that costs from storms and floods are going up, but not so much from earthquakes, tsunamis or from temperature extremes. It connects with CS's inquiry on frequency of extreme climatic events and my project on using the insurance industry to get beyond political posturing.

Doing good things better is Brian's latest book. He is prolific and in this book he describes the discipline of daily writing that he used to write this book (and previous work) -- and that he leads his students to use. The principles of daily writing are given in brief at http://www.faculty.umb.edu/pjt/DailyWriting.html. Looking at Brian's website of writing, you will find material on activism, especially around developments in science and technology, but not only this.

So a couple of these annotated resources are seeming to point to the need for compelling and clear stories and communication. That would be interesting to follow up. And not just the dissemination of ideas, but the support for dialogue and deliberation.

Just found this too and wonder if there might be further work to look into. http://www.socialedge.org/discussions/marketing-communication/storytelling-and-social-change

not an extreme climatic event, but an example of improving science-policy connections

Seems they have radio broadcasts too, so I'll keep an eye open for this talk on their site. But also thanks for sharing this site itself as I was not aware of this organization.

A group of sci­en­tists is call­ing for major fed­eral ac­tion in order to deal with the threat posed by Mon­santo's GMO crops, now pe­ti­tion­ing the EPA to ad­dress the issue head on.

Thanks Felicia - This supports what I had read about Monsanto corn during my CCD research. But I was not aware of the BT-rootworm issue, only the super-weeds mutating because of RoundUp resistance that has also been genetically modified in Monsanto corn. Honeybees do collect pollen from corn when they are desperate even though they are not needed for pollination of corn.

On Point looks at rising water lines on the coasts - A big new prediction of coastal flooding and sea levels rise. We'll look at the moving edge of the water.

This article is by a leading member of the STEPS centre at the U. Sussex, which addresses sustainability, development & environmental change

The Genewatch (USA) website has abundant resources, in the form of links to what is going on and to other groups as well as an archive of 25 years of their magazine. Their role is to monitor new developments. Other than educating readers and getting them concerned, their many approach to getting people engaged seems to be to get them to sign petition and contact their elected representatives. (I looked for articles about teaching, but didn't find them easily if they are there.)

The Program link on their website provides a bunch of things that seem like they could be a good starting point for teaching and curriculum development. Maybe as the starting point for a PBL.

"The dam collapse [in 1979] is one of the worst environmental disasters in history, and no one has heard about it,"--myself included. One of the policy responses to extreme climatic events is to suppress knowledge. ""This book is an attempt to tell the story of this place-western India in 1979-this monsoon, the government cover-up that unjustly silenced this narrative for too long..." 25,000 people died.

In this editorial from the October 2010 volume of "Science," Bruce Alberts suggests a system of STEM (science, technology, mathematics, and engineering) merit badges for children ages 5-18 to earn awards in schools. He compares this system both to the system used by the Boy and Girl Scouts, and to the system of AP (Advanced Placement) courses currently used in high schools today. It is suggested that this will help students maintain the curiosity they feel towards science in the early years into their high school careers, by when children have often lost interest.

I've recently come to the term STEAM which ads "art" into the traditional STEM equation. I also found this link while doing this quick research - http://ilandsymposium.wordpress.com/2010/08/28/art-science-activism-and-bicycles/. This combined with Rhoda's post about Digital Storytelling makes me wonder what role creativity (from stories to visualizations) play in this equation.

Not being familiar at all with STEM, I am interested in seeing what connections might be found with further inquiry into how stories and the way they are shared can have an effect on positive change, education and personal connections to issues that often seem too big.

This is the lovely refworks page made by the awesome and helpful 24/7 online librarians. Let me know if you cannot see it. These relate to the topic of political affiliations and disaster relief. Sadly I did not get it in time to read most of them. It seems none is really directly applicable to my topic anyway.

A theory that seeks to explain how, why, and at what rate new ideas and technology spread through cultures. Everett Rogers, a professor of rural sociology, popularized the theory in his 1962 book Diffusion of Innovations. He said diffusion is the process by which an innovation is communicated through certain channels over time among the members of a social system.

Links to an NPR podcast telling the story of how homosexuality was removed from the DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual). The story is told by Alix Spiegel, the granddaughter of one of the psychiatrists involved in the movement, Dr. John Patrick Spiegel. While his point of view is given, mostly by recounting stories passed down in the family, the podcast strives to be more objective than those stories, drawing on multiple sources, not only on family lore. In this historical example, a grassroots movement succeeds in changing accepted scientific "fact".

Kendra - I finally had time to listen to the podscast. Thanks for sharing this here so I could listen to this very personal story.

Are facts enough? Humans tend to ignore facts they don't like. Sometimes facts that disprove the legitimacy of one's beliefs only cause one to believe more strongly in their original (and demonstrably false) opinion.

This is the book I mentioned in class that conveys a strong sense of: a) how much we depend on that is below (infra) our attention; b) how difficult it is to try to get to understand how it all functions.

The four diagrams capture the 4 world views about human impact on the environment. (I provide some critical commentary on this view of worldviews in "Exploring themes about social agency through interpretation of diagrams of nature and society," in How Nature Speaks: The Dynamics of the Human Ecological Condition , ed. Y. Haila and C. Dyke. Durham, NC, Duke University Press)

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!

Grid-group cultural theory explores two dimensions 1) individual connection to the group (group axis) and 2) the level of difference at play in the roles individuals take on (grid axis). The resulting quadrants express four key political economic ideologies: fatalism (low grid / low group), individualism (high grid / low group), collectivism (high grid high group), and egalitariansm (low grid / high group). An anti position, reclusivism, is also discussed.

Interesting. Thanks. I like the initial endeavor of trying to show the importance of native rituals in modern societies. It reminded me of Durkheim. I also find insightful the five ways description of the collective configuration of society.

Why the Right needs to get invested in the search for climate change solutions. Looks at how the right has been absent from solutions related to climate change. Proposes opportunities to address issue from a conservative ideological frame and still address global warming and climate change.

"For scientists, the struggle between their work and the way society views that work is nothing new, says Francesca Grifo, director of the scientific integrity program at the Union of Concerned Scientists. After all, she says, Galileo was forced by the Catholic establishment to renounce his evidence for a sun-centered solar system, and Darwin's ideas have been a political football for more than a century." This article places the current Tennessee proposed bill on "academic freedom" in the context of other challenges the scientific community faces when trying to reconcile their knowledge and research within the context of social believes and attitudes.

From Laura T. Thought you might like to listen to the participants in this short 9 min. clip with an ear to discerning threads of the 'four policy perspectives' (heirarchy, individualism, egalitarianism, fatalism) in "Clumsy Solutions" article posted on Diigo. Climate Change : Panel discussion for Editorial Intelligence, London, UK, December 1, 2009. Includes author of "Saving Kyoto," Graciela Chichilnisky, Ph.D. tenured prof. at Columbia in Economics and Mathematical Statistics & Top Ten Most Influential Latinos in America. She created Columbia's Consortium on Risk Management that was funded by six mj. global reinsurance co.'s --- a group which developed new financial instruments called 'catastrophe bundles.' (approx. 9 min.)